Culture:

[MKS]

Sound very kopite like this.

Wouldn’t the kopite way be to not care about the community at all?

 

[Papa Shango]

The reason we are crap on the pitch is because we have crap players. Nothing else.

 

[Big Sams Undies]

The reason we are crap on the pitch is because we have crap players. Nothing else.

The crap players didn't sign themselves...

 

[Big Sams Undies]

Wouldn’t the kopite way be to not care about the community at all?

No the Kopite thing would be to smash the community up

 

[Disgruntledgoat]

The reason we are crap on the pitch is because we have crap players. Nothing else.

Exactly, my best mate in school (after we moved to Cumbria, obviously) was from a family of big Manchester United fans. His dad lost his leg to a flesh eating bug in 2003 and was hospitalised for about 8 months. He got invited to their disabled supporters association Christmas Party at Old Trafford and they were promised a meet and greet with some first team players.

Ferguson had every last one of the squad in there for 2 solid hours. Alan Smith spent half of it complaining to my mate's mum that Ronaldo stole his girlfriend.

You can have a winning culture and still do good stuff in the community. The thing that breeds a winning culture is a sustained period of success and never being satisfied with the way things are. Nothing to do with being mean.

 

[brieverton]

Its a very complicated question, one thats almost impossible to answer.

You could say that afer a string of sacked managers, and a lot of money spent, the "culture" in that respect is very demanding indeed. None of that was done to fail deliberately.

And then, after decades of mediocrity and a disappearing profile, we still manage to snare one of the most decorated managers in history.

"Culture" is a more indefinable thing. It's what remains and lingers on after directors, managers, players, and the kit man have all come and gone.

In that respect, yes, I think we have more of a problem.

My perception of Everton is too far skewed on the homely, family-oriented, comfy side. You can have all those things and still be a winner (apart from comfy) but the simple issue I guess is that we are not winners.

It was telling that staff at Man Utd, when sneering at Moyes, referred to him simply as "Everton". To them, it seemed therefore we were the polar opposite of the standards they expected.

I think you cannot inculcate a winning culture with people who are used to mediocrity and failure though. Unfortunately you have to root those people out and replace them systematically.

Whether its fair or not, that means people like Kenwright, and even Unsworth and a lot of others. Not least most of the players over time.

We've done the best thing we could bringing Ancelotti in. Someone who can give us the benefit of what works at some of the worlds biggest clubs. His primary job is managing the team of course but we have to take in every single sap of wisdom that he has to offer us, if we are going to change at all.

 

[Dymak]

The point of a team is to win but a football club serves a bigger purpose than winning.

Clubs are about the community. That’s why people go the pub before/after matches. Why you put in the effort to attend matches instead of watching on tv. Why you post on a forum.

The point is to share with other people something in common. If you take those things away would you enjoy being an Everton supporter maybe but probably not as much.

If it really was all about winning trophies then we could ditch EITC and spend that money on some wages for better players maybe but how would you feel about that.

EITC are about 10 years old. They’re a separate entity to Everton Football Club, a charity, a very successful charity that benefits from the Everton brand and the connection that it does have with Everton Football Club. From the fact that the players will have some involvement etc. A start up charity wouldn’t have achieved half of what EITC have achieved in 10 years without the assistance of the brand name and Everton as a club.

However they have only been present for less 10% of Everton’s existence. They weren’t present during any of our trophy wins or relegation escapes. I think it should be really easy to differentiate between the two, and I don’t see why some people view them as one of the same thing.

The social side of going to the match has been in place for a very long time, and EITC didn’t bring it into existence.

I’m not knocking EITC, but if we were in a relegation fight, and Aston Villa fans were singing “2-0 and you’re going down, 2-0 and you’re going down”, we really can’t sing back “We’ve opened up a cafe, we’ve opened up a cafe, We’ve opened up a cafe, We’ve opened up a cafe”.

