All or nothing.

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Callum Jones

Player Valuation: Free Transfer
Wrote an article on why this year is all or nothing. Any comments would be much appreciated.

As an Everton fan, this season has been very enjoyable. The usual first half of the season doom and gloom hasn’t been there, Everton fans don’t usually go into the New Year looking at the league table and being happy with their position. But this year, we’re sitting in 5th. 3 points off that elusive champions league spot. This is the year we must get it, it’s all or nothing in my eyes.
I would love to win the FA cup, we’ve only won one trophy in my lifetime and I was 2, so it doesn’t count. So obviously, seeing us win silverware would be unbelievable, especially after the heartbreak of losing to ‘them’ in the semi-final last year. Do I think we can achieve both, winning a trophy and finishing 4th? Probably not. Can we achieve at least one? Definitely!

Some of you may ask why this season, why is now all or nothing? Well, here’s my take.

David Moyes’ contract runs out this summer, the man is an undoubted football genius and I’ll argue with anyone that he one of the best managers in the world. He’s had 10 years in the Everton job, and celebrated his 500th game with a win Saturday. He may have not won a trophy in his time at Everton but the things he’s done, he’s a genius. He deserves the opportunity to work amongst Europe’s elite, and I would love it to be with Everton. He’s already said that he would like to manage in Germany and he’s been linked with Schalke 04. If the opportunity arose to work in Germany, and particularly in the champions league, he’d be foolish not to take it. Especially, if Everton don’t get champions league football this season, it will be even harder next season because I think we would lose our two best players in Maroaune Fellaini, and Leighton Baines.

If Everton are going to have a successful season, they're going to rely on Leighton Baines and Marouane Fellaini. Everton have the ability to mix it up, they can get the ball down and play football or they can go direct. When they go direct, Fellaini is the target. His control is exquisite, particularly from a long ball, he can bring the ball down on his chest better than anyone and his link up play is wonderful. When Everton choose to get the ball on the deck and pass, a lot of their chances come through Baines, sounds strange for a left back to be a teams most creative player but thats the case and it shows how influential Baines is to the Everton cause. His relationship with Steven Pienaar down the left side is arguably one of the best in the league.

If Everton don't qualify for the champions league, they'd struggle to keep hold of the likes of Fellaini and Baines. This summer The Toffees had to fight off the likes of Man Utd and Chelsea, and they'd struggle to do it again without the attraction of playing amongst Europe's elite. After all, Fellaini and Baines are top class footballers. I believe Baines to be the best left back in the world, he should be playing the champions league and hopefully he will do that with Everton. The reality is, without Champions League football, it would be incredibly difficult to keep them, especially if David Moyes departed for Gerrnany.

Today, Everton announced the had agreed a deal to sign Dutchman, Leroy Fer from FC Twente for a reported fee of about 8.5 million pounds. That shows Everton's intent, it sends a message to other clubs of look, we're out to get this fourth spot. If they can add just that one more signing, probably a striker. I would make them favourites if they keep their best players fit.
 

I think he leaves if Everton doesn't win anything and finishes out of Europe. Other than that I think he will stay. Makes no sense for him to buy Fer this late in the transfer window if he wasn't thinking about next year.
 

Good article mate, agree with you on most things in terms of the 'all or nothing' argument but would say that although Leighton Baines is in the form of his life and playing incredibly well (he certainly is up there with the best left backs in the world, certainly the best left back in the premier league and England) I feel that we would have enough to keep him, maybe this is me being a bit deluded, we have let big players go in the past, Rooney, Lescott, Arteta, we have never let two go in the same season and I think everyone would agree that if we weren't to get Champions League football this year then unfortunately Felli will be off (our latest signing being another indicator that that would be the case) but I feel we would have enough for Baines to stay, whether that's due to a cup win, europa league football or just not being willing to let our two main players go in one window.
 

I've said this too. Agreed. Has to happen this year, or won't happen again for a long time. Make or break.
 
The only players leaving this summer is Fellaini and Heitinga. Fellaini dependant on Champions League Football and whether we get an acceptable bid for him. No chance of a firesale.
 
Agree with everything you've said here in terms of outcomes, but sadly not the reasons for them and therefore not the extent.

Main reason I think we'll lose our best players is not because they'd rather go elsewhere, but because we'll be forced to sell them, and when we are, it'll be the end of Everton as a force in English football for the distantly forseeable future.

If we don't turn a profit this year which, going off the figures gleaned from the accounts we published recently, will only come in sufficient quantity from securing a CL spot and then qualifying for the group stages, then all evidence points to us being financially up sh*t creek without even a pair of armbands.

The UK's about to head into a triple-dip recession - for an English club between £40-50m in debt and seemingly rising, how long do you think it'll be before our bank starts calling the money in? Not long I can tell you. They'll want their money back while our assets still hold substantial residual value, hence the firesale that some of the more insightful members of GOT have predicted should we fail in our quest for CL. The much-vaunted TV money that keeps cropping up as a reason not to worry is merely a bargaining chip for us with the bank; we can hardly view it as our own dollar that we can put to work whilst we owe Barclays twice what we even hope to bring in from it over the next season and a bit.

With that in mind, and much as I hate to say it, the board deserve a lot of credit (*snaps pencil in one hand) for convincing our present business account manager not to royally boot off as we indulge in a major punt, signing Fer and possible others, in a bid to bust into the top 4 again. If we don't take this opportunity, given the money we've lost in the last 12 months on top of that we've now spunked seemingly out of nowhere, I genuinely dread to think what may be. Should we do our usual close but no banana act, two dead certs in my mind are that Moyes and Fellaini will be off tout de suite. Realistic ramifications of that are that the club will be at risk of going into administration as commercial confidence in our earning capacity plummets, whilst the remaining squad's confidence will nosedive quicker even than I would if given half a sniff of Llana del Rey's immaculately kempt ladygarden. The sad fact is that a club which doesn't win doesn't bring in the pennies. We're a club which seemingly doesn't turn a profit even when we pick up more points than 80% of the Premier League over the past calendar year.

So, I agree, it really is make or break. But more because of what happens on the blower to Barclays than what's going on in the minds of our key players and manager. I sincerely hope this turns out to be just an outburst of unwitting scaremongering on my part, but I've been a blue for over 2 decades now; I know when things appear suspiciously fine and dandy that it pays to be prepared for an imminent and almighty hoof in the sack. Here's hoping I'm specatacularly wrong...
 

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