Allardyce: Everton 'slipped up' with marketing survey

For the record, you got 0 out of 10 from me.

We have a Marketing Dept?

I'll give him this – he has balls and a barrel load of arrogance.

All it does is further embarrass the club as he's the only one speaking; no comment from the club or even the smallest attempt to control the narrative.

They let him, who is almost the de facto voice in the club, say what he wants, how he wants – and damn the consequences.

This really isn't even about Allardyce. It's about the clear lack of leadership at Everton Football Club. Shameful scenes.

Maybe I'm still clinging to the hope that someone high up really is going to make that call to him before the end of the season... To me, his words are no different than any poorly performing manager in his position would spout at these pressers.

Who the fucking hell does he think he is? Bigger than Everton Football Club?

Wind your neck in, Allardyce.

It really underlines what those lads at EBM have been saying almost every week about desperately needing to have a Communications Director who can control the narrative.

But, when you appoint an outspoken monster like Allardyce as your manager, there ain't no "controlling the narrative" and you deserve everything you get by way of god-awful publicity.

You language; ‘clinging, hope, and someone up high', intended or otherwise smacks of a feeling you have no idea who is in charge, if that person will act or can get it right?

Can that be right for a business and club this large that affects so many people?

This is wholly about the board and the people who ‘run' the club; as for Allardyce, he has become secondary in this debacle.

Time to focus on the fellas upstairs, rather than the troll under it.

As for Kenwright, he'd be better apologising to Everton fans for his self-serving act as Everton's chairman over too many years to remember.

"It's only a few fans on social media. We are doing fine avoided relegation, now we can rebuild and really start the 5-year project, with a new contract for me. " – Allardyce.

"Thousands of fans don't think so according to the Survey. How are we going to fill the new stadium? Most of them are very irate" – Moshiri.

I did think the Everton Management was headless. I now think the Marketing Department are superb. Well done the first sign of hope. I await the results of the survey on Everton fc. com

I think we have enough problems without bringing politics into the discussion. Besides, Obama has gone now.

Am I missing something? Is nobody accepting that this is a fuck-up by the club?

I don't care if the marketing department made an error, nor do I care about the other events leading up to this point.

I do care, however, that Sam's comments to the media about this fiasco are absolutely cringeworthy. With every passing sentence, he makes himself more and more of a laughing stock. The best thing is, he doesn't even see it. The media hang on his every word because they know he'll give them some absolute gold in pretty short order, yet that fat, arrogant prick thinks they're just interested in what he has to say.

Someone on here compared Sam to Donald Trump and it couldn't be more apt. They both believe their own bullshit while much of the rest of world laugh at their delusions.

He just can't and won't accept criticism in any shape or form. He has the nerve to give himself 11 out of 10 for his performance as manager. I doubt Pep would even give himself 10/10 because he is astute enough to know that every manager can learn new ideas and new strategies as his career progresses.

Allardyce's arrogance and total lack of humility and his refusal to learn from his mistakes and try new things are just a small reaction to the list of factors that make him totally unsuitable to be our manager. If Kenwright has really apologised to him for the survey being sent out, then it really is time he was pensioned off too.

I hope the survey shows an enormous number of zeros against Allardyce's name and that it finally gets through that thick dinosaur hide of his that he is not wanted by those who pay to see the dross he puts out every week.

The downside of the survey is that the club won't sack him until the results are known which means we'll be stuck with the pillock at least until the end of the season. Drat!!

I'm hoping that Moshiri has been talking to agents of manager/s and I've got a feeling that, within hours of the final whistle, it will be announced that Allardyce and Everton have parted company by mutual consent. That'll save his blushes and we'll be rid of the Allardycasaurus.

The next manager has to be a good fit and hopefully Moshiri gets it right and the new guy gets the three years (at least) It'll take to get us up near the top of the league.

I'd, personally, be looking for seventh minimum next season playing attractive football and beating "some" of the top dogs and winning "some" away games.

Time for my medication.

Allardyce on the 2017-18 season: “We have achieved our first and only goal in achieving safety.”

That is a damning indictment of the leaders we have if, and that's 'if' that's the goal that was agreed.

The big difference between Liverpool and Everton this season and before, Liverpool spent well and bought quality players, while Everton bought players (including Rooney) who would struggle to get into any Championship team.

Did you expect him to sit back and let people knock him? Did you expect him to agree with the concept or outcome? I have my own opinions of Sam and of the survey, and none of them are good.

Like the manager, I too think the survey was a mistake and stinks of sacking by referendum. I also think the situation would not have arisen if it had been another manager performing in the same way as Sam. His card was marked as soon as he was appointed – and rightly so, he's not what we want at Everton, his football is awful and selections baffling. That being said, the club should be a little more dignified in their treatment of one of their senior employees.

