Will we ever get an Everton identity back?

For older evertonians the "real" Everton identity is winning trophies via attractive football and with hindsight that died in the early 70s the Kendal years being a blip in a long term shit trend.

Until a manager comes in with the balls to say the players this club employs (and has employed) are dross and demands a complete rebuild in a single transfer window we are doomed to wash, spin, rinse and repeat.

Coleman at least put the effort in but my God, he is finished. He can the most promising of positions into a pass to the halfway line.

It is shameful that players can look happy after losing and it should not be tolerated likewise players ducking out of tackles.

A real culling of these types is long overdue and if they refuse to be transferred make them train on their own so they no longer infect the ones who do care.

We need players to give a shit. If they don't give a shit it doesn't matter how ‘good' or ‘bad' they are. We need a team with a sense of unity and purpose who feel responsibility for the results. Simply buying more and more new players who may or may not succeed does the opposite of this.

We need to find, develop or encourage two or three key leaders who will drive the others on. Frankly, we need a culture where one of our players might run 50 yards to confront one of his most effective, talented teammates because he wasn't putting enough effort in.

But that also needs to be within a longer-term strategy to bring through the likes of Gordon and bring in the likes of Holgate and Calvert-Lewin. I get the impression the club is now looking at things this way too.

Let's be honest it's not going to be like the old days winning the league playing football like Barcelona.

The only way you can do that is if you sign absolute world class superstars like Manchester City have, the likes of Aguero, David Silva, de Bruyne and players of that ilk.

The best we can hope for is a crop of players like what Joe Royle had, hard characters that would run through brick walls for you.

Moyes had some identity with cult figures amongst fans like Cahill, Arteta, Fellaini, but we fell just shy of lifting a trophy sadly.

Martinez tried to adopt a new identity and tried if you like to recreate a school of science mentality, which give him credit in his first season it worked ok with 21 wins from 38 matches, and a points total that in the Premier League era is unheard of at Everton Football Club

However the last five years has just been one letdown after another and I fail to see any progress since the Moshiri millions came on board.

It's no longer acceptable with the money spent.

Ancelotti, I expect will be given a good chunk of time. So far in his small sample of 15 games he has a win rate of 46% which is the highest we've managed since Kendall in the 80's. If that continues I think most of us would be very content.

His style of play tends to be very organised without the ball and his teams are usually hard to score against; whilst with the ball he allows his forward players a bit more flexibility and creativity.

I expect as such our identity (if he stays) to emerge as something of a hardworking, organised team, hard to beat but perhaps not always reliably creative. Perhaps some sort of middle ground between Moyes and Martinez then, but hopefully with better results!

I think we've seen some signs of this organisation. The only goals we've conceeded since the restart have been two deflections in four matches. But we've struggled to use possession well and create chances. The likes of Gomes, Sigurdsson, Iwobi, Bernard and also Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison have been a bit disappointing. But building a solid team is a good start and if we can continue to be hard to score against then I hope the results will continue to be encouraging. A winning identity would do for me!

The more we spend the more lethargic we look.

The richer the player, the smaller their hunger.

It's all about 'me' not 'us'. Being famous. Rich. Having a social media presence. Hip. Using the club as a stepping stone and then leaving a footprint of shite behind.

Trophies? Pride? Heart? Drive? Fans? Apart from a handful like Seamus and Bainsy they don't give a monkeys.

I love my club. I am proud of my club. But its players? No. I despair of them.

Under Martinez, we had a possession based identity, cavalier football with mercurial talents (deulofeu, Barkley and stones) and goals (lukaku)

Then the wheels came off and no discernable identity since which coincided with the decline.

Carlo has made us hard to beat and competitive (no mean feat) but very much on a substance over style basis.

We're yet to see a style in the attacking sense. Being a tactician rather than a philosophy driven sort of coach, I think Carlo will simply carry on focussed on substance (ie results). The more progressive side will only come if he has the attacking weaponry to deploy.

This seems like a return to a Moyes style identity to me.

How it evolve will depend on how quickly we can improve the quality of the playing staff.

The Premier League era has redefined the club as also-rans, a club whose fans have the audacity to believe in being better and competing for prizes.

The various staff members and players who have passed through the club, have spouted many ambitious words and where they wanted to take the club, but on the pitch it hasn't manifested itself in anything other than an exercise in futility as every season is pretty much over before Christmas or even if a solid start is achieved it's frittered away by hapless performances at crucial times.

Moshiri's wealth should have seen us back on the path to our traditional place in the game, but like so many seasons, the opportunity has been wasted. We can look forward to another five years of 'transition' from where we are now, but into what? A club challenging for honours like many of our former peers or a club happy to survive in the Premier League similar to the Hammers, Magpies, Watford et al.

Who would have thought in May 1987 that in the following 33 years that Everton would rarely be in a position to fight for the title and that only one cup victory at Wembley would be seen by Evertonians.

Who would have thought in early 2016 that millions of pounds would be invested in the playing staff and massive wages paid out to so many people to achieve zilch, to find ourselves having no idea if we are a good team underachieving or a bad team overachieving.

