Would we have gone down without Allardyce

[barneygumble]

The fact is, with a jarg pre-season, and a seeming stubborn RK, we were always going to struggle.
The new signings didn't work... Klaasen and Sandro never adapted, Keane was evidently (and still is) nervous and the weight of the world was on Sigurdsson (playing outwide).

Playing the "big" sides early doors really didn't help the confidence of the newbies either.

Koeman wouldn't change it, Schneiderlin doesn't go from all round bossing the back of the midfield to not assed for no reason.

I really want to say we were too good to go down, and the quality of the league is so poor this season. Only half of that is true. The league is so poor. I'd actually say the league is the weakest it has ever been, and your prime example of that is, we're 9th and we've been garbage.
It's all well and good checking for how good City have been, and Liverpool are doing in the Champions League, but the "Top 6" are streets ahead of the rest. In regards to being "too good", I look at Southampton, and i think.... maybe we weren't too good. They've got some real talents, just like we do, the players just didn't have the heart of guts to dig in.... which when i look at Arsenal, Burnley, Tottenham at home, and then Southampton away we didn't have that either. So were we?

Huddersfield, Newcastle, Swansea have all went out and used their lesser teams and surprised a few people... by contrast Stoke, Southampton and early season Us didn't.

So maybe, maybe we could have ended up right in it.

 

[toffee-L]

It's an interesting question, but ultimately the answer I think is we'd have stayed up this season more by default than anything.

If we look at the Premier League, outside of the top 5 (Arsenal don't deserve to be considered amongst them this season) the league is very poor. The three teams that are currently occupying the relegation places are the worst of a bad bunch.

After we got smacked by Southampton and Atalanta, Unsworth's job became untenable for me. Having said that I think he would have kept us up but maybe not as comfortable as Big Tits has made it. Even though we have been appalling this season, we have tended to beat worse teams than us at home and you're never going to be in trouble if you do that but the mere fact we have resorted to Sam means that the boardroom were very fearful at a particular stage.

Having said all of that though I think Koeman would have kept us up once he got all the awful fixtures we had at the start of the season out of the way and gone out of Europe too. Just glad this season is nearly at an end.

 

[jackyboy]

With Unsworth I was convinced we were going.

 

[mikey 62]

I voted yes , but TBH you could have just as well flipped a coin as its purely based on a matter of opinion and here say

I voted yes as I was a very worried Evertonian this season and believed the dire form , lack of discipline , negativity , dysfunctional squad was in free fall , there was no forewarning of what this season produced , we were a decent side last season we had aspirations of CL position for 2017/18 IMO there is one certain fact , out form was relegation material , Undsy who preferably would have been interim till end of season and reviewed had given up and lost the dressing room

Therefore I look at it this way - Sam was brought in as he is the specialist of saving teams from the drop , he is the present manager we are staying up , so the job card says he has achieved what he was brought in to do ?

 

[MrGrumpy]

With Unsworth I was convinced we were going.

Hasn’t he won Every Home PL game?

 

[Jebus_lives]

Regardless of if we would have gone down with Unsworth or anyone else for that matter, we brought in Allardyce to steady the ship and prevent relegation: he's done that. But his appointment was a by product of an awful season following a directionless summer transfer window. He was brought in to plug a gap - not a long term solution. he's done his job, should we be grateful for it, maybe. Should we settle for it long term, absolutely not.

The problem with him is he encapsulates how far we have fallen in ambition, which is not his fault, but he revels in reminding everyone about it by his rhetoric and bending over for 'bigger clubs'.

For what it's worth I don't think we would have been relegated at all.

 

[Ring master]

No chance in hell would we have gone down,but sam would have you think so,This is the type of thread sam could have wrote himself lol

 

[MrGrumpy]

Regardless of if we would have gone down with Unsworth or anyone else for that matter, we brought in Allardyce to steady the ship and prevent relegation: he's done that. But his appointment was a by product of an awful season following a directionless summer transfer window. He was brought in to plug a gap - not a long term solution. he's done his job, should we be grateful for it, maybe. Should we settle for it long term, absolutely not.

The problem with him is he encapsulates how far we have fallen in ambition, which is not his fault, but he revels in reminding everyone about it by his rhetoric and bending over for 'bigger clubs'.

For what it's worth I don't think we would have been relegated at all.

The problem with thanking him for saving us, or he’s done the job he was in for us weird.

The facts are we had played 14 games we where 5 points above the relegation zone with 24 games left to play, played a few big boy away from home and we out of Europe and the cup. 24 games, 24 games yet he saved us. Doesn’t add up, with 24 games to go we could have got top 4

 

[Jebus_lives]

No chance in hell would we have gone down,but sam would have you think so,This is the type of thread sam could have wrote himself lol

The problem with Mersons statement and anyone else prescribing to that thinking is that has to assume that nobody but Allardyce could have done a similar job with this team. He's assuming that other clubs make changes and improvements but, assuming we continue along the same trajectory.

 

[davids]

..I think we might have gone down had we not changed. Southampton away was as bad as it gets and i’m of the opinion that the win against West Ham at Home was because of Allardyce sitting in the stands. I fear Unsworth had lost it, that moment Joe Royle left his seat in the stand to offer advice at Southampton is an abiding memory.

The question, however, is whether we would have gone down without Allardyce and the answer depends on who else came in. Moshiri might say the Allardyce appointment was a success because we didn’t go down.

I think the players responded against WHU because they finally knew they had a permanent manager in place being in an uncertain work position effects everyone.Hate him or hate him he's done the job at his two previous clubs.As for who else would have come in,there doesn't seem to be anybody who can name a realistic candidate.

 

[Jebus_lives]

The problem with thanking him for saving us, or he’s done the job he was in for us weird.

The facts are we had played 14 games we where 5 points above the relegation zone with 24 games left to play, played a few big boy away from home and we out of Europe and the cup. 24 games, 24 games yet he saved us. Doesn’t add up, with 24 games to go we could have got top 4

I absolutely agree. We weren't in a relegation fight, but in the minds of the board and a selection of fans we were.

So the narrative becomes ''Allardyce saves Everton from relegation'. Personally I think his appointment was a disgrace and he should have been shown the door as soon as he had us 'safe'.

 

[Daveysgingerlovechild]

Know yer ‘istory.....

EFC has only been relegated twice in its long history, the last time before most posters on here were even born....including ol’ Khal and that is saying something

So whilst it is impossible to know for certain if we would have went down or not, precedent suggests we would not have.

That’ll do for me.

So I am not letting this charlatan take the credit for keeping us up

Yeah, this is the sticking point. Samuel will most definitely be making this claim because it sounds better than "I achieved mid table mediocrity with the most dispiriting methods possible".

 

[Rollo Tomassi]

Complete and utter tripe. All the old boys club in the media are coming out now to stick up for Allardyce. If he were doing what he's doing here at any of the top 6 clubs though there would be a very different tune being played.

Take no notice.

Anybody who wants him to stay be it a fan or a pundit should ask themselves a couple of questions

Would any of the teams above us employ Allardyce?

If not then why should Everton?

 

[airefc]

Allardyce did steady things and his appointment at least gave the players momentum to pick up much needed points when we were in danger. Not sure we would have been relegated though without him after that west ham game.

 

[peteblue]

It was nonsense to believe we would go down, my mum could have kept us up and she’s been dead 10 years.......