The Journos are just having a dig back and he is scrabbling for a handhold. The Chairman has apologised... maybe the chairman had his fingers crossed when talking.

The press know that we ain't happy with Sam at the club and are having a bit of fun with him.

They have handed out surveys before as Michael @ 8 states. This one just coincides with the rise of ill-feeling against the manager .

Storm in a teacup to me but another "conspiracy theory/ shambles" for people to get stuck into.

Like someone else said on another thread, they're out of touch if they don't ask the fans and clueless if they do.

As a result his delivery had been really poor - P22, W8, D6, L8. Now let's stop the nonsense that it is everyone else's fault and 'Big Sam' has just been heroically cleaning up the mess he found.

Look at him.

"Off the chairman... yes" immediately looks straight down and then "No, that's it, boys!" – changing the subject as quickly as possible.

The chairman hasn't called him and, for me, when he's looking down he's thinking about how he's explaining it to Kenwright.

Allardyce out.

The DoM wasn't trying to implement a training system or name the lineup. The DoM was simply doing the job they've been appointed to do, but I don't recall that person ever publicly commenting on Allardyce's ability to do his job.

And if I was the DoM, I would be absolutely furious right now for being publicly called out by such a failure as Allardyce and with the claim that the Chairman has apologized!!

It's a waste of time, and the only thing the club needs to get right is good football complimented by decent customer service. The first one is far more difficult than the second, but if you can't get your ticketing and food & beverage offering right, then you must be employing Neanderthals.

What a load of old bollocks. The business side of any football club could be ran by 6th formers. These surveys are sent out by people with fuck all better to do with their time. Goons.

Others have rightly criticised him on this thread for publicly attacking the Club's Marketing Director. Far from apologising to him, Kenwright should be fining him for a breach of Club discipline – a year's wages might be an appropriate amount!

They knew full well what they were doing. It's clearly an excuse to get rid of Allardyce. I bet Kenwright's apology was about how it's been reported rather than what they've actually done.

Or is Fat Lardarse a complete knob? Perhaps we need a survey!

The only reason this has blown up is through sneaky media manipulation originally by the Mirror. The RS-loving rag produced an article which basically made it look like the club were only asking the fans about Fat Sam, which made us look stupid. Other outlets picked up the story and again, without really taking the whole picture into context, made it look all about Fat Sam.

To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't pushed by Allardyce's agent or his people to try to make the club look bad and him being hard done by them. He's always tried to make himself look good in situations and with this he's put the blame on the club's marketing team. We all know that the views are going to be negative of him, but this circus around it is deflecting from what might come out of the survey.

I've been at Goodison Park through good years and bad. I marvelled at the skills of the Golden Vision and the supreme class of Brian Labone from the sanctuary of the Boys Pen. I watched from the Goodison Road terrace as the Holy Trinity took good opponents apart on a regular basis. I was thrilled watching Kendall's great team of the mid-80s (hopes cruelly dashed by the hooligans from the dark side). I even enjoyed Joe Royle's Dogs of War for guts, team spirit and doggedness.

There have also been the wasted years – the 1950s and, especially, the last 2 decades, both periods typified by conservative, backward-looking management at all levels of the club. John Moores came in and changed things in the 1960s. Maybe Moshiri will do the same in the present day, but it has been a bitterly disappointing start.

I read that he is a shrewd businessman but he has so far made some really bad decisions for our club: the hell-for-leather chase to get Koeman; the appointment of Great Player Spotter, Steve Walsh (his reputation, as far as I can see, based on signing 2 good players for Leicester); the undignified scramble to get Silva, and the panicky appointment of Sam & Sam, the great saviours.

Well, they have rescued us from the disaster of relegation but it has been a miserable business. Good money has been wasted on players who, at best, are middle-of-the-road Premier League standard (Williams, Walcott, Schneiderlin, Bolasie, Klaassen and, I'm sorry to say, Rooney). Throwing a team together like this rarely works and what we have now amounts to just about the most boring and embarrassing side in the Premier League.
I'll be at the final home game and be glad when it's over and I won't feel compelled to be at Goodison again for 2 or 3 months!

I want to be optimistic about the future. I'm looking forward to, and hopeful about the new stadium. I'm hoping that Moshiri learns from his mistakes. I don't want to see Sam & Sam in the dugout again or listen to mediocrity being justified and even praised. I'm hoping that Moshiri thinks carefully about the responses of us fans to these surveys and I'm hoping that, despite what we've seen this season, the wasted years are soon over.

It looks like Rooney in his interview today is also struggling to keep a straight face when asked about the derby substitution.

I feel the marketing cock-up was anything but. There is a move to get rid of Allardyce as swiftly and as efficiently as the terms of his contract will allow. His contract will have been time, scope and quality related, with a methodology to measure each.

This is just one step on the stair to removing him. Now his ego will be bruised and he will be twisting in the wind soon. Trouble is, the situation will undermine the club even further than his tenure so far.

