Well rounded and sound assessment...and would subscribe to this type of optimism.
If I might digress for a sec, I first saw Everton play in the 1984 FA cup grand final, late at night back in Australia when I was 13 yrs old. I went for the blue team.
There wasn't much 'soccer' coverage back in those days but Gray, Sharpe, Reid, Southall stuck in my head and heart and I followed them where and when I could. Nobody I knew at the time followed soccer until I stopped playing rugby and started kicking a ball for real, thus joining the ranks of the then soccer community known as the 'sheilas, wogs and poofters' of Australian sport.
So I'm not from Merseyside and you can call me a plastic Toffee or a neon Blue, or whatever, if you like.
But I love the Blues, even if I don't have the same sort of memories and experiences as a lot of youse (you lucky bastards)
One of the things that stood out for me from a distance about the 80's Everton, and pretty much right through the Moyes era was the sense of 'play' that for me epitomised Everton. By sense of 'play' I mean, creativity, flair, guile, belief, gamesmanship, having a go, done together as a team. And while there might of been a lot of backs to the wall stuff, dour and dare I say bitter times, underneath it all there was a sense of sneaky fun to the play, it was a game, winning was great, and it was the best doing it as a Blue.
That has changed, not just at Everton, but sport in general. For me its the extreme capitalism and professionalism that's killed it.
That sense of playing for the club seems to waning and and playing for yourself and your million dollar mates on the rise.
The manic changing of the team/squad from one season/transfer window to the next is both a consequence and a cause of all this,
The constant changing undermines and belittles essentially what is important to the club's supporters - a team of our own.
I think another consequence is the unbelievable amount of pressure put on players to perform.
With this in mind, back to the topic -
I hope we're seeing the start of something with Silva. At least I believe there is intent there.
The powers that be wanted to see Everton play with the style and creativity of a Barcelona or City.
And obviously brought in someone from that lineage, Koeman.
What the world of football has woken up to is you can't play that way without the very best forwards and all round attacking players on offer.
If you've got Messi, Suarez, Inesta or Aguero, Silva, De Bruyne you can circulate the ball round at will, its sexy and you're going to get trophies.
If you don't, you end up with Van Gaal's United and Koeman's Everton, probably the most painful football to play, certainly to watch.
If you don't, you end up with an impossible task of putting a square peg in a round hole.
Essentially its to easy to defend against and demoralising to the players forced to do it.
The fall out was a massive loss in confidence in being able to 'play'.
I believe the purpose of big Sam was to right the ship, to keep it simple.
And the purpose of Silva is to free them up, to get em to play again.
Its not going to be easy.
I really think the focus of the club should not be about results this season
(apart from avoiding relegation).
You could rate the performance as 5/10 so far, or 6/12 points if you like.
But its way too early for that and I wouldn't even look at style of play.
I'd rate it on whether the players are coming together as a team.
Are there combinations starting to form.
Are players showing belief in player next to em.
Are there players cementing their place for the next five years.
Is there a willingness to make mistakes, shrug it off and keep having a go.
Is there flair and creativity starting to emerge.
At the moment, other teams clearly know our weaknesses and how to secure a point if they want.
I can't wait for the break to be over. To see how they're going to overcome this.
Promising roses tomorrow is a difficult ideology to subscribe too when you have to accept more scarcity.
Eloquently put, but got to say, I don't see the roses, just see a big [Poor language removed] mountain staring them in the face and waiting to be climbed.
