The worst of times?

[Eggs]

….i’m old and this is the worst the club has been in my life, it’s largely why I feel it’ll be a terrific achievement if Dyche keeps us in the top flight when this season finishes.

 

[barneygumble]

This is; for me the worst it is and ever will be.

At least we'll know where we stand if we start plummeting down the league.

The - what feels like eternal - uncertainty hanging over the club is just taking its toll on everyone; players, fans, staff it's just draining.

Status wise, I expect it to get worse; I fully can envisage us doing another Portsmouth and tumbling down to the bottom before finally getting light at the end of the tunnel.

But when we finally shake the FFP, I'll be finally glad it's over, it feels like a nightmare you can't wake up from.

 

[Cjplennon]

I think the worst is very close. Another points deduction, the results of the next few games and then our path will be very clear. I think getting relegated would be the lowest point, but getting rid of all the noise around the Premier League and getting shut of this current owner then that would be a big improvement.

 

[Yarrgh]

So far, the premier league era has brought us:
Worst Everton in the history of Everton.
Worst refereeing in the history of refereeing.
Worst competition in the history of football competitions.

This is not so much a reaction to the abysmal state of Everton FC right now. Although having lived through more than six decades of supporting this team, recent events have driven me to write this rant of a thread about the current state of football things overall.

If you support any of the top six money clubs, then you may think this is the greatest of times, but the fact is, your success is built on the foundation of all those below you.
The Premier League is no more than a pyramid scheme (maybe it should be renamed the Pyramid League), whereby those at the bottom feed those at the top, leaving little left to feed the feeders. Such is the transfer market, where the poorer feeder clubs exist only to support the rich hoarder clubs. This inevitably condenses into not one football premier league, but a divisive league of two, the rich elite versus the "also rans". Meanwhile, we have over paid TV punters who like to proclaim, "the PL is the most competitive and entertaining football league in the world". Maybe it was once, for a season or two, but not any longer. The vast injection of cash from the live, worldwide television coverage has put a stop to that.

It is not even a sporting event. It has transformed from a local, real life experience, stadium of people event, into a worldwide, anonymous crowd of unseen observers event. It is nothing more than another television show, a show used primarily to sell us things we do not really need to buy. Meanwhile, the tribal rivalry element is manipulated to create a sort of tabloid sensationalism to drive up viewer numbers for the often titled "Big Game" or "Game of the season". Such games rarely live up to the hype.

But, that does not matter. The game is secondary to advertising banners. Clubs rely more and more these days on getting sponsorship deals than on player deals, (unless said player can bring in more attention to sponsors). Clubs seek revenue more so than trophies, although the two do walk hand in hand. The richest clubs in the world are valued in the the billions. they are no longer clubs, but brands. Players are no longer team members, they are "assets", to be traded much like shares on the stock exchange. According to fifa, the international transfer deals of 2023 hit a record $9.63 Billion. The top players themselves are millionaires. Seems there is an awful lot of money to be made from the simple game of footy. But is it still a game of football?

It is all about money. Of course, it always was to a certain extent, as any club will always need funds to exist. The problem is, money has now become the dominant factor in all things football. Clubs no longer play the game of football to win trophies, they compete financially, like mega corporations intent on the further enrichment of their billionaire owners and investors. It is much like the board game Monoloply, where the object is to dominate the board and drive all others into bankruptcy. It is a game that Everton have not played well. Through bad investments, poor recruitment choices and overall business mismanagement, we have fallen down the pyramid and been left to scratch out an existence amongst the other "also rans". We blew our chance of eating at the big buffet. The cost of getting even close to tasting any of that gourmet fair again will need serious capital. The sort of money that only an oligarchy or rich oil state could afford. A cost that is far out of reach of the majority of clubs.

As we all know, where there is money, there is corruption. The more the money, the more the corruption. Right? Those clubs that play on the periphery of the big money clubs can only look upon these self proclaimed elite as existing on some kind of exotic paradise island, cut off from the rest of the "ordinary" league. The Premier League has become a sort of banana republic. An organization that appears to aim solely to sustain the status quo. For it appears, from the outside looking in, to be "owned" by those at the top of the pyramid. There is a bias observed in every game. We all see it, sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant. Despite the momentary blip that was Leicester, the pyramid remains intact, unthreatened and reinforced by rules designed to maintain the present structure. Once the rules for "fair play" and financial responsibility were imposed, the goal posts where quickly shifted, so as to close the gate to "paradise island" and keep all those "smaller clubs" on the outside in check. God forbid any who presume to challenge this.

Of course, this wall of words is just the opinion of an old fan of a team he has supported and followed since childhood. I have seen the good the bad and the ugly. I have seen the holy trinity of the school of science, kissed the league cup, travelled to Wembley to see victory and defeat. I have sat in a two thirds empty Goodison, on a freezing cold November night, enduring the mediocrity of a Mike Walker team. And yet nothing, absolutely nothing could compare to the slow drowning of not just our beloved team, but also the game we have all grown up with.

