Moshiri speaks of sorrow as he leaves Everton after nearly nine years

Crack. Pot.

We move into a brand new state-of-the-art stadium now that two previous owners have tried to do and failed miserably. He has thrown so much of his own money at this to try to bring success and he is the one walking away massively out of pocket.

Mistakes?… yes plenty… mainly for listening and trusting the wrong people. And yes there is no question that we remain in a precarious position in terms of relegation (I'm worried)… but nobody can deny that the man has tried and dug deep financially in the attempt to bring us success.

One day very soon when we are hopefully out of trouble and we are all sitting in an amazing new stadium… we will thank the man for what he has done for us.

I bet he rues the day that he let Bill talk him and his Uncle Uzzie into it with (allegedly)..."Sod Arsenal off then, we're a well run Club that's the 'best of the rest' all we need is a cash injection and watch us go!"

He appears to have taken a serious bath cash-wise... although who really knows the wheels within wheels that's been going on?

But he got the new stadium built, which is more than Kenwright ever managed in decades.

So unlike our late and somewhat unlamented previous owner, Moshiri is (just about) square with the house.

(Though it has to be very, very, grudgingly said that, from a personal net cash gain, Kenwright played an absolute blinder!)

He will walk away seriously out of pocket but what a stadium he has left us with!

However, his legacy won't be the stadium he will always be remembered for.

I think Moshiri's biggest mistake was trusting Kenwright and various other acolytes.

He nearly ruined us. But he knew from the second he got here that a new stadium was the only way we would ever be able to come close to competing again – and he got it done.

I'm not praising him because he was a woeful owner. But without him, we wouldn't have the Friedkins or the stadium and the hope they bring.

We'd still be the team that every other club looks at and thinks…..

Mr Moshiri's legacy will always be remembered by me – The Stadium. I will also remember what he pointed out himself, in his leaving Everton post, the prices for admission all over the stadium hardly rose during the time he was here and for the concessions that a lot of fans got from the young to pensioners like me received, they were a great help.

Thanks for the stadium and the concessions, you made mistakes no doubt of that the biggest obvious one was trusting your “friend” Thingy, very very naive indeed. I think you will always regret meeting him.

Enjoy the rest of your life, I wish you a long one and happy one.

If he had just stayed in the shadows, that would have been slightly better, but No, he started interfering with who we should hire as managers and players.

All ending in disaster, I may add. Then, to add insult to injury, when the club was to be sold, he gets into bed with 777 Partners, which has delayed everything.

He reportedly is returning to Goodison Park once more and then the new stadium. I hope they charge him for the privilege.

Shocking incompetence and moreover, he's given Accountants a bad name...

He has delivered the stadium and certainly dipped into his own or Usmanov's pocket, to try to bring a top class manager and players in, something our former Chairman never did, he even walked away turning a lot of his shares into equity for the club.

For me, I would not begrudge Moshiri a visit to the stadium he delivered. If only he had not listened to Bill and brought his own people in instead, things could have been so much different.

Mistakes were shocking by him, but the theatre of Bill bullshited his way to staying on. Even to the very end Bill let Ingles, Sharp, and Barrett-Baxendale walk, then used his "We need one of us to remain at the club in the boardroom."

Yes, Moshiri made huge mistakes but I will never hold him as low as Bill.

Moshiri only wanted Everton to take up 5% of his time. The easiest way to do that was to leave the existing Chair in place to deal with the 95% of the run-of-the-mill stuff.

Meanwhile, Moshiri would concentrate on appointing the "Hollywood" name…

The likes of Seamus, Michael, James, Idrissa and Ashley must love him now... it's probably been a while since they had those compliments.

Mind you, there's only gonna be about 3 of them left by the summer…

I don't particularly feel for Moshiri, but I do feel for a club and fan base who believed we might have a knight in shining armour. When we finally got on,e he turned out to be more like a knight from a Monty Python sketch.

Here is a guy who actually wanted to improve the club and was prepared to put in his own money to do so. A vanity project maybe, but it's bloody hard to get free money and he was prepared to believe in the club and back the club. How many have done that recently?

He did all the right things: invest in the squad, invest in the infrastructure – he just did them all with a comical level of incompetence.

Even his parting statement seems pretty ill-advised and not subject to any kind of checking:

- Youthful team (pretty sure we have the oldest in the Premier League?)
- Top class managers (erm, there are some shockers in there!)
- Came through it together (no, your Board vilified supporters and claimed you all feared for your safety)
- He'll be back at Goodison to watch (I'm guessing this one was a deliberate joke!)

The next guys won't come with the same knight in shining armour monikers. They won't be throwing money around like Moshiri did. But hopefully what we do get is a set of astute businessmen who can leverage their knowledge and connections through existing similar businesses and restore this club to greatness.

I hope in a few years time that there are people on here saying that the Friedkins don't 'invest' their own money and that they're making a fortune out of the club. If that happens, it will mean that we are on the path to being a financially sustainable and successful club.

That said, I think his feeling for the club is sincere, and if he had hired better people to run the club and let them do their jobs without interference, as he did with Dan Meis on the stadium, he might well have gotten the results he was hoping for. But he lacked the experience and the judgement.

The stadium will be his legacy. Not only did he get the right site and the right people and the right design, he stuck with it and saw the project through even when it became clear that he was gonna take a financial pounding on it. He wasn't a quitter, and he wasn't a fake. The job got done.

I'm glad he's gone, because he was largely a failure, but I hold no grudges and I'm pleased he came out financially unscathed overall.

Wait, correction: I do hold one grudge. He hired Benitez. That wasn't just a blunder, it was dereliction. But hiring Carlo made up for it.

There have been many times when I've wondered how on earth his and others' comms from the club have got through the corporate machine before release.

Headlock-gate being a big example. No communications professional would have allowed that to be released!

Moshiri's incompetence and Kenwright's… I suppose I shouldn't speak ill of the departed, so let's be nice and use … “greed” was a toxic combination that nearly did for us

Moshiri has now gone and somehow against the odds we have survived to hopefully look to the future and thrive under professional businessmen.

I have mentioned on a number of past threads that in a few years when the dust has settled Moshiri's legacy of the fantastic new stadium will colour over the nightmare he, and his mate, put us through.

Moshiri's and Usmanov's problem was that they either took him at face value when he said he was some kind of football club guru, or when he said he'd be happy with the consensus view.

I've seen and read about too many poor appointments at executive management level to believe in the infallibility of very wealthy people.

I'm happy to believe Moshiri was well-meaning but fallible and got taken in by a skilled grifter.

Goodbye — and thanks for the stadium.

30 years… Let me say that again: THIRTY YEARS...

Some of what's been posted, you simply can't argue with. The last 9 years have been the worst. A total and utter shambles.

The shotgun approach to hiring managers, the ridiculous sums of money that we had never seen before spent on a squad that has taken us backwards every year. I mean, I think – genuinely this is the worst squad of players we have had since the mid-70s... one or two are okay, but we all know that, if anyone comes calling – they are gone...

