Kicking the Can Down the Road

It does look like Moshiri deciding to keep the old guard has proved unwise, most of them have been there for eons and like most people will be adverse to change, even if that change may be good for the business.

If Moshiri wants Everton to compete at the top, he has to hire the best people in all departments and areas of the club. It seems that there is some tension between what Moshiri might like to see and what the Ancien Regime's vision of the club is.

At the moment, the club looks completely lost and bewildered and, if it continues on its present trajectory, not only will it be unable to compete with the top six it may find it difficult to compete with most clubs in the Premier League.

Get a grip, somebody, the warning signs are there... take heed and do something and soon!

It's Everton FC I am interested in — not EitC, no matter how much good they do.

As it stands all considered, at 22:07 hrs BST, 19 April 2018, perhaps the farce of the fan survey, is perhaps a mask to defer Bramley-Moore Dock to the back drawer?

May be this is the clubs way of saying what's the point of a new stadium, if the supporters don't rate the manager, coaches and board, which by rule of thumb, may be close to the truth for many Evertonians, and I respect all Evertonians' views.

Then the case the team is crap, so based on very piss-poor results this season and generally the last 30 years, is a good team more important than the finest stadium in the UK, with a feeble and poor 1st team?

I've not been on the ale tonight, but events the last few weeks suggest anything could happen between now and the start of the new season.

No longer disillusioned, almost resigned to mediocrity, but please let's hope salvation is found soon as the club is on the edge of the abyss.

The club is in a mess, and has lost its endearment to the fans.

CEO – club finances, marketing and commercial activities.
Technical Director – transfers and player contracts
Director of Football – Recruitment of players and staff (but not the contractual side)
Head Coach – team selection and coaching

I'd have these 4 on a transfer committee, maybe with another scout or whatever. But the Head Coach should have final say on transfer activity. And I used a Lukaku example on another thread, Martinez sanctioned the permanent transfer of Lukaku at the expense of the budget for the next 18-24 months. Such a measure should only be taken where the Head Coach gives his authorisation and full understanding.

I regret to say that everything I've heard Moshiri say about football as a sport has dismayed me. He seems to be at best naive on that issue, the only issue me as a fan is interested in, and I do want to be kind to him given the level of his financial commitment thus far.

Surely, given Kenwright's ill-health when he bought in, Moshiri must have had another in mind to chair the board in the event that Kenwright's health worsened. I'd be amazed and probably appalled if he hadn't (and I wish a full, swift recovery to anyone in ill-health by the way) so I just hope that by whatever means legally available Moshiri now realises that the boardroom "team" he inherited have skills that are modestly useful only to clubs where perpetually "knowing your place" and "being nice" are the only things that matter.

Those two features were in no way part of the mandate that Moshiri personally set out when he bought in. His (in)actions this summer will therefore hugely illustrate whether his mandate remains sustainable.

He has now been at the helm for just over two years. It's time for him to shed his training wheels and take full control.

A powerhouse CEO is clearly top priority, but bringing in new directors to support that CEO will be critical as well. A top executive requires more than owner-granted powers... he requires organizational support and commitment.

Moshiri should be shopping for that chief executive already, making clear that his first task should be to hire a new manager... and the second to hire an director-level marketing exec to communicate the club's vision to the world.

Over to you, Farhad. Time to step up... or step out.

I only ask because he's hardly an ever-present at games, and he left the old-guard in place, so who's to say what he really represents, what his real intentions are, and where his real commitment lies?

For many years, Moyes had the relative buffer of low expectation following enforced low expenditure, nurtured after years of this "kicking the can" and "sweating of assets" had left the club potless, and truly on the precipice. So this is not a new phenomenon at EFC.

That said, necessity being the mother of invention, the cash-injection from the sale of Wayne Rooney, and a good eye for a bargain allowed him to at least fashion a team (maybe 2 teams) from the mere morsels that he had to generate himself. He managed this despite the board, not because of it. There was at least a direction and an understanding, as Tim Cahill recently said.

Before the beginning of the season, a lot of people made positive noises about all our headline new appointments on and off the pitch, but it now appears that they were mainly duds. Costly duds too. Time will tell if Mosh has shot his/our bolt...

The solid sides that Moyes created on a zero net spend over a 10 year period seem a distant memory, and has been slowly whittled away to be replaced by a mainly dysfunctional collection of individuals of questionable quality. Most of whom offering us little or no return, nor appreciating sell-on value.

Martinez inherited a good side and was offered the absolute luxury of a real goal-scorer, and still fell short in the end. The Dutchman and Walsh were just more headline signings, to supposedly demonstrate the new policy of getting the right men for the right job. They were given a fortune to spend, and yet continued our decline by mainly squandering it.

Off the pitch, the stadium question seems to generate more twists and turns then ever, almost to the point of being little more than a distraction now (perhaps a convenient one). The process to date can be at best described as "muddled" and incoherent, with few if any of the usual landmark stages established.

