If You Know Your History…

..."Tell ya, a slow horse and a fast woman
Hey hey hey lord they sure did let me fall
That's why I say ah
If it wasn't for bad luck sugar now
Hey if it wasn't for bad luck y'all
Oh! I wouldn't have no luck at all..."

(Songwriters: Ray Charles / James Lewis
If It Wasn't for Bad Luck lyrics © Tangerine Music Corp)

But then this is Britain and I wonder how many council terraced houses the National Trust look after… so let's occasionally remind them of our heritage before we become the next Royal Engineers FC and the like – some team that once won or played an FA Cup Final.

That said, it does seem ridiculous that we had Carlo Ancelotti as manager with James Rodriguez in midfield not so long ago; who knows how things would have gone if Carlo would have stayed?

As good as getting Carlo was, the hiring of Benitez was a criminal act of incompetence and evidence that Moshiri is clueless and soulless. In the history of sport, has there ever been an example of a team going backwards because of significant investment?

History is important to the club's identity, but former glories are only useful to remind us where this club should be, along with the potential that comes from the strength and commitment of the fan base.

It will take many years of solid steady progress, along with a level of competence from a board the likes of which we have not seen for a very long time, to get anywhere near the top again.

I worry that Moshiri's legacy of industrial-strength failure and inadequacies will extend to imperilling the club's future by selling his shares to any crooks or asset-strippers that come along.

We are in a very dark place, and the ground on the waterfront, has caused us a whole lot of financial issues, but one thing I can say, is that at least Moshiri, had a great vision, and hopefully soon, this vision will start paying off🤞

His tenure has been a disgrace, with his constant chopping and changing of managers, whilst appointing a director of football to join his very inept board, was incredibly hard to fathom, (i could go on and on) and has destroyed most of the club's foundations, from the first team to the academy, but the fans have remained very loyal, and defiant, in the face of tremendous adversity, and it's definitely the fans, that help make a football club, great.

“Our Lord” might have walked on water, but Everton have built a stadium on water, and this is hopefully the miracle (or just great engineering!) that is going to help change our fortunes, because us Evertonians are desperate for success💙

History, heritage and tradition is important. But you only get there by building on it. It's the reason we have our history.

We stood still. Hopefully, get this season out of the way tomorrow and sort out whatever is going on with the ownership and we can start building a new future that will add to our history.

I refer to the Paddy Power advert, team broke, then we are in the money and a guy throwing money all over the place.
English football is littered with failed teams and white elephant stadiums. Doesn't anybody take notice?

Look at Man Utd, the state of the stadium, the Glazers have just drained that club of money instead of keeping the ground in good order.

How many lads in the Gwladys Street actually know who Big Ron is? I would not shed a single tear if the dirge 'If you know your history' was never heard again.

I can't remember who said it or even if I have the quote correct: 'History, despite its gut-wrenching agony, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.'

We need to find courage, guys.

"Bless em all, bless em all,
the long and the short and the tall,
Bless wee Alex and Royston too..."

It's caught on and a lot of the younger supporters join in.

Don't ask Mark Murphy his opinion. He doesn't like it!

I think it's great.

Worse still nothing on the horizon seems to exist bar a cabal of American investors totally incapable of providing the billions needed to get us to where we want to be – trophy winners at the top table

It used to be a special manager could come in and by dint of ability fashion success lasting years – Brian Clough, Bobby Robson, Bill Shankly, Matt Busby, Bill Nicholson going all the way back to Herbert Chapman. Can't happen today: you need oodles of loot as per Abramovich and Mansour just to reach the platform of Man Utd and Liverpool – let alone overcome them.

There will be the odd first-season mommies like Martinez here and Ranieri at Leicester but, without mega-cash, they are doomed to fail, the smart fellas move on before the inevitable decline… like the lad at Brighton.

Until oil money comes in, the double-edged sword of history is all we have and it will never go away. Trying to live up to it kills managers and players alike; on the other hand, it rescues us in the darkest hours.

This city's clubs are not divided by geography, politics or religion. So, we are not assured a future fanbase based on anyone of those factors. The other lot's success of the past 50 years or so has seen their fanbase grow massively, and ours has been eroded.

Yet somehow, we defy logic by filling our stadium and selling out our away allocations every week. That can only be because of our history and the inherent culture and tradition it helps define.

History is not the cause of our current malaise, it is much of the reason why we're still hanging on by our fingertips. Hopefully to fight another day!