The total disconnect with the fans and our history. I still can't stomach the memory of Allardyce and Sammy Lee... I won several quid on Benitez, but – Oh my word – had I wished it wasn't so...

I tried so hard to give everyone making any decision a break; I really did swallow the vomit in my throat and tried to keep the gag reflex in check... but the piss-poor decisions kept coming and coming and coming and coming.

How could they have even turned Graeme Sharp into an object of ridicule and hate?

The stadium has to be remembered as a legacy. But let's not forget please the team he's left us with playing our last season at Goodison Park.

I'm so tired of watching Everton. We are dreadful. I'm not blaming Dyche... I am grateful we have Dyche as otherwise we would be in the Championship – midtable at that...

I'm so tired of the shit football kits and the bonker sponsors and the total lack of understanding of how to run a modern football club in the Premier League.

Angry Fucking Birds??

I am so exhausted with Brighton and Bournemouth and Brentford being better at competing than us...

I am so, so, so tired of Everton being a shit-bag of kicking in the media... we only get to the top 3 games on MotD because we get the crap smacked out of us by someone else!

Please God, make it all stop. Anything has to be better than this? Right? I mean, surely it could not conceivably get worse than the shit sandwiches we've been forced to eat?

Yeah, I'm worried as the AS Roma fans have turned on the new owners... I am hoping this is simply them losing interest in the maths of Serie A, and seeing that owning a crap Premier League team is more profitable than owning a crowning historical Italian team... I mean, owning Palace or Wolves would be more profitable!

I mean, their due diligence would have revealed what a complete omnishambles they were buying and appointing a battery-operated duck could run our club better than what has presided over operations for the last 30 years!

I am not going to be a harbinger of doom. The new stadium is remarkable. I still cannot believe it... literally on the Dock Road — where I learned how to drive! Now can we have a team befitting of the stadium?

I see Dyche and Thelwell are out of contract this summer. It is with no disrespect because they have really had to operate under the most absurd circumstances, but they are not aspirational enough for me, not with the new stadium.

I would be honest and I would say: "Here's the deal, keep us up, and here's your new bonus; we are moving on in the Summer."

Let all of the out-of-contract players go – all of them. Build the team around the goalie and the back two. Everyone else, please, please, please – leave us alone. Go clog up Ipswich, Sunderland, West Brom, Leeds, Derby, Coventry, Celtic and Leicester.

Find a new manager now... seriously, now; and a new Director of Football. Let them watch and learn in silence, in quiet, in the dark, in the background... then change it all out first day of the close season. Transition plan now.

And change the fucking kit and the fucking sponsors – and do a fucking deal so that it's available in poxy stores like Sports Direct and JD Sport, so that at least it's on a rack next to bloody West Ham...

And don't even dare bring Moyes back. Because that time has gone... and I won't forget the Fellaini and Baines "Big team knocking" bollocks...

Smart, calm, measured, commercial, planned, mindful, strategic thinking. Everything we have not been for a very, very, very long time.

Make some money - do you know how? Work hard. Work with pride. Run your arse off. Win some Godamn fucking football games. It's really that fucking simple. It really is.
Win stuff...

Moshiri? Whatever... thanks for the stadium, seriously – thank you... but Allardyce and Sammy motherfucking Lee???
I mean, really???

And let's not go into the accountant that can't count re: PSR…

I mean I'm hoping that the new owners are not another Children's Television Workshop like the Muppet Show who have been in charge for 9 years…

A Certified Accountant who largely replaced his boss's questionable monies with loans that have been mostly paid off with legit monies or which are still earning huge interest.

He interfered with Everton rather than managed, leaving a user and abuser in charge. He is now actually richer than when he took over Everton, being well rewarded. His letter, like his other letters to fans, is questionable in its sincerity.

People can lament his decision to keep Kim Jong Bill at the helm, but I'm absolutely certain that was a condition of the sale. I'm sure we'd have had credible new owners long before Moshiri if the self-appointed Greatest Evertonian hadn't wanted to retain his role.

I guess he's not mates with Alisher then?

It wasn't Alisher that did the invading.

Well Said!!!

I would fully support you if you ever offered your services as Everton FC official therapist.

God knows we've needed one. Certainly since June 2004, if not before…

He's held his hands up and admitted to getting things wrong, but we will soon be moving into one of the finest stadiums in the land and this legacy should outlive us all.

Personally, I hope he is welcomed back to Goodison Park and to the new stadium, the bloke has spunked half a billion quid up the wall trying to turn our fortunes around, he was just rubbish at it.

"He'll be back at Goodison to watch (I'm guessing this one was a deliberate joke!)".

I think he might be serious. Back at Goodison Park. Next season. Alone in the stands.

“How could they turn Graeme Sharpe into an object of ridicule and hate?” He did that entirely on his own, Ray, nobody forced him.

"Start afresh next season with the goalkeeper and the back two, let everyone else please go and leave us alone"?

So at the end of this season get rid of the whole present squad and start rebuilding with just three of them! Good luck with that, Ray.

Need Danny O to appear and calm the waters!

Yes, I know he has experience of running a football club as in Roma, but seems their fans are no more enamoured with Friedkin than we were with Moshiri in the last few years.

There seem to be many parallels between Friedkin and Moshiri: both came in and changed managers on a regular basis, and neither Moshiri nor Friedkin at present seemed to have solved the problem.

I would hope that Friedkin has learnt lessons from his time at Roma and he doesn't repeat those mistakes at Everton, as the last thing we need is yet another clueless billionaire.

I know our past chairman said "Many clubs say 'What would Everton do in our situation?'", well maybe we need to ask "What would Brighton do in our situation? – as they seem to get it right more often than we do.

I hope Friedkin turns out more like Sir John Moores than Moshiri.

I hope Danny's okay.

Any reason to suspect he's not mate?

Something happened I don't know about?

But on the first day in the new stadium next season, I will say a little thank you to Moshiri.

I think I read that Danny had a fall or something at the Emirates (or on that day anyway) but I think he's posted somewhere since then so I assumed he was probably not too much the worse for wear. Hopefully not anyway.

I missed that.

Erling Haaland was born on 21 July 2000, making him 24 years old right now. If he was 15 years old when he was at Everton, that was 9 years ago, before Moshiri was in charge.

I've heard the story that Haaland was “having trials” at Everton, but surely it would have been down to the manager or the director of football (if we had one at the time?) to decide if we signed him up or not, and not the owner?

And let's face it, if Kenwright was the owner at the time, then he would have well fucked Haaland off!

I refuse to look through rose-coloured glasses now he has gone about what a nice man he was and how grateful we should be that he invested his money and we are getting a brand new state-of-the-art stadium. His reign was an absolute disaster for Everton Football Club.

It was him that allowed Kenwright to run the footballing side of the club, and backed him to the hilt while millions were being poured down the drain. It was him that stayed schtum while lies were being spread about threats and violence from supporters. It was him that worked closely with a dodgy Russian oligarch who again lost us millions when he was sanctioned.

