H8 LFC

They find it easy, and natural to airbrush events from history. So why shouldn't we Blues? The so-called miracle of Istanbul can be put in the bin too! After all, as David might say, they are just Second Division upstarts made goodish.

Manchester City are still steps ahead and will stay that way until we join them in about 5 years hopefully.

Anyways, keep enjoying the good life in the US and I hope to bump into you two blues on opening day at Bramley-Moore Dock. Stink or no stink! 😀

Excellent interview.

I'll be using that 'Who was your captain when you were promoted from the Second Division?' line too.

As far as I'm concerned, today EFC stands for Elizabeth France's Charm.

After the careless start at Palace, I'm hopeful that we'll average just below two points per game throughout the rest of the season – say a total of 68 points - which should be good enough to finish in Elite Six. Anything less is collective failure by the players, coaches and the board.

Why is it the fact she mentions she reads TW, and also is on the Live Forum for gamedays, scares the bajeezuz out of me? I feel like eyes that should be honored are watching me. And I need to clean up my language!

It's reads like this that humble this dopey American fan. She literally has Everton in her blood.

Absolutely fantastic interview and read. I wish Elizabeth France was on the Board. She'd sort everything out.

Finally, I also concur with her glowing praise of TW. And a small subscription fee wouldn't faze me in the least as well.

Her concerns regarding off-field income are real and questions have to be asked about how they been addressed by the much-heralded Barrett-Baxendale's promoted positions, of May of last year. Development of the international market is non-existent and the delayed launch of the away kit is very poor.

The questions she raises regarding the Bramley-Moore Dock development are again legitimate and highlight commercial weaknesses in the development and its management. The whole project in the light of her concerns should be reevaluated and an experienced and appropriate management should be appointed, over the project, not the botched plan release / director leaving announcement and project management announcement in the back of beyond of the Evertonfc website, that we got.

Of course, she is also right about the initial wasting of resources of the Moshiri era, without the mention of names, other than the obvious, but she clearly pulls the rug from the other culprits throughout her interview.

She should be appointed to the Board immediately and a campaign launched by ToffeeWeb to ensure so.

Fans outside the Merseyside circle aren't always fully dialed in to the people and traditions surrounding the club.

I've got an EFC plate, but wouldn't risk driving round Liverpool with Dr France's plate H8 LFC. EFC 1878 would be great to have though.

The club should make her and David honorary legends for their dedication and contribution to the club.

Obviously haven't lived and I am ashamed. Will get the Everton Bible and read it. Thanks Mike.

Liverpool have a lot of bullshitter fans because of their success a few decades ago. They also have a lot of decent fans too. I've no doubt that if and when we win trophies habitually, we'll also gain many hangers on. It's just what happens with success.

I would bet that if I asked everyone going the game on Saturday if they knew who he was, I'd bet less than 20% have heard of him. And of those under 21, I'd bet less than 1% have heard of him.

It's a window to the club's entire history. I knew almost nothing of what was in it, and I found it fascinating. Still use it to look up players when they're mentioned by some of our senior members here.

I echo Jerome's (16) comments re the BMD project becoming out of control and costs spiralling. I'm not a marine engineer, but nobody knows what problems/issues exist beneath the water when the dock is drained, the muted cost of £100m in preparing the site could escalate steeply.

Couple this with the undoubted affect the expenditure will have on the budget for adding to the squad, and the next 3/4 years could be a little rocky.

However, I really hope at that stage we have a young vibrant squad of talented players, who will gain in stature as they mature.

The appointment of 'little miss dynamite', (Bills words, not mine), Denise Barret Baxendale, as CEO troubles me slightly. As we enter probably the most crucial phase in the club's long history, I'm not convinced we are anywhere near as commercial savvy as we should be. I accept the fact that currently, we simply don't have the global status to attract mega kit deals from Nike or Adidas, but I believe the constant emphasis being placed on EiTC detracts somewhat, from what we should be driving for, strong commercial success, it's the No1 priority of any business.

