Gerbs
Player Valuation: £10m
Living in the States I was forced to DVR the West Brom game and watch it at night after I got off work. Like so many on here I was fuming after the result and upset about the actions of Mirallas. Especially after a couple beers and a glass of bourbon I was ready to log on and commiserate with the “Martinez out” crowd. Luckily I went to bed.
Waking up this morning, though upset, I have certainly calmed down. I look at Everton as a team with direction that is being built for the future. We are not built to win right now. I think this is a concept more readily accepted by American’s (for better or worse) more-so than EPL fans across the pond. It is a regularly accepted concept in American sports that franchises (clubs) here are either in win-now mode, building, or tanking. Tanking is another concept all together that I absolutely hate and why promotion/relegation is so much better than the structure of leagues here.
But back to win-now vs building. Obviously we all want to win the league every year and our run last season built up hopes maybe too high. When I envision “win-now” in the EPL I think a prime example was the 2012-2013 Manchester United squad. I believe Manchester United was soley worried about winning the league and had little interest in the future. Sir Alex wasn’t going to be back. Aging Giggs, Scholes, Vidic, Evra, & Ferdinand played a significant role while the likes of Pogba were able to leave. They won that year, but after the season the squad looked old and lifeless.
As I said above, I don’t believe Everton is in a position with the current squad to be in a win-now mode. Financially Everton can not just buy a squad to mask failures of long term planning. But I believe Roberto has a long term plan. He is molding a squad that can play attractive football that I believe can also win (i.e. Arsenal last year). We have a core group of young players that we can build around. Stones (20), McCarthy (24), Coleman (26), Barkley (21), Lukaku (21). These are players that can truly be world class when they enter the prime of their career and some may argue Seamus is already there. Add in an impressive Besic (22) that could very well be in that class in the future, we have 6 players that will massive for seasons to come.
The ONLY way Everton can succeed at the level we want is to continue to find these players who come in underappreciated or under the radar. This takes time. We aren’t going to go out and buy a finished product like Benzema, LLoris, Hummels, or James Rodriguez. Outside of big money splash signing of Lukaku, which I think we can all agree will not happen often, Roberto’s transfer market strategy is very simple and I agree with it wholeheartedly. Buy young players with loads of potential (besic, mccarthy, henan, Galloway, kinsella) and cheap experienced players to fill in the squad (eto, kone, alcaraz).
So I believe we must be patient with Roberto while he builds us into the team we want. Obviously I am not happy with the results but I’m not ready to tear down the Martinez mural outside Goodison or ship Ross off to City. I still remember seeing Jags hoofing a ball up to Fellaini, bypassing our CM with Neville & Hitzlsperger, so he can flick it onto Anichebe. I don’t want to go back to that and am hopeful we can begin to see the form we saw last season and even more success in the future.
Or maybe i'm just an overoptimistic yank
Waking up this morning, though upset, I have certainly calmed down. I look at Everton as a team with direction that is being built for the future. We are not built to win right now. I think this is a concept more readily accepted by American’s (for better or worse) more-so than EPL fans across the pond. It is a regularly accepted concept in American sports that franchises (clubs) here are either in win-now mode, building, or tanking. Tanking is another concept all together that I absolutely hate and why promotion/relegation is so much better than the structure of leagues here.
But back to win-now vs building. Obviously we all want to win the league every year and our run last season built up hopes maybe too high. When I envision “win-now” in the EPL I think a prime example was the 2012-2013 Manchester United squad. I believe Manchester United was soley worried about winning the league and had little interest in the future. Sir Alex wasn’t going to be back. Aging Giggs, Scholes, Vidic, Evra, & Ferdinand played a significant role while the likes of Pogba were able to leave. They won that year, but after the season the squad looked old and lifeless.
As I said above, I don’t believe Everton is in a position with the current squad to be in a win-now mode. Financially Everton can not just buy a squad to mask failures of long term planning. But I believe Roberto has a long term plan. He is molding a squad that can play attractive football that I believe can also win (i.e. Arsenal last year). We have a core group of young players that we can build around. Stones (20), McCarthy (24), Coleman (26), Barkley (21), Lukaku (21). These are players that can truly be world class when they enter the prime of their career and some may argue Seamus is already there. Add in an impressive Besic (22) that could very well be in that class in the future, we have 6 players that will massive for seasons to come.
The ONLY way Everton can succeed at the level we want is to continue to find these players who come in underappreciated or under the radar. This takes time. We aren’t going to go out and buy a finished product like Benzema, LLoris, Hummels, or James Rodriguez. Outside of big money splash signing of Lukaku, which I think we can all agree will not happen often, Roberto’s transfer market strategy is very simple and I agree with it wholeheartedly. Buy young players with loads of potential (besic, mccarthy, henan, Galloway, kinsella) and cheap experienced players to fill in the squad (eto, kone, alcaraz).
So I believe we must be patient with Roberto while he builds us into the team we want. Obviously I am not happy with the results but I’m not ready to tear down the Martinez mural outside Goodison or ship Ross off to City. I still remember seeing Jags hoofing a ball up to Fellaini, bypassing our CM with Neville & Hitzlsperger, so he can flick it onto Anichebe. I don’t want to go back to that and am hopeful we can begin to see the form we saw last season and even more success in the future.
Or maybe i'm just an overoptimistic yank