I for one am glad he's gone, I just wish he'd never come.

TFG will at least put us back on a sound financial footing. Time will tell whether that translates to success on the pitch.

I'm not a fan of multi-club ownership – too much chance of conflict of interest for me – but at least it's got to be better than the Moshiri years.

I think we all despaired at Moshiri's mixture of hands-off approach together with impulsive meddling. The profligate waste of money on players and managers rather than a measured, business-like approach to sustainably building the club into the footballing force it should be.

Hence Moshiri leaves a large amount of his investment behind as he departs. I don't think we'll see anything of the like from TFG. Even at Roma, where there have been a few ups & downs on the football side, I gather that the club is now on a sound financial footing going forward.

That really is a good post.

It is no rose-tinted glasses to appreciate what will be a magnificent stadium that he has provided.

Personally I wish him all the best both now and in the future and would advise him to seek therapy from Ray.

First game at the new stadium next season we'll be looking at it in awe and thanking him.

I would definitely take him out before and after the match and pay for a seat for him. However, I would insist I personally take care of all costs – if not and left him to it, I'd be bankrupt.

Mind you, that would be better and cheaper than taking Kenwright out.

I was just reporting what Aaron Lennon says on BBC Sports Football round-up Thursday night, go take a listen. Apparently introduced by Craig Shakespeare after a medical. What do I know?

I can't blame Sharp for trying his best to act on behalf of the club... I think he was a stooge. I met him randomly in a hotel lobby (I was in a meeting and I was properly distracted as it was a true No 9) and I thanked him for all the wonderful goals (the one at Anfield – the control over Hansen and volley past GrobbellarraaklGGHH).

I also apologised to him on behalf of all Evertonians with short memories and who gave him abuse when all he was trying to do was do what other people told him to do on behalf of the club. At least he played, and played really, really, really well... at least he won games...

Dave @31 – literally, what do I know? Just think that all the out-of-contract players (keep reading there are like 5 or 6 or 9 or 13) expiring end of the season, I think we should let them all go... Bbad decision? Probably... wWhat do I know?

Well, apart from perhaps not changing managers like having to use excessive loo paper wiping your arse in a petrol station on the M6 near Knutsford...

Or signing, what, 4 No 10s? That was a good idea, wasn't it? Or maybe signing Ancelotti and not having a exit clause for compensation??

Would letting the current squad know that they have until the end of the season to run their bollocks off if they want a new contract or they are out... would that be so bad?

Could we bring in someone to sit the entire squad down and walk through the entire history of the club at Goodison Park and explain to them that this is the last season at Goodison Park, and could we please, please, please - play some actual football? Could every home game be a celebration all-out win a game of fucking football? Could we create dreams not crying nightmares.

I keep looking at the home games... and I keep thinking, well that's the last time they will ever play at Goodison Park... and I keep looking at the way we play, and again – I can't blame Dyche at all – I mean, he walked into a lunatic asylum with no one in charge.

It's the squad... we have sold, sold, sold, sold... we haven't replaced. We have bought shite upon shite upon shite... seriously the league table doesn't lie.

We have nearly been relegated what? 3 times in the last 3 years! The actual reason we haven't been relegated is because, by the gift of The Lord, there have been 3 worse teams than us!

I am not saying we throw the baby out with the bathwater. No, I wouldn't suggest something so rash.

I am saying we take the baby out of the bathwater, and leave the bath running as we leave the house (with the baby) and walk down the road... to a new house.

I fee like I've been abused for nearly 30 years now. (Is it too soon to make a Pelicot joke? Probably too soon...)

I don't have any answers. What do I know? (Apart from knowing that Sammy for-fucks-sake Lee was not something you should have ever, ever, ever contemplated let alone done...)

Without a doubt, Friedkin has already missed a trick. His first appointment should not have been Watts and that bird… It should have been you! First on the list without doubt. Club therapist and team motivator.

I understand getting rid of all the coming out-of-contract players; however, if we could get a decent manager would it not be cheaper, for example, keeping Calvert-Lewin?

I don't know what he wants but what would it cost to get in a striker, transfer fee and salary? Possibly with a different manager playing to players' strengths – Kendall – he may well be the answer?

Lindstrom, Harrison, Young, Gana, Doucoure et al have to go. However, Coleman has to be kept as part of the backroom team to at least educate newcomers.

I also think Bell and Downing should come onto the Board as non-executive directors. They may well balance out our American cousins regarding fans, history, expectations etc from a club v business outlook.

Yes, he made some stupid decisions regarding the playing side (especially the crazy managerial appointments) but I think he meant well and truly loved the club.

We now have the stadium and I think in time that will stand as Moshiri's legacy, for which all Evertonians will be grateful. The later crazy decisions (777, etc) only happened when he was financially out of options after his buddy Usmanov departed.

The real villain of the piece I see as Kenwright, who treated the club as his plaything to prop up his huge ego. Even worse, conned the club and supporters with his ‘greatest Evertonian' bullshit, but it was all a facade to cover up his greed. Moshiri's worst decision was retaining Kenwright.

People can question Kenwright all they want but the man at the top for the last 9 years has been Moshiri and the buck stops with him.

But for the last-gasp escapes under Lampard and Dych,e we would probably not have a club now and certainly not a magnificent stadium; relegation would have destroyed us.

He should have kept himself well away from a subject he clearly knew nothing about – football – and not run around hiring and firing managers and acquiring players on a whim.

I could never agree that Sharp was just a stooge, he has had well-paid jobs at Everton for a long time, well before he took the offer to be part of the board. He knew what he was doing; I don't think he was actually abused to his face.

He criticised for letting himself become part of Kenwright's clique although he was doing the chairman's bidding well before this. You thanked him for him for his great goals and time at Everton, that was the player — couldn't argue with that.

You said at the beginning of your post and stressed we have had 30 very poor years following Everton, then talked about the last 9 years of being under Moshiri's ownership but never mentioned Kenwright's part in that or the previous years of Kenwright's ownership.

What do any of us really know, you ask — well, I doubt if I know more than you, Ray, but starting afresh with three players would not be my answer to the plight the new owners find themselves in.

I'm in the same boat as you, Ray — I want us to be part of the teams with a chance of winning some silverware now and again, not just being part of the lower regions of the Premier League.

I agree with your sentiment entirely. You know I'm being belligerent for internet message board comic effect…

You may well be right about Sharp. I just have the decent memories of a really decent player. And yes, he took the coin… I just couldn't turn on him as directly as some did.

I've been a Kenwright apologist for many a year… but it's really, really, really hard not seeing the bad decisions and poor club management over the years. I really did try to make logical reasons behind the serial buffoonery and repetitive dickhead syndrome.

But the last 9 years have been symptomatic of the crumbling rot that clearly infected the club from Johnson onwards. It's not just Moshiri. It's absolutely Kenwright. And it was Johnson.