Not the TV Money
Not sponsorships.
Not even merchandising (fixed amount from Kitbag)
Sodexo do the catering
Not even season tickets! Record renewals despite this season.

I'm finding it difficult to think what part of the business isn't a fixed income contract, as long as we are in the Premier League.

As I said, captive audience, and it feels like being in captivity some weeks as well.

I wonder what Sam would have to say if 30,000 Evertonians were singing that in the stands?

Unfortunately for Sam the survey will blow that notion out of the water.

That's why he sees it as a mistake, because he is down to his loin cloth and the survey has just whipped it away.

Not even a 1, Sam Allardyce, you're not even a 1.

Look forward to seeing the back of him and that squat imbecile in a false blue uniform and the rest of his gang of goons, laughing as they walk away with blue booty.

It's simply not feasible that the survey was sent out in error – what? Did someone accidentally lean on the send button? The hierarchy of the club would have not only known about this but approved it, so what on earth is he talking about? As for Kenwright's apology, he's at best misinterpreting this, at worst making it up.

Get him out of the club asap and let's start again (again).

There are light-years in difference between him and the manager who should be in control of our team. A proper manager, who plays attacking football and wants to win every game, would have done much better than this man, I can promise you. I believe even Koeman or Unsworth would have assembled a better points tally than this man.

And, by the way, if our players are of Championship-quality, how come we are in the middle of the Premier League, and not rock bottom? That's because we have good players that are utilised completely wrong...

Allardyce out now!!

It's no coincidence three managers haven't been able to get a single tune out of them for just ONE game. They're just not good enough.

Allardyce is an average manager, we need better, but we also need a dozen new players of elite standard.

He really is a first class tosser!!

A "clearout" which some people want, would only disrupt the squad more imo, and it would take us another season to recover and gel the team. We have a good foundation of players that should be retained the next season and get the opportunity to play for a proper manager.

However we need some additions to the squad, I think we need a left back, a left winger and a box-to-box midfielder that can dictate play from the middle. All three of really good quality. And on top of that, a manager that plays attacking football and always goes for the win.

Allardyce out now!!

Add to that the other teams haven't stood still, they've got better.

The main problem with this season has been expectation over realism. Our squad is not good enough for top six let alone top four. Miles away and beyond. Yes, the football under Sam is eye-watering but sadly pure football is fine if relegation is your target. Yes, we could let our hair down and have a go. Sadly Sam can't win with the majority of fans but, for me, Sam has achieved what he was brought in for.

My belief is Sam would love another season at our club to try and build confidence, but I feel he will be gone by May. Yes, we are the fans and listening to us can go either way. Let's be careful what we wish for.

Editors – can we not send John's comment at #7 direct to the Club hierarchy?

Yes, Baines and Jagielka are a year older, but then again they have been playing quite well this season when they have been playing. Unfortunately, Baines was injured for a long time, and for some reason, Allardyce has chosen Williams instead of Jagielka. Williams has been woeful this season, and that hasn't helped Keane at all. Keane, as a new player in our squad, should have had a stable, reliable centre-back partner beside him, but he got Williams...

And now that we are safe, we have a chance to blood in a new centre-back pairing for next season, Funes Mori and Keane, but Allardyce just doesn't pick them... Why? These are perfect games to blood players in, Vlasic and Klaassen, for example, should get their chances, but no... Not in Allardyce's world...

Allardyce out now!!

No, the man knows he's hated by the fans and it now seems by the commercial department too!

However, I would go one step further and label them 'corporate cowards', not one of the trio of Kenwright, Elstone or Denise Baxendale (I discount Woods, as I've never heard him utter a word in 15 years) all board members, have the courage to even make any statement regarding this holy mess.

Instead, the 'gravy' man holds court with his assembled press buddies and cracks one-liners like some barrack-room bully.

Shame on you, Everton.

This fan said I see all the same things he did at Newcastle happening at Everton, he also when asked about fan protests said its only a small minority. No doubt the West Ham fans would have a similar story to tell about him.

I think the game on Monday will be interesting to see the fans reaction, as I am sure there will be a reaction, especially with only one home game left after the Newcastle game.

So moving players out and bringing new ones in is going to be a big task, especially, with many future transfer targets focused on the World Cup. My belief, next season won't be much different from this one, whoever is manager. This is because Everton never secured the right manager when Moyes left 5 years ago.

Allardyce out now!!

Nobody is relegated in October. Koeman was sacked because results were not meeting high expectations.

As I said before, I think we have a good foundation of players, I think we need three-four players of really good quality added to be able to compete, at least for 5th or 6th. The thing is with this "overhaul" many are after, it will only make things more of a mess. I think one of the reasons this season went like it did, was that we brought in lots of players, and started five-six-seven of them each game, players that only have a preseason together, it's no wonder they didn't gel. It's hard with so many new players. The tough fixture list and failure to replace Lukaku didn't help of course...

