Everton and the modern era

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Groucho

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I suppose these days, I qualify for "older generation" of Evertonians, as I've actually seen us win stuff. This makes me partly sad, but partly hopeful that we can get back to that again.

Thinking back to 1985, I remember my dad coming in and waking infant-me up after he came in from the ECWC semi final, I remember him being ecstatic when the final was on, and I remember the open top bus parades. When I went to my first match we were league title holders. The question is, can we do all that again?

We're unusual as a club, in that we've had success throughout our history. Most other clubs have had their glory days in chunks, with barren spells bereft of trophies inbetween - even Liverpool, if you remove the '70's and '80's, are included in that. So why have we waited so long for our next cup? Surely law of averages says we are due a win soon? Perhaps not - did we use up all our luck tokens against Wimbledon and Coventry? Is it a question of adapting to the modern ways of the game? I feel that we're an old fashioned club that needs propelling into the modern era while retaining our identity - I feel this is important, I don't want us to be overly corporate, I'd like us to retain a sense of 'community club' which we do have.

People sometimes say we're not a big club. This is wrong, we are a huge club, we just happen to live next door to another huge club and we're just (sometimes rightly) too modest and sound to shout about it. Newcastle say they're a big club, but they're not, not really - who have they got to challenge that mentality? No one, yet we have a massive club in our backyard, and we still manage to be a huge club too. We need to remember that sometimes it's ok to blow your own trumpet and be proud rather than almost apologetic for being the fourth most successful English club.

We were one of the driving forces behind the formation of the Premier League, so why are our expectations so skewed as a fan base? Some of us would be elated with 6th place and Europa League ties, others (me) want us to win the league every year, while others are simply happy with 17th or above. I was going to say "I wonder what Dixie Dean would expect for the 2015/16 season", but remember that he played in an Everton side that was relegated! He also won the league, and scored a goal or two along the way so we'll let him off with that one. Seriously though, I think he'd see 2nd as failure, and that's the mentality that we need to develop.

We are a hugely successful club, with an honours record that Chelsea would kill for - they've taken full advantage of football in the modern era, just look at Mourinho playing the press to his supposed advantage to get John Stones. We need to stop being Mr. Nice Guy FC and play dirty ourselves. That's the only way we'll progress in the modern game.

I'm rambling now. I had loads more to write but I'd need a publishing deal and a serialisation in a newspaper, so before I waffle on all night:

TL; DR - I just want us to win something and be boss again
 
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I want us to have money so that we too can act like classless tits & lie & connive & pay dodgy agents a fortune to have the worlds best mercenaries play for us.

Cos that's the football I grew up with & love.
 
Good post mate. I'm amazed there wasn't an almighty outcry about that beaut Jose's comments and that gormless pie eater Cahill today about the stature of our club. Maybe a sign of the times that there wasn't - certainly not as much as when Benitez flapped his gums on the subject a few years back.

Juggling the communal v the corporate side to get success?: Impossible now, IMO, sadly.

Can we be huge and successful again? Yes. But only with lots of cash to back it up.
 
I think we need to speak more about our previous title wins and less about being the first club to install undersoil heating

I mean seriously, who gives a fk about that other than the fkn groundsman?
 
Our history is something we should be proud of, not something we should live on or in.

I want us to win something by whatever means possible.

Dive or cheat, outclass or smash someone, I really don't care. Just win something soon.
Have to agree. We need a comeback trophy. I'll worry about the purity of it later.
 

I have a few more miles on the clock Grouch. We were pretty average in the 70s, then won tons just before Sky invented football.

Then "you know what" destroyed that team.

Then we ballsed up the beginning of the "new" era.

Not as bad as some did mind.

Meh.

Whats our name?
 
Would be nice to win something like. Sadly the money In football makes it hard for us to build a team that could challenge for the league, keeping continuity by retainimg key players is tough enough as is.
The aim has to be to win a cup, we've gone long enough without one.
 
Money direction and a plan would be a start - not this 20 years plus of drifting in the doldrums...

Scary to think if I could go back to may 1987 and quote Melvin Udall 'What if this is as good as it gets?' to my 14 year old self he'd shake his head a laugh back at me yeah right......
 

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