Oh for a teaspoon of Carter right now…

I think an earlier post spoke about how poor we've been for 50 years — not just the last mediocre wishing 30. I don't know if this is true or not, and I can't be bothered looking… but haven't we won more silverware than Man City, even with their recent cash-built winning spree?

I guess all I'm saying is, if you know your history…

And yes I'm venting after many years away from these message boards and having to read Moshiri's statement – that is too much. Has he left the club in a better state than when he got it? Oh my god, he probably has…

Jesus H Christ…

I genuinely thank Moshiri for spending gazillions on transforming our squad into relegation fodder for the last 4-odd years.

And I mean it, I'm genuinely glad we have an amazing new stadium – but my earlier point is we have a degraded squad to play in it… what's the point of a spanking new home when the team is a bag of absolute shite?

By the way: “A teaspoon of Carter wouldn't help the medicine go down…”

I think it would be a toss up who knew more about football between him and Moshiri!

I'll have to check but before Abramovich and the Abu Dhabi guys – who, if we are to believe The World's Greatest Evertonian, told to piss off – we were only behind Man Utd, Arsenal and our neighbours. Man City and Chelsea are only late arrivals

Our history, though tried to be rewritten, stands above all!

Shit poor management over the last 30 years is where we are now. Think of the fucking clubs above us? Embarrassing…

It'll be slow, it'll be confrontational, but these Yanks will put us on the upward path.

That's the answer. El Cid it... Kendall all the way... the 4th coming (or is that the 5th including his playing years?).

Dig him up and nail him to a plank of wood on the touchline.
Too much? Probably. What do I know...

Yeah, yeah... Sammy Lee is probably a good man and a wonderful grandfather to his (very, very) small grandkids... but there are things in life that just don't mix... oil and vinegar, custard and Bovril, McCartney and Jagger... and Sammy Lee in an Everton tracksuit.

I just can't heavy paper bag breathe my way through that... I would rather have a plastic bag over my head!

I cannot believe that I am pinning for the "best of the rest" Moyes. I look at every fixture and I think "Yeah we could lose this one" home and away, Luton, Watford, Norwich - all of them, home or away... I have been looking at the team sheets and genuinely thought "Yeah we need to be 3 or 4 up or we may lose this one."

We could be winning 2-0 with 5 minutes left (including 3 minutes of added-on time) and I will still be thinking "Yeah, we could lose this one..."

I can't stand it. That's what 9 years of Moshiri + the XYZ years of Kenwright and Johnson have done, it's bled the belief out of supporting the team.

Again – thanks for the stadium Moshiri, and thanks for washing Russian petro-dollars through the club (how else was this at all good business?) but let's please be reasonable and do a business SWOT analysis... the strengths and weaknesses, the opportunities and threats.

The Moshiri years will go down as an unmitigated disaster of truly astronomical proportions. The Kenwright years – worse because you have to include the Moshiri years in that as well, and then you put the shit cherry on the pile of crap cake that was Johnson... which also has Kenwright across it. What a total and utter shower of complete twaddle!

Just win some football games. Can we have the mob of blue smoke every home game until we leave Goodison? Can we create a cauldron of Royal Blue fire? Can we have the entire 1st team squad walking to the ground and through the crowds? Can we barrack every team arriving by bus and having to 3-point turn around the side streets?

Can we have something to sing about? Can we have something to celebrate? Can we send off Goodison Park — each and every home game. Can we accept that the glorious memories of several generations were made and hosted in that ground?

Can we really, really, really understand that community and a stadium that survived two world wars, a pandemic, and whatever political bullshit abounds from Brexit to whatever... where countless fans have their ashes laid to rest.

Can we give the ground a send-off with a team and an ethos and a playing philosophy worthy of the history?

Great – Moshiri is gone after spending what, £500M+ (I mean what in the actual fuck? I mean, seriously... what in God's fucking name???)

But can we draw a line? Can we swallow the cucumber that's been a makeshift dildo? Can we focus on the team and the game and the ground? Can the team run around like madmen – gibbons on LSD and steroids? Can we tackle everyone off every ball, win every header, barge, smash, slide, kick, scratch? Can we make it really, really, really ugly – and win hard, win with elbows? Can we win some fucking home games at our last season at Goodison — Please???

Can we make the last experience at Goodison, for every Premier League this last half of the season, painful? Hated... dare I say it? Feared? Can I not please think of the games with dread? That's what I want gone. The dread.

I want hope and I want to feel proud. I want Moshiri and Kenwright and Johnson to be bit-part players and drowned out by something that they have taken away — they took the pride away, and no new stadium, no matter how expensive and beautiful and gleaming... none of that will ever make do for the pitiful shower of total shit that passes for a team that graces our magnificent Goodison Park!!!

They should all be fucking ashamed of themselves. They have all let the memory of Goodison Park down. Stupid wankers.

And yes, John... the club does need a Chief of History... someone that gives a crap to remind all players and staff what the hell this club means and what it should be all about.

Because the last 30 years have been a spiralling vortex of self-induced PTSD-inducing psychodramas.

I met our former Chairman Sir John Moores as a wide-eyed teenager working for the club in hospitality around 1990-92. By then, his physical health was clearly on the wane – he was wheelchair-bound. He was still sharp as a button though.

I was a total awe-struck idiot and basically thanked him for all he'd done for the club (and on behalf of my dad, who as a young lad got a derby ticket passed to him from the window of a Rolls Royce on the junction of Commercial Road and Stanley Road long before I was born).

He told me with a glint in his eye, that his last official duty in football had been to present the medals in the Littlewoods FA Cup Final in 1998… when Arsenal beat Liverpool.

The older I get, the more that seems to be happening... but it felt like Carter was a respected guy who made good calls. He was respected enough also by the other then Big 5.

We don't have any of this anymore. Carter seems to be the last in a line of Chairmen who knew what Everton were all about... am I wrong?

Johnson didn't have a clue; Kenwright, with the best of intentions, didn't have a clue; and Moshiri wouldn't see a clue if it were dressed in a massive elephant suit screaming "I'm a fucking clue!" at him from a double-decker open-top bus parked outside his house!

People make bad decisions all the time. People are allowed to make mistakes. The trick is to learn from them. None of that seems to have happened at Everton since about 1990 — apart from Royle in the mid-90s... and that all going to crap also.

I don't think it's about one or two solutions. So Americans beware. The History of Everton these last 30 to 35 years has been about serially dreadful business decisions, and unqualified rot that has taken root across the entire club, top-down, bottom-up.

It's just a very badly run football club. There is not a single thing that Everton does at all, commercially, sports-wise, business-wise, media, marketing – any of it – that you can point at and go, "Okay, that's Nisi Satis Nisi Optimum!"

New stadium? Okay, that's the one... I'll give them that.

That's the reason why I say Carter... and the medicine probably wouldn't go down, as the hills are alive with the screams of the past...

Anyway, what do I know?

