Hunt For The Top Four

[nikom court]

this isnt probably what you want to hear but,
you would be better off supporting chelsea,city or the rs.
everton is not a good place for your mental health!

 

[PhilRegan]

No way we can currently be thinking anything other than the next game. We desperately need a grinded out defensive 1-0 win and three points. Thinking of anything else would be ridiculous.

 

[Saint Domingo]

No chance this season unless we get a massive cash injection in January. With Docuoure out we’ll be lucky to stay in games with the tragedy that is Davies pretending to play premier league football.

 

[wm02]

Welcome!

 

[MikeH72]

This thread could not have been timed any better. Genius.

 

[marnie]

Hi, all. An annoying yank toffee, here. I'm relatively new to following football and I'm even newer to supporting Everton. I don't have the bruises you all do; I haven't lived the anguish, I haven't experienced the heartache, and I haven't spent decades desperate to see this club win a trophy once more. In light of that, I certainly understand why you would be skeptical of anything I suggest on this forum (I sure as hell would be skeptical of any of your takes about the World Series). But I also think that new blood can be good. A new perspective can be good. Fandom that's not weighed down by the failures of the past can be good.

So with that said, let me ask you all one question: can Everton really not finish in the top four this year?

I started following Everton last season. Baseball was over and COVID had delayed the start of the NBA. I despise American football and I had enough English friends that I already had a working knowledge of the Premier League so I figured I'd finally dive in. Desperate for a team, I latched on to Everton for two reasons:

(1) They weren't the RS. As a Red Sox fan disgusted by John Henry's ownership after the team traded its best player in generations for money, I wanted no part of the RS. Knowing that Everton was their chief rival was enough for me to be interested.

And...

(2) Everton looked damn good to me. This club was/is filled with exciting young players. The club was/is managed by one of the respected football minds in the world. The club was/is earning impressive results (if not mixed in with frustration). It looked like a fun club, a promising club, and I wanted in.

Well, it's a year later and the club still looks promising and fun to me. And now I look at the table and I can't help but think: why not us?

Yes, the Watford match was [Poor language removed] brutal. But as far as I can see, the fourth spot is wide open. United is a mess and they're about to undergo a managerial change. Spurs have a negative goal differential. Leicester, Arsenal, and Wolves look formidable but flawed. Brentford is due to fade. We've already beaten Brighton, and we could've beaten the Hammers with a full squad.

I'm sure I'm a little on the naive side of the river, but I also see no reason to give up on a top four spot at this point. In fact, with United reeling and Newcastle still a couple of years away from being able to flex the financial muscles, this might be the best chance we have to slip into the Champions. And then once we're there and we get a slice of that TV money, who knows how long we can stick around?

I'm sure this team is flawed in ways that I, as a football novice, still can't see quite clearly. But I can see the table pretty [Poor language removed] clearly, and it tells me that we've got a chance.

Tell me I'm wrong.

Up the [Poor language removed] Toffees.

Get out while you still can FFS.

 

[Colonel Getafe]

So with that said, let me ask you all one question: can Everton really not finish in the top four this year?

In football, anything is possible, it's why we love the game, and stranger things have happened (although probably not many). One 90 minute game at a time, 11 v 11 on the day, bit of luck, twists of fate, moments of madness, the players somehow chanelling their inner Michael Jordan when it's need and anything can happen. Get enough of them to go your way, and who knows - the game is littered with miracle stories no one thought possible.

Of course, in reality, you might as well ask if the mom n pop store down the road can take on Walmart. On any given day, maybe they happen to do more trade for one reason or another, but over time, there's only one outcome. Sure EFC have a billionaire owner but the wealth and resources and quality of Man City, Man United, Liverpool and Chelsea pretty much make the top 4 a closed shop (at least for the foreseeable future). Over the course of 38 games, the bridge from those guys to everyone else is just too far to close without at least one of them having a massive collapse AND Everton having their best ever season with so many things going their way, all at the same time.

There's rarely a dull moment supporting EFC (well, until you get to the end of the season and realize it's been another year of mediocrity and no trophies) so I'd like to leave you with some hope. Leicester City Football Cub. A relatively small team, no great trophy haul to their name or amazing history to speak off, not even in the Premier League for most of the last 30 years, but not so long ago they narrowly escaped relegation and went on to win the league the following year with a bunch of cast-offs and foreign unknowns at 5000-1 odds. Since then, for a fraction of EFC's spend they've built a brilliant team from excellent and astute recruitment, developed youth well, have a brilliant infrastructure, rock solid plan, are a club in harmony, that are going places, and quite rightly deserve the title of "best of the rest". I don't see Everton cracking the top 4 anytime soon, but if Leicester can put up a challenge with far fewer resources than EFC, it should be possible we can too.

 

[Zatara]

Hi, all. An annoying yank toffee, here. I'm relatively new to following football and I'm even newer to supporting Everton. I don't have the bruises you all do; I haven't lived the anguish, I haven't experienced the heartache, and I haven't spent decades desperate to see this club win a trophy once more. In light of that, I certainly understand why you would be skeptical of anything I suggest on this forum (I sure as hell would be skeptical of any of your takes about the World Series). But I also think that new blood can be good. A new perspective can be good. Fandom that's not weighed down by the failures of the past can be good.

