Patience is a virtue

We have to be patient and let the new brooms sweep away the detritus of previous managers. In my view they at least recognise this and have already shipped out many unworthy of the shirt.

We are all frustrated that it will take time but we are Evertonians and must give all our support to the work in progress.

Good luck to the Blues for tomorrow and we all hope for a comfortable win but a scrappy 3 points will do nicely if that's not possible.

Happy New Year to all Blues wherever you are.

You mentioned 4 games where it could be construed we were unlucky. The fact is out of a possible 12 we got 1 point.
I t could equally be argued by Chelsea fans that they had a few chances to beat us. Fine margins maybe?

Now look at the other games. Wolves and Bournemouth both leading and couldn't close out. Huddersfield, Newcastle, Watford. Poor results and poor performances.

Scrape-through wins at home against Southampton and Cardiff. Poor performances.

First half against Fulham was dire.

Thrown away League Cup game against Southampton.

The less said about City, Spurs and Brighton the better.

We are certainly more attacking than last season that's for sure but results wise, and it's a results business and results get us league placing, Europe, money etc. Are we really any better?

Silva needs this January and next Summer to sort this mess out but, based on the season so far apart from the few periods in the game when we've moved the ball quickly and caused the opposition problems, I would suggest overall we are still piss poor.

It seems after any sort of good result or display, we hope the next game will be better and it's a stepping stone to better things, but so far it has not happened.

Silva and the team are starting to use all the old excuses, the most disappointing one is that they are tired !! After half a season, no European football and an early exit out of the League Cup.

You are right in that patience is a virtue, however, patience, transition, learning the British game and all the other excuses should not be a get-out clause for piss poor tactics and lack of effort, both we have seen too much of so far this season.

His tactics leave a lot to be desired; he keeps playing players that should not be playing (Walcott, Niasse and Bernard); he cannot settle on a formation. So patience I have but not when, even to the untrained eye, you can see we are all over the place.

Football is a simple game keep the ball and pass to a teammate, two basics that we are unable to do and the players we have should be able to do that. But, like all Evertonians around the world, I still live in hope that it will come together, but I am not holding my breath.

John@2: I disagree that there's been a lack of effort. Plenty of times a player can play badly but still be knackered and dripping with sweat. Players might look like they're not putting in 100% when they or the team aren't firing on all cylinders, but I don't buy the lack of effort claim.

What we often lack is belief, particularly since the end of the derby game. Up to that point, Silva seemed to believe we could beat anyone, the players seemed to believe it, and many of us believed it. We need to keep on believing it. If you don't believe you can win, you won't win, it's self-fulfilling.

I agree, some of our performances haven't been very good, especially since the derby, but now that we go back into the second part of the season, and back to playing only once a week, then I now expect some big improvements, results-wise.

Let's hope he gets it right tomorrow for starters.

I agree that 11 years of David Moyes being here with a glass ceiling forming in the later years, has shortened fans patience and myself included has been guilty of it in the past few years.

Everton fans were never going to be patient with Roberto Martinez, despite the Spaniard's first three seasons pretty much symmetrical of Moyes first three years in charge.

There was no way Martinez was getting longer than three years and we'll never know what he might have achieved with the money that's been on tap over the last two summers.

Koeman had a solid first season of 7th and we looked in safe hands, and again if we had Marcel Brands here then and not the walking disaster that was Steve Walsh, who knows what might have happened by now?

Allardyce was quite simply six months that I think we'd all rather just move on from, to seeing Sammy Lee on the bench and Everton in such a position never sat well but it was a clear symptom of all that was wrong with this club at that stage.

Silva needs backing financially and given the time to buy us a whole new right flank which we are crying out for and also that prove top quality striker that would make a huge difference in defining the games against the top six clubs.

The players need to share the burden though and stop making so many stupid mistakes on a regular basis because once they cross the white line it's down to them, not Silva, to bust a gut.

Happy New Year.