I sometimes wonder, are we a football club with a charity attached, or a local charity with a football club tagged on?

Before I get accused of being a heartless capitalist, I fully acknowledge the role EiTC plays in improving peoples lives, particularly locally, but I just want to see the club thriving again, and existing amongst the games 'top table' once more. DBB's background is almost all educational/charity based, are these the right credentials for a Premier league club CEO?

She absolutely advocates 'affordable ticket' prices for all fans, which is very laudable, but my mate who has now retired, renewed his ST last season for the Main Stand. Over 19 home games, his matchday ticket actually costs around £19.00 per game, I'm sorry but that's simply too cheap for a Premiership game, by anybody's standard.

When we move to the new stadium, the same ticket pricing policy, and 12,000 extra seats, will bring in very little additional revenue. I just think the club sells itself short at times, and that stance on ticket prices, and generating maximum revenue, has to come from the top.

There, rant over, and tin helmut on.

Too much common sense and pragmatism for the old regimes but hopefully now EFC will grow strong, be sustainable, and dare I say, win some silverware.

I have supported Everton since the sixties and I am now under the table. Will get the above books.

Are you open to offers for it?

Great interview, it's always good to hear how Dr and Lady France are getting on.

I've read some shite on ToffeeWeb at times but to have the first section to be all about Liverpool is taking it to a new level of absurdity.

The sad thing is that when she started talking about us, it was mostly eminent good sense.

Unless and until we drop this obsession with Liverpool FC we will never really progress.

I've read a number of Dr France's publications and I am surprised that for a man of his undoubted intellect he lets himself down a bit by being such a Liverpool FC hater.

I know a number of people on here think that it makes them a bigger and better Evertonian by constantly slagging off and denigrating our neighbours. Hate to burst your bubbles guys but they happen to be Champions of Europe (I know it really hurt). I also know from my own family experience that we really don't matter too much to them right now.

H8 LFC? Nah let's just love EFC instead.

Fair point actually.

However, when we finally get our world class stadium and actually challenge them or perhaps we have a period where we are top dogs in the city. I can promise you I'll hate them just as much. Always have and always will.

In any case, it's only a matter of time before one of their fans comes along with a marker and slyly changes the L to an E. I used to do it all the time growing up when I seen any pro-LFC graffiti.

Back from playing in my Ukulele Band.

The three concerns I have regarding the Bramley Dock ddevelopment are:

1. The cost of site preparation. It is not a cleared site, it has to be prepared. You state that the allocated costs are £100 million. To get the actual costs I would multiple that by 2, if no problems arise, as I have always done in such site preparations. I have always found this figure to be closer to the actual costs, with the proviso that costs are rigiously controlled, to stop them going higher than that.

2. In her interview Elizabeth questions the actual size of the site and the fact that the Peel Group have retained some adjacent land. The site does seem to be on the tight size for a stadium and parking. I would also question the size of the Stadium and the viability of not building a 60, 000 seater stadium, to gain the necessary commercial advantage. Is the size of the site a restriction on the Stadium size ?

3. The infrastructure for the site is another issue. The leader of Liverpool Council has talked millions, but will this be delivered when required. I have found myself going solo, when promised Government funding did not materialise at the last moment or wasn't as expected.

The whole Stadium launch thing with balloons left me cold. I feel the whole Project Management end, does not seem to exist, bar the architects being engaged and providing a plan for the site.

If I had H8 BEARS on my car, I'd expect to get cut off when driving around Chicago.

But as a Packer fan, I'd imagine most people would have a giggle. Even the lamentable, fair-weathered Bears fans here in the States would surely have a laugh?

It's just funny and a joke. I'd take no offense to anyone driving around with a H8 BLUES plate.

I'd flip them off while driving by, and give them an earful, but I'd laugh my way through it. Probably yell out, "Surely you mean Chelsea. We can agree on that!"

