What is truly wrong with the club?

[msb]

Fundamentally it is a confidence issue.

At match days the crowd are largely expectant of the worst, so are largely silent to toxic. On any intent forum, fans are ultra-negative about any development and new signing are dissed before they have even pulled on the shirt. Why is this?

Partly the answer lies at expectation and not in a Newcastle or RS way, just that we have done it and therefore we can do it. So disappointment after disappointment has now a cycle of gloom and doom and it is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. When we see a glimmer of light, we can't accept that it is real, we have to slaughter the guys who are trying to change it. That's just the fans.

Now look at the board. I know many blues think Bill is the root of all evil, but he is not. However time has come for him to go and for Moshiri to appoint a board of directors on board with his desire for success. All successful businesses are inspired by the top management and our current board is probably - almost certainly - insipid and weak.

Then our much vaunted DoF - I guess no-one really knows what he has or has not brought to the table and been refused or the manager has not agreed with. Suffice it to say his current apparent record is inadequate. So he either steps up to the plate and delivers expected performance or he goes. A strong board would make this decision.

Manager - many of you already know my opinion of Allardyce and it is not based on his footballing CV alone - nor the England debacle, but many, many years of alleged shady behaviour. Personally I think he is a disaster for the club on any long term basis (by that I mean beyond next summer) - his style will never suit Evertonians and I think it was a panic appointment. I still think the idea of Koeman was right, sadly he failed to deliver. Who to replace him? Whoever we choose, must have a basic footballing plan and be able to motivate and encourage the team to play in that style.

Players - too many people with contracts that are beyond their time. We need a more ruthless attitude and remove long serving players that are past their sell-by date. We should stop recruiting players older than 30 and we should play a balance of players in their prime with youngsters from the academy. A team of players in the right position - stuff rotation and tiredness - play the first choice every week until team patterns and confidence grows. Narrow the squad and bugger off somewhere to build team spirit. If they don't want to play for us, see them off.

On a positive note we have one of the best academy, U23, community enterprises and first class training facilities in the premier league. There is a magnificent history and prospective world class arena coming.

other than that, all is well.

 

[Kenshin]

We are a football club being run by a business man and his advisors are failed board members who he thinks are specialists

So bad decisions are made, they all think the same and none of them can understand when it goes wrong.

 

[hallamblue]

As soon as we are mathematically safe we need to sack the Chief Exec, Director of Football, Manager and coaches. Then we need to spend BIG money on a new Chief Exec and Director of Football by the end of May/beginning of June. They can then identify players of the type to get us playing fast, free flowing football, whether they are in our squad or from outisde. Then we need to appoint a manager who has demonstrated he can work with a DOF, and deliver fast, free flowing football.

It won't be easy, and Moshiri needs to identify people now, and start conversations with agents. However, this is what needs to happen.

 

[Geoff Nulty]

I chose mindset, from which all our problems stem, and which infects every aspect of the club, fans included. We manage to be complacent, arrogant, fearful, fatalistic, deluded, blindly optimistic, and amateurish all at the same time. There's no apparent strategy at any level of the club. It's just hit and hope, whether that's the appointment of Steve Walsh (for example) or a hoof from the back by Ashley Williams. There's no coherence and no identity. From top to bottom, we hear strong words which we can all get behind, whether at the AGM or pre-match press conference or post-match reaction, but they peter out into nothing. If things are going to change, Moshiri needs to establish the right mindset and then ensure it is applied in every thread of the club's actions and behaviours. That doesn't mean losing the good things - the sense of family and the work of EitC - but incorporating them into a complete identity.

 

[Saint Domingo]

Shoddy management and recruitment since Moyes left. Martinez created a completely unbalanced squad around 4 young stars allowing our better squad players (Pienaar Osman Naismith Fellaini Jelavic Distin Mirallas etc.) to be sold or sidelined whilst complete pap like Etoo Atsu Alcaraz Cleverley Mcgeady were brought in. When he left and those 4 stars were subsequently sold they’ve been replaced extremely poorly by Walsh. Stones for Williams, Barkley for Siggurdson, Lukaku for no one (now Tosun but too soon to judge) and Deulofeu for Bolasie (injury deprived).

In other areas such as full back they’ve rested on their laurels. We had two of the best in Europe 5 years ago but they’ve not looked to replace them or find adequate cover at any point.

Add in the usual Everton injury curse and a crisis in confidence and you can see the problem. Thank god for the Everton academy, where would we be without Davies Kenny Holgate DCL this season? They were all turned tonin desperstion though because successive managers cannot set up a proper squad for a whole season. Koeman spent half his time clearing out Martinez’s dross just to replace it with his own.

Allardyce at least looks to have made two decent signings at reasonable prices in areas where they are better than what we had.