I think the disillusionment has come in since the derby game. It really shouldn't have knocked the players as it seems to have done, although it certainly has taken it out of a lot of fans, including me.

Quite a lot of us will continue to back Silva because we realise that he needs more than a paltry few months to sort the mess that was Everton out.

I look forward to the next few transfer windows and think we will improve with each one. Although Brands tells us not to expect anything in January, I think we will get a couple in, even if one is another loan signing.

Thanks for that, Happy New Year and hope we meet again in 2019.

For those older fans, it's even more frustrating: we have seen the great sides of the past. To think, when I was growing up, Man Utd and Spurs were just cup teams; Man City and Chelsea were just yo-yo clubs, and the red side was the team we loved to beat. And as for Wembley, well that was our second home!

Karen, I appreciate the article but we as fans are running out of patience. We have seen our beloved club poorly managed for far too long on and off the field and seeing mediocre players picking up a small fortune each week with their half-arsed attitude.

When new managers and players come in they should get an induction course about the club and what we expect, to challenge for silverware every season and yes that includes the league!

There is a scene in the film Braveheart in which Wallace turns to the Scottish lords says something like "You have been fighting over the scraps beneath Longshanks table, you have forgotten your god-given right!"

Now I am not saying it's our right to win silverware every season but we seemed to have lost something in our DNA to strike fear into opposing teams and make Goodison Park a fortress as it once was!

Sorry to go on, guys, but I am completely disillusioned with the Blues at the moment... Let's hope for a more positive 2019.

Happy New Year to all.

Take care, Paul, and don't forget the tips for the horses – that was a good one on Saturday, even if I forgot to back it.

The fact is, since Moyes's reign, we have regressed as far as league positions are concerned and we have spent a mountain of money to boot.

I've no axe to grind with Silva, our problem is like it's been for 20 or more years: our players are not as good as the top teams' players, simple as that.

I wouldn't want to watch the garbage he served up every week but we could quite easily have been dragged into a relegation fight had we continued producing the performances and results we had been up until his arrival.

I honestly think that 1-1 draw we got at Anfield would never have happened if Unsworth was still at the helm, given the fact we were leaking goals left, right and centre under Rhino, we could have well lost that derby 7-1.

Many Evertonians wanted Big Dave Unsworth as the next Everton manager, and now he's back at the U23s. Some wanted Sean Dyche.

Marco is the best option to us at the moment, and 30 years of rotting (apart from a brief Joe Royle spell) isn't easy to turn around.

Patience is all well and fine but, like the stock market crash, some people see it before others and try to warn the masses. Trends are there for a reason and our trend is not particularly encouraging.

John Keating is spot on. Silva has nothing in his record in the Premier League including half a season with us to make me believe he is the man to turn Everton round.

Whenever the pressure is on him he and his teams are found wanting.

I really hope I am wrong but 7 wins in 20 games having brought in 5 new players to add to the squad we already had is unacceptable to me even in transition or project phase or whatever other bullshit name we can invent to say a manager can't do his job.

He's done alright during short spells at Hull and Watford, although ultimately he got relegated at Hull despite 'reviving' them and tailed off after a promising start at Watford.

I am neither particularly in favour or strongly against him on what I've seen so far. I'd like to think we'll go all out for the FA Cup as our season is essentially over otherwise.

What are the ambitions of the club currently? At least Martinez came across as ambitious, even if his words and the results were often some way apart.

This is one of my favourite parts of your article, which I thought was good from start to finish. People spend a lot of time complaining over team selections and formations, when a lot of the time, most have absolutely no idea of the inner workings of the squad.

A good manager won't tell the press when a certain player is dropped if it's down to discipline issues, so sometimes it's down to the bloke turning up to training 10 minutes too late one time too many.

I've mentioned in almost every post I've made that I'm neither here nor there on Silva yet. He certainly wasn't my top choice, but if the club had left Allardyce in charge this season, then I would have switched full time to NBA or, gulp, the NHL.