Actually, this is a bit of inspiration, this license plate.

H8 TRUMP

I dunno?

H8 LFC is a joke. It's a light-hearted jab at our self-satisfied neighbours who, by the very admission of Redmen TV, are going to be even more insufferable this season which will, naturally, be their year.

If you actually read the article, far from hate (as if one of the sweetest people you could hope to meet has a hateful bone in her body!), you'll see plenty of admiration from Elizabeth for what Liverpool FC have done. They recovered from a slump that hit its nadir with Roy Hodgson in charge – their Allardyce moment, if you will – got the right owners in place and built a team with a clear, identifiable and, so far, successful plan. We can only hope we are on the path to doing the same under Mr Moshiri which, again, Elizabeth goes to great lengths to argue she believes we are! It's a positive piece about Everton's prospects and too many are fixated on the references to Liverpool!

As for the notion that only about 20% of the match-going fanbase would have heard of Dr France, I would be staggered if it were anywhere near that low. As others have intimated above, the Frances are Evertonian royalty who have done more for this football club than almost anyone of us could dream. I think that should afford them both full respect and a little leeway in what they choose to put on their number plate (5,000 miles from Liverpool, I should add) and what they choose to talk about.

Elizabeth and Dr France are surely NSNO personified and it would be wonderful to have the leaders with a fraction of that clarity and passion.

(But I don't live in Liverpool and the Reds fans I know are generally know-nothings and therefore quite easy to humiliate on knowledge of their own club – like Anfield being Everton's first ground, for example – or even who is Kevin Keegan!!!!)

Elizabeth's comments regarding Liverpool FC are genuine neutral observations on management and commerce. She obviously has a fondness for the city. They bought the best number plate they could to reflect this. It is not a precise art.

Well done Lyndon in speaking up.

As soon as I saw Elizabeth France's name, I was spellbound again. Everything that I have read by this wonderful lady is utterly spot on. Devoted and realistic and knowledgeable. A true Evertonians Evertonian.

If I were to itemise each and every bit which hits the nail bang on the head and why, then I'd be posting 10 times as much material as the very article itself.

And I most heartily support the motion that Elizabeth should be a full board member. What reassurance it would be to the "common Joes" like Me that her acute vision was serving us in the seat of power.

Regarding "them" and their "flag of convenience supporters", during an entertaining discourse, I recently asked a bunch of TV Reds "what is the name of the road to the rear of the Spion Kop End?"
Answer: (and I jest NOT)
"Anfield Road".
Second question: "What is the name of the road at the rear of The Anfield Road End?"
Answer: Stunned silence. Followed by them making remarks about "Woodison".

Know your history?
The don't even know their present day !

However, just to wind them up a shade more, I then asked "The Tellytubbies", after Everton departed Anfield, Houlding formed a football club which later became LFC. What did Houlding call that original football club?
Answer: Everton Athletic.

Thanks Lyndon for this 24 carat article.

I found the comments regarding the number plates quite petty. Selecting a number plate is not a precise art. Elizabeth and Dr Everton obviously are loyal supporters and have an affinity with the city of Liverpool and got the best plates they could. Elizabeth observations on Liverpool where genuine comparisons of management and commerce.

I am glad that I now know of the Frances, genuine supporters, and feel the loss of not having known of them ear!ier. I found Elizabeth's interview knowledgeable and diplomatically factual. Thank you for publishing it.

As for ToffeeWeb, I find it to be the only genuine Everton fan forum, and the fans genuine and typical of football fans with few posers.

The old official supporters club, of which I was an under-12 member, though in my forties, not my fault, I was charged for adult membership, tried to change it without success, did make up for efficiencies, by being genuine. I had to buy the Evertonian paper second hand after the owner of the newsagents, an Everton Supporter, had read it and put it up for sale at full price.

