So there it is. Four weeks of uncertainty and trepidation over with the announcement of our fourteenth permanent manager and our first from outside the UK & Ireland. Pipe down Greece and look how far the EEC has come; he won’t even need a work permit.
We’ve been here before and we’ll be here again. There’ll be plenty of us a wee bit anxious over the fear of the unknown after just over a decade of being comfortably numb. It was no happiest days of our lives though was it? There’s also a lot of prudent searching for the chinks in the armour not unlike when you meet a girl and you want to make sure that whoever you’re putting your faith in is the right thing. If she’s taking clandestine phone calls at 4am in the morning locked in the bathroom three times a week and threatening to stab your chinchilla if you look at another girl within the first two months then that lizard part of your brain prepares you for not a happy ending.
Speaking of a happy ending that’s what new manager press conferences try to project most. They’re things of unicorn and rainbow optimism, but being realistically Evertonians we know they seldom end that way.
Were a sucker for sincere words but it’s actions that will either win over the masses and determine the success of the decision that was finalised today.
All the talk of the glass ceiling was crushingly boring in the end but there was a really good reason for it: the money we generate is miles behind those we were trying to emulate. It’s a different world from Saint & Greavsie now and those with the big bucks will usually taste the success, unless of course your name is Liverpool.
There was always another under current throughout Moyes’ time which got a bit grating towards the end – and that was the continual theme of plucky Everton overachieving. Now don’t get me wrong Moyes done well with what he had in terms of resources. Eleven years of prudent management has left us in infinitely better shape than he found it and for which he’ll be remembered fondly and always welcome back. Just not as an opposition manager as we don’t do that sh*t – think of Benitiez going back to Anfield this year and let them toes curl upwards.
The plucky bit was frustrating as we put together a couple of decent sides and couldn’t make that next graduation but there was a backdrop of taking a knife to a gunfight and ‘aiming to hit forty points’ and see where it goes from there. This was backed up with some frustrating draws and defeats where we just looked continually like we never had the confidence to go for the opposition’s throat.
Martinez will bring his own ideas and a solid reputation of playing good attacking football in the right way. He’d indicated he’ll be bringing his own people, as you’d expect, so there’ll be now an interesting period of relative change at a club which on the playing and youth side is set up very well indeed. For as I mentioned some will have trepidation there’ll also be plenty of us who will be very much excited at some new ideas. It’s been said that a bit of strange has its merits from time to time.
Our new manager has impressed his chairman although I could likely impress Kenwright easily by wearing overpowering Izzy Mayake, smiling meekly at his jokes and tales of yonder and talking about how boss I would make Everton. But beyond that it was notable – and a bit oh no – to have him recalling Martinez saying he’d deliver the Champions League. Look at that. Undue pressure or new world optimism?
I’m as sceptical as the next man of those things and certainly not expecting that any time soon. I will however l be watching with interest a different era for Everton kicking off from the pre-season games of which will contain some very decent opposition.
There’s not the quiet confidence that will all be upwards and onwards from now but the prudence of waiting and seeing what will happen as the football club goes into its nineteenth trophy-less season. That needs sorting and quick.
It will never stop an Evertonian dreaming though, why should it? We’re one of the few clubs where our eyes have seen the glory even if it was back when we had twenty-twenty vision, own teeth and bouncy side parts as opposed to the close crop now trying to hide the onset of receding.
There won’t be a return to School of Science as the media will try and paint as that would do a disservice to Moyes who had Everton playing some brilliant passing football in the last season or two. But importantly Moyes is now confined to our past and I’m no one to tell another blue what to think or do but that new manager of ours would benefit greatly from some time and support.
We not suddenly going to be subscribing to tiki-taka TV either – we like to play boss footie but aggressively monster the opposition’s whole being so they leave L4 4EL under no illusions that we’ve had their players, their manager and every single one of their mars.
Can Martinez achieve this? Who knows? We’ll find out and it will be a tough ask but for now we have a new guy in charge of one of the things we hold dear on the planet so he’ll get my backing. It’s only eighteen miles down the road for Martinez but a whole different weight of expectation which will take time to appreciate and hopefully master. Were a decent sort though which I hope he’ll get.
So, we may as well enjoy the togger. Welcome to Evertonfubbelklub Roberto Martinez: now get the f*ck into them, these are shite.