A lot of chat here about previous managers, though, and I still think, if we knew Allardyce was the eventual option, most fans would have preferred sticking with Koeman for a few more months.

Moyes had overstayed by a few seasons, in my opinion, and probably would have bottled it big time given the money Everton have spent since Moshiri's takeover – his summer at Man Utd was a brief look at how he handles big business. Martinez... I'm still extremely confused about him.

What Allaradyce, and Moyes I suppose, showed is that in this league, to be "the best of the rest" as Everton really have been consistently for the last decade or so, takes mind-numbingly boring football. Try to expand a little, like Martinez did and Silva is now, and you end up losing games to some very bang average teams playing anti-football, like we just did to Brighton.

We were a club shrewn of any confidence or ability to play even the simplest football. He made excuses and blamed everyone but himself. He was a shoddy short-sighted appointment who I wouldn't wish on any other club – ever. He's bent, corrupt and soul destroying.

I understand why he was appointed, however, he rode a wave for the first few games and did nothing after.

If you were happy with his performances, then go and follow him somewhere else.

We were in more of a mess after Allardyce than we were after Martinez, Koeman or Unsworth. Look at the bloke's track record – how does every team fare after Allardyce is gone? He might be effective but he leaves places in shit. He should never have got another job after the England farce. He gives English managers a bad name.

Silva has had 6 months and shows far more promise than Allardyce ever did.

Back to the original post... Patience is the one thing a lot of Everton fans have not had since Moshiri came to the club. We seem to think that a bit of money equals instant success and have become extremely short-sighted because of it. We sound like Kopites or glory hunting Mancs a lot of the time where we once saw a bigger picture. We have a good young team; however, that term becomes something of an oxymoron as young teams are often inconsistent and therefore not considered “good”. We are inconsistent. We can put in good shows, then bad ones. Ride it out, we have good young players who could become great players. Pickford, Kenny, Holgate, Keane, Mina, Zouma, Digne, Davies, Lookman, Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison, Dowell, Baningime... all the right side of 25.

Show a bit of patience, get behind them rather than on their backs, and the rewards will come.

Transition – is the process or change from one state to another. The state that Everton want to achieve is to consistently win matches. To do this you have to head in the right direction and address issues that deviate you from that course.

Silva himself shows lack of consistency in selection, tactics and addressing coaching issues. Therefore, the first prerequisite for consistency is not in place, hence the results. Not addressing recurring problems is not helping.

Brands has provided the players, which have improved some of the existing Everton players, but Silva has not developed previous squad players.

So, although Everton have progressed, it has been a faltering transition and, after the money spent, you would expect better.

Under Kenwright, transfer funds were a rarity and it seemed few players could be bought pre-season as we had to pay the Banks, in August, that year's installment on the never-never transfers that had been sanctioned in previous years. This has not been the case since Mr Moshiri came onboard; however, it has been spent, even considering there must be a cap on the total in any one year.

As for needing more transfer windows and inheriting other managers woeful playing squad; Silva has brought in half a team, six players (Bernard, Digne, Gomes, Mina, Richarlison and Zouma). It may be debatable as, when Silva knew he would be joining us and started assessing the squad, but it must be doubtful that he would have been considering a goalkeeper given his No 1 had just shone in the World Cup.

Right back seemed adequately covered with Coleman and Kenny. Gana has made himself almost indispensable and Tosun and Walcott, in their half season, had looked, at least, adequate.

Add to that Lookman, Davies. Baines, Holgate, Schneiderlin etc then he must have been fairly satisfied he had an adequate squad. Perhaps we may require a more prolific scorer but Richarlison and Sigurdsson are not that far behind the Leagues leading scorers.

Where my patience wears thin is in playing the wrong tactics or players, including substitutions, and repeating the error. We may have played well against Man Utd who were more disunited at the time, Arsenal under their own new manager, and a lucky point at Chelsea but not so good against Huddersfield, Newcastle, Watford, Brighton etc and very poor against Spurs and Man City.

