Everton’s Issues Run Deeper than a Lack of Funds

, 7 May, 20comments  |  Jump to most recent
Brian Canever claims that a bleak outlook for Everton — despite their expected 6th place finish in the Premier League — emanates from the side's crippling lack of confidence and inability to play proactive football for more than a handful of matches all season.

After being known for their industriousness, strength in defense, and ability to “punch above their wright”, Everton seem almost handicapped from breaking out of their shell and breaking into the top four places in the Premier League. They remain “best of the rest”, with no trophies, glory, or European football with which to one-up their rivals.

Against Liverpool, the side's lack of a cutting edge was once again put on display. After Sylvain Distin's valid goal was ruled out for a foul by Victor Anichebe, Everton could still not find the confidence to push the hosts to the brink, even despite their own poorness and the reality that they will likely finish behind Everton for the second consecutive season, highlighting the Red's fall from grace in recent campaigns. For a club with a tiny squad like Everton, it proves simply impossible to compete when key figures like Nikica Jelavic, Marouane Fellaini, Leighton Baines, Kevin Mirallas, and Darron Gibson are either unfit or not in form.

But, for long-suffering supporters, that isn't a valid enough excuse. For those who witnessed the Toffees meekly give away a 1-0 lead in the FA Cup semifinal to Liverpool last season and then lose 2-1, when it could have proven their only chance at silverware for some time doesn't serve as a valid excuse. A tiny squad and a lack of investment does not serve as a consolation for why Everton, when in the lead, threw away the match. And, against Arsenal and Liverpool, who are now faint images of the great, expensively assembled and well-respected sides of the past decade, Everton still cower and try to gain points on counterattacks and set pieces, when they could play proactively and for the win from the get-go.

Moyes has been unwilling to introduce players like Ross Barkley, Bryan Oviedo, Shane Duffy, and Conor McAleny too often — and he may be right about their inexperience causing the team problems — however, it seems that fans are more willing now to try a newer method. Relying on veterans and playing defensive football has only reaped disappointment, and playing for sixth or seventh place means nothing.

After another lackluster draw against Liverpool to add to the 15 others this campaign, seeing the side risk it all to score goals and win the remaining matches this campaign — to rejuvenate the fans and give them something to brag about — should be worth it regardless of wherever the side finishes in the league. Because, once again, it won't be in a European place.

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Reader Comments (20)

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Chris Regan
1 Posted 07/05/2013 at 16:16:30
We need rejuvenation and a shed load of cash, or just a shedload of cash.

Yeah, after thinking about it we need a shed load of cash. There is nothing new in this article.

John Gee
2 Posted 07/05/2013 at 16:18:16
Wow. What a Pulitzer prize winning piece of journalism we have here. I wonder if he's already writing his acceptance speech.

We play counter attacking football? No we don't, it's closer to possession football.

We can't take the game to Arsenal? Yes we did.

We are poor if half the team play badly? Really Sherlock?

I've seen dozens of posts on a single thread of ToffeeWeb with better writing, more insight and superior thought than this drivel.

Only chance at silverware? Apart from the final against Chelsea.

Clarence Yurcan
3 Posted 07/05/2013 at 17:43:37
This article perfectly encapsulates the failure of Moyes, which the Moyes In Brigade doesn't seem to grasp. "How can you talk bad about our messiah," they say. "He keeps plucky little Everton in the top 7, punching above their weight. Without him we'd be relegated, surely."

The Moyes In Brigade are a defeatist bunch who lack ambition, because they're satisfied with a sixth-place finish. Who cares if we finish 6th or 12th? The only things that matter are finishing top 4, or winning a cup. That's it. But I guess the Moyes In Brigade will be happily popping in their 6th place season highlights DVD. According to the Moyes In Brigade, Everton's motto is actually "Nothing but slightly above mid-table is good enough."

Robin Cannon
4 Posted 07/05/2013 at 18:30:11
@Clarence (921)

The continual absolutist terms that the whole Moyes debate is couched in is getting really boring. It's reached a stage where any defence of anything that Moyes has done is somehow portrayed as a defeatist failure of ambition.

Moyes is a pragmatic manager with conservative leanings, who has a lot of great qualities and a lot of frustrating ones.

