Everton FC E-mails 195
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Season to peter out A few thoughts after defeat to Tottenham. Pissed off with the lame excuses being bandied about after weak performances against the Shite (down to ten), Mackem's (down), Charlton (rested half the team for the Cup game) and yesterday against Spurs (they're good, but not that good). While teams above us where dropping points, I can't believe we couldn't take advantage of the situation. If players and management can't be arsed putting the effort in until the last minute of the last game of the season, why should the supporters. One point out of the last twelve is dire for a team that not long ago had aspirations for Europe no matter how slight. Rumours that Cahill, Arteta and Yobo are off during the summer don't help when we're meant to building a team and trying to get behind the lads. Neither are rumours that Dickov may be joining the Club. How sad is that? I hope it remains a rumour. Finally, the massive favour that the Club is doing for Season Ticket holders by offering renewals at this season's prices won't be taken advantage of by my lad and I until we see who we've kept hold of during the Summer and who we've brought in. Imagine the scenario. I hand over £800 at the end of this month. Turn up for the first game of next season and we've no new faces, and the decent ones from this season have gone. Not worth the risk. As the girl that works in Max Spielmans once told me, 'I'll wait until later on to see how things develop'. I hate mediocrity. I've tried to be optimistic and positive all season, even when everybody had us doomed before Christmas, but it hurts like hell now. Nil Satis Nisi Optimum. Say no more. Eddieparkend. COYB. (18/04/06) SUMMER TRANSFERS I read the email from Dave VYV and understand his frustrations - I felt the same way earlier in the season. I love EFC but, after the start we had, I thought we were going down this season. But lets be fair - Davey and the boys have done the club proud since Christmas. IF I was running the squad - which I´m not :) - I wouldn´t reward them for their efforts by telling them I was going to replace half of them in the summer. What has been achieved since Christmas is all about Team Spirit. That is the first thing this Evertonian is looking for in the team and we have got that in abundance. As Davey would say - long may it continue. The older players already know they don´t have much longer to go - but surely everybody who loves the club has learnt something from the Alan Stubbs affair. Well done and thank you to Alan Stubbs and and well done to David Moyes for having the bottle to bring him back. Alan is a born leader and their are younger men in the team who can learn much from him. As far as investors are concerned they look for sound investments - so the first thing they do is due diligence on the financial situation of the business they are buying into. What debt and other liabilities is the business (EFC) carrying etc? Keith Wyness seems to be handling this side of things very well - like a true bean counter. In my experience (because I have to deal with them in my job) bean counters are not always popular with staff and customers (us) but every business needs one of them. He doesn´t have to be popular - just good at his job. Investment will come. As I have written previously, when fully fit we have a good squad and the makings of a fine TEAM. It´s seems to me that most of the players we have now are totally committed to the club. I believe that a big factor in this is the number of people who turn up at each home game - and lets not forget the loyal supporters who follow them away from home week in and week out. So Davy VYV cheer up - the day is coming soon when footballers in England and everywhere will once again look at the Royal Blue shirt of EFC with envy and rip the arm off anyone who offers them a chance to pull it on! Blue like my father before me (God bless him). Laurie form OZ. (18/04/06) Moaning Bastards Can I just say has anyone1 noticed the amount of moaning blues out there. People forget that last year we qualified for Europe. Although I would have liked the grand adventure to last a little longer than 4 games. Just getting there in the first place is an achievement. Most years we would be expecting to be fighting with the West Brom's and Birmingham's to avoid the drop. But once people taste success they want it more which I fully understand but this is Everton just to be even thinking about europe is a testament to Davie Moyes' managerial abilities. Keep it up David. DLM. (18/04/06) The Future? Just
glanced at the latest e-mails and call it spooky but there is a possibility
that of some of you have realised that maybe, just maybe this season has
been absolute shite! If you think that for one minute I'm happy with Everton
being a 'top ten side' then think again. The miracle that was last season
has disappeared in the refuse left by months of under achievement, mediocre