Having said that,now would not be the best time to dismiss the manager but, and it is unlikely, it would be nice to know that somebody senior (DoF?) had expressed to the manager their concerns rather than the much repeated, "We were unlucky and deserved more" when in a lot of games we obviously did not.

If patience is a virtue then fear not lads...

Heaven will be chokka-block with Evertonians.

What's sickening is when you see every season, teams like Palace getting results at Man City, and Wolves beating Spurs. The "Sky 6 " are not invincible. Chelsea losing to Burnley, Bournemouth and Newcastle last season and Wolves and Leicester this season, proves this.

I really do believe, mentally, it starts with a derby victory. Being top dog in your own city before you can think about anyone else. We have to, every season, look at those 2 games as the most important.

When Alex Ferguson targeted the RS and wanted to "knock them off their fucking perch" he created a side that were fearless everywhere they played. We need to think along those lines if we're ever going to compete again. Sadly, I fear we missed that boat a couple of decades ago.

As I pointed out weeks ago, any of the 20 Premier League clubs can compete.

We aren't doing anything great or exclusive there by losing narrowly, we need to go and beat one of them because when you look at the results Palace, Leicester and Wolves have recorded in the last week, it's highly possible to beat a top six club

Our record against the clubs in the bottom half isn't great let's be honest.

It's hard for Silva because there's some players here with a losing mentality from previous regimes.

I've said all along, sign players yes, but changing mentality is the biggest task any Everton manager faces.

But failure is not an option and of late the Teams, played like with no heart and no care. That's the worry.

MS should be judged this time next year, in my view, but it's a results based business.

Let's hope we turn the corner soon.
🤙🍺☘️🙂🏐⚽️🙂

Happy New Year to all Blues and let's hope Karen's optimism is not misplaced.

You suggest that we are like Liverpool under Klopp a few years back: "This is exactly how Liverpool were. Winning games against good sides and losing or drawing against the teams – in their view – they should be beating".

This is wrong; we are not beating good sides, we have drawn with Chelsea and lost against every other top side. At home, we have struggled to break down anyone who sits deep, and been fortunate to nick the points on a few occasions.

So yes, Silva has to have more time to mould his side, to establish his style of play and to bring in more players of his choice. He should be criticised, though, for his tactics have been wrong and he has been slow or too stubborn to change things early enough on several occasions and, despite us not seeing them train, his selections have also been dodgy.

So he deserves criticism — as do some of his players.

Dave at 25. Yours & comments like yours make me laugh out loud. I love love love the sense of humour you ToffeeWebbers possess. Keep the faith & our sense of humour & we will survive as Evertonians!!

COYB. Hoping for good things at the Grand Old Lady today.

Thanks again & Happy New to all Evertonians.

The root of our problem is we can't attract or keep the really top players that would make us truly competitive.

What I will say is that, at the moment, Silva can't seem to get the best out of the players he has available. On paper, we now have – at least in my eyes – players capable of better.

I'm looking at the players we have and hoping that this is just a transitional bedding-in season. There is quality there and it is possible that more quality will come in the summer.

Silva and some of the players haven't been here for six months so it will be hard at times. But in time it will come good.

Here's hoping.

What I see mainly, is reasoned game-to-game reaction to unacceptable garbage. A fair amount of money has been spent (even under Silva), and a good proportion of this squad is just not good enough.

I see a team that lacks, talent, organisation, motivation, fitness etc etc. Add to this a manager who picks the team by seemingly putting names in a hat, and hasn't a clue who to substitute, or when to do it. (My previous posts detail this.) Job would be running out of patience.

We have spent millions on players and managers. Are we any forward than when David Moyes was manager? No!!! At least we had heart, desire and a defence that gave all with organisation. Yes, we had shit performances against top sides but we were competitive against teams around us.

Those who moaned like heck at Moyes and Allardyce. Not good enough for this club. Those managers demand hard work first. Alex Ferguson demanded it. We have no leaders out there on the pitch wanting more from their team mates.

Let's be honest. The squad is average and changing the management won't change that.