You could easily say though that to compete with the top 6 we would need 2 full backs (one senior left back moving Baines to back up and a utility player better than Martina to cover right or left), 2 centre backs to go with Keane and Holgate, a top holding midfielder (Gueye as back up, Schneiderlin in a taxi), a deep lying creative mid (Davies, Rooney not mobile enough to play here) then we’d probably be looking at another number 10 with Siggurdson moving to the bench and another striker.

We need Moshiri to back a manager to make that kind of overhaul but that could take years to sort out.

 

[Seathestars]

Whenever there's a problem in any organisation the root cause starts at the very top. It doesn't matter what's gone on in the past, its the present that counts and Moshiri is here now.

'The only game we wasn't expecting to lose' Can you imagine Bill Gates stating something similar about a poor selling computer. 'We wasn't expecting to sell many anyway'

 

[MACCA75]

If only we had a director of football to implement a balanced transfer strategy, and a coherent way of playing from top to bottom throughout the club.

 

[TheAlmightyFloater]

Loser's mentality from top (Board/management) to bottom (fans etc).

We use self deprecating humour to cope with the general awfulness and I guarantee the players do the same in the dressing room.

 

[Borussin]

From an outsider looking in, so obviously I don't know the personalities and the experience and mindset of the people running the club like you do, but the problem is at the very top.

And until that is changed, there will be no significant change. And it looks to me like there are too many cooks. Cos again, as an outider looking in, I have no clue who runs your club? Is it Moshiri, is it Kenwright? Who signs off on the tranfers? Who makes the final decision on transfers, is it Walsh, or is it the manager? Does Everton have a designated CEO? Cos if they don't, they surely need one. You need a competent chief, who oversees those below him, you need a structure from CEO on down. So there is no doubt who runs the club.

 

[MarkK1988]

probarbly already been covered but i do think we have an identity issue by too many changes in such a short time, basically under moyes we had a solid core of players who knew what their manager wanted from them and wanted to play for the shirt

now i think weve had too many changes of management, increased with varying styles of football and replaced with too many players who dont know eachother or the club and have the will and desire to succeed.

 

[Charlie Sweet]

it is definitely our transfer strategy/lack of

just look at our back four...a terrible right back paying left back, a limited academy player playing at right back, a youngster in his first season at centre back and an old fella

And that is the fault of Koeman / Walsh.

 

[gonetomorrow]

I think it's something to do with the diet.

They're all constipated.

 

[blue61]

The boards acceptance of mediocrity for several decades is the root of our problems. Until the powers that be start living up to our once fine motto, we'll never progress.

 

[Blue_Berry]

Fundamentally it is a confidence issue.

At match days the crowd are largely expectant of the worst, so are largely silent to toxic. On any intent forum, fans are ultra-negative about any development and new signing are dissed before they have even pulled on the shirt. Why is this?

Partly the answer lies at expectation and not in a Newcastle or RS way, just that we have done it and therefore we can do it. So disappointment after disappointment has now a cycle of gloom and doom and it is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. When we see a glimmer of light, we can't accept that it is real, we have to slaughter the guys who are trying to change it. That's just the fans.

Now look at the board. I know many blues think Bill is the root of all evil, but he is not. However time has come for him to go and for Moshiri to appoint a board of directors on board with his desire for success. All successful businesses are inspired by the top management and our current board is probably - almost certainly - insipid and weak.

Then our much vaunted DoF - I guess no-one really knows what he has or has not brought to the table and been refused or the manager has not agreed with. Suffice it to say his current apparent record is inadequate. So he either steps up to the plate and delivers expected performance or he goes. A strong board would make this decision.

Manager - many of you already know my opinion of Allardyce and it is not based on his footballing CV alone - nor the England debacle, but many, many years of alleged shady behaviour. Personally I think he is a disaster for the club on any long term basis (by that I mean beyond next summer) - his style will never suit Evertonians and I think it was a panic appointment. I still think the idea of Koeman was right, sadly he failed to deliver. Who to replace him? Whoever we choose, must have a basic footballing plan and be able to motivate and encourage the team to play in that style.

Players - too many people with contracts that are beyond their time. We need a more ruthless attitude and remove long serving players that are past their sell-by date. We should stop recruiting players older than 30 and we should play a balance of players in their prime with youngsters from the academy. A team of players in the right position - stuff rotation and tiredness - play the first choice every week until team patterns and confidence grows. Narrow the squad and bugger off somewhere to build team spirit. If they don't want to play for us, see them off.

On a positive note we have one of the best academy, U23, community enterprises and first class training facilities in the premier league. There is a magnificent history and prospective world class arena coming.

other than that, all is well.

^^^^
This - pretty much spot on. Great post.

 

[efcjames]

Where's the fans option? Is that Mind Set?

I agree, if the fans had a better mindset we'd definitely be challenging for the title !