Royal Blue Jersey
Player Valuation: £35m
Perhaps a final point. I can't sleep so I stuck the game on again and I'm into the second half and I saw a small but very illustrative moment, on 52 minutes. We win the ball back in the box and it arrives at Oviedo's feet. Barry has his hands down in the old 'calm down' motion and Oviedo attempts a somewhat ambitious, but still far from hoofed, chip to Mirallas which just runs past him andv out for a throw - suddenly, Jagielka and Distin start giving him a proper rollicking. They are really bellowing at him for losing the ball so cheaply.
In the hoof first ask questions later days that would have been applauded as an inventive clearance. Now, it's derided as an unacceptable loss of possession. And Oviedo held his hand up to apologise; right he was to do so. This team is about always being in control and while it always seemed so obvious to so many of us, it really is now like the shackles have come off now that this is obvious to the players. We really will take the game to anyone, regardless of the result. We're about the performance, perhaps more than that: the identity.
I really liked Moyes, he was all I knew and the criticism is becoming both a little repetitive and in many ways snide, but I feel one negative is really worth highlighting... Moyes was a man of duty and integrity, without doubt. He respected his contract of employment (such as it was, given the winding down effort, one of the many reasons he went down in our estimations) and his relationship with the board and on the whole, with the fans. But that was from an external moral compass maybe his upbringing or (I know he's religious, quite possibly that) footballing education, either way I think everything he did was because he felt he had to, it would've been improper not to. I can't really explain it, but Martinez is different intrinsically... he really did 'get' Everton, clichéd as it sounds, from day one. Not just the working class, city-wide passion of our fans ('The People's Club') but as a huge and undeniably historic monument of English - and so by extension, world - football. We really are that big; the old lads have always known it but maybe the new generation like myself needed reminding. I cried tears of joy when we beat Man U on pens in a semi, it felt so close to glory but for a club like us in many ways it was so far. I used to want to get out of Old Trafford alive. I used to always hope we'd control the game by having the ball, thus stopping them playing, but no game developed like that. Every game became a relentless prayer for a speedy clock. And along the way I think we allowed some of that 90's mentality to creep back in... well, that's all we're capable of. That's the best we could possibly do. I mean, to borrow Wenger's buzzword, it's logical. We are at an incredible financial imbalance. I can't argue it's unfair, and so how can I argue we should be beating the richest clubs in the world at their own backyards?
You forget that football is a game of 11 men against 11. And all of them are professional footballers of the top level, and as it's been proven though they will lose more games than they win, used in the right way even inferior players can triumph. And Martinez believes that; not only in the value of good football and controlling the game, not just in the value of Everton FC - and he truly, truly appreciates our size. He invites Kendall round, he talks of the inspiration of our 9 league titles, he gets us - but in the value of every individual player. Yes, he does overdo it a bit - unique and phenomenal - but that translates to the players. I listened to those extensive Wigan fan interviews to get a better sense of him over the summer and his appreciation of the squad is, well, phenomenal
lol. You might laugh when says Ben Watson is a rare English talent for his deep-lying playmaker role or that Shaun Maloney and Victor Moses are two of the best attacking midfielders around or James McCarthy is one of the best midfielders in the country, but then he takes them to Anfield, White Hart Lane, Goodison Park, the Emirates, an FA Cup final against the might of Man City and in each and every game they play the opposition off the park.
He makes Jagielka believe he can take the ball off Rooney in the 91st minute defending a 0-1 lead and surge out of defence; and Jagielka does it. He believes Ross Barkley can take the ball sandwiched between two players, rip them both and set up an attack that leads to a goal in the last 5 minutes when we're losing 1-0 at the Emirates, and Barkley does it. He believes Oviedo can come in to replace the best leftback in the country for two of our hardest games of the season after months out of the team and do well, and he does it.
And most of all, he makes us believe that no matter how rich they are or how poor we are, we can do it as well. And you know what?
I f**king believe it.
Sin miedo.
In the hoof first ask questions later days that would have been applauded as an inventive clearance. Now, it's derided as an unacceptable loss of possession. And Oviedo held his hand up to apologise; right he was to do so. This team is about always being in control and while it always seemed so obvious to so many of us, it really is now like the shackles have come off now that this is obvious to the players. We really will take the game to anyone, regardless of the result. We're about the performance, perhaps more than that: the identity.
I really liked Moyes, he was all I knew and the criticism is becoming both a little repetitive and in many ways snide, but I feel one negative is really worth highlighting... Moyes was a man of duty and integrity, without doubt. He respected his contract of employment (such as it was, given the winding down effort, one of the many reasons he went down in our estimations) and his relationship with the board and on the whole, with the fans. But that was from an external moral compass maybe his upbringing or (I know he's religious, quite possibly that) footballing education, either way I think everything he did was because he felt he had to, it would've been improper not to. I can't really explain it, but Martinez is different intrinsically... he really did 'get' Everton, clichéd as it sounds, from day one. Not just the working class, city-wide passion of our fans ('The People's Club') but as a huge and undeniably historic monument of English - and so by extension, world - football. We really are that big; the old lads have always known it but maybe the new generation like myself needed reminding. I cried tears of joy when we beat Man U on pens in a semi, it felt so close to glory but for a club like us in many ways it was so far. I used to want to get out of Old Trafford alive. I used to always hope we'd control the game by having the ball, thus stopping them playing, but no game developed like that. Every game became a relentless prayer for a speedy clock. And along the way I think we allowed some of that 90's mentality to creep back in... well, that's all we're capable of. That's the best we could possibly do. I mean, to borrow Wenger's buzzword, it's logical. We are at an incredible financial imbalance. I can't argue it's unfair, and so how can I argue we should be beating the richest clubs in the world at their own backyards?
You forget that football is a game of 11 men against 11. And all of them are professional footballers of the top level, and as it's been proven though they will lose more games than they win, used in the right way even inferior players can triumph. And Martinez believes that; not only in the value of good football and controlling the game, not just in the value of Everton FC - and he truly, truly appreciates our size. He invites Kendall round, he talks of the inspiration of our 9 league titles, he gets us - but in the value of every individual player. Yes, he does overdo it a bit - unique and phenomenal - but that translates to the players. I listened to those extensive Wigan fan interviews to get a better sense of him over the summer and his appreciation of the squad is, well, phenomenal
lol. You might laugh when says Ben Watson is a rare English talent for his deep-lying playmaker role or that Shaun Maloney and Victor Moses are two of the best attacking midfielders around or James McCarthy is one of the best midfielders in the country, but then he takes them to Anfield, White Hart Lane, Goodison Park, the Emirates, an FA Cup final against the might of Man City and in each and every game they play the opposition off the park. He makes Jagielka believe he can take the ball off Rooney in the 91st minute defending a 0-1 lead and surge out of defence; and Jagielka does it. He believes Ross Barkley can take the ball sandwiched between two players, rip them both and set up an attack that leads to a goal in the last 5 minutes when we're losing 1-0 at the Emirates, and Barkley does it. He believes Oviedo can come in to replace the best leftback in the country for two of our hardest games of the season after months out of the team and do well, and he does it.
And most of all, he makes us believe that no matter how rich they are or how poor we are, we can do it as well. And you know what?
I f**king believe it.
Sin miedo.
