Can we draw lessons from the equally soul destroying season of 2003/04?

[Furey1878]

This season is much worse because at least we were understandably garbage in 2003/04.

Things are nowhere near as dark or desperate though. We had no money, wolves at the door and were favourites to go down the following season.

Really right now we stand at a precipice and can go down the path of stagnation/going backwards slowly or one of healing, repairing and building for the future.

 

[davek]

This season is much worse because at least we were understandably garbage in 2003/04.

Things are nowhere near as dark or desperate though. We had no money, wolves at the door and were favourites to go down the following season.

Really right now we stand at a precipice and can go down the path of stagnation/going backwards slowly or one of healing, repairing and building for the future.

I think they are equally bleak though, because if we do have more money now we are still faced with the same glass ceiling we faced back then and an inability to make a breakthrough.

 

[Hickson9]

We will never lose our identity.


We're Everton, 1878, founding members of the Football League, Nil Satis Nisi Optimum, the School of Science, the People's Club, Royal Blue, William Ralph Dean, the Holy Trinity, the Cannonball Kid, Alan Ball, Bob Latchford, Brian Labone, Neville Southall, Howard Kendall, Harry Catterick, St Luke's, Goodison Park, the Gwladys Street, your mates, your family, our city, scouse and blue, the pride of Merseyside, 9 League titles, 5 FA Cups, 1 European Cup Winners Cup, that night against Bayern Munich, Andy Gray heading it off the ground, Sharpy's volley, 114 seasons of top flight football, going the game, the Brick, the Elm Tree, the Winslow, the Toffee Lady, Z Cars, knowing your history, the glory, the despair, generation after generation, all for one, we're forever, Everton.

 

[Furey1878]

I think they are equally bleak though, because if we do have more money now we are still faced with the same glass ceiling we faced back then and an inability to make a breakthrough.

The glass ceiling is something we faced in the better Moyes Years though. This club would have died a horrible death had it gone down in 2004 or 2005. And I don’t care what anyone says, we were never going down this season. Moyes’s early years and Martinez’s first season show the importance and impact of getting a good manager in. We get ourselves a good one this summer and then we can build towards breaking the aforementioned ceiling.

Now whether or not you trust Moshiri to bring a good manager in is another thing, just got to hope lessons have been learnt by someone relatively new to the football game.

Oh and we should launch Steve Walsh directly into the sun.

 

[brieverton]

We are set up to accept everything as second rate though.

With this talk of Bryan Gilvary, he is Chief Financial Officer at BP and supposedly a blue. He couldn't and wouldn't come in as CEO but he could offer a lot even in terms of consultancy and more importantly be part of a structure that holds everyone in a management role to account and scrutinises performance far more rigidly and dispassionately.

I don't imagine someone of his background sitting quietly in the boardroom listening to some lazy rambling without challenging it but that is probably all we get at present.

I read something about the Bayern Munich advisory board recently and it reads like a whos-who of German industry and you can be sure they are not there just for the tickets and hospitality. Why can't we aspire to this type of leadership?

 

[MikeH72]

I really don't think we're going to follow this season up with one like 04/05 if I'm honest.

 

[Seathestars]

We are set up to accept everything as second rate though.

With this talk of Bryan Gilvary, he is Chief Financial Officer at BP and supposedly a blue. He couldn't and wouldn't come in as CEO but he could offer a lot even in terms of consultancy and more importantly be part of a structure that holds everyone in a management role to account and scrutinises performance far more rigidly and dispassionately.

I don't imagine someone of his background sitting quietly in the boardroom listening to some lazy rambling without challenging it but that is probably all we get at present.

I read something about the Bayern Munich advisory board recently and it reads like a whos-who of German industry and you can be sure they are not there just for the tickets and hospitality. Why can't we aspire to this type of leadership?

This German leadership thing you spoke of, I’ve wondered similar things myself.
Moshiri needs to learn from his mistakes, it just means he’s wiser today than he was yesterday, no shame in that.
Surely he must know now that this club is riddled with a mentality of 2nd 3rd or 4th best, and that’s being kind.
If he has this ambition that he speaks of he needs to be ruthless and start with a complete revamp.
I even think he would be better concentrating on leadership change at boardroom level rather than the pitch or Manager.
Get a board of winners in and then decide on a new strategy.

 

[Tubey]

Kenwright is here until he dies. He's the Kim Jong un of Merseyside.

Ken Wrong Un

 

[COYBL25]

But Atletico had Barcelona and Madrid to make it to and no solid opposition outside of them. They could progress incrementally. We have a phalanx of top clubs barring us from that type of ascent. We can get in amongst them by developing differently: more intelligently rather than blundering about with a chequebook alone.

Atletico have done it over time Dave, rather than trying to buy success quickly.

I know nothing of how they are run, but looking at them from the outside in, it appears that they`ve accepted that they can`t buy success or compete financially with the big boys and set out with a long term plan, as to how to get to the top. Which they appear to be doing rather well.