But now most of them have played a season together, and have started to gel. Kicking half the team out now would be the completely wrong way to go about things in my opinion... It would be another season wasted.

Allardyce out now!!

You can bet that, if Sam believed that most fans supported him, he would have no problem whatever with the survey. It is because he knows his approach to the game and the damage he is doing Everton's reputation is infuriating most of us that he is so outraged by the marketing survey. Why didn't any of the media present have the guts to point that out for his response?

Job done. Now, it's a question of who is going to be manager next season? All I say is, Good luck to him, whoever is chosen.

Ffs, I can't believe people would want him to be kept on. Get a grip!

I honestly think he's taking the piss. Trolling us as a launchpad to his post management media career. Creating a caricature of himself.

Yes, I wanted to see the back of Koeman. Yes, I was embarrassed by our lowly position, but I never believed that we were in real danger and by the time Allardyce took over his first training session, the initial crisis looked all but over.

The real crisis now is the dull, hesitant, slow, defensive, craven and ineffective brand of football on offer. And that is all Allardyce. If he is still here next season, I may be too bored to watch.

“I hope it hasn't been a distraction for the players” he told the ECHO.

“I have to say, when it came out and it popped out from whoever sent it to you, the ECHO, it was then I read it and I thought: ‘The timing is not great but we'll just have to deal with it'.

Sam, the game on Monday is not a cup final – it's not even a six-pointer and btw, isn't it your job to ensure that outside forces don't affect the players, and you get them to do their job to the best of their abilities?

We had relegation form when this manager came in. He rescued it and saved us from a relegation scrap. Let's show Sam some respect. Sounds like money is changing our manners as a club!

Like I said earlier, realistic expectations. The previous manager got away with it on here. Sam picked the mess up and top ten is an achievement.

"Everton FC wish to announce that Sam Allardyce has left the club by mutual agreement. The club will begin the process to appoint his successor immediately."

Or if he writes it as he would like to:

"Everton FC are delighted to announce the sacking of Fat Sam. Love and kisses from all at the EFC Marketing department."

Steavey, you don't know that. If a better man-manager, someone able to inspire these players to play better as a team... but there's no point in even going there.

He was appointed; he hasn't quite been the total disaster he could've been... but it's not been that far off.

People have short memories, almost every post on here last autumn had us doomed to relegation – worst team in league, no fight in the players, can't defend, can't score, even West Brom are better... blah blah.

I watch sides like Swansea, Southampton and West Brom, and in all honesty, they look better than we do. I'm no fan of Allardyce, but the last thing we need now is another change of management and players.

The club would be on very dangerous ground going down that route at this time.

The normal approach to a survey would be for the DoM to present the questions to a directors meeting for sign off (or at the very least, the CEO's desk for approval) which it obviously was the case and it was passed for release.

Even if I thought the management of EFC leaves a lot to be desired, I would be staggered if this was not reviewed by the board or CEO prior to release.

I actually think there is nothing wrong with asking the questions (I would have asked a few more to be honest) and Allardyce should be open to questions or criticism from fans and be made to explain his actions / approach. What is wrong with that?

It's a Customer Survey asking fans what they think of the club and its performance. His response is disgraceful as it was public and demeaned a person for doing their job, probably with the blessing of the board.

If he was that upset he should have had the discussion in private and just told the press he looked forward to reading the suggestions in the survey... that's all he had to say or do.

But no, it shows the calibre of the man.

I just hope he is shown the results in his leaving interview.

So please gather your belongings from Finch Farm tomorrow and say goodbye to everyone. You can go with the thanks and gratitude of every blue.

Yes, Allardyce is one of the most respectful and loving persons himself... not! You reap what you sow. Allardyce sows disrespect, arrogance, ignorance... There's a reason why he has been so unpopular in the clubs he has managed... on top of that he's a lousy manager with dated methods... He's paid ٤m quid a year, a sum most of us couldn't even dream of earning... he's bound get criticism if he doesn't do a proper job, and he should be able to take it!

Allardyce out now!!

I truly believe we'd have won more games under Unsworth and would have stayed out of relegation just as easily. He deserved that Huddersfield at home game, which he'd have won and then been able to say the corner was turned. Which would have given Moshiri more time to get a long-term manager in.

Johan, I agree with you. Our best XI should be better than Burnley's, it's at least as good as Leicester's, and it's certainly better than everyone else's (edit: I mean below us!). We also have much more quality in the depth than the rest of them. That said, we are further off the top 6 than last season.

I think we have the makings of a side to challenge Arsenal next year, we just need progression from the young lads (Calvert-Lewin, Davies, Holgate, Lookman, Vlasic, and Kenny) and to bring in top quality players who can BLEND with and enhance what we have. Don't just sign a player because he's good, make sure he fits into the side.