But it's all very Yakubu – feed the Yak until he vomits and keels over... or Beattie – once every 3years a belter... or Johnson – did he score two against Liverpool??

I just don't see him leading the line anymore, too many injuries, too many misses, too many missed opportunities. We don't even play to his strengths. It seems he showed us a glimmer under Ancelotti and then faded into grey…

I am not excited by any of the squad. I am not thrilled by the team sheet. I am not enthralled by the way we play.

I don't think pound for pound (in flesh weight and cash size) we are any better than Brentford or Bournemouth or Brighton. Brentford… Bournemouth…Brighton… DCL would not get into any of those teams. He would be on the bench.

That should be the title of his autobiography: "On the Bench (at Brentford, Bournemouth and Brighton)"

He cares too much about his hair and his beard. I couldn't care less if he wants to dress up in tights and a bikini... just score some fucking goals! You are our Number 9 and so, if you score some fucking goals, you can call yourself a lemon and wear speedos to the supermarket for all I care!!!

I agree, we keep Coleman. He's been the best thing about Everton for 20 years.

I would even consider giving Coleman a crack... but it probably will be Potter... or some superstar European. It won't be Dyche in the new Stadium. Commercial suicide.

The new ground sponsor (Qatari, I'm betting) will want some social media mileage that Dyche just can't deliver on.

Have you noticed how many times Dyche touches his nose and rubs his head during press conferences? I know, I know – it's about winning games and staying in the league... but he doesn't win many games and we only just stay in the league.

Football is more than about winning games and staying in the Premier League... and we don't even do that very well!

Well, what can I say, as you have said it all for me.

Allardyce, Lee and our Spanish friend is just bonkers

The Daily Mail had an article today rating the 68 players we have signed under Moshri and it is not good reading.

I would ask only that you not worry about the Roma fans falling out of love with Friedkin. That tantrum by the Ultras -- who drove out the club CEO with death threats after Friedkin properly backed her over an ultimatum from the manager -- has been triggered by Roma's drop in the Serie A table from 6th to 12th.

Think about that. The Ultras posted signs at the training ground calling their own players traitors, scumbags and worse... over a drop from 6th to 12th. (By those standards Old Trafford should be burning right now.) What kind of fan base does that? A contemptible one.

Given the Roma Ultras history of violence, I decline to give their opinions any credence. Worry as you wish... we all do... but not about that.

The stadium, if left financed as it was, would have financially broken us. We built this massive piece of infrastructure, which of course ran well over budget, largely on the back of loan shark funding. The interest alone would have exceeded any incremental income.

The whole farce was compounded by poor character judgement, falling for Kenwright's PR bullshit, in turn allowing the latter to appoint perhaps the least qualified, most incompetent CEO in Premier League history. What was it, the 128-point strategy?

The one good thing, if we are to believe what has been claimed, is that he has written off most of his investment. Had he not done so, we would have not been viable as a going concern to sell. So maybe a small amount of appreciation for doing that but it is hardly something any successful businessperson would want appreciation for.

It is who Moshiri gets into bed with that shows the type of Certified Accountant he is.

How wrong can you be!

Yes, John Moores was a down-to-earth man, I tapped on the window of his Rolls-Royce in the carpark of Anfield before a night derby game, he rolled the window down. I asked him if it was true we were going to sign Fred Pickering, the Blackburn centre-forward.

Mr Moores said to me “If the manager wants to sign a player I've never refused him before” not saying yes or no but leaving it with me to see what happened — we signed Fred not long after.

Sir John Moores was shrewd, knew plenty about football, knew what Everton fans wanted and needed. He thought Johnny Carey wasn't ruthless enough with the players, could have done better, so he let him go and brought in a man who had that ruthlessness to get the success he and the fans longed for.

Catterick did a good job until his health failed and, when John Moores's health failed, so did Everton FC's successful period.

Re: Roma. You know more than I do. I was simply reading that the Friedkins were having a rough time after doing a Moshiri with managers — "Doing a Moshiri" — this should be part of an Evertonian's Dictionary: "purposefully fucking up everything you touch no matter how much money you spend, no matter how best-intentioned"

I mean in 2014, if you had told me that we would have spent north of £500M in players over the next decade? I would have said "What are you smoking?"

Then, if you had told me that we would be hiring fucking Allardyce and Lee... then Benitez, then Frank Lampard, ending up with Dyche after having sacked Martinez – and Koeman… and some guy called Silva... with a hugely overweight Unsworth as interim (twice) – and Duncan Ferguson (twice)... Oh yeah, and the most successful European manager that has ever lived in Carlo Ancelotti, all inside 10 tears, I would have reported you to the police for sniffing industrial amounts of glue...

You honestly, literally couldn't make it up.

The thing that has dragged me out of a zen-like silence from these message boards is reading Moshiri's statement... someone has to point it out. We got points deducted because we couldn't count!

I mean it. We literally couldn't read rules, and we couldn't work out how much we spent over a few years. You can get all angry about conspiracies and Red Top newspapers and a Southern Cabal of banker twats waterboarding us... but we got points deducted for not being able to add numbers together!

How did we actually not get relegated last season?
What in the actual God's fuck has happened over the last 10 years?

I mean this with the greatest respect, I know I am saying we should move on from Dyche – and I feel that is harsh. But Christ almighty we owe that guy... a statue, somewhere... how in God's name did we not get relegated after the points deduction as well??? Not once... twice!

If you were in a coma since 2015, and came out of the coma this week, to read what the fuck happened to Everton since 2016... and I know some people want to keep kicking deadman Kenwright down the road – fine... but no one can do a Moshiri like Moshiri did.

I mean, other clubs get comedy billionaires. It's just our one had to be absolutely batshit delusionally crazy.

I don't know... maybe Dyche can go and be Roma's manager?

The guy was Usmanov's bagman. As a couple of former Arsenal shareholders, they watched as Kroenke did whatever he did and thought they could do better. Hindsight has proven that there's more to running a football club than ego, bullshit and throwing money away.

Welcome The Friedkin Group. You offer professionalism, structure and a business-minded approach to running our club. To be fair, you could offer Taco Tuesday and extra hand towels in the Main Stand toilets at Goodison Park and I'd be fully onboard.

Of course they did, and those 4 years gave us our pride back – starting when Howard Kendall appointed Colin Harvey as his assistant.

It never lasted because we never built on that success and Carter was more interested in going along with Thatcher and accepting the European ban instead of fighting for Everton, who did nothing wrong, to be left in European competitions.

Then Kendall left, wasn't successful again as a manager anywhere else, including two more goes at Everton, and Colin Harvey was better as a coach than he was as a manager.

The club went to pot and skint, had a very brief fling with Joe Royle, the other fella became chairman, feathered his nest while Everton sunk further down the ladder.

And here we are now, possibly on the up – although it's easier slipping down the ladder than climbing up it!

You're right, not even Mel Brooks could have authored a sufficiently satirical script to cover the wild span of our managerial changes.