The MOB seems to totally devalue the very legitimate argument that money *does* mean a huge amount in terms of the potential success of the club. That doesn't mean that Moyes is faultless, but I doubt that any other manager would have any greater chance of long term success with the continual lack of investment in the club.

Consistent top 8 finishes in the current financial climate of the Premier League is an achievement. It's not an exciting or romantic achievement, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have value.

What's disappointing is that the continual focus on Moyes is to the detriment of what should be a far more important focus on the systemic issues within the club. Whether Moyes or another manager, whoever is running the team is always going to be hamstrung because of the poor economic management and lack of ambition of the owner and the board.

Ryan Sloan
5 Posted 07/05/2013 at 19:22:12
Maybe we can go back to last day escapes, and the glory of survival
Chris Regan
6 Posted 07/05/2013 at 19:41:45
Ryan well said, Moyes will always leave one day, it's his eventual replacement that is important.
Trevor Lynes
7 Posted 07/05/2013 at 19:48:23
The difference between finishing 6th and 12th is about £3 million quid.
Not that it gets back to the managers transfer budget !!

As I have said many times the only investors in EFC are the FANS !!
Clarence Im afraid is looking at things in the way of his namesake...cross eyed !!

Harold Matthews
8 Posted 07/05/2013 at 16:49:02
Looking at Wigan struggling against Swansea. My God, we must have been bad the day they hammered us.
Clarence Yurcan
9 Posted 07/05/2013 at 22:26:16
Ryan, typical Moyes In Brigade response. I guess literally the only two options for Everton are slightly above average football or relegation, that's it, no in-between. Oh well, must be pretty hopeless supporting this club.

I understand Everton will never win the league or make a Champions League final without significant investment, but why can't we have some ambition, like winning a cup or two? The pro-Moyes people basically are saying we should have no ambition unless a sheikh comes along and bus Everton. Why even bother watching then?

Brent Stephens
10 Posted 07/05/2013 at 22:31:29
Clarence, I don't there is a single blues supporter who says we should have no ambition..

Ridiculous.

James Flynn
11 Posted 07/05/2013 at 22:58:44
Don't know Brian Canever.

Assume this article is one more reason to think Moyes gone. Suddenly, the press is putting it on Moyes directly. The shit ownership is an excuse?

Kev Prytherch
12 Posted 07/05/2013 at 23:47:00
Poor journalism???

'the side's crippling lack of confidence and inability to play proactive football for more than a handful of matches all season'
Last season it was the 2nd half of the season, this season the 1st few games. - Accurate description.

' Everton seem almost handicapped from breaking out of their shell and breaking into the top four places in the Premier League'
Again, when the going gets tough, we get defensive. - Accurate.

'For those who witnessed the Toffees meekly give away a 1-0 lead in the FA Cup semifinal to Liverpool last season and then lose 2-1, when it could have proven their only chance at silverware for some time doesn't serve as a valid excuse' - Also add the Wigan game this season. - Accurate

'Moyes has been unwilling to introduce players like Ross Barkley, Bryan Oviedo, Shane Duffy, and Conor McAleny too often' - Very accurate.

All in all, a pretty accurate piece of writing in most places.

John Gee
13 Posted 08/05/2013 at 00:42:53
Kev (155), are you fucking serious? The guy has submitted a piece on Everton v Liverpool and looks like, to offset him filing it late, has used google to try and shoe horn some 'wider context' in. The generalisations are the biggest clue to how lazy he's been. He's taken a few gripes and some match of the day narrative and vomited.

BTW, what the fuck is 'being pro-active'? It's meaningless management double talk and hard to argue against because it means exactly the square root of fuck all.

Michael Kenrick
14 Posted 08/05/2013 at 01:27:53
Spot-on Clarence (#921).

I still feel a sense of rage over the glorification of that "Magnificent Seventh" the Megastore came out with some years back.

Mind you, Doddy was in... Seventh Heaven, of course!

ps: John, Chill: he didn't file it late.... we found it late.

Patrick Murphy
15 Posted 08/05/2013 at 02:51:26
From where I sit the biggest con trick ever played on football supporters throughout Europe was the formation of the CL. A Champions League where teams not good enough to win trophies are allowed to parade their talents in exchange for mega amounts of cash. In the days before the PL and its richer brother the CL were formed, any club with ambition was forced to examine itself every season and ask how it could improve it's results and therefore become winners.