Silva has the same problem as previous managers. If he is to avoid going the same way as them, he needs to find a way of stamping out individual errors.

I sometimes wonder what happened to our club. Managers deliberately setting out to ruin games are given credit by a section of the fan base. Yet they will overlook the problems inherited by guys who have the bollocks to try to win.

We were the Premier League's ugly sister when Silva took over and our results had been shite for years.

David Unsworth guided a team in freefall out of the relegation zone, breathed life back into the Old Lady and had them heading north. Yet, despite the horrendous injury problems to defenders (the full extents of which have been revealed in recent interviews), we still have the football Einsteins on here blaming him for the situation.

After a few shorth months, Silva is also taking stick now, most notably from some who supported Allardyce. I feel both sympathy and annoyance in him. Sympathy because these individual errors are destroying confidence and therefore everything he is trying to do and annoyance that he doesn't seem to be able to eradicate them.

I feel embarrassed by the results which have, by enlarge, been caused by game-changing individual clangers... but the embarrassment I feel about results under a guy who is trying to win the game, is absolutely nothing compared to the deep deep shame I felt when we were managed by people who didn't even have the bollocks to try.

In terms of status, self-belief and self-image Everton Football Club has declined steadily for decades, that decline was accelerated by the appointments and happy clapping support of cowards like Allardyce and Koeman. It's a fucking long way back.

Our only hope is to be brave, be prepared to break a few eggs... and stop thinking of results like that cowardly, cowardly draw at Anfield last season as some sort of yardstick

Chelsea 1-2 Lost
Leicester 0-2 Lost
Lyon 0-3 Lost
Watford 3-2 Won
Palace 2-2 Drew
Southampton 1-4 Lost
Atalanta Lost 1-5
West Ham Won 4-0

Hardly inspiring.

Allardyce came in an shored up the defence, got a 1-1 draw at Anfield with a back four of Kenny, Williams, Holgate and Martina.

Unsworth wouldn't have managed that.

You know... Games that were actually played at the Old Lady, when the place was jumping after being morgue-like before and after.

Under Unsworth, we'd have "lost 7-1 at Anfield" — quite possibly the most moronic statement I have read on TW in six years.

Allardyce didn't go to Anfield with a back four... he shamed football and he went with a back eleven

This site has had some wonderful critics down the years, but this sort of vacuous shite, isn't criticism. It's just mindless self-indulgent pap

The Unsworth spell was a disaster. You handpick a smattering of games we were lucky to have won (Watford we were battered in and lucky to win). But forget to mention 1-5 at home to Atalanta, 1-4 at Southampton, and the thrashing at Lyon.

Just because Allardyce finished 8th, doesn't mean he left a team capable of finishing 8th. He leaves most clubs in a mess.

Newcastle - relegated the season after he left
Blackburn - relegated 18 months after he left.
Sunderland - relegated after he left
Crystal Palace - didn't win in their first 10 games after he left and lucky to stay up.

The guy leaves clubs in shambles, devoid of confidence and set up to play non-football, which few clubs survive afterwards.

As for Unsworth, he played 5 out of 8 games away from home at a club that hadn't won away from home for a year. He won both Premier League home games and did have the place rocking. Allardyce took over at the easiest run of fixtures of the season and got credit for his start at the club.

A couple of years ago, we won the U23 league and had 6 players winning the U20 World Cup. These players should have been given a long run in the team by now as they could have been the future of the club for years, now they're in danger of falling away. Allardyce has the excuse of “Am I going to drop someone we've played 㿇 million for?”

We could have built a team around Kenny, Holgate, Robinson, Davies, Baningime, Dowell, Lookman and Calvert-Lewin. I believe that Unsworth would have given a lot of them the exposure they needed to make them better players this season. Now I reckon most of them will either disappear or, in Lookman's case, be angling for a move if he still isn't getting playing time at the end of the season.

Allardyce has contributed to the mismanagement of possibly the best potential crop of youngsters ever to come through the academy (or bought young) at the same time.

