The expectation before it with so few highlights I genuinely think this was the worst. There was no win at Old Trafford or 4-0 smashing of Pep’s City at home it was all just rancid turgid football
Note that I was too young to appreciate the last day survival seasons
I agree with
@Gladystweet that there have been worse seasons, particularly those that went to the last game of the season. Never want to go there again. Our position in the league was probably the one thing that we could take out of this season, it's probably just one place below where most realistically expected us to finish.
But I agree with you that our performance this year almost feels worse that ever. And there's a number of reasons for that.
Firstly, it's only just happened so is very clearly imprinted in our minds.
Secondly, the manner in which we achieved our league position. It was probably more down to how poor the league is than how good we are. We finished on 49 points, 12 points less than last season and most people thought we should have had even more then having only picked up 4 points from the last 4 games.
Expectations were high going into the start of the season, most fans expecting to build on the last years improvement and hoping to mount a more serious challenge to the top 6, especially in games against the top 6.
The squad that we have is infinitely better than some of those we had in the bad old nineties. So you could argue that the teams of the nineties actually performed above their potential by comparison.
The quality of football on show this season has been as poor as I can remember. I thought we played well against Man City away before they went down to 10 men. We played well for 60 minutes against Leicester in Coleman's return. We played well at home to West Ham once we established a lead. And we played well in the F A Cup game at Anfield and thought we deserved to win that day. The only game I really enjoyed was watching the kids in the 3-0 dead rubber win in Cyprus. But the latter aside, that's probably 180 minutes of decent football out of a full season. Shocking.
The negativity we showed in matches, both under Koeman and Allardyce to be fair, has been embarrassing. It's bad enough against the top teams, but I would also point to WBA home and away, Bournemouth away, Burnley away, Watford away, Swansea away, Southampton at home and yesterday away to West Ham. OK Sam would argue that we were in a relegation battle, but the last 3 were after safety was guaranteed, and the Burnley game determined who finished in the European spot, and they were in the middle of a winless run of about 1o games.
But probably the most prominent point for me is, this season has been the first that I can remember that there has not been at least one stand out moment. Not one. Not even close.
A clear out is needed throughout the club, top to bottom. New CEO, new DoF, new manager, new coaches, new academy director and probably new U23 coach too as I think Unsy needs to move away from the club. Most of all though we need to overhaul the playing staff. We need the DoF to move the playing side in the right direction by introducing a style of football that we aspire to, and bring in managers, coaches and players that not only suit this style but buy into it 100%. The style of football needs to be of the type that gets the Goodison crowd off it's feet again. Fast paced, aggressive and offensive.
It's going to be very difficult to offload some of the older (and younger) players who are on big contracts, and we just have to hope that some of these are prepared to make personal sacrifices so they can continue playing regular football. We probably have around 8/9 senior players who are good enough to play under the mew manager, and we have a group of around 10/11 youngsters who are there or thereabouts to be squad/back up players. So the manager/DoF we bring in must be prepared to work with youngsters, otherwise we really are in the mire. We then need to bring in, I would say 5 quality players good and experienced enough to be regular starters.
A lot of work to be done in the summer, but if the right appointments are made, and the right quality of new player brought in, I'm confident that we can comfortably cement our position as 7th best team next season, but also make significant inroads into the current huge gap that currently exists between us and the top 6. The season after, if some of our younger players develop as I hope they will, we'll have a s squad good enough to compete on 4 fronts.
So, as bad as last season was, I don't think it's as much doom and gloom as some on here believe, provided the board act quickly to make the right decisions this summer. If we can get some decent money in for some of our outgoing players, and the board can find an extra £50m towards transfers, we should have a good war chest going into the transfer window, and there are also some very good players out of contract this summer to help the money stretch further.