It’s not the same thing. One’s a professional football club that has been competing at the top for 125 years, the other is a newly found voluntary organisation that assists the local community. They’re separate things!

 

[Papa Shango]

The crap players didn't sign themselves...

That's got nothing to do with culture though.

I would like to think the club doesn't sit down and say "do you know what we really need? A director of football who will sign us loads of crap players".

It's not like we have went cheap on these things either. We have spent money, we have also changed things when they didn't work out.

 

[Papa Shango]

EITC are about 10 years old. They’re a separate entity to Everton Football Club, a charity, a very successful charity that benefits from the Everton brand and the connection that it does have with Everton Football Club. From the fact that the players will have some involvement etc. A start up charity wouldn’t have achieved half of what EITC have achieved in 10 years without the assistance of the brand name and Everton as a club.

However they have only been present for less 10% of Everton’s existence. They weren’t present during any of our trophy wins or relegation escapes. I think it should be really easy to differentiate between the two, and I don’t see why some people view them as one of the same thing.

The social side of going to the match has been in place for a very long time, and EITC didn’t bring it into existence.

I’m not knocking EITC, but if we were in a relegation fight, and Aston Villa fans were singing “2-0 and you’re going down, 2-0 and you’re going down”, we really can’t sing back “We’ve opened up a cafe, we’ve opened up a cafe, We’ve opened up a cafe, We’ve opened up a cafe”.

It’s not the same thing. One’s a professional football club that has been competing at the top for 125 years, the other is a newly found voluntary organisation that assists the local community. They’re separate things!

Football clubs are generally set up to be more than just the first team and that's it. Football clubs are a massive part of their community regardless.

It's not just EITC anyway, Everton as a football club is one to be proud of, we tend to try and do things the right way.

You don't do good community work to brag about it anyway.

 

[TimHowardsBeardJuice]

People read too much into things that in my opinion are not related .
Yes Bill has his moments and yes the players do seem to be more intent on filling their coffers -sometimes -but because things happen sometimes it doesn't mean that everything at the club is bad .
I for one am surprised how good at her job DBB is ,is it because she is a woman that I am surprised ,no it is because I thought she was dragged in because Robert the sham left .
She is articulate ,intelligent ,determined and she is a blue ,most of all she is someone I as a blue am proud to say is our chairperson .I have never met her although it would be a privilege . She is also overseeing the new stadium ,to my mind very well .Saying all this what she is doing with EITC makes my spine tingle that I have had the pleasure of reading about the things they do for the people of my beloved Liverpool ,fans of both teams .
Now onto this fictional conspiracy that every player since the red headed traitor is not worth a light ! Is it possible to scout players with the sole intent of underperforming ? I don't think so .
I believe that the problem is the reverse of what happens when you are lucky in your recruitment as in the 80's
We bought two crocks Reid and Gray ,two who on here today would be horsewhipped ,humiliated and vilified .
Yet it worked ,what we need is luck as every transfer is just a punt .
Of course everyone who has commented is correct on certain points because hindsight is a wonderful thing ,sadly that is all it is .75% or more of the signings have been lauded at the time let's take Bernard -free (ish ) but not strong enough ,no way to know until you try him out .Fans on here calling to give the youngsters a chance as they are better than the ones playing ? Davies ! nothing to say Beni is going to make it JJK ? It is luck we need.
On Mr Moshiri how Bill persuded this man to join I do not know but even though it hasn't worked out yet I am sure that it will ,he has as said dug deep into pockets that we could only dream of having and looks to me on signing Carlo promised even more ,how any fan can condemn that is totally beyond me but hey ho .
Now Carlo he is the embodiment of all I hope for in an Everton manager ,he will bring us success in some degree he has shown with this crew that he will organize and is tactically aware .Just give him time without the head wobble within 6 months of getting him in.

Improbably since I live on another continent I have met DBB.