I now find a bureaucratic front and a glossy overpriced Evertonian magazine, which isn't as good and has not the same insider feel. Of course there are other websites, but they don't t have that sense of community and genuineness of ToffeeWeb. I find responses to my posts and one article cutting edge enough. Thank you.

That article is simply an interview with a fellow Evertonian, one who has no lesser or greater status than any other Evertonian. The assessment she gives of our club seems pretty standard currently for a reasonably intelligent supporter, and the personal choice of a number plate is just that, a personal choice with no significance beyond it.

Now, to those posts who've suggested she be on the Everton board: Get a grip guys. Any Evertonian could be on the Everton board, including me, but god forbid if it happened. We need professionals on the board, not ordinary supporters.

The article is too long for me to properly read unfortunately, but I see the number plate as nothing more than harmless fun, and a connection to a place they both love, but skirting over everything that's been wrote, Elizabeth comes across as a genuinely lovely person, who loves “her Everton” a lot more than she hates Liverpool.

Surprised by how positive she appears on our season ahead... after the first game, I wish I had her confidence.

Enjoyed that.

Very sensible, I think she's saying if our neighbours can do well, then so can we, so not much of a fixation with the other crowd, but more an acknowledgement of where she wants us to go.

I think the most telling part of the interview, was in saying that Gibson's contract is up next year, and after thinking about what's just happened with Sambou (the kid from Coventry, who knows how to move up and move on), then I think it's important that Everton try and get this kid a new contract, especially if he's as good as people say.

The contract he signed in 2017 is the only one he has signed and it was for 3 years so, as Elizabeth said, it runs out in 2020, but this lad is so well regarded at Everton, he will be signing a new, longer and much better contract well before this one finishes. He will get games in the first team before Christmas, even if they are only off the bench.

The representatives of the club itself knew exactly what they were doing. The hypocrisy after Hillsborough and Everton FCs failure to stand up for itself and our best ever and the world's best team at the time only make it even more galling.

Its never too late to bring this up and also FIFA's and UEFA's role in the whole miscarriage of justice and continuing failure to acknowledge it will never go away until Everton have the balls to finally stand up for itself.

Never give up.

There's enough hate in the world, get one with a positive Everton message on it, forget about the other lot apart from poaching their best ideas, focus on us being a club with a bright future.

Thanks for a great article and very best wishes to David with his recovery.

If I think about admiration, I tend to think automatically of the Everton I was brought up with, the great Everton of the 60s, culminating in the complete team, the best football team in the world at the time, the model for how football should be played, the team that won the 69-70 title. My admiration focuses on the superhuman qualities of Young and Ball, the unique artistry of Harvey, and the sportsmanship of Labone, the very symbols of the School of Science.

Those are the symbols that should inspire us all NOW. Focusing on other clubs with far less admirable and noble history is misplaced focus, a waste of time, and not at all funny.

I have a stock routine for those of them that speak English

1. Spell Anfield (fair number actually can).

2. Who was manager before Shankly? - after their umming and aaghing I mime throwing darts on the oche

Best answer I've had for that is "Jocky Wilson".

3. Who was John Houlding? - had everything from "left winger" to "reserve goalie"; when I tell them I get something like "before my time".

Says it all for what we think about where their supporters come from.

Thanks for the link though, could come in useful if I fancy a break in Norway, or if Everton get drawn again to play in Norway.

One of them, from outside the UK ironically, blabbed on about an internationally recognised and supported club versus a parochial also-ran.

Although he did have the slightest of points, through my blue-tinted specs, I still wanted to reach into the screen and rip the smug-looking fucker's throat out.

Too anti-pc?

The taxi queue was massive. When I eventually got one the driver (a Tranmere fan!) told me its always like that on Liverpool match days because of the massive percentage of out-of-town fans.

He said that Everton's games were quieter at Lime Street, but busier around Goodison after the game with blues travelling to the pubs in town after the game.

Perhaps any TWebbers who are taxi drivers (or know any) could confirm or deny.