I'm not sure that I can remember the precise chronology, but did Moshiri's involvement predate the initial mention of Bramley-Moore Dock? Or, was he (and/or his backers) simply enticed by the prospect of a quick ROI via a stadium project on top of a major waterfront redevelopment scheme? Was the misplaced motive of the Commonwealth Games too big an influence in the first place? To that end, was the acquisition of prime office space just another headine box-ticker in the mishmash of good intention, or just indicative of ulterior profiteering motives?

At what point do we stop merely generating headlines, and begin to genuinely move forward both on and off the pitch? That will require far more incisive process and decision-making than we have seen thus far.

At the moment, we can see Lardarse not giving a flying one about our results now... feet up, job done, looking to his Spanish villa for some R and R, his arrogance stupefying. What a twat.

Regarding the football side, I'm a bit "old-fashioned", I'm afraid, and believe the manager should manage the recruitment and style of play. I just cannot get my head around buying players who are not necessarily those the manager may want and trying to fit them into a style they may not be comfortable in.

Unless we get the boardroom right, then whoever comes in as manager at the end of the season will struggle.

If the Director of Football is responsible for the team playing a certain way, then it's by identifying the manager who can get the team to play that way, playing a part in the interview process by discussing playing styles (in a way that the board cannot as they don't have the technical ability to do so), and then making certain agreements that the manager will play that way. He can then identify players to fit that shared vision but the manager should make the ultimate decision on them coming in.

A Director of Football who favours possession-based football would not work well with Allardyce, and so should not hire Allardyce. He shouldn't be able to force Allardyce to play like Barcelona. That's just crazy and will never work.

What I am trying to say is that personally I do not want a DOF. Those clubs that have them, I do not think the DOF "enforces" a particular style but I just cannot see two people having similar views on styles and personnel. I just think the manager should have total control on the players brought in and the style to suit them. Players to fit the system – not system to fit the players.

I also think one good thing from the Moyes era was the thought given to players fitting in. Looking at our recent buys it appears to me they have little if any team spirit, whether playing under Koeman, Unsworth or Allardyce.

Anyway, my initial post wasn't so much about the merits or not of a DOF – it was about the utmost importance of getting the correct CEO, after which I believe things would come into place at all levels.

I want Pete ‘Market Rocket' from the Market Rocket School of Rockets to light a fire up everyone's Ass (but not Dave Hard-Ass's ass as it is so hard, he won't feel it) and I want blue shirts on every Chinese man, woman and child from Chongqing to Beijing to China town and Birkenhead market, ya hear me?

Get me blue pizzas, get me a calculator that spells ‘BooBs', get me an airport Toblerone sex toy with EFC written on it and shove it up everyone's ass so they are eating and shitting Everton Alps at the same time.

Get me 200 Adrian Heaths dressed as Smurfs, singing “Here We Go” and let's invade the Arkles with Father Abrahams on a massive Blue horse. I want total domination (idea for EFC ball-gags and zip-masks – get them made!) and then and only then will we top the league.

Get me Hard Ass on the phone now! [Puts feet on desk, lights cigar, pours whiskey from decanter, straight into the mouth...]

I don't think there was any real scouting done when buying Keane, Klaassen, Sandro etc. In Keane's case, he probably wasn't even watched – certainly not by the manager.

Contrast that to Moyes who thoroughly researched the player he required, including character, which is as equally important as skill.

I hold similar views to John Keating and think Farhad Moshiri should ask the old guard to depart gracefully, appoint a new chairman, and put his apprentice Alexander Ryazantsev in charge of the day-to-day running of the club.

As for a Director of Football – someone like Arsene Wenger would do me.

Another great article by The Esk – keep em coming.

It's a big couple of months for the club under Moshiri. He isn't a football fan, he is a businessman who has spotted investment potential in the Northwest.

I think a lot of us are pinning our hopes on him being like an Abramovich and turning us into a force overnight but sadly, the longer this mess is rolling on, the more I am thinking that he isn't interested in the football club and is more interested in the potential asset. I hope that I am wrong.

It's pretty clear that Moshiri is in this for money. Even if he spends a few hundred million, he will get this back due to the increased revenue being generated by the Premier League. He is only now learning, however, that ticking over in the Premier League is no guarantee and he could actually lose a few bob if we dropped.

Let us hope his lesson has been learned and he puts the right people in the right places to sort out this mess out... and he then starts earning top money with a team that challenges for titles.

I know that you have a good deal of insight about our club so, what in your view is the relationship between Kenwright and Moshiri? How much influence does Kenwright still have? Was his being chairman for eternity part of the deal?

Bramley-Moore will be useless to us and him if we're not playing at a high level. Hopefully he will have made plans A through Z this time to re-engineer ourselves over the summer.