She came to NYC in October ‘18 to meet Meis re: the stadium. She or someone else at the club contacted the NY Evertonians supporters group and arranged for her to meet the group at Turnmill, the Everton bar in Manhattan that some of you have been to.

About 30 showed up. She addressed the group and told everyone about her meeting with Meis and how excited the club was about the stadium. Then she bought a round for the group and went around chatting with people one on one. I spoke with her for a few minutes. She asked me how I came to be a Blue and what it was like to follow the club from America. I told her that I was planning to make our first Goodison trip and she reached into her pocket to hand me get business card to contact her so she could advise me on it. Unfortunately she got pulled away at that moment for a video interview and I never got her card. She stayed for about an hour.

I vas very impressed. She has the smarts and presence of a CEO. She cares deeply about the club and the supporters- she cane right to Turnmill from the airport, about 7 pm NY time, so she was jet lagged and did not need to do this, no one even would have known she was in town or would have expected her to meet the supporters and buy them drinks. I would not expect the CEO of a club in the most popular sports league in the world to give her card to some rando from across the ocean to personally advise him on his first trip to the city.

Maybe the CEO should be concerned more with on the pitch success than meeting supporters but I don’t want someone in that job making football decisions, she’s running the business and her priority is the stadium and while it isn’t final she’s brought a very exciting concept further along than past efforts and it’s poised to succeed, possible societal collapse from pandemic notwithstanding.

Culture means different things. As far as fan culture I will follow this club for life just off that one encounter even if they drop to the fifth tier and a bunch of players are jailed for child abuse. As far as the culture of the team on the pitch I think that the football brain trust have not lived up to the motto on the crest in part because they have allowed the narrative of the plucky club with the bear pit stadium and the devoted fans and the community work to not take seriously the work of building a side dominant on the pitch.

Moshiri wants to win and will spend money, which is necessary but not sufficient to build a ruthless side. Lots of bad signings and bad msnager hirings which is on him. But he landed Carlo and that’s huge.

Agree 100% that the dead wood needs to be blown out even if it’s at fire sale prices. sleepwalking through matches is unacceptable. Reinforcements are needed, But the football people to make those decisions are here snd the money is here. Let them do it. But my belief is that DBB is a first rate CEO who can successfully run the business. Carlo can change the culture of the team in the pitch.

 

[billyblue80]

After listening to The Esk, El Pivote and another gentleman talk on a podcast I want to hear what other people opinion on the clubs culture is.

I’ll give my take on this and where this stems from and where the current issues are.

Culture for me is set at the top and should always flow down a business and this is the same with a football club.

This is not always the case and sometimes a board of directors allow their manager to create a culture prime examples of these are Cruyff and Barcelona and Alex Ferguson and Manchester United.

Obviously this can only continue if the board of directors keep promoting this, and in terms of Barcelona and Manchester United this hasn’t been the case.

I am 30 so I can’t comment too much about Peter Johnson and Carter etc but I can talk about the culture over say the last 20 years.

David Moyes has had a huge influence on the culture of this club and still does so now even though he left 7 years ago.

I am not going to sit here and say everything he did was bad nor am I going to sit here and paint him as the good guy. He bought into the type of players us as fans like to see, we seen hard workers with some flair but always 100% commitment. On the flip side he made comments such as infamous one that’s still gets branded now about taking a knife to a gun fight which created an inferiority complex and created the “plucky little Everton” line.

During his time he basically ran this club and without him am quietly confident we would have dropped down the leagues, Kenwright and Elstone knew this and most of the clubs “strategy” centred around Moyes and his ability to make us compete on next to no investment.

Kenwright was happy with this and never challenged him as he never wanted to upset the Apple cart because he knew without Moyes he would be exposed more than ever for his poor business choices, lies and deceit.

The malaise of comfortability sets in, and is filtered from the top down and we never achieve anything and nothing is questioned, people get paid go home and that’s it as long as we survive and get by.