I have no answer as to what is next for the game. I cannot even say I am a true fan anymore, as I no longer have my season ticket, or even live close to the ground. My opinion, therefore is coming from afar these days. My career in the mid 90's took me to the States and so I have become one of those ultra-wool expat, anonymous observers of the game on the box or streaming. Nevertheless, Everton still matter to me, football (they call it soccer here), still matters to me. The question is, does it matter to those in charge, or has it just become a temporary cash cow, that will evaporate once another outlet for the billionaires is found?

Maybe it does not matter what happens with the professional game. Kids will still enjoy kicking a bladder of air around and people will still enjoy the competition of that. I do not know the future. All I know and feel now is that this is the worst of times for the game.

What do you all think?

I think that's a lot of words for we're @#£÷.

Joking apart you make a lot of sense. Everton feels like a goose that has been well and truly cooked. Bah!

 

[The binman chronicles]

I read a book the other day that gives the author's perspective on supporting Everton throughout their lifetime, one of the biggest takes I got from it is that we've always been in a state of chaos, or at least misery.

It's been feast or (mostly) famine for generations. The worst period is usually the one we are currently facing - although this with the financial crisis and points deductions probably will be our nadir - history shows there will be another just around the corner.

 

[Dixieslaces]

Well this has cheered me up no end!

Happy Tuesday Toffees

*never has a truer summary been posted, just for clarity

 

[jonesey10]

This is the worst for me but think it'll get worse, I'll be amazed if we escape relegation with the way we're playing at the moment and any further points deduction will see us gone. very sad times for the club.
The only positive is championship footy is better to watch than premier league. proper footy with no bullshit interference.

 

[Neiler]

Parts of the 90s and early noughties were bleak, i don't remember the existential threats, all at the same time, on the pitch, off the pitch and also the PL hammering us with points deductions.

Like @Eggs, if we pull it off staying up this season i think its an incredible achievement.

 

[Shibbywiggles]

This is the worst I’ve felt and I don’t see how it doesn’t get worse after those loss figures over the weekend

After previous relegation battles we were only a proper manager away from an FA Cup and a Kanchelskis away from challenging for Europe but look at the state of things now.

I have little doubt that Branthwaite and Onana will have to be sold in the summer but I don’t see how we can invest more than a quarter of what’s brought in for them.

Imagine this season without those two, especially Branthwaite. Going into next season still without a proper Coleman replacement, Tarkowski another year older, Gueye another year older, still no prolific striker (though I think Beto can do a job with regular starts), still no pace on the wings, it’s just dreadful. How can we get excited about that?

Football is supposed to be for entertainment but it just depresses me at the moment.

 

[msb]

Our fundamental problem as fans is that we are too invested in the club.

Our owners, players and manager are simply there to earn money, they have little to no emotional investment.

The issue, as a fan, is how to turn off that emotional investment, I know I cannot. However, for the sake of all around me, I think getting out of our current malaise would mean getting out of the EPL.

In life, what else have you put so much effort and emotion into? 43 years married, oldest kid is 40: Everton best part of 65 years. My poor dad has had 95 years of it.

I’ll always love Everton, but there are very long periods when I don’t like them much.

 

[Titus Bramble]

This is currently my lowest ebb, simply because I'm starting not to care anymore. I'm following how we're doing in a game, but by checking Twitter/BBC sport... I'm not going out of my way to watch a game anymore like I used to, even as recently as last season. Our results aren't having a bearing on my emotions beyond the 90 minutes anymore (which might be a healthy thing to be fair).

The league this year as far as I'm concerned should be null and voided, the P&L farce the PL has enforced has sucked any integrity from the bottom half of the table - this will no doubt continue into next season as well.

Once we're back to knowing where we stand due to results on the pitch and nothing else, I'm sure I'll be sucked right back in. I spend more time flicking through the P&L charge thread than I do any others on this forum at the moment.

 

[Delargeinho]

I basically live the 2 worlds of football now.

My hometown Bilbao, liquidity of close to 90 million euros, assets of more than 100 million euros and an extraordinary provision of 60 million euros, despite of an operation loss of 60m combined from 20-21 to 22-23 mainly due to 10y due amortisations of the stadium and covid. But it's looks like to be profitable again this season. A club being in Europe next season, EL or CL football, playing good football with Valverde.

And then Everton, I don't know where to start... Cannot judge the 90s, but it's the worst period I witnessed of club I followed closer in my lifetime.

 

[Cameron Manning]

Yes I think this is the worst it has ever been, the clouds are jet black now will stay like that until they open up and get brighter when we escape relegation. Next season they will be mostly dark grey after we are taken over, not by 777, and then start getting up to light grey with little specks of sunshine getting through and continue getting warmer and brighter and I have to hope I see some silver in the shape of a cup win and we carry on from there.

 

[Papa Shango]

It's the worst.

It's not just Everton though, it's football in general. It's proper tedious.

 

[Lob]

Really bad but i think it is going to get even worse. We are close to being relegated and are at risk of going into administration which would basically be the end of us. No business can survive year on year of huge losses unless someone with a lot of money and nous takes over and that someone is definitely not 777.