I dip in and out of this thread for months, and shouldn’t be suprised but still am, how negative and limited the thinking can be.
How the fears, and limits of some battle against the desire and dreams of glory of others.
How anyone can be wanting less than 60k is beyond me.
Do you even want Everton to be the best?
The stadium is the best bet to increase the clubs chance of success IMO.
The most successful teams have the best players and staff. So the obvious path to success is to buy and keep the best players.
In our league and with our standing in this league, there is no amount of money that we could throw at that, to ever make it work.
If EFC were prepared to pay triple our rivals in fees and wages, compared to anyone else, not only would this be impossible for our club with our commercials, as the FFP repercussions in terms of fines and transfer bans would not allow us the time for the required level of sustained spending we would need, window upon window, to overhaul the difference between ours and the squads of the best before the authorities put the plans to the sword with hampering limitations.
Also, even if we had the money, let’s be honest right now most players would look at our offer, and still likely choose another top club, that is already better placed in European competition, and join an already assembled, established, elite squad with a higher chance of likeliness to win trophies in that season.
We need something else to standout and make top players want to join Everton ahead of others.
Goodison Park - despite our love for it, is no longer a selling point for any player we want to acquire - Full of Happy blues or not.
Unfortunately for us anyplan to outspend everyone would require some fantasy football kind of moneyball miracle, to just go and lash a billion on 15 of the worlds strongest talents to instantly transform the squad.
Even then you’d have to get these worldies to believe that them all coming to L4 could just work overnight.
The likelihood of that Level of money being spent and those kind of players being comitted and up for it, is a billion to one, and even if it did happen, you’d still be asking them to ply their trade in the trickiest league in the world to succeed in.
There is just no guarantee of success despite the money spent one squads.
Even if this “5 year” contracted gang of players didn’t get the level of success they were sold that they would get, the drop in the value of these assets would make this approach the highest risk for cash spent approach possible. As most would leave or see contracts out if it didn’t work as we have seen recently with Barkley, Sanchez to name a couple. 50 million on a player who can sulk and leave provides no assurance of the level of performance we would expect and need.
So there has to be another way to be the best and to be defined as different, better, unique.
Even the “ Leceister City “ method looks like a one hit wonder fluke, despite us jumping on that and trying to replicate it by getting the right blend of their DoF, Scouting and coaching staff along with an ambitious spending of acquiring quality, international captain material players whilst blending them with a talented group of Under-23’s title winning youth, all whilst retaining our best talent - and for all to watch the rise of a sleeping giant....
Well that shock of little old Everton outspending everyone, and becoming a team of winners challenging the top 4 teams for honours went well this year didn’t it.
Mine and many blues hopes that this would work were easily dashed with tales of fallouts, and confidence shattering defending, proving that changing the mentality of our football club takes a bigger investment and requires an even bigger statement, and a different approach.
We can’t do a Chelsea, or a City - even if the Usmanovs of the world give us a blank chequebook, as the year we finally have money - so does everyone else now.
Even if our motto is Nothing but the Best is Good Enough, and Big Nev and Rat on twitter remind us constantly what it takes as an attitude to live by, how does our underachieving club, acquire and retain the best possible players and coaches in this modern footballing marketplace.
Dreams shattered before the Christmas Decorations have even be taken down, back to reality, actually worse than that as we go three steps backwards and the clubs reputation sank lower.
All in a time where positive visibility, social media presence and follows and likes are shaping the viableness of investors helping increase the potential value of the club and its short and long term future with possible new and emerging commercial deals.
Talk about timing. We need to be increasing our fan base. (More so now than ever as TV money, whilst still significant, may in the future be more pay per subscriber based) -
This season of all hurts our existing fans more than other seasons in recent memory because of the expectation that was raised with the sudden splurge of transfer cash.
Not the best yardstick to go to the negotiation table with when you can alienate your own fans, with relegation fodder short term manager fixer upper appointments alongside suggestions of expected losses and a footballing record against the top 6 away from home that hardly smacks of ambition, or reflects the desire of the full capacity away following that is taken for granted.
It is another example of how the club has few chances left to do something iconic to make a statement of intent that demonstrates our will to be better than everyone else, at a time our record proves we don’t deserve to believe we should be.
Something has to make us stand out from the rest of the clubs in this league and the top clubs in the other top European leagues.
There are only two things left that we can try and are within our power, to transform our chances.
How is as fans support our team, and our stadium.
I think all players that have seen our away following, will be impressed, in comparison to other teams in the league. But if you see our support at Goodison, and speak to our players recently about the reception they get I’m pretty sure it would be less of an attraction for potential signings in recent times, because of how toxic the atmosphere has become.
I think this is down to years of frustration and seeing our players bottle it on so many occasions but I also think we have had a hand in that too with the nervous negative energy we project because of the years of hardship and misfortune.
We just don’t expect to win.
Speak to any Kopite. They expect to win everything and get very pissy when they don’t and start looking for every angle to win or complain about injustice when they don’t. Always the victim refers to this attitude alone.
