Based on my opinion, obviously. I’m allowed one, am I not.
Its fairly clear that both the OP and my post were about the team, so I’m not sure why you’ve gone on to talking about the stadium etc. That’s a different matter.
Its no wonder people talk about happy clappers when you see posts like yours. ‘all this negativity is helping no one ’? I don’t see what’s particularly negative about my post. It’s supposed to be a realist take on it, I’m not pouring cold water on anything or claiming we’re doomed, just saying I think our recruitment etc is a little bit muddled.
Of course what I’m saying is guesswork, what a bizarre thing to say. I’m not involved in the club and I don’t have a crystal ball, what else could it possibly be? I think saying ‘obviously you never know’ makes it clear that I’m not assuming anything about where these players would take us. It’s a football forum for giving opinions. I’ve given one and you’ve lost your head about it and started making up arguments that aren’t being put forward to make it sound like everyone else is a swivel eyed loon and you’re the voice of rationality. Whatever floats your boat I suppose.
Of course you are allowed an opinion. But if you want to get defensive, so is everyone and you regularly challenge other peoples.
You ask why I'm talking about the stadium, suggesting I'm then answering points you didn't make, because you and the OP were OBVIOUSLY talking about the team, and only the team. In a thread called "Club Direction", with the opening line of the thread being "I really can’t understand where this club is going at the moment."
Well, the 2 are inextricably linked. As I mentioned, 1 of our biggest obstacles into achieving the growth we need is our ability to legally finance it. The stadium and its increased revenue with help with that in the long run. But for the time being, we are hamstrung.
The stadium, along with the appointment of Ancelotti, also both point towards the general ambition of the board, which is important in terms of measuring or assessing any supposed direction we are headed in.
You both claim a lack of direction in our signings, even though we haven't yet made any, but I questioned the logic of questioning the potential introduction of experienced players in favour of young talent. My reasoning being that there needs to be a balance of getting the team ready and able to compete, or at least improve in the short term, to give us a platform to introduce younger players further down the line. We could go and sign 4 or 5 '18-22' year old players with potential, but naturally, we would need to give them time to settle in and grow. They may have maybe 100 games worth of experience each, and we would expect them to not only instantly improve us, but give much needed experience to the promising young players we already have?
If you ask anyone where the current strengths of this team are, they would all, to a man, name 7 or 8 of the same players, all of whom are 23 or under. Ask the same question of what we lack, and other than Pickford, it's midfield mobility, experience, leadership, drive, and upgrades to positions where we have older players who are deemed past it or not good enough. It appears to me as though all of the players we are being linked with, address these very issues.
In terms of my bizzare statement on your guesswork, I am referring to the fact that you make assumptions on both immediate and long term improvement based on the quality of players we are signing. I'm assuming this has more to do Doucoure and less about Allan, given their respective teams and reputations. You may say its being realistic, and maybe 7th or 8th is a realistic step. But it's the overall negativity surrounding it which is what irks me. It would be realistic to want and to expect to achieve a gradual improvement. It is negative to suggest that gradual improvement is not good enough or fast enough. It is unrealistic to expect that we should be competing straight away. So while you may try and dress it as realism, it's genuinely not.
I'm not a happy clapper, I have been and can be as cynical as any when it comes to Everton. But I'm trying to offer some perspective to those who's heads are falling off because we haven't gone and signed 5 of the best players in the world in 1 fell swoop and turned us into title contenders that we deserve to be.
I'm wanting us to get behind Ancelotti, as genuinely 1 of, if not THE BIGGEST appointment we could have made, and indeed, have made in decades. There are signs for optimism, you just have to choose to see them.
