What Money Can't Buy

by Andy Crooks  |   07/05/2025  2 Comments  [Jump to last]

There has been a bit of speculation on the site about what our transfer budget will be this summer and how limited it might be. I believe that, even if the amount is way above our expectations, progress up the table will be limited if it is based entirely on that. We are simply not going to spend enough to effect dramatic change.

However, serious progress can be made with a limited spend if some other things drop into place. The first is out of our hands but not impossible. Quite simply: luck. No players to trip over in the warm-up and be out for months. A decent injury-free run and VAR to go our way more often than not. In their 1981 title season, Aston Villa used just 14 players. Now, some may argue that today's game places more demands on players; I disagree. Players today are fitter, the pitches are better, and they are protected by referees so much more.

What that Villa team had was a huge amount of luck but, more importantly, team spirit. Money can't buy that but we can have it. I look at our players and they seem to like each other (a vastly underrated advantage). Jordan Pickford could move on but he stays. Abdoulaye Doucoure could move for a fortune but he wants to stay. Seamus Coleman is another example. Players have lives that are settled, perhaps kids that love their schools, a life that is good and is at our club. Look how we treated Dele Alli. We are a great club with fundamental decency and a great new stadium.

I was against the appointment of David Moyes but he does have that quality of building spirit and togetherness. Players like him. It is the creation of a group like this that overcomes fatigue and comes back from 2-goal deficits.

Most of all, we need the players to have courage. To always show for the ball, to try the difficult pass, to ignore the frustration of the crowd and to try it again. To be brave enough and strong enough to be their best every game. No player should be moving to win medals. He should be staying with his team and being part of the battle to win them at our club.

Every player should hate losing as much as Alan Ball. That is where we start.

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Michael Kenrick
1 Posted 07/05/2025 at 13:24:03
Nice thoughts, Andy.

The intangibles if you like. Although there really is no substitute for quality, as that game last night showed.

I want to say that pining for a small tightly-knit squad goes against the massive 20-man matchday squads that are prescribed in this day and age. But perhaps it takes just one bad apple in that squad to spoil the whole barrel. (How true is that truism, I wonder?)

So having more players than you absolutely need increases the risk – especially as the ones on the fringes get little game-time and could become disruptive if they feel hard done by.

But there is no magic formula. We just have to hope they get it right.

Kevin Molloy
2 Posted 07/05/2025 at 13:41:45
we are now entering the most exciting phase of the season, when the football ends, and we can move to the important task of monitoring news now/ Everton. I feel confident that with Everton News and Goodison News we will be kept upto date with all the important developments in a way that just wasn't possible before.
Parking the sarcasm for a moment, it is going to be fascinating. We are left with the husk of a squad, but that means we are going to be buying and selling like mad. It really is all change this Summer, and whilst there are many who have reservations over the Moyesiah, I think the record shows that he's always done well for us at this particular aspect of the job. Certainly I'd rather him in charge than, say, Ronald Koeman, as we glance around for our cheque book.

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