With the imminent return of Premier League football (gulp) I thought I'd reintegrate myself into the world of Everton by watching the season review from 2012/13, and seeing how much had changed in the intervening 10 years
I think at the time we thought we were a well organised, workmanlike team that operated within a financial structure that stopped us progressing further up the table. We didn't really have any superstars, but everybody knew their roles and competed on a largely consistent basis.
Watching them tonight - we were actually a really excellent side with underrated quality in most areas (and even with some squad depth) - Watching Fellaini, Baines , Coleman, Mirallas, Jagielka in their prime showed just how savvy we were in the transfer market. The really surprising thing though was just how effective our 'fringe' players were - Jelavic, Osman, Anichebe, Naismith all weighing in with goals and making us look a really dangerous attacking unit
It's probably made me realise just how terrible this current side is - even the players we consider to be our best are not a patch on this crop from a decade ago. We seem to sneer at people like Fellaini in retrospect, but somebody like Onana isn't fit to lace his boots. Even lads we consider 'failures' back from that era like Naismith and Anichebe are miles ahead of what we currently have.
Has football really changed so much over the past decade? I'd really urge some of our supporters to go back and watch some of the Moyes teams just to see how much we're being short-changed with this current lot
I think at the time we thought we were a well organised, workmanlike team that operated within a financial structure that stopped us progressing further up the table. We didn't really have any superstars, but everybody knew their roles and competed on a largely consistent basis.
Watching them tonight - we were actually a really excellent side with underrated quality in most areas (and even with some squad depth) - Watching Fellaini, Baines , Coleman, Mirallas, Jagielka in their prime showed just how savvy we were in the transfer market. The really surprising thing though was just how effective our 'fringe' players were - Jelavic, Osman, Anichebe, Naismith all weighing in with goals and making us look a really dangerous attacking unit
It's probably made me realise just how terrible this current side is - even the players we consider to be our best are not a patch on this crop from a decade ago. We seem to sneer at people like Fellaini in retrospect, but somebody like Onana isn't fit to lace his boots. Even lads we consider 'failures' back from that era like Naismith and Anichebe are miles ahead of what we currently have.
Has football really changed so much over the past decade? I'd really urge some of our supporters to go back and watch some of the Moyes teams just to see how much we're being short-changed with this current lot
