We get fixated on this 4th place position. It's admirable in a way because it shows that fans refuse to let the club owners off the hook in terms of expectation. However, I do think obsession over PL position has maybe cost us in the cups in the past decade and more. Moyes may have reached a final with us but he was averse to domestic cup competition because he wanted all resources focussed on PL placing. Martinez has done nothing to buck the trend so far, but hopefully once we get Norwich out of the way at least one cup this season will be prioritised before it reaches the latter stages.
The CL spots are a chimera, imo. They'll never be attained now unless you have hundreds of millions spent on a squad which can withstand injury, slumps in form and suspensions. We are not at the races in that respect. Martinez's 72 points was a Herculean effort in modern times. And it still didn't get us within touching distance of the CL spots.
Our best route to relaunching Everton is a cup win. If it was me I'd be targeting the LC and FA Cup each season 100%, and I'd accept mid-table in the league without any problem whatsoever.
I dont get the fixation with getting a pat on the head as the 'best of the rest'. All it does in actuality is saddle you with the EL and a headache the following season.
I think finishing as high in the league as possible is important because it is indicative of getting things right generally. It is the best barometer (but not the only barometer) of measuring progress.
I can completely understand the fixation with champions league money. It would always be held up as providing the additional finance required to take us to "the next level" and compete for better players. I think the problems with that thinking now are two fold
1) It is now looking very dated, and to a pre-TV revenue increase
2) The top 4 is now an arms that can destabilise if it is fetishized above all else
3) In reality qualifying once isn't the dream ticket to success it was once considered.
If we take the first point, often people would say "if only we just had that extra 20/30 million we'd be able to do/buy x/y/z". The reality is with the increase in TV money that has already allowed that. It has allowed Everton to turn down 40 million for Stones. To Sign Lukaku for 25 million. To give big contracts to Barkley, McCarthy, Mirallas. We simply do not NEED the CL money as much as we might 10 years ago. The increase in TV revenues have in many ways trumped it.
This has led to point 2. The top 4 is now an arms race. You can see it's affect with English teams across Europe. They have had to become so bogged down in ensuring top 4 qualification actually achieving in Europe has gone out of the window. Arsenal are the best example for this. If you look though, you have the wealthiest club in the world, two clubs bankrolled by billionaires and Arsenal who are in the top 5 clubs in the world on turnover. To breach that cartel will be very hard. That's before you look at clubs like Liverpool and Spurs who are in the top 10 of Europe.
I look at Spurs and Liverpool and they have been the real losers in all of it. If we take Liverpool, aside form the obvious point that Rodgers struggled because he was a Brent Mk 2 his real problems came when he sacrificed his outlook in search of the short term goal of Champions league. the signings of Lambert/Balotelli. The change of system from attacking football to 3 (or 5) at the back. All short term plugs moving away from a particular way of playing, caused by the desperation to get two places higher in the league.
Spurs have operated like that for some time. However with the introduction of Pochetino they have moved away form that for the first time. He wasn't sacked for finishing outside of those places. They are avoiding signings star players to short cut them into the top 4 for getting a younger group of players who fit into a system. They look as well placed as they have done in a decade.
The reality is, the Champions league is not a dream ticket. Liverpool qualified last summer yet still struggled to get the big named players like United did (who failed to qualify). Spurs qualified for a season or two but it didn't lead to prolonged success. To maximise the CL revenue you have to be in their every season and have an infrastructure ready to capitalise on it (Arsenal being the best example, a huge stadium with loads of boxes, big sponsorship etc).
What is the end result of all of this? We should strive to finish in the top 4 but not at the expense of everything else. Our focus should be on doing the right things consistently which will eventually pay off. I watched the highlights back of the United game, and while it was a poor performance there was still a lot of positives for me. We are creating chances against a defence with 4 Internationals (2 English, 1 Italian 1 Argentinian). Lets not lose sight of improvements in search of a very difficult and not as beneficial as it once was goal.