Communication is the key to this approach, as if the fans can understand and see what you`re trying to achieve, they`ll get on board.

Not as you say, blundering about with a cheque book and and using a knob jockey on a radio station as your public voice.

 

[leslad]

..not to complicate things too much, there’s winning football, football and losing football. I think we are playing football after playing losing football for much of the season. We need to play winning football but seem some way off that.

Eggs, you are the master of brevity. You could argue that it isn't this simple, but it kind of is. Get players playing who have the courage, dedication and skill to win football matches.

 

[leslad]

Good post Dave.

Just on the point about spending loads and becoming somehow worse: there's only so much groundwork you can do when signing players, in figuring out if players will fit in and doing everything in your power to help them do so, in scouting thoroughly all aspects of a player's skills and character (tbf Moyes and team seemed good at this), then synthesising a system that enables the players to form partnerships and play well together. The rest is just random variables; if the fixture computer gives us kinder matches at the start of the season, and Klaassen, Sandro, Vlasic and whoever else we signed each put in man of the match performances in winning games, things may have had a different feel this season.

It's not an exact science - we played some boring, useless football under Martinez as well as some seriously entertaining, quality and effective stuff - no matter what staff or manager you get in or actions you take, sometimes things fall into place and sometimes they don't.

The off-field stuff, though I know nothing about it really, I do agree with you, it desperately requires more certainty and progress. Fans rightly won't buy much more of the "11 key principles" or whatever corporate BS they came up with last time. They may as well have just wrote on the OS "We hope we manage to build the stadium that it will be good" 11 times.

 

[degsy]

We will never lose our identity.


We're Everton, 1878, founding members of the Football League, Nil Satis Nisi Optimum, the School of Science, the People's Club, Royal Blue, William Ralph Dean, the Holy Trinity, the Cannonball Kid, Alan Ball, Bob Latchford, Brian Labone, Neville Southall, Howard Kendall, Harry Catterick, St Luke's, Goodison Park, the Gwladys Street, your mates, your family, our city, scouse and blue, the pride of Merseyside, 9 League titles, 5 FA Cups, 1 European Cup Winners Cup, that night against Bayern Munich, Andy Gray heading it off the ground, Sharpy's volley, 114 seasons of top flight football, going the game, the Brick, the Elm Tree, the Winslow, the Toffee Lady, Z Cars, knowing your history, the glory, the despair, generation after generation, all for one, we're forever, Everton.

Yeah but apart from that, what has Everton ever done for me?

 

[Khalekan]

Only my thoughts, but Atletico Madrid should be the model for us.

When you know you can`t compete financially, with the likes of Citteh, Man U, Barca, PSG, Real etc, you need to find a way to somehow compete and still be in the running.

A forward thinking and united board.

A " thought about " managerial appointment.

A " thought about " transfer policy.

Play to the teams strengths.

A clear plan how the team is to play.

Unfortunately non of the above has applied to us for a very long time.

Non of this will happen anytime soon, until Kenwright and co are gone.

That was more or less what Roberto Martinez said when he came to the club.

And he almost cracked it.

If only the timetable had lagged a few years behind and Bobby had joined us just as the Moshiri money arrived

 

[Toast]

If any of us had been utter crap at their jobs over the last few months, could you imagine being treated to a nice bit of warm weather for a few days jogging around Dubai ?

Were a joke.

 

[Brisan123]

If anyone in the boardroom at Everton is thinking like this then we really do have no hope. 03/04 was the nadir of a pattern in the premier league that had seen us circling the drain. Moyes came in and embarked upon a decade of hard slog, completely revamping the squad and infrastructure from a mid 90s basket case to a top 6/7 modern day premier league side. When he had finished we had one of the best scouting networks on the league, one of the best academies, a top training facility, and a squad of internationals settled in the top 8 of the prem.

If someone on Everton’s board turns round and says we’re just as far behind now as we were in 03/04 then we all may as well pack up. The club back then needed everything changing. I’m hoping that at the moment it’s onky the manager and first team squad along with Walsh that needs punting.

The whole club needs an enema
We need to rid ourselves of the waste matter that has hung around the club too long
Kenwright, Elstone , Woods and all the board with the exception of Moshiri need to be flushed out of the club.
FSA , Walsh , the backstabber and the urine drinker need to be DUMPED
We need a new CEO with experience of seeing a big build through from start to finish
We need an experienced CEO to oversee the football side of the buisness
We need s new Commercial Director to bring in new and expand existing revenue streams
We need a new DOF who is given a clear and precise agenda and the way the club wants to play.
We need the DOF to find and recommend a manager who will play the way the club wants and is prepared to see the project through.
We need a cull of the current squad with 7/8 dumped or sold.
We need Moshiri to financially back all this.
Not a lot to ask for is it ??