It was Moyes who relegated them, signing past-it dudes from Everton who were always injured, such as Anichebe and Gibson.

You have just mentioned one player in Defoe who might be the Andy Gray that could solve a problem short term. He has scored goals everywhere and I doubt he would not have been on the end of Bernard's cross as he has the nous and guile that every top goal scorer has.

Put it this way: Tosun, Niasse, Calvert-Lewin or Defoe? I know which one I'd expect goals from.

I know a lot of Everton fans love to big up younger players and what they're going to be but sometimes these players are just average but will probably have decent careers somewhere without being top class which is what we need.

Rooney and Barkley aside, the past 20 years have shown that, as a norm, very little in the way of top-class players have come through from our academy.

Last season, I suspect that Unsworth would have played the ones he could a lot more, then we'd have a better understanding of whether they could make it. Allardyce refused to play Lookman because Bolasie cost 㿇 million.

When the famous “class of 92” came through, Ferguson gave them the opportunity to play. We haven't and, in some of their cases, never will.

Holgate and Dowell have gone in search of football this season, Lookman did last season, Coleman's been poor for weeks but Kenny has only just got another look in, Beni hasn't been near the team.

I think it's a potentially massive missed opportunity.

Perhaps he might try the same with their present incumbent ?

If Lionel Messi had been at Everton, no doubt he'd have made it, he's Messi after all. But what about those players who aren't quite so technically blessed with natural talent.

Jordan Henderson has captained England, would he have come through here? I doubt it. He'd never have gotten the games or the chance to develop. I think he's overrated but clearly he's Good enough to play for England countless times. What about others of his ilk?

The young lads could be good enough. They just need games. Lack of games can kill youngsters careers. There's countless lads out there with “I was better than him but never got the same opportunities” stories. They can't all be wrong.

Take Kenny. An u20 World Cup winner. Not just part of the team, the player of the tournement for many observers. If we'd signed him as a big hope, if he was French or German, would he have more games, backing and opportunities. I mean Cuco Martina was keeping him out the side. Martina is not good enough, Kenny should have been playing.

Same goes for Dowell. 30 mins here or there is not enough. So much pressure on the lad, is it any wonder he buckled under it in the cup when he knew that was the only chance he was getting?

I don't know why you plug away arguing points which are clearly lost on you.

I said Unsworth set the old lady alight. do you know why ? No of course you don't, You just apply the usual mindless one size fits all whine. So Ill explain it to you - slowly. . .

Despite the place being like a morgue in the games before and after he was asked to stand in, he has had the place bouncing on all three of the premier league games he has taken charge, scoring ten in the process. No great secret as to why. He simply asked for passion.
Its absolutely typical of you to ignore those games and point to a dead rubber in a competition we were already out of and declare it "a fucckken deeesaster" . .
Read the interviews which have come out after the Southampton game and see if you can name more than one defender at the club who was actually fit enough to play. Are you really that much of a toby to blame the manager for that ?
Unsworth took over a team in free fall, shorn of all confidence, in the relegation zone and with a sick list as long as your arm. . .all of those FACT'S are well documented

Here's another fact. Despite getting virtually no time on the training ground with them and despite not being able to bring new players. he still managed to steer Koeman's free fallers out of the drop zone and up to thirteenth place.
Disaster ? I guess that would depend on whether you actually understand the situation he inherited.

You need to stop fawning all over Klopp every chance you get and start taking notice of what actually goes on at your own club

I hate to discuss Klopp or the merits of his squad, but seeing as you mentioned them:

Consider for a moment their team A:

Alisson,
A. Arnold, Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson, Keita, Fabinho, Wijnaldum,
Salah, Firminho, Sane

Now consider their team B:

Mignolet,
Clyne, Matip, Gomez, Moreno,
Chamberlain, Milner, Henderson,
Shaqiri, Sturridge, Lallana

Ok, apologies again for talking about them, but their B team would be a challenger for top 6, possibly.
Their strength in depth is the difference. They can come through busy periods and rotate without any drop in standards.
It will take many transfer windows to obtain a squad with that depth. We have a starting eleven, but when games come thick and fast we can't cope. We have watched players clearly struggling with knocks and fatigue. Yes, all teams deal with it, but we didn't deal with it very well. I believe our performances will pick up now the busy period is over.
Our first 11 are very good, but our squad is very poor. I am happy to give Silva a free hit this season as I believe that he and Brands will get it right - in time.