I come from a marketing background, and I'm in utter shock that one of these types of surveys has received such national attention. Pretty much every industry which provides services to customers, conducts something similar on a regular basis. It's part and parcel of a marketing strategy.

As other post's have said, it went out to a select group of ST holders and club members. I'm guessing there's about 50k people who would fall into that category. Out of that number, I would imagine only around 400-500 people actually received it, as that number would be enough data to collate.

In nearly all surveys that I've seen, 99% of them have some sort of questions concerning perceptions of leadership. So the question that has everyone up in arms, is pretty much standard on any customer satisfaction questionnaire. The club over the last few years has looked for more input from the fans, and has used the fan panels and customer climate surveys to find out more info from them. Football is very much part of the entertainment industry nowadays, and providing customer service is paramount for its success.

For everyone criticizing the club over this and blaming them for an ill timed survey, they've been sucked into a non-story by an over sensationalization media display. The only way someone from the media to see the survey would it being leaked to them by a fan who received it or someone from the club. The more and more I see comments from Allardyce, I'm thinking this has been leaked from his people to their media friends.

Faux outrage from journalists about 'that question' has allowed Allardyce to come out on top over the club and he even has the audacity to stick a knife into the marketing boss. The only real embarrassment that has come out of this situation is that the club allows this imbecile to mouth off and ridicule our club to an international audience while covering up his own poor performance.

And as for a change of manager being the ‘last thing we need' – on the contrary, it is very much the thing we need. We need a young, hungry and ambitious manager who will be here for a good few years and who will try to play a brand of attacking football, not some bottom 6 merchant who specialises in just about keeping teams afloat with a brand of dour, dull, destructive defensive dross.

Allardyce out now!!

Is right, he has done his job by hook crook and luck. This has got to be the end of his tenure.

Mr Moshiri will let him see the season out though, and let him leave with dignity. I haven't got a problem with that; he was the nasty medicine needed for a very sick patient. The medicine has got us off the critical list and we have no further need of it.

Are the fans upset with Sam? Or the previous manager's expectations of Champions League? The reality is, Sam had to save us from potential relegation. Anyway, onto the next chapter of "next manager of Everton Football Club".

Never wanted him and never needed him. We were never going down and his achievement is to painfully shift us very slowly from 12th to 9th in a sub standard league whilst dressing it up as job done.

Hopefully the end is nigh. The slur is that forever, Everton's history will be tarnished by the fact Allardyce was once our manager.

You are delusional if you actually believe what you have written about Allardyce – a worse manager than Koeman, Moyes and Martinez by a country mile.

Hopefully Allardyce and his cohorts will be sacked in the morning.

Koeman had his own issues that ultimately made his position untenable, but let's be honest – he was done in by a brutal run of fixtures, which was exacerbated by the additional Europa League workload, key long-term injuries and several summer signings failing to hit the ground running.

Give Allardyce those same nine fixtures and you honestly think he'd do any better? Best case scenario, he'd replicate the home wins over Stoke and Bournemouth, deliver a dreary road draw against Brighton and get our ass kicked by Chelsea, Spurs, United and Arsenal. If anything, the idea of him going into the Etihad and getting a point seems utterly laughable.

We weren't getting relegated. Every season, it's the same thing. We lose a few matches and the chicken little hysterics start. Allardyce has basically come in and done the bare minimum – a handful of home wins over bottom-of-the-table competition and the odd, less-than-convincing road victory (such as barely edging ten-man Stoke), coupled with a few cynical draws.

Sam came in to do what Sam does best and stave off relegation. Nobody expected total football. We all knew what type of football to expect. Now that we are safe we need to move Sam onto his next challenge, which will be another relegation struggle in November this year for someone else. We need Moshiri to take action.

Back to the op. I do believe this is just another one of the many cock-ups that we are used to from the club. The club should apologise. A public humiliation to the man in charge of the first team isn't good from our club.

Surely this guy can't survive now?

He has to go.

As Bill @ 117 points out, we're now safe from the drop.

Surely we sack this sad sack of a manager now?! He'll just do more damage on his way out of the door, mouthing off. It's in our best interest to dump this man now. Bring in Unsy to see the season out, telling all and sundry he will not be our next manager to alleviate any pressure on him.

Do it now. Sack him.

Should they apologize for sending out the same fucking survey last year when Koeman was in charge? Is poor little Sam so sensitive he can't handle a little question on a survey? Oh poor baby, give him his bottle or maybe check his fat ass diaper.

The biggest winners are Allardyce and his crew who have just milked us for millions and don't really give a toss if they get the boot or not.

It's yet another mistake by the club. To whose benefit are the results of those questions?

I don't have much sympathy with a guy on ٤M a year. I just think that the club lacked awareness and class when dealing with the matter. I am sure it won't be the last time either.