It's Everton FC but not as some of us knew it.

Too many players arrive here on big wages just happy to sit under no pressure because they don't see Everton as a high pressure club with high demands, they arrive for an easy life.

One Cup Final appearance since 1995, no derby match victory for TEN years, no proper Champions League appearance since the Premier League began, it's a complete joke and I don't see anyone at the club hurting at all by the embarrassing records this club holds.

Sure we hear warcry soundbites from Seamus Coleman or another about what we are gonna do but every year just brings more of the same garbage that we've seen the year before and the year before that

We lost an FA Cup Semi Final to Liverpool at Wembley in 2012 and yet we still haven't made them pay for that, one time Everton would have made certain to have avenged such a loss.

Talk has to stop, we have sat and watched our neighbours dominate trophies and local derbies for too long.

I want to see Everton show a bit of bottle, not just get enough wins against the dross to stay happily in mid-table.

It's not like Carlo can try out a few younger prospects, because they look pretty shit too. Kean has shown nothing except stupidity so far, and even Gordon only looks slightly promising - he's not going to set the league on fire right now. Beni showed a couple of okay attributes then totally disappeared. Is there anyone else banging on the door? Not that I'm aware of.

So where do you get an entire new midfield from in the current Coronavirus-affected world?

Have to agree.

If I was Baningime sitting on the bench, I'd be thinking: "Jesus, I must be total shit!"

He made his debut 3 years ago and the fact he can't break into our midfield right now doesn't exactly speak volumes for him.

nowadays we have a rich owner who is a mug. He finances the purchase of YouTube heroes with 30 seconds of skill. These frauds have hungry agents and sharp lawyers. The get paid ridiculous money and don't give a shit because the lawyer or agent will get them a move. they have no pride. no balls and no affinity to the supporters.

Unfortunately our current identity is that of soft touch or mugs. We deserve what we get because we the supporters DON'T demand 100% from everyone at the club.

How do we expect to sign ambitious players when the club do nothing to throw off our "little club with no ambition" tag?

Kenwright started it to big up any perceived achievement against the odds, his own mingebaggery usually, and Moyes took up the reins.
Unless Everton realise that publicity and how the club are perceived are crucial in attracting talent and moving forward, we're wasting our time spending money on top coaches.

Don't hold your breath, the club is so backward they don't even realise the damage being done with our amateurish approach and even many of our own supporters have swallowed the propoganda and talk us down, more interested in being nice than winning.

Everton have to finally step into the professional arena in all aspects of the modern game. Too many people at the top of the club are asleep at the wheel, happy to achieve nothing while getting rich and being seen as classy.

There's nothing classy about constantly being ridiculed by the kind of morons who can't see how ridiculous they look in red kecks.

The kids are poached far too early and told they are amazing, when actually they are not, they never get a dressing down or taken down a peg or 6 to keep them grounded – you see as a youth coach you can't breathe on them without the welfare officer becoming involved. The bloody parents are a pain in the arse, self-indulgent, selfish and most just talk shite that they pick up from Sky Sports.

There are hundreds of good football men and women who Jack it in (me included) because of interference from outside influences who talk crap and think football only started in the 1990s. We have spent year's in time and money to complete our Badges, all in our own time, and as volunteers. Some parents actually believe we get paid!
If you want the reasons why football has lost its identity, look at the snowflake society we have had forced upon us by the do-gooders and the bloody liberals.

Football needs to implode and become a minority sport again so we, as the real lovers of the game, can have it back and rebuild it with the ethos of hard work and respect to its coaches at its core.

Rant over!

It was ran with the focus on non-stop football in small-sided games, but if your behaviour dropped below the requirement, you didn't last long and were asked to leave. Fine with me and discipline is the key with kids.

Anyways, I was picking his brains one day on football about the best way to get players to play for you and go the extra mile, as most adult players seemed to do just enough, but no more.

He agreed it was now a huge issue and expressed his dismay at the attitude of player's.

He summed it perfectly like this, "Do you know something, Al? The problem with footballers today is that it's NEVER their fault!"

There you have it.

We live in a society now that is afraid of giving criticism for want of hurting feelings.

Players get far too many excuses made for them now for the shite they serve up.

I remember a game at home to Coventry in 1999, it was a week after we won at Anfield, and there is Richard Gough and Don Hutchison having a major disagreement on the pitch that nearly came to blows.

Two passionate players that weren't happy with their performance and it hurt them,they wanted to do well for Everton even though it was an era when Walter Smith was at the time scrimping and saving with the unrest at boardroom level.

What do we see now?

Stupid haircuts, fancy boots, the likes of Tom Davies walking around New York in a technicolour bloody dreamcoat I ask you!

When things go wrong on the pitch nowadays it's just sulking head down or with the shirt pulled over their heads.

We are reaping what we have sown, a bunch of losers that are very nice, really nice when the going is nice and easy but any kind of demand to pull ye socks up criticism and that's it.

Bunch of flakes the lot of them.

We need that ruthless Owner, ruthless Manager and Ruthless players. Win at all cost mentality from top to bottom, whichever way you do it just Win!