The game then was all about the glory of being the best in your division or at least putting a cup in the trophy cabinet. Now clubs similar to Everton are not able or are unwilling to address the lack of quality in the team and are happy to keep taking the money from TV companies and maintain their place on the gravy train. If we had the inclination and the money to get those extra 10 - 15 points that would see us qualifying for CL, we would still have to find even more money to cope with the demands that CL football would bring.

So from an accounting point of view the money necessary to fund such a challenge is way out of most clubs leagues and even those that have the resources are still gambling with the long term future of their clubs, it's a ridiculous state of affairs and is a direct result of the formation of the PL and the CL.

That still doesn't explain Everton's failure this season to push the boar out for what would have been a relatively small gamble by purchasing players in January and who knows we may have been closer to CL qualification and may have been facing Man City on Saturday in what would have been an appropriate 80th anniversary celebration of the 1933 Final.

As more fans of more clubs come to realise that football is no longer about glory and that it is just another commodity to be sold to the highest bidder the less likely those fans will see ft to make the effort to attend football matches.

As for Everton because of our financial paucity we are all bright enough to realise that we are unlikely to qualify for the CL and our best hope of glory lies in the cup competitions, the only thing that will hold our interest in the absence of true success, is a decent style of football and apart from brief glimpses of it in the last 12 months we don't see much of that either. Clubs like Everton need at least one true charismatic player, someone similar to Cahill or Ferguson not necessarily for their footballing abilities but more of a way for the fans to relate to the team. Maybe if David Moyes decides to leave the next manager will be the one with the charisma but I don't see too many of those types of managers about, all the modern ones seem to be much of a muchness with their note-taking and attention to detail and mysterious formations and opta ratings etc etc.

What has happened to the fun in football when was it we all became hoodwinked into thinking that it was all about the numbers, when did we stop demanding entertainment and all at a time when real tangible success is further away than it ever has been. It is the greatest con-trick ever played and everyone of us from fan to owner to journalist all fell hook-line and sinker for it and we continue to fall for it season after season.

Seventh place may well be the pinnacle of our achievements but there is certainly nothing whatsoever magnificent about it.

Roman Sidey
16 Posted 08/05/2013 at 03:51:18
Robin, pot, kettle, and all that in between. I'm MOB, but I still acknowledge that money is probably the biggest factor in teams rising - a few exceptions in other leagues, but true enough in the EPL.

This season, however, our lack of European qualification is not down to a lack of money. This season, if we'd have beaten four shit teams that we either lost or drew to, we'd be there.

This season, if we'd have played like we should in a home cup tie against a team that is probably about to be relegated, we'd probably be in another cup final.

This season, if it's our last with Moyes, will be a very unceremonious end to 11 years of promise and no delivery.

John Ford
17 Posted 08/05/2013 at 04:03:34
Media attention is already far too focused on Moyes and what he will or won't do. The core problem lies with the board. They should be feeling the pressure this summer.
Wayne Smyth
18 Posted 08/05/2013 at 18:28:53
Trevor(964), The difference between 6th and 12th is £3M, correct. How much do we pay Phil Neville per season? Naismith? Heitinga?

Moyes could make a ton of cash by actively moving these good-for-nothings on and using our academy. Even if we drop a few places, we're still quids in by a long shot.

James Carlisle
19 Posted 08/05/2013 at 23:52:10
This article is a little overly critical as we have given big teams a game this season and many previous seasons. The big problem for me is the bottling of derbys and important cup games. This can't be blamed on lack of funds because the team is easily good enough to win these games. The blame for this is the managerand player's inability to motivate themselves for the big occasions.
Phil McChrystal
20 Posted 10/05/2013 at 21:06:53
I haven't slept since the Moyes announcement, Martinez has failed at Wigan, all good managers are in jobs and all the ones not in jobs are out of work for a reason, there are a few obvious successors, but why would you leave a club you to over last year, and improved them beyond expectations, an easy guess there. I remember the Mike Walker appointment, Gordon Lee, who my eldest son is named after, Howard Kendals, second & third times. So I am left worried sick who might come in.

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