Had they done so, there would be no way that Allardice could spout his lies about having their support and a survey would be unnecessary.

"Gowann now go, walk out the door, don't turn around now, you're not welcome anymore."

Like I said in a previous post, this type of survey has gone out probably to all the other Premier League teams as part of their club's marketing strategy due to the ending of the season. Has any other manager got their knickers in a twist like Allardyce has? He's on pure defensive mode at the moment and he's using any means necessary to make himself look good as he knows he's going at the end of the season.

Stop blaming the club for this; this is purely down to Allardyce and the media blowing it out of proportion. The club's marketing dept has come in for criticism numerous times in the past, and most of the time rightly so, but this time they don't deserve any criticism.

The club panicked, fans included. Had we applied this logic previously, Moyes wouldn't have lasted 5 years – let alone 11, given those notoriously shocking starts; most seasons didn't kick in until Christmas once the weight of expectation from a previous strong finish was lifted.

Were you on here last year crying for Koeman – when exactly the same questions were being asked? Stop being a sycophantic apologist for the most reprehensible manager we have ever had. FFS!

I agree with fan engagement for hopefully producing a better experience for us all.

I don't think that asking about performance of the manager is constructive. I just don't see the point regardless of who the manager is. If Man City fans got the same survey I bet a small percentage wouldn't be happy with Pep.

I don't want him here next season and neither do over 90% of fans according to a recent ToffeeWeb poll. Go on a witch hunt for the small percentage of people who want him here next season. FFS.

It's gone from 'apologist' to 'sycophantic apologist'.

Fat Head is crying about the club issuing a survey asking the fans opinions – Did you come on here and defend Koeman last year?

Sounds like you are worried about Sams bruised ego? I am sure his fall will be protected by his fat pay cheque protecting his arse.

I'm shocked that you believe we have better 11 than Leicester. We haven't had our best 11 at any pt this season and had to deal with having Kenny and Martina full-back who wouldn't get a game for Bristol. But I'd love to know how you have our best 11 better than Leicester's?

I know you love Pickford like everyone on here but is he better than full International league winning Schmeichel or Pope best the shot save ratio in the prem?

Do we have two players better than Vardy and Mahrez?

Do you want us to play direct to two big strikers like Burnley do? because all I heard before "long ball Sam" arrived was that this style of play was the problem and reason why we collectively all hate Allardyce and we have been on a witch hunt from the very beginning.

But now that he plays Rooney cm and has bought Walcott and Tucson to play on the floor he has no "identity", "no style of play"? Is this right? I thought we are just shit and have recruited badly but that's not a buzzword like 'philosophy' or 'identity' so it couldn't possibly be the reason? No where near fashionable enough.

I do find it remarkable though, that the same people who were so adamant that the fat one had the worst kind of "identity", the most clear "style of play" and allowed like sheep for that long ball belief to be etched into their tiny hypocritical brains, are now the same people who are saying that he neither has an identity or a style of play. Fascinating!

And wtf is "identity"? It's very fashionable to use the word but unless you spend 𧷤m a year and still don't win the champions league, it's quite difficult to play the same in every game. And you could, and no doubt would, bemoan a lack of a plan b like we did when Martinez took the reigns.

And here is little old me thinking football is a fluid game with millions upon millions of variables affecting everything a player does when he receives a pass, and he alone (under guidance and motivation) is encouraged and responsible for his own actions and can express himself how he's sees fit.

But, Let's take opinions out of the argument and truly try to assess how good the tools that Allardyce has had to work with actually were/are.

For example when we played Watford away. Watford's goalkeeper and back four were all current full international players and physically bigger and more athletic looking than ours. We had Williams. In midfield they had Daucoure on the verge of a France call up and Capoue with more caps for France than Schnierdlin. Capoue is also younger and his caps are far more recent. They also had Pereyra with 9 caps for Argentina in number 10.

We had Gueye, Sigurdsson, Niasse and Williams as our only internationals. And Rooney and Walcott as ex-internationals.

Besides saying we are Everton and we've spent 𧶲m, what logical reason is there to think that we should beat Watford? Especially as the absolute genius and fourth best Portuguese coach in the world has graced Watford with his presence. Albeit sacked, again.

But we are above them.

West Brom, the worst team in the league, have Barry, Krychowiak and Livermore to play central midfield, where you impose your identity on the other team... where you can use your full-backs as an outlet if you are in trouble. In our case, you have Rooney (a centre-forward), Davies, Schneirderlin, and Gana spending half the season turning to Martina and Kenny.

Burnley are 7th. We played Burnley away. Great game, plenty of chances for both sides. We played it on the floor mostly. Walcott did okay and missed a few sitters and Tuson scored. Both Allardyce signings. We played an on-the-floor passing style as often as a team with Rooney and Martina could. We lost because our rookie error-prone goalkeeper made some poor decisions and Williams was Williams. The result had nothing to do with "identity" or "style" but individual errors.