I share your minority opinion of Dyche. He could probably make a fortune just by collecting his motivational pregame speeches from last year into a book. Two points deductions and we're still up? With THIS roster? Incredible. Ridiculous. Of course he must go soon based on current performance, but managers are hired to be fired, and it's the natural order of things.

Like you, I will always regard his last two seasons with nothing short of wonder.

Fitting legacy.

I would buy a Dyche book of motivational talks as Everton manager:

Chapter Nine – "How to ignore 30,000 people at home who think you are crap"

Chapter Twelve – "So it's the derby at Anfield... how not to humiliate yourselves"

Chapter Twenty – "How to ignore 50,000 people away from home who think you are really crap and can't understand why you haven't been relegated seven times over the last 10 years"

Chapter Thirty – "How to bore teams into submission"

And you are right about Mel Brooks... that's exactly what's happened – and that is exactly who I would have thought has written our last 9 years, I'm not angry anymore; it's taken me nearly 9 years to work it out and get over it all. It's really all a massive joke, a really sophisticated and well-written satire.

It's the statement that's triggered the final straw.

The lack of shame.

A total lack of understanding of what he's done.

And like I say... I am very grateful for the stadium. I can't wait to watch games there... But I won't be thanking him. The ends don't justify the means.

I feel great disappointment and disillusionment with the team and really sad that this is our last season at Goodison Park, and that we are not paying due respect to our history...

Every game should be a celebration.

We should be cataloguing every last game, against the history of all the games we've played with whichever team at home!

We should have had it all planned.

We should have shown all the other fans what it means for them to have played at Goodison Park.

We've missed a golden opportunity since 1892... 133 years of history. The chance to set the record straight.

We've missed the chance to tell all the Red Shite every home game this season that their ground was our first ground and that their team was invented by a rancid landlord – greedy, self-centred, a liar and a thief... we missed all of this chance this season.

Just another example of how the entire management of the club and its history is wasted on the club management and executive.

No leadership.
No vision.
No aspiration.
No commercial zeal.
No innovation.
No originality.

I know, let's hire Sam Allardyce and Sammy Lee – that will help.

I see this as a matter of scale. Despite his mistakes, the biggest being Benitez in my opinion, during his time at Everton he has:-

1. Tried to improve the squad by letting other people spend a lot of his money.

2. Kept us in the Premier League – something that, for example, Werner didn't manage at Villa or the owners of West Ham, and Leicester.

3. Built us one of the best football stadiums in the world which will have a positive economic flow on to the city of Liverpool.

In the circumstances, this Evertonian has no problem, in fact feels sort of duty-bound to say thank you to the man.

As for our new owners, here is a question to ponder:-

Have they bought the worst house in the street or the best house in the street? I suppose it depends on how you look at it. Either way, they are on a winner.

But like whoever wrote it, they are just totally delusional like Moshiri that signed it.

And OMG, are there still some people on here wanting Moyes back?

Carry on, mate. I like the way you are letting out 30 years plus of frustration with our club. I wish I could do that, too!

I've read across the nether regions of t'internet that Moyes's name is being whispered. Probably a load of nonsense… but if – and I am only playing a tune – if Dyche went on a, let's say 5 to 7 game losing streak (not hard to imagine), and the cries and megaphones come out, who would people be barking for?

Sad journalism would reach for the Moyes buzzer (complete with a confetti canon and high-kicking dancing girls).

I'm just knackered. I just want us to win some fucking football games. I'm not for 1 second am I advocating Moyes… but I do look at the squad he put together and think… that was not a half-bad team that! Baines and Pienaar, Osman and Hibbert; say what you like, they worked well as a team.

Any of that team would walk into our current set-up – even Per Krøldrup!!! – (Joke)

He went to Germany to meet Moshiri to discuss terms, only for Ancelotti to get sacked at Napoli that night!

Personally I'm glad we didn't get him back – and I hope we don't ever again. Rather than list my reasons and "trigger" you, I'll just say it's superstition where Everton is concerned – going back never works out!

I did read that… it's a point worth thinking about (not the return) but the genuine – who next?

Would any of you take Mourinho? Potter?

Let Dyche continue. Coleman… Ferguson?

He fucked up on his own watch and we're supposed to feel grateful?

He would have walked and sold us to 777 Partners without batting an eyelid. I'm more grateful to the FA. How perverse is that?

You're a Moyes fan then?

Each to his own but what did Blue Bill say? I told them I'd find them a billionaire! 🙈

Don't think I've ever defended Blue Bill.

Just because Blue Bill made mistakes... it doesn't give Moshiri a free pass.

I believe, if I remember correctly, that Elstone admitted to the Commission into Kirkby, that the club was never up for sale, that no director was selling their shares, including Kenwright. That blew the 24/7 search out of the water and laid bare the truth. Investment whilst keeping control.

Along comes Moshiri and Usmanov who for reasons only they will ever disclose, agreed to buy the club, make Kenwright and other Directors multi millionaires and still let him run the place. What they strategy was we will never know because thats what happened until (I believe) Moshiri and Usmanov finally said enough, as relegation threatened Allardyce was appointed at their insistence to keep us in the PL. From then on it went to hell leading to war and pandemic, sanctions and incompetence. Wagons circled in the boardroom, defending from the fans, Moshiri and repelling any boarders.

10 years, 20 years, 30 years.. its like that 3 lions song.. just kept getting worse.

I sometimes wonder what Moshiri and Usmanov's plan was, buy up and redevelop the land around the dock area? probably had a great deal to do with it, a killing to be made (no hotel windows jokes please) but it certainly wasn't football.. money laundering, wealth creation? All of the above, but it certainly wasn't about the football on the pitch, as long as we staying in the premier league they were ok, but the wheels were coming off that trolley and so the dabbling started..

How much did Usmanov back Moshiri? Why? Who cares? Not me, not any more.. Kenwright was no mug, astute yes, smart, yes, but there was an undercurrent of self interest with everything he seemed to do at the club. I don't shed a tear for the man. But I have cried many for what he and others have done to our club.

I welcome the end of an era. Moshiri's legacy will be seen as the stadium but the shocking incompetence of his reign will forever associate him, rightly with one of (if not the worst) periods of our history. The reason he came along was Kenwright and the multitude of sins committed prior to his arrival.. Act 4 of a five Act play..

Well written Ray..very (sadly) true..

Footnote: I have put this to bed now, attempts at revisionism will, at some point conveniently forget some of the important stuff to make a case for, or against, but the devil was always in the detail, much hidden deliberately by those who deemed it sensitive to their own image or their own greed. All at the cost of Everton Football Club and its fans.

That said, his endorsement of Kenwright dismayed me to say the least and his antics re managers, DoF's, and player signings further dismayed mem to say the least.

I then really got to thinking about him, Moshiri, a billionaire made so whilst wholly employed by a shyster Russian oligarch right up the arse of that ultra-bastard Putin, all of whom have made obscenely good at the cripplingly drastic expense of the Russian people.

In short, Moshiri is a shit of a human being.

