Everton, the Medium Sized Club

Status
Not open for further replies.
From the source, very complementary, to be honest. I enjoyed it, and he makes his point for his audience, who know nothing whatsoever that doesn't need to be unlearned about how things work in the EPL. I would use this to explain why Everton represents such a special kind of quality, and then teach some history to the minuscule few who would listen.

.

Agree with this. Interesting comparison to Arsenal, who are in the black on transfers. Although the Arse seems to be losing it recently, he's done a fantastic job over the years tbf.
 
The OP is obviously a Kopite on the wind up. I dont know how you fall for it, they're so obvious you can almost smell them.
 
Agree with this. Interesting comparison to Arsenal, who are in the black on transfers. Although the Arse seems to be losing it recently, he's done a fantastic job over the years tbf.

To be fair he had a hell of a team to start with which makes a lot of difference in terms of how much you get for your players, but for me he is the joint best manager in the league.
 

Grantland is a nice website to read some non-typical media stories. I think the article serves its purpose for its intended audience (aka:not you). Sports fans will visit the site and it does a nice job introducing Everton to a novice football/soccer fan.
 
Grantland has a podcast where one of the hosts is an Everton supporter so they are about as pro-Everton (which basically means they are aware of Everton) as you're going to find.
 
I'm really perplexed as to why some, so many even, are taking the article as offensively as they are, or complaining about its being from an American. Seeing all these " 'soccer' " jeers is a lot like talking to soccer snobs here in the U.S. except you guys mean in genuinely. I can't figure out if that makes it better or worse.
 
"Arsenal has massive resources, a huge scouting network, some of the best youth facilities in the world, and the ability to offer new players regular access to Champions League soccer. ...Arsenal can't know that any player they sign is going to be a sure thing, value-wise, but they can count on having first choice of just about anyone they think is undervalued — and their total outlay is almost twice Everton's. The Toffees, by contrast, are playing a very high-risk segment of the transfer market: players they hope will hit it big, but aren't yet wanted by more powerful clubs. Players, it's worth noting, who will be more likely to leave if they find success at Goodison. It's a fine tightrope to walk, and the fact that it looks boring doesn't mean that it's not incredibly hard to do."

I think this is a very real fact and points to the good job that Moyes has done in walking the transfer tightrope. That, and molding the players into cohesive, gritty squads that play dependably, if not sexily. Of course, that's different this year. We're free flowing and winning the league with much sexyness.
 

I'm really perplexed as to why some, so many even, are taking the article as offensively as they are, or complaining about its being from an American. Seeing all these " 'soccer' " jeers is a lot like talking to soccer snobs here in the U.S. except you guys mean in genuinely. I can't figure out if that makes it better or worse.
I can't work out what was offensive in it except the use of the word soccer which I am sure you can work out what's wrong with that.
 
Moyes is grumblingly disliked by a minority of Everton supporters who would rather see the club swerve more recklessly, and maybe joyfully, toward glory. The other-side-of-the-fence comparison here is Portsmouth, a fellow mid-shelf English team that won the FA Cup in 2008 behind, as it turned out, a completely insupportable financial model that saw the club implode the following season.7 Money isn't everything in soccer, but it's a guarantee of life; Portsmouth fans can look back on the thrill of winning the cup, but their team now plays in the third division and nearly ceased to exist in the interim.

One of the weirdest things about the current dynamics of money in soccer is the way it forces all but the top clubs into compromises with their own priorities. Everton isn't always fun to watch, and they never win anything, but you know they're always going to be there, grinding out points in the Premier League, contending for a Europa League place. Portsmouth enjoyed its flare of triumph and then, as a fan experience, basically went dark. What counts as winning in this system? If you're a supporter, what would you rather see? The romantic choice is obviously to take the win and the collapse — but again, we're not talking about a title followed by a few down seasons here, we're talking about a title followed by utter cave-in, minor-league status, a total transformation. How do you even parse that?

This is why I hate it. it's a stupid patronising straw man argument. Claiming that there's only two ways a football team can end up: like Portsmouth or like Everton with the subtext that surviving relegation is all we should expect.

It's what these kind of 'look what a good job Moyes is doing' articles always come down to, a condemnation of anyone who isn't happy with just the 7th place trophy and a fatalist sense that we're not mid table because of decades of crap chairman and managers ****ing up this club but because of a natural way of things that we can't possibly evert.

We're not at the same level as feckin Pompey, we're the 4th biggest club in the country and any season without silverware is a miserable failiure. Koff.
 
from the title thought it was going to be a serious piece then got to "Moyes is an alien" and realised my mistake.
 

Status
Not open for further replies.
Top