Everyone and anyone can bandie around cliched criticisms and fashionable "I'll drive him there myself" type passionate comments but where is the evidence, the detail, the balance?

I used to believe we were the most intelligent fans in the world. Not anymore. We've chased Lukaku, Fellaini and Barkley under hyper-criticism from the fan base while we love Carsley, Pickford and Moshiri????

We are over the moon that we may be building a Sunderland-sized stadium with very few boxes and a blue wall half the size of Dortmund's.

But we can blindly spew uneducated biased nonsense about our manager that serves to do nothing but make results harder to come by, safe in the knowledge that the listener/reader will agree because it's a perceived wisdom and no-one bothers to analyse anything properly anymore. Being on trend always takes precedence.

Meanwhile, the board continues to sell top players and replace them with cheaper alternatives. And Moshiri makes embarrassing mistake after embarrassing mistake. Now Brands will tell us how to re-invent the wheel. For fuck's sake, just buy five world-class established internationals. Or five top internationals if your budget isn't big enough!

And these hard-case on-trend fans who want Fonseca or Silva. I don't want Silva, I do want Gold.. If you're that passionate, that strong in your beliefs, and Moshiri is that great — why aren't you all screaming Diego Simeone's name? Because you might sound silly? Type safe hey? Type something derogatory about Allardyce instead... safe as houses that. Everyone will like that.

For the record: 6

Now were is that bandwagon...

You haven't told any lies in that post or accused anybody but, for having the capacity to think for yourself without worrying if it follows trend, you will be the one who people think are mad.

You touched on things I spoke to various football fans about yesterday. I am not scared to say the general views of our fans lately are empty. The last few years have seen us become nothing but debate and everyone wants their place. The long ball thing sums Evertonians up. You could feel the cogs turning when they realised they needed a new excuse to hate Allardyce so it became 'style of play'.

These are the forgetful who had McCarthy down as the new Roy Keane, Schniederlin as world class.... Do we really want these people filling surveys in?

It's sickening for me seeing how empty-headed and closed-minded this used-to-be-great fanbase has become. I got tired of posting on here because it's all for trend and one poster wanting another to love him.

Ferns talked about Steve Walsh like he was god and uttered the words "He discovered Drogba". This is what you're up against. Now, the home-based tactical geniuses around us want a ticky-tacker man with a nice tan to turn Gana into a better passer, Schneiderlin into a maestro in midfield, Keane into somebody who can move, Bolasie into a real footballer. Haha.

While these believers are filling-out surveys, Everton are going nowhere on the field. (Waits for the "We won't with Allardyce either"). Good luck, mate, I hope you get a decent genuine reply from somebody with actual reasons or evidence.

3 common dreams we have probably all agreed we needed over the last 20 years have been:
1 investment – got
2 new or improved stadium – work in progress
3 win some silverware – fading dream

I'm an optimist stuck in reality. I'll suggest we will not move stadiums in the next 2 seasons nor will we win the Premier League.

However the FA Cup and European qualification are more realistic, with a bit of luck and good form. Let's face it, we all agree we can play better more consistent football.

Question: Is Sam the man to improve performances from an entertaining / visual perspective?
What about to improve results or win%?
How about winning a cup or European qualification?

My optimistic answers: No, Slightly, No, Possibly.

Sorry but I can't think of why anyone would want to keep him unless it's to avoid relegation.

You could be my twin brother? I've witnessed all that you portray and this Manager is so wrong for the club in so many ways.

My frustration is not with the manager, however, but the men supposedly running our once proud club. There seems to be no strong direction and no one in charge. A strong chairman would put this manager straight back in his box and then order the taxi.

I can't put my finger on it, but Sam Allardyce never felt like a good fit to me. I accept I might have already pre-judged him based on his reputation for football style etc. I was genuinely worried about relegation earlier in the season, and I still couldn't take to our manager.

I'm rambling (drink will do that to you), but I'd like him out before next season. I bear the man no ill will; I just don't think he's an Everton man.

How can criticism of Allardyce, as a manager whose teams like to twat it, possibly be "on trend" when he's been traipsing about in the same 'crap footy' clobber for over twenty years and counting? The 'Big Sam is a long ball merchant' shouts must be the little black dress of seasonal manager-bashing. Forever in fashion and fits like a fucking glove.

Only Burnley, West Brom, Brighton and Leicester have played more long balls than Everton this season. To make matters worse, we have the lowest accuracy out of the aforementioned hoofers (40.13%) while also launching it the furthest (with an average punt into the final third of over 38 m).

What is the point you're trying to make by your 'breakdown' of three opponents we performed poorly against? That Everton with their paucity of International players were understandably up against it and should have been pissing themselves at the prospect of playing a Watford team weighed down with them? Nonsense, made worse by your mangling of the all-important 'facts' you want people to face.