BMD? Who knows who'll own it? But we all know us fans will pay for it in full.

"a shit of a human being."

And yet many ToffeeWebber's for some reason feel we should be grateful?

Fat Sam, The Spanish Waiter...Carlo with the "Get Me Out of Here Clause" in his contract.

Benitez may have called us a small club in the heat of the moment Moshiri made it legally binding when he employed Carlo on those terms,

Better days ahead...

It's almost Christmas...perhaps, perhaps, perhaps

People talk about Potter, or some unknowns from La Liga, for me, playing football is about winning. Thats the ultimate and first goal of ANY manager, even Fat Sam. You may not like how he does it but in the end its about winning. Carlo has the highest win percentage but we could never succeed without giving him the needed resources, who knows what promises were made? Every other manager we had under his stewardship was just, well, crap, including the worst of all in my opinion, Sean Dyche. (Although I might have to think about his ranking as we have had some bad ones..
Thinking about that..
Worst: The Spanish Waiter. I just couldn't forgive anyone for that
Next worst: Koeman.. no time for players or the club
Next place: Dyche Anti football as I know it
Next place: Lampard.. out of his depth
Next one: Sam Allardyce did the job, better than Dyche anyday..

None of it matters anymore.. except the current manager.

I think Sean has Sam whupped on that score.

Do you think that's some kind of achievement, keeping us up?

Let's be brutally honest here, we were a 90th-minute Jordan Pickford save from being relegated, the season before last.

We stayed up not because of Dyche but in spite of him. His football has been absolutely stomach churning to watch, witness 5 goalless games in the last 6, a disgraceful stat.

Christine is right, this mug isn't fit enough to lace Allardyce's boots, and that really is saying something.

I'm currently on holiday in Dubai and I won't even bother my arse going to watch us today, that is what Sean Dyche has done to me.

Didn't Allardyce come into Everton on the back of a 4-0 win when Everton were already reasonably clear of relegation - then try to claim it was his victory?

Anyways, I think Dyche has been dealt the worst hand of all the managers under Moshiri/by the premier league - and no matter what my opinions are of his football - we are still in the premier league - despite massive points deductions, selling the better players and piecing together a squad from loanees, aged players and somehow trying to get a cohesive unit from a Frankensteinian group of players assembled by several mostly failed managers and projects - all without anyone at the helm!

For that, Dyche must get at least a little credit - surely!?

Agreed, all opinion.

Dyche would never have been hired if the club hadn't been in a state in the first place - and he inherited a club in a real state and he has intimated that he wasn't told the full story either. I have been a critic of his tactics and the style of play, plus his team selections - but, under very very trying circumstances and with the odds stacked against him - he has kept Everton afloat - an Everton that looked doomed under Benitez (how the hell did that happen?) and Lampard - both managers that had better resources and squads at their disposal if I recall correctly.

I have to say though - I wouldn't be happy paying to watch Everton at the moment!

I hate the football that we are currently playing but I genuinely don’t blame Dyche, even though this will be easy to pick apart considering he his the manager.

A manager is responsible for his team but looking back at Pickford’s last minute save, I still find it hard to believe that Everton stayed up that season, when I think of the absolute chaotic mess, that Sean Dyche inherited.

I’ve been saying that I’m certain that Dyche, can get us playing much better football, and now this new beginning, it won’t be long before we find out, one way or the other?

Enjoy Dubia, Andy, but 6 O’Clock, is the perfect time for sitting in a bar and watching football, just as it’s beginning to go dark!!

Moshiri was totally out of his depth. He promised us a new striker which didn't happen.

Thankfully we now have a new owner.

Everton will change.

His legacy is the stadium.

Dyche has remained in place simply because the owner couldn't afford to sack him, but we have stayed up.

We were stuck in the past.

It's been an ugly few years.

But now we move on.

I want to see a trophy gleaming in that Mersey sunshine.

One thing to be thankful to him for is that magnificent stadium on the River Mersey. I wish him well for the future.

But criticising him for getting possibly the greatest manager in history to come to a bottom-half Premier League team without a trophy in 30 years is fucking odd.

Not saying I agree but a lot of posters have previously suggested that Moshiri hid the true extent of Everton's perilous financial position when he persuaded Carlo to come.

I have no idea but, if that is true, then the criticism is probably justified.

The appointment of Ancelotti was a masterstroke but sadly the money had almost dried up by this point, and we know that Ancelotti's successor was only given £1.25M to spend. Is that the real reason Ancelotti left? Having no money to improve the squad was probably not a situation that filled him with any excitement.

But regarding some of their managerial choices, starting with Koeman, they were seriously flawed. He was new to club management and, despite a decent start at Southampton, he wasn't equipped to run a club the size of Everton.

He always gave the impression that this was just a stepping stone to the Barcelona job which miraculously he got and failed miserably there as well.

The Allardyce and Benitez appointments were never going to sit well with our supporters, and Lampard was another massive risk.

So if this was a school report on Moshiri, I would say tried hard but was easilly distracted and mixed with the wrong people, who continually gave him bad advice.

There might not have been much money to buy new recruits for the team but plenty to settle his contract, how did he even get that when it suited him down to the ground to leave for a top European club?

Benitez came in with the knowledge he would have to trim the wage bill with very little to spend also knowing he wasn't wanted by the chairman and 95% of the supporters – a fucking big hill to climb that.

Fallable and gullible in my book.

Their attempt was noteworthy but, as you say, they were let down by 'football experts'.

It had nothing to do with the fact that he offered him a £50M contract (the biggest ever at the time, I believe). Agreed to let him sign his mates on wages nobody else would pay. Allowed him to bring half his family in to do fuck knows what. Set him no targets... and just in case that wasn't enough, allowed him to insert a get-out-of-jail card into the small print of his contract.

All that a week after Carlo had been sacked and was out work. I really can't think why he signed…

If I paid over the odds for a Rolls-Royce and left it in front of my house because I couldn't afford to run it, my neighbours would rightly call me a complete dickhead.

Moshiri gets a pat on the back.

Benitez isn't a charity worker, he also picked up a handsome wage knowing the odds where stacked against him from the start. Imagine taking on a contract knowing you would very likely not see the end of it and get paid off millions in the process.

In my opinion, Moshiri was the front of house for Usmanov; the Ukraine War and the £20M stadium naming rights we had to return plunged us into PSR hell.

Moshiri did more for us in 8 years than the greatest Evertonian did in 30. A waterfront stadium as opposed to Tesco Kirkby branch.

It's just a shame he left Kenwright in charge. Moshiri's legacy is tarnished by Kenwright's incompetence.

He soon found out he didn't have the skilled players he was used to.

Cheers, Farhad, for the new stadium, and to you and all fellow Bluenoses, please have a Merry Christmas!

Now managers, just like players, have in their contracts a release clause so, if clubs agree to those terms, they can't complain when they are activated.

