Who wants to play for Everton?

After many decades in the doldrums, suddenly in the 1980’s Great Britain’s athletes started to perform really well again in the Olympics and the World and European Championships. Correctly, much of the credit for this resurgence was given to the coach, Frank Dick. Frank explained how he had persuaded his athletes, people like Daley Thompson and Steve Ovett, who essentially operated as individuals concerned with their own events, to think of themselves as part of a greater whole. Team GB was born and has thrived ever since. Nowadays we expect to see the rowing team win its customary gold medal and then rush down to trackside to cheer the 4x100 relay squad to victory.

It was Frank Dick who instilled this sense of team ethic into the athletes and it was very clever psychology. I once had the privilege of listening to Frank explain how this psychology works even better in reverse, that is in how to help teams to perform better by enabling the team members to remember that they are also individuals. His argument went like this: OK first and foremost when the players pull on that shirt then they become part of the team and the badge on the shirt reminds them that they are part of a bigger team with a long and proud history. Their first duty is to play for the shirt and all it represents. Then they must look at the number on the back of the shirt (this was in the days when numbers indicated positions on the pitch) and their second duty is to play the role in the team that the number demands of them. But most of all, said Frank, most of all they must look to the person inside the shirt and be the best individual that they can be. What matters most in a great team is the individual pride to be the best “you” that you can be.

I was reminded of this story watching the debacle against Arsenal the other night. Where was the pride in the shirt, in the badge and, like Frank said, most of all in the individual performance? Today’s footballers earn huge salaries. Few of Everton’s team that night earn less in a week than the average UK annual yearly wage. Arsenal’s players earn even more. But I was struck by another difference – in a game in which neither Arsenal nor Everton could improve or worsen their league position, only one team played. We were not even second best. The best player on the pitch was a 36 year old Dutchman whose pride had been affronted by his club’s hesitation in giving him a new one year contract. Clearly for this player it was about his pride and self-respect and not about money. Bergkamp went out and played for his shirt and his badge and he showed that he still had the hunger to be the best he could be. Contrast that with our 35 year old “fighting” for his new contract. Moaning to the newspapers about how he “deserves more from Everton” after all he has done and how he might now go to Leeds apparently is a better way to achieve a new contract than Bergkamp’s total concentration and effort on the pitch.

I’ll tell you who “deserves more” – the people of the People’s Club. My son and the thousands of others who went down to Highbury, and all of us who have supported the club unwaveringly through thin and thin over the last 10 years. To say it was unacceptable is an understatement. This result, this display was a disgrace. We do not deserve, especially after such a season as we’ve had, to be embarrassed like this. I thought I’d seen the worst end of season display last year at Man City, but the ineptitude of this performance was even greater. Thankfully there is one game left though and I’ll be at the Reebok on Sunday to see if this team will make the effort to leave us with better memories of a great season. I don’t mind whether we win, lose or draw, I just want to see an Everton team fight hard for every ball, run and support each other on and off the ball and try to play good, passing football. The old adage that you are only as good as your last game could never be more accurate.

But going back to contracts again, there can be absolutely no room for sentimentality here. I liked Wenger’s description of how he looks into a player’s eyes when a new contract is being discussed to see if the player, in Wenger’s opinion, still has the hunger and desire to go out and win. It really is as simple as that. Once you start rewarding players for what they done for you in the past, rather than what they will do for the club in the future, then you are a club without ambition. I was very surprised and disappointed that David Weir chose to make his criticisms about his contract negotiations known. Maybe he should look around at players of a similar age and quality and ask some important questions. People like Bergkamp and Shearer, for example, who both retired from international football in their 30’s in order to prolong their club careers. Unfortunately David did the exact opposite with international football and that cannot help Everton at his age.

How many Evertonians, like me, have known what it is like to be out of work? Living in the real world we learn early that life does not owe you anything and most of us work hard to make something of ourselves. We strive to be the best “we” that we can be in whatever it is that we do. Footballers should see it no differently. I shall always have fond memories of this season and of this squad of players. I loved watching them 2-0 up against Newcastle, passing the ball around and keeping possession (albeit with the extra man). Some looked more comfortable than others, Cahill and Yobo spring to mind, but they all showed that they can play a bit. But you have to earn the right to play a bit in every single game you play. How come the only players booked in a 7-0 game were from the team that got the 7? It’s up to David Moyes now as to who will get contracts to wear the royal blue shirt, but I hope that he is as successful as Frank Dick in identifying winners who will build a dynasty on the foundation stone of this great season.

JOE 90. (13/05/05)

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