Hello there, rather hazy this end of season feel isn’t it?
After years of circling the drain and somehow being the morsel that just wouldn’t be sucked under, Everton decided to gift their fans a first hand experience of how it feels to live in Reading. A nondescript passing of time without anything happening between one point (birth) and another point (death) of nothing more than vanilla existence devoid of feeling, excitement, meaning and purpose. A Tuesday of a lifetime. A complete vacuum of passion. Inertia in perma-situ. No need for coach greetings. No blue flares. No rallying calls from players who shit it last game. No Alsatian over our heads. No forecasting fixtures. No dread. No enforced nihilism. Just weekends that don’t depend on a football result for your doses of amoxicillin, serotonin and dopamine. Oh to live and die in Reading, Valhalla got absolute shit on it of that I’m quite sure.
Until the flip flops are preferred to Predators we got ourselves a month of contests not in Everton’s favour, against teams doing much better than St Domingo’s Weekend Fuckers but now up against a Moyes injected anxiety free Everton team and fans. Arsenal eeked out a point last weekend, before dismantling Real Madrid days later, and next up is high flying Notts Forest.
It’s really good to see Notts Forest having a really good season under a previously maligned but decent guy of a manager. I don’t want to patronise Notts Forest by saying they’re performing above their line in an inconsistent season because 1) they’ve a smattering of really decent talent in their team 2) hard work and cohesive team work should be as aspirational as expensively assembled tekkers merchants for fees and wages anyone below the first six teams can afford 3) this is a club who have won two European Cups and 4) this should be the norm, that every season the competition is such that a break out, wild card, call it anything you fucking want team can do really well and get them bounties on offer. As it was before the Corporates got a hold of England’s top league. Although on saying this their ownership is murkier than a February in Grimsby but – without excusing the corporates who permit this – a cursory look around Premier League club ownership isn’t inspiring. I ain’t gonna get into my monster is nicer than your monster as it’s an act of futility. Unless it’s Geordies of course as they carry more guilt and insecurity than any Catholic I’ve ever met.
It’s also a lift for Notts as a city which is one of the more decent ones about. Sure some may say it’s an microcosm of small city England with copy and paste personalities ripped straight off a gambling ad but in a city that dresses in the same colour same brand hiking gear with the same hair and calls everyone lad or sausage that would be a little unfair and unaware. While others say Notts is a shit tattooed smorgasbord of just four different male personalities and three of them battles latent insecurity by projecting an unconvincing mask of ferociousness and ok there might be elements of that but we’re from a city where the male role models pushed on our young males are from, in or glorify a life of violence. And there’s those that say that Notts Forest fans fill the vacuum of identity and purpose but attaching their whole identity and belonging to being proudly English as if the fluke of being born on a certain piece of rock provides virtuous merit to be and derive self worth from rather than choosing to just simply, humbly, imperfectly be you amongst unmeasurable foibles, and those people who say that may have a point.
But me? I’ve always liked Notts Forest, a proper club with good staunch fans who play football in the right way, lads. Remember the great Notts Forest teams of the seventies and eighties under Cloughie? What a character! Always keep an eye out for their results. Look after him lads.
Of course it’s entirely up to you if you value sincerity and authenticity as desirable traits in those you interact with. It’s subjective if you think modern society conflates authenticity with “passion” or some barely in control of their feelings “speaking their truth”. We live in an age of big, ready accessible opinion and that creates a lot of noise that drowns out the quiet, and it should be from those who know better. Being opinionated and obstinate seems the recent en vogue for men of a certain age and maturity afflictions. It’s counter culture for boomers, which essentially makes them midlife goths. Rampant, unfettered insecurity and subsequent aggression over trivial matter and differences. What’s this go to do with Notts Forest anyway? I don’t know really, I mean it’s not as if Notts Forest fans behave in this way over inconsequential matters.
Albert Camus once wrote. “I didn’t like having to explain to them so I just shut up, smoked a cigarette and looked at the sea”. Maybe that’s the antidote to the anathema I sloppily try to describe above. It’s long winded so perhaps I’ll abbreviate it next time, if that’s ok.
Hope Notts Forest tie down that Champions League space (after Everton, lads) and use it a springboard to eject one of the entitled out of their assumed spaces. And that one day we drop the uncompetitive superficial corporate shell of a league we’re being spoon fed to once again days where a Brian Clough, or Howard Kendall, can tip the applecart upside down in one or two seasons flat.
For Everton it’s a healthier squad for Moyes to select from, bolstered by the N’Diaye, McNeil and Broja to choose from at the fun part of the field. With the pressure off it will be interesting to see if Moyes can twiddle about with them pieces and find light some something fluffy to take into next season, even though half the squad will be at new employment. Lindstrom is hernia’d out for the season and you’d guess that may be the last we see of him. He worked hard and Evertonians will always admire that, but goals and assists help turn zero to one and one to three, and that position needs much more output. In all reality 98% of the reason to enjoy Everton this season has been N’Diaye, which is what I’m here for also. That Alcaraz looks alright, play them together Moyles lad.
It will be Gana and someone else in midfield. As it’s been – save for the PSG years – for nearly a decade at Everton. The fact he’s still first name in that area on the team sheet at his age shows there’s some risk to be mitigated by spending or developing next year. I love the little lithium powered hassle bastard, always right amongst the limbs winning the ball back for Everton with infatigable defiance, and then passing the ball to someone marginally better at making goals happen. What a buy twice over.
You can probably guess the defence, the bedrock of any Moyes team. Will be telling what he starts next season with. Tell you who’s a defender, that big Irish grock totem on the right. Must be a shift playing against him as he’s fast, aggressive and anything ball over three foot he’s more determined than a Freshfields Doberman. Would like to see him given a go in the middle for future complimenting/replacing Branthwaite but these ain’t the games to do it. Pickford in goal and by fucks that one handed save last week when the whistle had gone was the very highest level. I dread the day he goes as we’ve forgotten how shit goalies can be, like when Lukaku left except this time we haven’t got loons offering to drive them there themselves.
So thats the end of musings on a tough game where the home team have everything to play for and the away team have little to play for. Wonder if that will manifest in the result? Being this whimsical about it is really a pleasant feeling compared to where we were a few blinks ago.
Albert Camus also wrote: “In the depth of winter I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer”. And although we’re not quite there friends, here’s to summer.
