I'm beginning to think that whoever manages Everton we are just not destined for success. We're just not a lucky side, no two ways about it. In the last two games alone we've seen keepers pull of two breathtaking saves to deny us what could have potentially been two wins. Against Chelsea not one but two deflections from hopeful punts outside of the box flew in. I mean come on that's just ridiculous. At the same time you watch Lloris one of the best keepers in the league dive over a pea roller to allow Liverpool to score the other night. I don't know what it is but there's some dark cloud holding Everton back always tripping them up whenever they get close to the finish line. It was there under Moyes and it there again under Martinez no matter how well or badly we're playing. Everyone keeps saying last season was great, but no derby wins (again cruelly denied by absurd keeping and Liverpool scoring from three shots), no trophies, no top 4 (although again we posted a total that will probably be higher than whoever is fourth this season), no big away wins (the candy shop of Moyes' Old Trafford hardly counts). How then was it any different to any other season of the past 20 years? Whether we're battling relegation or chasing Europe the outcomes are fairly much the same. Every season ends with premier league status assured give or take a few mill for league placing, and if its been a 'really good' season we might have entry to the second tier European competition which we'll inevitably bow out of because we can't win anything. We are allergic to success. No flukey cup wins, no wins at Anfield, Stamford Bridge, Higbury/Emirates, Old Trafford (aside from Moyes United), you can count on one hand the wins over Liverpool and also the league cup runs in the last 20 years, no champions league qualification (again ill fated when we did make it), one cup final performance (again our entire spine was injured and we were against possibly the best side in Europe fully fit of course and it still needed a Lampard wonder goal).
Why does it keep happening? Why when we get to the final of a cup its not Cardiff, West Ham, Birmingham like it is for the RS or Hull like it was for Arsenal? Why do we meet Fiorentina with their keeper on fire and all their players experts at penalties but a jarg Rangers meet them in the next round and beat them on penalties with all Firoentina's players looking hopeless, they then go on to the final against Zenit, two sides we could have easily beaten. Why did Distin have to make the only two fatal backpasses of his Everton career in the cup semi final when we had weathered the RS storm, and against Lisbon when we were cruising.
It's just frustrating. I love Everton as much as anyone else but can you honestly say to me that I won't be watching for another 20 years with absolutely zero success? I can take not winning a trophy, i really can, but I can't take the fact that we still can't spawn out one flukey win over a top side on their own patch at least once in all that time! No one has any confidence that we'll beat any of those sides home or away next season either. How long exactly is it going to be before we win a derby? Its already been 5 years, 5 YEARS, I had to pay 50 quid to watch us lose 4-0 at Anfield as well as suffering the pain of a Gerrard Hat trick and Everton haven't beaten Liverpool in 5 years! Its absolutely ridiculous. There's so many embarrassing days every single season and often not even one good one. Just one good one. Is that too much to ask? One penalty shoot out win, one jammy win over the RS, god even a trophy win. Is that really to much to ask of a side ever present in the premier league and often in the top 6?
What else is the point of watching? We have become cannon fodder for sky's super six teams so that every week a load of ex RS pundits can guffaw and laugh about us as we're being 'taught a lesson' by one of the top sides i.e. we deserved something out the game but the ref swung it in their favour. Even going to the match, you get ripped off on the ticket prices, the ref is usually bent, you have some muppet in charge of the team who is either playing Rodwell on the ring or 4 defensive midfielders and four number 10s as he drops his best keeper and keeps an ever present 34 year old, and we never ever win a single game of note. What is the actual point? (As you can tell, last night hacked me off a tiny bit.....)
Get someone through the door, I dont care who it is, who can just smash down some of these ridiculous invisible barriers. A torrid side like Aston Villa can win at Anfield season after season but an Everton manager can't get an Everton side to beat Liverpool even once at Goodison park over 5 seasons? Sort it out, just get someone in who will sort that out, and can that same person be someone who just wins penalty shootouts? Who values the league cup? Who can beat even just one top side away from home just once even if its is totally underserved? Who is lucky. We've had two of the most genuine nice guys in football managing us but neither of them are lucky. Martinez was at Wigan but that seems to have gone as the Everton curse has got him. Liverpool meanwhile hire odious cretin after odious cretin and each one has a magical derby record, flukes trophies, and seems to get ridiculous luck in big games. I just want someone in charge who will turn Everton into a normal football side, one that wins and loses, has successes and failures, good days and bad. I'm not expecting league titles and champions league, just a tiny bit of hope to keep going the game in the knowledge it might be our day, it might be our tournament, it might be our year. At the moment it never is, we don't get a year, we don't get a tournament, we don't get one single day at the moment. It's just a never ending bad dream, almost nearly there but never quite, that has been happening for the past 15 years.