Fast forward to today, Kenwright is no longer the majority shareholder but he’s still the current chairmen, we have a majority shareholder who is rich.

He’s bought into the club the Bill Kenwright has sold him and happy to fund the club he has bought.

We all expected a rich Billionaire accountant to get this club and shake it from top to bottom.

He’s made changes, we now run a Director of Football model and we actually have a world class manager. All in all that sounds great, yet the culture hasn’t changed.

Robert Elstone left the club, I think majority thought he was out of his depth and made some shocking commercial decisions during his time here which he did but not always out of choice (Kitbag deal).

We replaced him with Dense Barrett-Baxendale from running Everton in the community to chief executive of a Premier League Football club, something I don’t think anyone expected.

She might be a wonderful woman and did wonders with Everton in the community but was she what we needed? It’s fair to say this was a Kenwright led decision and he championed her promotion. She now talks about the club as charity and not as sporting enterprise that is set out to win.

Bill is still our chairman, now this is something that makes less sense seeing as it’s over 4 years since Moshiri became majority shareholder.

A man who admitted he didn’t haven’t a clue how run a club day to say, he’s no longer majority shareholder what is his worth to this club currently? Maybe in the short term he had some worth maybe, that’s about opinion but what is his worth now?

There’s a lazy, family, plucky little Everton culture that still filters down and when you add in some mercenary footballers to the mix is a recipe for disaster.

The culture at this club has to change now or never.

What do we want to be?

Comfortable acceptance of failure. Moshiri is now part of the problem too we appear to be his toy but for what reason because it doesbt appear to be about winning on tbe pitch. ?

 

[Connor]

it was actually a brilliant listen

 

[Lelouch]

I think people read too much into this sort of stuff, We've just been crap on the Football pitch lads because our players are pussies, Simple as to be honest.

 

[catcherintherye]

I think people have a pop at DBB cos they think she just ran a charity, shes a very clever woman with loads of letters after her name, we are lucky to have such a person involved in our club. The way the club is structured now, which is something Moshiri did, everybody is responsible for different things and it allows them to focus on that 1 thing and means the buck stops at their door more often than not.

I think Bill is still around for a reason, I suspect that reason is contractual, i.e certain things must happen before he "gives up control", I suspect its do with the stadium or something, plus Moshiri is a very busy man, he's off making money and doesn't really have the time to be dealing with Everton things day to day. Some people will take that as a negative, but whenever he's called upon he digs deep, so its not like he's half arsed.

Hes backed this club, the money he bought the shares with, money he's loaned the club and money he's given us via sponsorship with USM. To hazard a guess its well in excess of 500m so far, with plenty more to come. I personally do not think our off the field stuff interferes with the on the field stuff.

We have gone through managers like butter due to them being very stinky, we have wasted vast sums of money on bog-standard crap players.

IMO, none of that has anything to do with DBB being in charge of paperclips or Bill sitting in the Directors Box.

Unless either of them are gonna play midfield tomorrow for us?

Which takes me back to the buck stopping at peoples doors.

It stops at Moshiris door, he's the 1 who has overseen Koeman spending vast sums, he is the 1 who pursued Silva across the world.

But I personally cant fault him. He made a decision and he backed it, FULLY. Its our club, yes, but he has no emotional ties to Everton, he's a businessman and so far he's pissed the best part of 500m up a wall. Sure its only numbers on a spreadsheet and he will make more, but I'm pretty sure he's almost as invested in us to see everything work out.

To change the culture we don't need to move away from EITC, we don't need to sack DBB cos shes never worked for United and we don't need to get rid of Bill cos he's a bit cooky.

What we need to do is get things right on the pitch, back the manager, show support, I know its hard, 25 years is a long, long time, its 33 years since we were the best team in the league, that's what drives our culture, failure and disappointment, the only way to change it is to change the record.

There's a lot of good points in this. Just to take issue on a couple though.