What is the difference between Mike, Jamie and the many other overseas supporters, who chose to support Everton and the Norwegians who choose to support the dark side?

If we choose not to respect the Norwegian, however misguided they are, because they don't come from Liverpool, we have got to apply the same rationale to the many thousands of Everton fans who have have never been to the city or have any affiliation to the city,

One of our own will be arriving by Ryan Air or the Irish boat to attend the match. Will we give him as much shit as some Evertonians give the red shite fans who do the same? Are you not a Blue, if you don't get the 52 bus to Spellow Lane?

Would we alienate, say a thousand Swedish fans, who chose to suddenly support Everton and fly in for the match? I doubt it.

Like all Everton fans, I know dyed in the wool, Shite supporters, many of whom are family members and although unbearable, they do go the match, not all of them are Echopudlians.

I hate LFC as much as the next Blue, but let's not stoop to their level of most of their supporters, by being hypocritical about fan bases.

Admire EF's optimism and hopes for the future, but also saddened by the continued ill-health of Dr France. It would be a nice and overdue fillip for him to see a Trophy lifted this year!

On the France family thing, I'll be honest & expose my also apparent ignorance. I too until a few years ago was unaware of them or their significance. It's only through TW that I became aware. And I'm a lifelong Evertonian from Liverpool with a family history going back generations. My teenage years were the 80s so I like to think that I "know my history", but always glad to be educated further.

On the Kopite thing, it's traditional to "hate" your closest rivals, especially those from the same City. I say "hate" in the traditional Merseyside rivalry sense, not the venomous Sky Sports era type of hatred fuelled by keyboard warriors & the over-hyping we are continuously subject to by the modern press.

That said, the contemporary Liverpool fan base appears to be stepping up to new levels, even above & beyond their previously deluded, overly emotional & self-righteous attitude. A recent minor example:

Being London based these days, and almost in defence of the red cousins post Community Shield, I tried explaining to non-Liverpool fans in a local pub that the booing of the National Anthem and drowning it out with "that song" was just a Liverpool thing they've always done since I recall (70s/80s). Nothing in it, just "their thing". I was subsequently "corrected" by a "local" red that it was in protest at the government's cover up of Hillsborough & Winston Churchill ordering in the Police against the Dockers during the war years.

Now, whilst both of those political & historical circumstances may be so, I did point out that: 1. In 1983-84, Hillsborough hadn't happened. 2. No Liverpool fan I knew in the 1980s from the City of Liverpool that I used to travel to Derby matches with (including Wembley) ever gave the Churchill theory as a reason. 3. Stop politicising football.

The modern Liverpool supporter: Selective recollection of history. Always outraged, never embarrassed and if somehow there is a danger of the latter then just make up some emotional bullshit to justify actions they would blatantly slate others for.

Okay, I went slightly of topic & ranted (although the number plate did give me cause!!). To reiterate, great interview!

He came to Anfield for a league game in a dress rehearsal of the singing for the Arsenal - Liverpool final, he set them up to sing “Abide with me” two or three times started the hymn, but each time the Kop sang “I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts” which was a popular song at the time. In the end, he gave in and instructed the band to sing that song but the Kop started singing “Abide with me” – just pure defiance against authority.

I don't know if the story is true or not but it does sound like it could have happened, knowing Scousers.

But I'm pretty confident that Princess Margaret was greeted by a chorus of boos from our fans when she was introduced to the teams, as she was wearing a deep pink outfit, similar to the then fairly new all red Liverpool kit.

Then, all proceedings were held up as Everton supporters sang an extra chorus of “God save our Team”.

Is my memory correct?

And remember the end of the final against United when the two young princes William and Harry had faces like smacked arses after we won, they got a bit of stick for that. Not off me of course, God bless them !!!

Evertonians chose to support Everton because of the club, actually they did not choose, they were chosen. And if you are on this site, you'll understand.