Players and managers are the most ruthless mercenaries but, despite most of the money clubs make being poured into players and managers bank accounts, those same players are now moaning they play too many games. Yet I don't hear them suggesting a cut in salary to pay for the reduction in games.

Us fans are always demanding clubs spend big on players, yet baulk at any price increase in tickets, and are only concerned about club finances when they transgress PSR.

On the one hand, he's spent an absolute fortune on Everton. At the same time, it is clear he took zero interest in football or the club.

At first sight, it looks absolutely crazy. Until you recall what football is, and who these people are. He wasn't interested in winning FA Cups, and 'restoring Everton to their rightful position', blah, blah, blah.

With football now being a premier and prestigious club, owning Everton enabled the Russians to move significant but probably dodgy money around, and also allowed them to have a voice that would be heard. I also suspect they wanted to own land and infrastructure at a key strategic port.

It's a huge relief to get him out the door, and to get a new stadium makes it almost worth our while putting up with it all these last 8 years… Almost.

So when you all get on your knees to thank Moshiri for a stadium, which was built with unpayable money, remember, if it wasn't for 777 Partners, we would've folded.

Thank heavens TFG came in, because if not we would be in League Two next season.

Myself, I am fed up of hearing about the 'Greatest Evertonian' and Moshiri – they are long gone. They are history, albeit not a pleasant or successful one in the annals of our great club.

We are turning over a new page, let's hope it makes good reading.

The greatest club manager of all time was Brian Clough. No one in the history of football could have done what he did with Nottm Forest.

He created a cult that lasted for a few magnificent years. He was, for a short time, a genius; flawed… but so special.

Clough did it twice, once with Derby County and then Nottm Forest, I think he took both clubs from the Second Division as well and made a lot of players play to their maximum potential; alcohol played a big part in his downfall.

Clough did the same to Brighton that Ancelotti did to Everton – left them in the lurch – but that doesn't take away the brilliant jobs he did at relatively poor clubs financially, Derby County and Nottm Forest.

Carlo was sacked by rich clubs; did he ever find success with poorer ones?

Carlo's release clause was pretty atypical. If a certain club or clubs came in for him, he could leave with Everton receiving minimal or no compensation.

I'd suggest it was unique.

So, is it Christmas Day for people waking up in Yankee Doodle land, Australia and New Zealand etc or are they waking up to Christmas Eve?

Happy Christmas if the former…

Many managers just don't have the financial backing to build much of a squad whilst others have endless bank accounts (just a few).

A manager can have some success where he is for a season or two and then get picked up at a rich club but that doesn't guarantee trophies.

Certainly going back a few years, people like Clough deserved accolades but it takes more than one person to build a successful club.

Clough became too outspoken (much like Trump) spouting stupidity.

Everton have had a few big names since Moyes went and all have flopped for different reasons but have gone on to do good things elsewhere, much like some players. Go figure that one out!

I believe that the war that Russia started was another major problem as I doubt if Usmanov would have put up with Billy Bullshit for very long and invited him for a holiday in Siberia.

Moshiri was a weak owner and easily led in a business venture he didn't understand, but that is no excuse for the mistakes he made.

He has and is to be warmly thanked for his determination in getting Bramley-Moore Dock and building the magnificent new stadium on it.

There's only USA, Canada, and all the South American and Caribbean islands who are behind us; everybody else is either ahead of us or the same time.

Though why you ask… Fuck Knows! 😂😂😂

We're taking a time-out now until Lyndon posts the Match Preview for our game on Boxing Day.

Merry Christmas to all our readers, and especially those who contribute to the lively discussion on these threads.

Thank you both for all your hard work in making TW the best fansite there is!

Have a great one.

Certainly not Benitez when he took on the Everton job. The pay-off for his inevitable sacking was locked in the contract, so I am sure he was delighted to put pen to paper.

6 league titles in 5 Italy, Spain, England, France and Germany, 5 champions leagues, 4 domestic cups in Italy, England and Spain.

Only top clubs hire top managers.

The foundations and style of play introduced has never changed his blueprint continues to bring trophies 66 years later without a truly bad season in all that time.

They are a footballing empire based on his work

Can’t think of anyone who comes near.

It shows you the size of Canada as Vancouver is on the West Coast and they are another 4 hours behind us or 8 hours behind Liverpool.

On the other hand Carlo was on boss wages, his own coaching staff including his son and if it didn’t suit him he had an easy way out with a secure financial release and a bleedin’ bonus on top a few months later.

I was talking about why Carlo signed. Not why Moshiri went for him in the first place. We all know Moshiri was going Hollywood. Carlo was still a poor choice.

I know there is a section of Evertonian's who buy into that Il magnifico stuff, but I'm not one of them. I always think it a tad embarrassing when Evertonian's boast about his achievements. I only care about what he did here.

People forget that When he came, we beat Burnley to go neck and neck with them, leaving Carlo well over half a season to get ahead of them. He couldnt manage it. Dyche's much maligned hoofers pulled away and finished comfortable above us.

Then there was his full season. crap side after crap side came to Goodison, dominated play with a more adventurous approached and waltzed off with the points - "I'm not a magician" was the response when challenged about our home form. Well he certainly made our European hopes disappear. The football world was getting a very good look at what Il Magnifico looked like without his super stars.

I think Ancelotti proved himself to be an all time great. Handling world class players is a rare gift, few possess it and nobody can deny his achievements. They should be acknowledged

But sorry Colin, my toes curl when I hear Evertonians boasting of his success. it's a bit like listening to a guy who didnt get to consummate his 18 month marriage boasting to anyone who will listen to him about what a great time his missus had given all the other men in her life.

He’s made some bad choices eg Napoli and Everton, both clubs owned by lunatics, but he’s up there with the greats; Michels, Santana, Paisley (like it or not), Clough, Cruyff etc…

But as Michael said, it Christmas Eve and I want to wish all fellow ToffeeWebbers (moaners, happy clappers, dangerously obsessed, seriously deluded, chronically optimistic etc.. we are a wide and varied bunch) a very Merry Christmas and a successful new year.

UTFT!!!

I don't think I (or anybody else ) will stop you boasting about Carlo's achievements elsewhere. So I will just wish you and yours all the very best.

BTW; I don't dislike Carlo. He wasn't just a top player. He is one of the finest managers ever. Just because I don't see it as an Evertonians place to boast about his achievements, doesn`t mean I feel they should not be praised and acknowledged.

Merry Christmas to all blues everywhere

Merry Christmas, every one and have a Ball!💙🤍🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to everyone on these pages 💙💙💙💙🎊🎉🎉🎁🎁🎁

💙💙💙💙🎊🎉🎉🎁🎁🎁

Happy Christmas all.

A merry Christmas to you Brendan, Breige and everyone on ToffeeWeb.

Happy Christmas to your good self and your wonderful wife June.

We're... I mean Breige... is cooking for all hands so I'd happily settle for peace, harmony and tranquility just in our house today.

God Bless!

Merry Xmas everyone..else.

"Suppose some things never change"

Other than Darren's user name