1) Do you think there is enough scrutiny on anyone at the club? And if not, would people perform better if there were?
2) If the club went out, and employed say, Brian Gilvary as Chairman and say Terry Leahy as CEO, what changes to the culture would it make?
3) Do you think Marcel Brands is being pulled in by the CEO to explain what went wrong re recruitment this year?

I don't see it.

There's no doubt being successful on the pitch solves a multitude of sins. I'm not having Kenwright and DBB as a CEO are top draw in their roles though. I'm not even against either being on the board. I'd happily keep Bill along in an unnamed role to scrutine, and DBB to me seems far better suited to PR/Comms & Operations management.

 

[degsy]

After listening to The Esk, El Pivote and another gentleman talk on a podcast I want to hear what other people opinion on the clubs culture is.

I’ll give my take on this and where this stems from and where the current issues are.

Culture for me is set at the top and should always flow down a business and this is the same with a football club.

This is not always the case and sometimes a board of directors allow their manager to create a culture prime examples of these are Cruyff and Barcelona and Alex Ferguson and Manchester United.

Obviously this can only continue if the board of directors keep promoting this, and in terms of Barcelona and Manchester United this hasn’t been the case.

I am 30 so I can’t comment too much about Peter Johnson and Carter etc but I can talk about the culture over say the last 20 years.

David Moyes has had a huge influence on the culture of this club and still does so now even though he left 7 years ago.

I am not going to sit here and say everything he did was bad nor am I going to sit here and paint him as the good guy. He bought into the type of players us as fans like to see, we seen hard workers with some flair but always 100% commitment. On the flip side he made comments such as infamous one that’s still gets branded now about taking a knife to a gun fight which created an inferiority complex and created the “plucky little Everton” line.

During his time he basically ran this club and without him am quietly confident we would have dropped down the leagues, Kenwright and Elstone knew this and most of the clubs “strategy” centred around Moyes and his ability to make us compete on next to no investment.

Kenwright was happy with this and never challenged him as he never wanted to upset the Apple cart because he knew without Moyes he would be exposed more than ever for his poor business choices, lies and deceit.

The malaise of comfortability sets in, and is filtered from the top down and we never achieve anything and nothing is questioned, people get paid go home and that’s it as long as we survive and get by.

Fast forward to today, Kenwright is no longer the majority shareholder but he’s still the current chairmen, we have a majority shareholder who is rich.

He’s bought into the club the Bill Kenwright has sold him and happy to fund the club he has bought.

We all expected a rich Billionaire accountant to get this club and shake it from top to bottom.

He’s made changes, we now run a Director of Football model and we actually have a world class manager. All in all that sounds great, yet the culture hasn’t changed.

Robert Elstone left the club, I think majority thought he was out of his depth and made some shocking commercial decisions during his time here which he did but not always out of choice (Kitbag deal).

We replaced him with Dense Barrett-Baxendale from running Everton in the community to chief executive of a Premier League Football club, something I don’t think anyone expected.

She might be a wonderful woman and did wonders with Everton in the community but was she what we needed? It’s fair to say this was a Kenwright led decision and he championed her promotion. She now talks about the club as charity and not as sporting enterprise that is set out to win.

Bill is still our chairman, now this is something that makes less sense seeing as it’s over 4 years since Moshiri became majority shareholder.

A man who admitted he didn’t haven’t a clue how run a club day to say, he’s no longer majority shareholder what is his worth to this club currently? Maybe in the short term he had some worth maybe, that’s about opinion but what is his worth now?

There’s a lazy, family, plucky little Everton culture that still filters down and when you add in some mercenary footballers to the mix is a recipe for disaster.

The culture at this club has to change now or never.

What do we want to be?

Winners.
Get the winning sorted, then bleed in some warm fuzzies to shut the snowflakes up...but there wont be too many moaning snowflakes - they'll all be too busy basking in the winning
Hopefully