football and endless excuses. Yes we need new blood but that was apparent
last season wasn't it? Did the mighty MOYES invest, did he cut out the
dead wood before this season started? The words 'MY ARSE' suddenly spring
to mind. With quite possibly the most important season for years about
to take place and with a fair pot of loot with which to buy new players
before that time, the 'ambitious' MOYES buys two crocks one of which he
sells without playing in anger for a loss? Get Behind Everton So
Chris Simpson is at it again with another e-mail attacking David Moyes
- he sent one in February where he actually suggested that David be sacked
to make way for - wait for it....Nigel Clough!!! At the end of the day
we are finishing in better positions than before Moyes and we are never
going to win the league whoever is manager - but we have a good go at
things. Bleeting players! Just
read an article on Sky sports news page about Lee Carsley bemoaning not
having an operation during closed season.Many of us more cynical Sam Hamman was the smokescreen Those who saw David Moyes talking to Sam Hamman at the Cardiff V Shef Utd game, don't be taken in, Moyesy was not talking about Jason Koumas. The real targets were ex blues D. Unsworth (32), we need a left back, and C. Short (34), we need to replace D. Weir. Apparently the stumbling block appears to be the fee Everton would have to pay, £5.000 the pair. Moyesy says we can't afford to go that high. Mike Kendrick. (18/04/06) The version that was put up on the LFC site (and subsequently posted on here somewhere) was butchered by them and missed the point. Here is the version that was printed in full in WSAG 123. Please set the record straight. Ian Collins I am an Evertonian. I live in Liverpool. Sefton actually. Merseyside anyway. I don’t go to as many games as I used to. I gave my season ticket up a couple of years ago. To be truthful I got a bit sick of working all week to pay the wages of the likes of Pistone. They’re just not worthy of it. I’m off to Dublin in April though. Can’t wait. It’s not Istanbul but that’s hardly the point. There are not as many ‘I was there’ points to score. It’s watching the Blues, having a few scoops with an old friend in a city I’m very fond of. Do you still need to phone ahead for the Guinness? My elder brother, Gary, died at Hillsborough. Asphyxiation. The breath was crushed out of him by the sheer mass of bodies squashed into such a tight space. I’m getting angry thinking about it. He was no angel like, and I hope to God he did have a few bevies before the game. I don’t like to be reminded of it. I don’t much like the memories of seeing the disaster unfold on the telly, not realising he was there until my Dad said so. Even then, jokingly saying ‘Our Gary’ll get me one of them’ about the numerous Police helmets littering the pitch. There was no phone call to say he was alright.
This became more worrying as the day wore on. My mother had kept her composure all day up until that point, busily ironing every bit of clothing in the house that wasn’t on someone’s back. Upon hearing the news which was a strained ‘There’s no other way of saying this. He’s dead’, all the days ironing got flung around the kitchen and the ironing board was upended. I escaped to the back garden and tried to fend off a particularly boisterous Jack Russell I kept there (for the rats in our council slum). The rest of the day is a bit sketchy. I realise now I was in shock. I was seeing a girl Id known for years at the time. Not that serious, but in my thoughts enough for that to be the first place I turned to. The poor girl didn’t know what to do with me. I was pretty vacant. She probably just plied me with drink. Her dad, who I regard as one of my best friends now, came in. Not knowing about my news said ‘Have you seen what’s happened? Do you know anyone that’s gone?’. My girlfriend had to take him out of the room to explain. ‘Yeah’ I said to no one. I went to Sheffield the next day with my dad and a couple of uncles. The rest of my dads brothers who were scattered around the country all met up there to support us. My girlfriend still says I shouldn’t have gone, but as I said at the time ‘I can’t remember the last time I saw him. I've got to’. It was a weird dream like journey. I kept expecting him to be standing on some street corner, smiling saying ‘Where the fuck have youse been ay?’. It never happened and we set about making sure the person they had lying on some slab in this town was our Gary. They had some kind of community/church hall set up to deal with people like us. I suppose they were doing their best in a terrible situation but the last thing we needed was to be comforted by some stranger, with that serene look God botherers have, who knew nothing about us or the person we were looking for. ‘Listen mate, where’s the nearest pub?’ My Dad said. ‘There’s one across the road. Shall the young fellow stay here?’ Lazarus says. I was at the front going out the door. After a few pints we decided we’d better find the place where they were keeping the bodies. We were sitting around on couches in what I think was a morgue. There were a lot of people about, crying or with worried looks on their faces. A couple of fellas went past in white tunics. One of them was about Peter Crouch’s height and had something a bit queer about him. My uncle David said ‘I bet he does nights’. We all laughed. God you had to. The laughter didn’t last long and the smiles didn’t linger. We were ushered into a room. There was a glass viewing window with a curtain drawn across it, on the inside. As we stood in the dark, all nine or so, there were no jokes. The curtain went aside and there laid my elder brother, Gary. It was him alright. Or something with the life knocked out of it that resembled him. My Dad rested his hands on the window sill and put his nose up to the glass. I couldn’t handle it and fled the room. I was off up the street and our David came after me and brought me back. I asked my Dad days later why he did that and he said ‘Well, you have to make sure’. The events of 15th of April knocked the stuffing out of my Mum and Dad and they began visibly ageing. My relationship with my Dad is better now as we did clash at the time. My sister and I get on better than we did at the time too but what teenager is on more than grunting terms with their elder sister anyway. Not long after we were in one of the Cathedrals in town, can’t remember which one. They had us all lined up in some vestry as Thatcher and some Royal with the coldest hands I’ve ever shook, shook mine. The coldest hands I’ve ever felt and the coldest heart in the same room to shake the hands of a lad from Bootle. That wouldn’t happen while I was conscious nowadays but I was young and impressionable at the time. ‘So dreadfully sorry’ I think Maggie said. ‘Yeah, I fuckin bet yis are’ I can just about live with myself for not saying. Fair play to my Grandad who turned his back on the pair of them, and Id pay money to revisit that sketch. God knows what Maggie and her mate thought. I hope they had a good think about it, but I doubt it. I better get to the point of this, if there is one. It feels alright writing about it for the readers who will take it for what it is, on a basic human level. Something I suspect some folk are lacking. Basic Humankindness. Not a word, but fuck it, this is my piece. We
as a family started getting letters and tickets through about memorials.
I was all for supporting my mother and father in this if that’s what they
wanted to do. Id already explained to my mother that I wasn’t going to
visit a gravestone in Thornton every week, and she accepted it. Its single
figures the amount of times I’ve been there. My mum and Dad go every week,
that’s their decision. I’ve had to stand on the Kop while everyone around me sang that horrible dirge of theirs. I stood there with my mouth sealed. I’ve never been to one since. I’ve vowed to never go there again unless it’s for the Derby. What
struck me was the amount of people on the Kop that day. It was full. 96
people died and they give around 5 tickets to each family. I don’t understand
why you would want to be involved in something like that unless a relative
or a friend had died. My mum got upset when some tit at the back was shouting
about boycotting the upcoming Sheffield Wednesday game (over a plaque).
She thought they were being disrespectful. Thanks lad, me mum swerved
that game on your advice. I normally meet them in the Abbey or one of the many boozers along County Strasse afterwards. I bollocked my sister and (female) cousin for going on about being able to smell Baros’ aftershave last year. A couple of years before, Berger was the object of their attention. I reckon I could tout that ticket and some weirdo would pay good money for it too. There
are probably weirdoes about that wish they had a relative that died that
day, so that they could feel even more aggrieved on message boards. In
the same way Brett Anderson will never forgive God for not letting him
be Angie Bowie. On the journey back to Lime Street that evening there was a lad on the platform with a Liverpool scarf on. I naively thought this kid who was waiting for the same train as me had taken a sickie to visit Leppings Lane. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The carriage I was in had a few people in scarves dotted about. One lad was sat in front of me. The ticket fella got talking to him and mentioned some European team and the penny dropped. This lad had travelled from Cambridge to watch the Mighty Reds and had changed trains at Sheffield. The lad didn’t know how to get to Anfield and the ticket fella said ‘There’ll probably be a few more getting on as we get near Warrington, you can follow them’. That kind of sketch makes my blood boil. At the FA Cup Final in 1989, me and my girlfriend went. We got free tickets from LFC. I had a few bevies that day, and joined isolated crowds in hurling more than a bit of abuse at the Met, who, to be fair, took it on the chin. The games a bit of a blur. My girls a Blue and I remember her being stood on her seat screaming. One
