A good assessment, Nobby. This paragraph chimed with me in particular. The blue's preoccupation with their standing in comparison to Liverpool has allowed them to sleepwalk to their current stasis...or possible regression. Forgetting rivalry, you simply cannot build a sustainable model of success if it's based on the quick fix and the impatient immediacy that blues crave.
Swelling the squad with 'trophy' signings without a coherent plan was braindead but it gave them a month or so of sheer delight. At the time of their transfer bonanza Dave Downie, a very reflective and considered blue, tweeted something like "Let me enjoy it, this has never happened in my lifetime!" That kind of attitude has not aged well, but it was all prevailing last summer.
The wave of optimism was based on a PR stunt; the club were engaging in financial suicide for the purposes of winning the transfer window. The actual recruitment policy took second fiddle to the nobility in being able to buy lots of fellas in one window. Moshiri was so obsessed with 'quick wins' that the idea of real succession planning became a strategic inconvenience. The sheer scale of this irresponsible approach may sting them for years to come.
Of course the 'jam tomorrow' brigade will create an idyllic patchwork version of the future that will include a heaving new stadium full of blues cheering on an expensively assembled team that wins stuff. But the jam may never arrive because daddy spent all the money in the summer of 2017 on a load of garbage.
Everton that...
Part of me wonders whether Moshi was trying to “leverage the brand” or such bullshit, like the other two wanted to do with us.
Their Weetabix model of boosting the brand and then the share price, followed by a cash in, was screwed by the financial crash.
Moshi has done a lot of bullshitting but has financed the boosting of the EFC brand using transfer and TV funds. His corporate sponsors are his mates firm USM. Yes he has put a loan in place, but if I was a Blue, the Chinese overdraft would have worried me.
Stuff like new cladding lights and a boiler would worry me more as they suggest they are not expecting to move anytime soon.
All the shit about the Dock site and we are yet to see a proper drawing, let alone a spade in the rubble.
If the last 12 months had gone to plan, they would have had a respected international manager in place, a decent squad, a good European run and would have challenged for the top 6. Uncle Joe promising them cash and lots of it, and as a result a promise of a new ground on the back of the Commonwealth bid.
Everton would certainly be on the rise and the value of shares would no doubt have increased.
But then everything went splosh, the new signings were shite, the older players were shite, their one class international sadly broke his leg and was out for most of the season. The return of the prodigal in some ways saved them with the early season goal drip, although by September he had reverted to type and unlike United, the Everton PR dept couldn’t spin his drinking and womanising as a positive. He spent much of the season lumbering round like an aging uncle having a kick around on the park with kids who didn’t pass to him.
As a result of the managerial fiasco the ‘Everton Brand’ took a dive and even the arrival of Allardyce was seen as a decline. Short termism seems to govern their operations at present.
Almost as if they are desperate to sell ‘the brand’
Anyone else smell something fishy? It is very Hicks and Gillette, and piss taking aside, after what those two did to us, I hope it isn’t, because it won’t be pretty