However - and I dont want us to be like them because their is a weird cultishness about them that we could never have - But this belief their fans have had has elevated their teams and some of their players to outstanding game winning performances when it counted, not, made their players shrink into themselves like our following can make our players do.
It’s a winning mentality. If we get a bit more belief and supported all of our players and our team a little bit more enthusiastically and positively I believe we would see more success.
Only the other week the Stand Up If You Love the Club chant in the Lower Gwladys changed the game despite stewards causing murder, for trying to stop Blues with a bit more desire than normal from standing and trying to uplift the atmosphere - and with positive action they successfully elevated the players into performing with confidence to help get a much needed result.
Recent but real example of what we know to be true, when we get behind them properly there is nowhere like else like it, and we rarely get let down then.
As a fan base I think we have got what we deserved since the Moyes bring a knife to a gunfight limit our expectation years and there is definitely a higher standard that we as fans could be chartered to as well - but the club and playing staff probably don’t deserve anymore of our unconditional love and support than they get already when you consider what they have had from us in time and money for little reward in comparison to what we are likely to get in return in terms of desire and effort from many of the modern primadona mercenaries that disappoint us with their attitude the most and are on more in a week than we see in years of work.
Regardless of whether players look bothered or not, or are deserving of our support or not, I still think that if we did develop a reputation for unwavering and encouraging support we would see a change in desire and players wanting to play for us. I still look at the way the Turks said goodbye to Tosun, the Dutch welcomed back Klassen or how the Atlanta fans bounced in the bullens, or the way numerous Dortmundesque clubs go full club colour, scarf waving, flag bearing, organised marching and megaphone and drum song orchestrating and can’t help but think, how can we continue to believe we have the best fans and are demonstrating that we are the best in comparison to others. We just aren’t right now who we could be.
Like Goodison has fallen behind and become a relic of a old aged hayday, our fans have perhaps too. It’s so easy to say well the players need to get the fans going, and be lazy to only sing when we are winning. Singing when winning is different to singing in support to intimidate the opposition and to inspire our own players to give it all for us.
We simply are too lethargic now, too worn down and too embarrassed to look Kopiteish, to really try to be like the motto we want to hold the club against, even if we are failing it too.
An overhaul of Stadium should also be seen as a chance to overhaul how we show our support whilst we are in it.
Do you think Dormunds Yellow Wall just happens by itself or only turns up when’s the team are already 2-0 up in a significant game, it happens every game. That is the standard of having a reputation of being fans to play for. We can have that - but be held in regard as a unified Blue Angry loud horrible nasty witty friendly roaring loud just the best brilliant version.
I would hope if the club go ahead and be bold and ambitious and iconic with a huge new dock situated Stadium, that they engage the fan groups and season ticket holders properly and work with them in encouraging the highest imagined standard of support possible for our fans, without being happy clapping plastic flag waving ones, but by allowing us to be passionate homemade flag making bobble hat roaring Evertonians, in designated areas of our new ground designed for huge stand filled banners - That would be a chance for our team to play for the most supportive and intimidating and uniquely great fans in England.
Goodison Nark on the Docks, historic, organised and frightening.
That would give us an edge, and becomes a spectacle of awe, something players want to feel and experience, or for opposing players to not want to as they turn up with a bit of dread going up against over 60 thousand hungry for success win at all cost blues.
The new ground could make that happen.
The new ground could make that happen whilst cramming even more passionate blues in than what our memories of the best goodison Atmospheres that you can remember experiencing had, from those “I was there” games that never leave you.
Imagine them nights with 50% more people around you, the noise would be so significant.
So the Stadium can change that for us, it can change our mentality if done right and change our fortunes.
Yes - It can change the commercials, through match day and non match day revenue, and it can be iconic due to its location, a place that anyone with an interest in our beautiful and friendly city could see from all photos and footage of the city, an attractive investment for corporates upping sponsorship deals that should naturally allow us to do much better than ever before from a commercial standing. But more importantly for our on the field fortunes it should be a place for ambitious players to want to go and experience playing their football week on week.
Sad but true, but if you currently have no affiliation to our city then why choose Everton and even sadder to say if you don’t know who Everton are and you are the next Coutinhio, Aguero or Willian why choose the 2nd most successful club of the city, despite being the senior, more respected and greater club, unless there isn’t something attractive and magical about our fans and where we call our Home.
When faced with should I join, City ( for the money), or UTD (for the glory), or The Redshite (For their History and famous Kop that’s smaller than they make out) - or should I join Everton - there has to be a reason that’s tempting enough and the Stadium and how we support our team are the only two things left that can influence those decisions of desirable players and therefore the future of our our club more so, with the least comparable risk and higher potential reward than any other method available to us right now.
Get this right and it changes everything.
Build a stadium to make people take note, and players and fans and anyone will come, they would feel they’re missing out not to experience what a Cell for Passionate Evertonians would feel like.
That is what I hope for and that is the only way I think we have any chance of standing out enough to boost our chances of rising up to where we belong.
The best of the best.