So with that said, let me ask you all one question: can Everton really not finish in the top four this year?

I started following Everton last season. Baseball was over and COVID had delayed the start of the NBA. I despise American football and I had enough English friends that I already had a working knowledge of the Premier League so I figured I'd finally dive in. Desperate for a team, I latched on to Everton for two reasons:

(1) They weren't the RS. As a Red Sox fan disgusted by John Henry's ownership after the team traded its best player in generations for money, I wanted no part of the RS. Knowing that Everton was their chief rival was enough for me to be interested.

And...

(2) Everton looked damn good to me. This club was/is filled with exciting young players. The club was/is managed by one of the respected football minds in the world. The club was/is earning impressive results (if not mixed in with frustration). It looked like a fun club, a promising club, and I wanted in.

Well, it's a year later and the club still looks promising and fun to me. And now I look at the table and I can't help but think: why not us?

Yes, the Watford match was [Poor language removed] brutal. But as far as I can see, the fourth spot is wide open. United is a mess and they're about to undergo a managerial change. Spurs have a negative goal differential. Leicester, Arsenal, and Wolves look formidable but flawed. Brentford is due to fade. We've already beaten Brighton, and we could've beaten the Hammers with a full squad.

I'm sure I'm a little on the naive side of the river, but I also see no reason to give up on a top four spot at this point. In fact, with United reeling and Newcastle still a couple of years away from being able to flex the financial muscles, this might be the best chance we have to slip into the Champions. And then once we're there and we get a slice of that TV money, who knows how long we can stick around?

I'm sure this team is flawed in ways that I, as a football novice, still can't see quite clearly. But I can see the table pretty [Poor language removed] clearly, and it tells me that we've got a chance.

Tell me I'm wrong.

Up the [Poor language removed] Toffees.

Seamus Coleman + Michael Keane + no squad depth.

 

[Ruairi77]

Hi, all. An annoying yank toffee, here. I'm relatively new to following football and I'm even newer to supporting Everton. I don't have the bruises you all do; I haven't lived the anguish, I haven't experienced the heartache, and I haven't spent decades desperate to see this club win a trophy once more. In light of that, I certainly understand why you would be skeptical of anything I suggest on this forum (I sure as hell would be skeptical of any of your takes about the World Series). But I also think that new blood can be good. A new perspective can be good. Fandom that's not weighed down by the failures of the past can be good.

So with that said, let me ask you all one question: can Everton really not finish in the top four this year?

I started following Everton last season. Baseball was over and COVID had delayed the start of the NBA. I despise American football and I had enough English friends that I already had a working knowledge of the Premier League so I figured I'd finally dive in. Desperate for a team, I latched on to Everton for two reasons:

(1) They weren't the RS. As a Red Sox fan disgusted by John Henry's ownership after the team traded its best player in generations for money, I wanted no part of the RS. Knowing that Everton was their chief rival was enough for me to be interested.

And...

(2) Everton looked damn good to me. This club was/is filled with exciting young players. The club was/is managed by one of the respected football minds in the world. The club was/is earning impressive results (if not mixed in with frustration). It looked like a fun club, a promising club, and I wanted in.

Well, it's a year later and the club still looks promising and fun to me. And now I look at the table and I can't help but think: why not us?

Yes, the Watford match was [Poor language removed] brutal. But as far as I can see, the fourth spot is wide open. United is a mess and they're about to undergo a managerial change. Spurs have a negative goal differential. Leicester, Arsenal, and Wolves look formidable but flawed. Brentford is due to fade. We've already beaten Brighton, and we could've beaten the Hammers with a full squad.

I'm sure I'm a little on the naive side of the river, but I also see no reason to give up on a top four spot at this point. In fact, with United reeling and Newcastle still a couple of years away from being able to flex the financial muscles, this might be the best chance we have to slip into the Champions. And then once we're there and we get a slice of that TV money, who knows how long we can stick around?

I'm sure this team is flawed in ways that I, as a football novice, still can't see quite clearly. But I can see the table pretty [Poor language removed] clearly, and it tells me that we've got a chance.

Tell me I'm wrong.

Up the [Poor language removed] Toffees.

hey mate,
No chance of top four anytime soon.
United have a good squad that Conte will be able to knock a tune out of.
So I'd say the top 4 in no order will be city, united, chelsea and the RS, and by some distance.
Then the chasing pack will be Spurs, Arsenal, West Ham, Villa, Leicester. We'll be doing well to be among that second lot.
Who knows what Newcastle will manage in the second half of the season.

So even if we steady the ship, get through the injury crisis and do ok the second half of the season, we could still finish 11th.

My fear is that teams may have figured us out and Rafael may be too stubborn to change things. We'll know a whole lot more in a few weeks.
On the plus side, there is a core of good players if we can keep them fit. We've been doing a good job of ridding the squad of deadwood over the last couple of windows so hopefully we can strengthen the squad as well as the first team. I don't think europe is gonna happen this season but we should be in the hunt next season.

As for supporting Everton in Boston, fair play to you. It's not an easy path given all the cities red sox/[Poor language removed] connections.
Covid took a toll on the group game watching (usually at the Banshee in Dorchester).
We have an active WhatsApp group of local blues and a few who used to live here but are scattered all over the country.
Send me a PM with your contact info if you want to join.

COYB.