"We had Gueye, Sigurdsson, Niasse and Williams as our only internationals. And Rooney and Walcott as ex internationals"

What about the 㿊m England goalkeeper or Michael Keane, also a full England international? Tosun and Bolasie both left on the bench, two players who could have added to the international collection starting the game, if the gaffer saw fit?

Why bang on about Capoue featuring for France 'far more recently' than Schneiderlin, when his last cap came five years ago in 2013? Schneiderlin didn't even make his debut for France until a year later than that, in June 2014. He was also a late call-up for the France squad for Euro 2016, while Capoue wasn't in contention. You claim Capoue is younger than Schneiderlin, despite him being born a year earlier than the Everton man.

You call West Brom the worst team in the Premier League, yet Allardyce still felt it necessary to employ two defensive midfielders against opposition who had only hit 19 goals all season up to that point (the third lowest total in the league). It wasn't until that ex centre-forward who spent half his campaign 'turning back to Martina' came on and set up the equaliser by playing a great ball forward on to Walcott's head (not to his feet) that we even looked interested.

A match report from that West Brom clash makes interesting reading, given your assertion that Tosun and Walcott were defo bought by Big Sam so the unfairly maligned pass-and-move promoter could have us playing it on the floor rather than punting it:

"Tosun had been left isolated and chasing aimless long balls while Walcott was asked to compete for said long balls with the West Brom centre backs.

It was peak Allardyce football at its frustrating worst, and the boos ringing around Goodison Park proved as much." 

You mention Tosun scoring against Burnley, but not that the most baffling decision of the day was the one Allardyce made when he brought him off, despite him looking our best bet of adding another.

You say we stroked it about "as often as a team with Rooney at central midfield and Martina left back could". Yet Rooney didn't even start the game. He was sat on the bench for 60 mins with the trio of Gueye, Davies and Sigurdsson being preferred.

Pickford cost us the match? An alternative view would be that he kept us in it far longer than we deserved. He made a good save from Ashley Barnes in the first-half, two superb stops early in the second from Lennon and Mee and a block from Barnes later on as Burnley waltzed through Sam's well organised backline once again.

Better being "on trend" than that bloke who thinks the best way of signalling his 'individuality' is by donning a novelty bow-tie even Pee-Wee Herman would pass on for making him look "a proper bell-end".

I responded directly to claims put forward in a post on this page, Don. Claims made about the Everton manager, supporters criticism of him being fuelled by nothing more than "fashion"/mob mentality and three individual games. Fuck all to do with looking to "eviscerate a fellow fan".

(A"fellow fan" who claimed the Everton fan base are tiny-brained, hypocritical sheep, spewing "uneducated biased nonsense about our manager that serves to do nothing but make results harder to come by, safe in the knowledge that the listener/reader will agree because it's a perceived wisdom and no-one bothers to analyse anything properly anymore", by the way!)

Bit fucking strange how the one bloke on here who seemingly loves to give the impression that supporters should be stood around in a circle, swaying, smiling, singing and holding hands is, more often than not, the one in the middle, het up to fever pitch and about to sling some poor wretch into a giant Wicker Man.

(Didn't you suggest Eugene and I should go and support the RS not so long ago? Aren't you the same guy who carried out a long-running campaign against Darren Hind? A campaign that involved haranguing him and/or whinging about him on every thread he posted and even those in which he didn't?)

Sing time, "You don't know what you're doing, you only rate a zero, what a load of rubbish!"

I haven't seen or completed the survey, but does it ask what the fans think of the Director of Football, the Chairman, the CEO etc, etc? Does it ask us what we think of each of the players?

If not, then it is unfair to Allardyce who can only shoulder so much of the blame for our poor play.

For the record, if you can be bothered to check, I have unconditionally complimented Darren, Eugene and you on previous posts where your venom to those of us with different opinions has been restrained.

Have a nice day.

So thank you, the author of post 143, for such a heavy dose of delicious unintentional ironic humour.

Absolute cracker!

I like to think I will give anyone a chance but after playing welll at Anfield in the cup, then to see Lookman dropped, and Sigurdson, back out wide, for the very next game, I just couldn't believe that Allardyce hadn't seen something to build on?

I'm noticing something I'd never considered before but Sam is an innovator, because it looks to me that at least half the teams in the Premier League are now targeting certain games and it's no wonder most of the football is boring now.

I think if Allardyce stays, then Everton's best hope will be to become the best of the rest again, because his type of football can only take a team so far.

We have conceded less goals on average since he arrived. This at the price of seldom having a shot at goal and boring the pants off of everybody watching. A worthwhile trade-off? Nobody will ever know as we didn't either keep Unsworth in to see if he could get it right or give someone else a try.

Hopefully he wont be here next season. If he is, I don't have any optimism or see any reason to continue watching us, ever, the end. :(