thing that stands out from that day is during the minute’s silence, someone
started playing reggae music full blast from somewhere. Cue shouts of
‘Fuckin shurrup!’ and the like. The thought of armchair fans clapping at the telly is marvellous. A few things I’m going to leave you to chew on. I am an Evertonian. I live in Liverpool. I am a Scouser. What’s so hard to understand about that? No amount of profound banners, car stickers or cheap wristbands is going to bring our Gary back. It’s hard to explain to children why they would have had another Uncle only he was killed at a football match. Boycotting The Sun is pointless. The lazy bastard journo that wrote the offending crap and the editor who let it go have probably moved on and not missed a night’s kip over it. If you would read The Sun anyway, without the boycott you need to have a rethink of your world view. A gang of Mancs and assorted wools singing beauties such as ‘96 is not enough’ to a load of wools, Southerners and Scandinavians, and them getting wound up about it reeks of phoniness. I hope no-one ever sings anything similar near me. Then again, why would they at a match where Everton were playing?I hope my mother never gets to hear about other human beings singing songs about her dead son. Justice is never going to happen. Let it go. I’m trying really hard to. Some of you have even more reason to do so. I’ve visited Hillsborough since 1989. It was a horrible game, it rained , I sat in the home bottom bit with the Evertonians above me, and a mate shouting down to me who I thought was going to get me filled in. Bakayoko
shot a sitter over the bar to cap an awful day I'd sooner forget. 3 points
would have been nice, but the game summed up that season. I’m still with the girl who looked after me on the night of 15th of April 1989. We have three kids. I couldn’t imagine how Id feel if I lost one of them. Let alone hear or hear about people singing songs about it. I hope it’s never called 4/15. She still plies me with drink. Take it Easy. Come on the Blue Boys. Ian Collins. (18/05/06) Bob Latchford interview I must say I enjoyed your interview with the great Bob Latchford as he was the big reason behind myself becoming an Evertonian. I supported Liverpool to the age of 7 only because of family pressures, then my uncle took me to my first ever match. Everton 6 Chelsea 0 what a game that was not only because of the cricket score but the atmosphere in the ground and the fact that bobby was on his 30th goal I still remember it now, He placed the ball on the spot I think I remember him getting on his knees and praying then slotted the ball home. The ground erupted and ever since then I have been an Evertonian so thanks bobby you are a star. My favorite players also include Sharpy, Andy Gray, Gary (walkers) you know who, Mick Lyons, Davey Watson, Big Nev, Cahill to name only a few. So thanks bluekipper for a blast from the past. Thanks. John Garside. (14/04/06) FUCKIN HELL !! THIS SHIT SEASON ISNT EVEN OVER YET AND ALREADY WAVEY DAVEY IS TELLING US THAT NEXT SEASON WILL PROBABLY BE SHITE ASWELL AS WE WON'T BE BUYING MANY PLAYERS IN THE SUMMER!! HE COULD HAVE WAITED UNTIL WE RENEWED OUR SEASON TICKETS BEFORE LETTING US KNOW WE WILL BE WATCHING THE SAME SHITE NEXT YEAR. WHAT CHANCE HAVE WE GOT OF GETTING AN INVESTER WHEN WE SHOW NO FUCKING AMBITION AT ALL? I AM PISSED OFF ALREADY FOR NEXT YEAR. DAVE VYV. (14/04/06) Get Behind Moyes In answer to the Chris Perez letter, I think if a lot of Evertonians could get get behind Moyes they would and probably push him in the Mersey or off a cliff or something. The club have been so fucking shite this year that they should cut season ticket prices not try and put the squeeze on the fans again. Anyone who is trying to say we have achieved anything this year should just take off their beer goggles and admit we have not been value for money this term. After careful consideration I think we should abandon the Idea of a ground move as I think if we move to a different location people might just sack going the match and look for a pub with a match on. A lot of people from all over the city like to have a beer before and after the game so would either get a taxi or use public transport, if we move to say switch island or somewhere like that how many people would be arsed going? A lot would rather go on the ale cause the present set up has made a lot of Evertonians despondent and not hopeful for the future. There seems to be no spark or character about us. What do you think is Moyes greatest achievement the 7-0 to Arsenal, the 4-0 to west brom the 5-1 to bucharest or the sale of Rooney and Gravesen Discuss! Chris Simpson. (14/04/06) Squad v Charlton I noticed that you had Chadwick and Bent in the Everton squad for the game against Charlton on Saturday, is there something we all should know. Love the site, keep it up. Dougie Donnelly. Irish Evertonian. (14/04/06) What Do You Think? Have your say! e-mail info@bluekipper.com |