Good article James.

I think some of the parents are driven by 'greed' and the knowledge that they and their child could be set up for life with just one good contract at a major club. Grassroots football has become unimportant to the people who run the game as they know that there will be enough kids from all over the world who can fill the needs of the top clubs.

How many working-class kids or those from a deprived background are overlooked because there is no structure in place to allow them to develop their talents? I read that Herr Klopp dreams of having eleven scousers in his team at some point in time, but I think that will be a difficult dream to fulfill.

I agree that the would-be footballers are overly cosseted and protected from the real world, but I'm not sure I share your view that it is the 'snowflakes' who are to blame.

Throughout the history of professional football, it has tended to mirror the values of society and today's society in the main seeks fame and fortune without necessarily achieving anything of merit.

I hope you change your mind and decide to help more youngsters to enjoy the game and help them become more proficient at it, you will get pleasure from the knowledge that you helped - it's just a pity that the game doesn't give you and those like you a tangible reward, but prefers to squander money on other less important things.

Jeffers scored down at the Street End early on and it was actually Gary McAllister (around the time he was becoming a real pain in our arse) that equalised.

Goughy and Don kicked off on eachother but the following day went out for a drink and meal to sort their differences, proper characters then, maybe not superstars but honest players that wanted to win in an Everton shirt.

Long ago, niceness and concern for the community was never in evidence. Sacrilege to say it, but what was nice about John Moores and Harry Catterick ? And long before them, Everton was not the easiest place to earn a living as a footballer - just read some of those visits into history by Rob Sawyer and the like. Certainly the great Bill Dean and TG Jones told another story, long though they tarried.

Of course, Chairman Bill loves 'his' club to be seen as 'caring and considerate and in recent years it has 'done right' by a veritable horde of second raters no other club will look at. Our reputation as an employer is second to none and well done to all who make us so, But don't expect the 'nice 'guys to go to the top of the league just because they are 'nice' and play for a really nice club which WE all love !

Unless, that is, you've got another forty years to waste in the loving !

The clubs pumped in monies we'd once dream off, 100s of millions and has not progressed.

Money can't buy guts and integrity, the players must get that themselves.

What goes on at Finch Farm I don't know, but it seems that any good traits the kids and youth players who make it, as if by magic, loose all passion and care once in the first team squad. And we've not bought any genuinely world class players, who'd walk in to any other top six team, and be a set fixture, in that team.

It's pitiful and I'm thinking that perhaps this preseason, Carlo Ancellotti and the board must have an honest discussion about the clubs transfer, coaching and scouting stratedgy.

Hand on heart, how many of us genuinely expect to win, more than x3 consecutive games these days?

The way I see it City, and the RS, are sadly light years ahead of us and the rest, in terms of style and manner on the park.

Nothing in life is impossible, and if you believe you can, you will, but with the current Everton squad it's asymptomatic, in terms of having no belief or will, when the going gets tough, and the results based evidence of the last 5 years, shows an erosion in the clubs status.

If BMD happens, then the playing side must be worthy of such a new era in EFC, history.

But it's a complex situation, and let's hope there's clarity either way soon, so Evertonians can set their own expectations.

Hope eternal.

How about we replace our midfield with the midfield of Sheffield United? Or the midfield of Southampton? That's just off the top of my head. Their players run their nuts off, and put a foot in as a minimum, so they would be a massive improvement on our freeloading midfielders. That's just off the top of my head. There must be dozens of potential targets across Europe and beyond

So to me it shows that our squad lacks cohesion both in the type of players we have and social aspect. I have no doubt that the current model of player health such as eating correctly, sleeping and less drinking etc is definitely better for physical performance but, if you think back to the past where team drinking sessions and long bus trips on the drink we're the norm, I think it helped bring players together, just as it does with local pub teams and lower leagues where the players just seem to have a closer mateship and want to not let their friends down.

With this close friendship and support comes a feeling of togetherness and team spirit which then drives the players and supporters on and gives you of feeling special and part of something greater, which in turn makes you feel more a part of your club.

Drew O'Neall # 26 - I can't name one and we need at least three (preferably madmen). I do however know where I would start looking for them - Scotland.

It's all about mentality.

I feel like I've walked into an old man's bitch group - my issue is the old men are 100% correct.

Which I guess makes me an old man.

We need the right mentality. It's not there presently.

Scott Brown at 23. Find him, watch us start to turn. A player who loves his club and will give everything for it. A player who will not abide teammates who don't feel the same and go through the motions.

Part of me is sick to the teeth of this Nancy squad. I want a fight-for-the-cause team. One that looks out for one another; a band of brothers if you will.

Give me that brotherhood and that passion. Give me the teammate who smiles as he follows you into hell.

We've none of that presently.

This team is the 'Leper Squad' (aircrew of a B17) from the film "12 O'clock High".

I just hope Ancelloti has some Gregory Peck in him (and not just here for his 'Gregory'!) as the similarities of this team and that air crew are weirdly uncanny.

I mean who can actually feel arsed at the moment shouting COYB ???

Right now, my Blue has turned to Grey.