The issue is here and now.

After 6 months and five new top class players being brought in do we feel the manager/coach is doing his job effectively enough to consider him the long term solution.

My answer is a resounding no.

More patience for what. I see no signs of him being able to turn this disasterous run of form around.

I always maintained that we should never employ a manager who has managed a team to relegation and at first I was totally won over by Steve Ferns positives about the guy and did see some signs of bringing in top players who wanted to play for him and playing joined up footy but as time has gone on his team selections have been bizarre and his tactics questionable.

I look at his previous history in the prem with Hull and Watford and they are an exact mirror of our current situation. He starts off well and then the team disintegrates and he loses the will to motivate them. He is a bottler managing a team of bottlers and that is only going in one direction and it aint up.

Are we that short of pride that we put up with losing at home to West Ham and Leicester and being unable to beat the likes of Newcastle and Watford at home let alone being humiliated by Spurs.

It wouldnt matter if we had Messi and Ronaldo this guy couldnt motivate a bag of chips. The players look totally shot after half a season. There is no motivation there, the crowd are turning against the players, We are crying out for leadership and positive statements but all we get is mumbo jumbo.

On another note why is that cancerous egotist still chairman and involved in running the club.

At the beginning of the season I was pleased to see a reshuffle but then disappointed when Bill got his way again and Denise was appointed chief exec. OK she might be super intelligent and was exemplary at Eitc but does that qualify her for CEO of a top premier league club.

We are being run by amateurs that havent got a clue how to manage and appointing the wrong people to run the club.

Mosh please lets see some action including a boardroom shakeup. We are obviously not heading in the right direction and there is no leadership at any level.

Yes, we cannot compete money-wise with either Manchester club, or even Liverpool or Chelsea. But how about Spurs?

Tottenham recruited the relatively untried Pochetino after one decent season at Southampton. We paid 6 million a year to headhunt the guy who replaced and had a similarly good season at Soton. Similar approach markedly different results. Then look at the Spurs team. They sign Alli from MK Dons, we sign Galloway. They get Trippier from Burnley, we get Keane. They produce Kane from within, we produce Tom Davies. They spend 25 million on Sun, we spend that on Tosun. They spend 25 million on Erickson, we spend 45 million on Sigurdsson. So in theory we have followed a similar path with vastly different results.

Similarly, Leicester win the league and everyone attributes their success to the scout Steve Walsh. We pay a fortune to bring him to GP in a different role and he is a disaster.

So based on our actions, I think it is entirely reasonable that we expect more given we seem to emulate the actions of others who have had success.

Our approach has been totally amateur by comparison and you only have to look at the boardroom to see that.

We still have BPB as chairman, We have Mosh who has no idea about football at its operating level and we appoint Denise Barrett- Baxendale as CEO despite no previous experience whatsoever at running a football club.

Now that might work if we had a strong manager but again the amateurs havent a clue about appointing a strong top manager.

We should have gone balls out to get Emery before Arsenal instead we just make another lazy appointment and get bent over.

That is my point. The comparison is valid because we have had the same opportunities and moved in the same circles so we as fans are entitled to expect as much. Obviously, we aren't where they are because Bill and Mosh are inept, make poor decisions etc. Clearly, Levy runs rings around Bill as he did even with the Pienaar transfers. I do not dispute that, I just dispute this notion that we either say a) we cannot compete so be patient and make a 10 year plan or b)we have to accept we are hamstrung by poor leadership. I refuse to accept either situation Nil Satis Nisi Omptimum