Install the app
How to install the app on iOS

Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.

Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.

 

Steven Naismith though.

Status
Not open for further replies.
MoutsGoat said:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/apr/04/steven-naismith-roberto-martinez-everton-wigan

Good manners cost nothing and burning bridges is never a smart idea. Those who disagree with such sentiments need only study the case of Steven Naismith.

It is the summer of 2012. After deciding that his future lies away from Rangers amid a move by the club's then chief executive, Charles Green, to force players to move their contracts to a newco business, Naismith is on the verge of a move to Everton as a free agent.

"Contract-wise everything was sorted out, the facilities were tremendous," Naismith says. "I liked what I had heard about the manager. The team was great."

The manager of another club, though, was refusing to take "no" for an answer. Wigan Athletic's Roberto Martínez made it clear to Naismith's representatives that he must speak to the player. "A day or two before I was meant to be coming to Everton I got that phone call," Naismith says. "In all honesty, Roberto Martínez blew me away in the conversation.

"It was unbelievable, the way he knew everything about my past, where I was most comfortable playing, so much about my career. He said he thought I had given too much defensively in the past, that if he was my manager he would rather I kept my energy for when we were attacking. The way he spoke about the game was amazing."

Naismith was to complete his Everton move but not before an important piece of housekeeping. "I texted him to say that I appreciated the call, how he had blown me away and I was very grateful but I felt the best move for my career at that point was Everton.

"I did that with every manager I have spoken to. It's something I have learned over the years. Just be straight-up and honest. There's no point losing relationships with people. One year later, I am taking a call at roughly the same time from the new manager at Everton. He said: 'If the mountain won't come to Muhammad then Muhammad must go to the mountain.'

"He has such good charisma and is such a good man-manager that you want to work for him. This season is the most I have learned football-wise in my whole career. David Moyes is a British-mentality manager, which I have seen a lot of. He was only tweaking and giving you a more advanced lesson on what you already knew. With the manager now, it is a totally new way of playing football. It opens your eyes to the fact football can be played in such a different way."

Not that Naismith would ever contemplate joining in the criticism of Moyes, which has reached deafening levels since his switch to Manchester United. "He believed in me. I was just coming back from a knee injury and he brought me to England. I loved the way David Moyes worked. He was the most thorough I have ever seen in preparing for anything. David Moyes was the first manager I had seen who was so hands-on, he took the majority of training every day.

"His standards were so high. I think my standards are high; if someone isn't pulling their weight in training then it annoys me. David Moyes would nail somebody for that and I liked it.

"Probably at the moment, a lot of Everton fans don't appreciate what he did for the club because the new manager has come in and hit the ground running, probably playing a more attractive brand of football. We have taken some big scalps this season but I'm sure in 10-15 years' time we'll look at where the club was when he came in, where he left them, and nobody will argue how good a job he had done."

Under Martínez, Everton's major disappointment has been the 4-0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield in late January. "We didn't perform and it wasn't good enough," Naismith admits.

Naismith's class, which he hopes to display once again when Everton take on Arsenal on Sunday, is matched by his character. He is a passionate supporter of charities, having sponsored a series of lunches for the homeless in Glasgow and Liverpool, worked with Dyslexia Scotland and backed Help for Heroes.

"When I was injured at Rangers I got a letter from a soldier who was serving in Afghanistan, telling me he was gutted that I had done my knee," Naismith says. "He was out fighting for our country, I am just a sportsman trying to give entertainment to people. It is life or death for them, not win or lose.

"They should get all the support they need. You hear of so many servicemen coming out of the army struggling to get a job or get any help, struggling for homes. It's incredible that it can happen that way. It's not good enough."

In a professional sense, Naismith insists even matching last season's sixth-placed finish would constitute a fine achievement for a club who have been placed in the Merseyside shade by Liverpool's title charge. "I would say it had still been a very successful season because of the transition. It's not as if we had just changed manager after a couple of years, it was 11. A lot of these guys had seven years or more under David Moyes."

Naismith, now 27, only had one. What came next has been of mutual benefit.
Click to expand...

Do you know when the CliffsNotes version will be published?
 
ilikecheese said:
Do you know when the CliffsNotes version will be published?
Click to expand...
It's actually a pretty good read. Also, Naismith has been pretty good all season long. I slated him when he was poor last season, but I love his work ethic, and he's so calm in front of goal. He'll score another important goal before the seasons up.
 

carolinablue232 said:
It's actually a pretty good read. Also, Naismith has been pretty good all season long. I slated him when he was poor last season, but I love his work ethic, and he's so calm in front of goal. He'll score another important goal before the seasons up.
Click to expand...

I have no doubt it's a good read...I CBA to read it all though. Not at this hour anyway...after a couple of adult beverages. I never slated him...I quite possibly could be the least vaultable person on this site. *ducks*

Seriously though...I rarely slate anyone....Neville and Hibbo being the exceptions. I'll never be able to forgive Hibbo for his performance in the Cup final...it was an embarrassment. Neville? Possibly the worst regular starter in the Prem the last couple of years. Offered nothing.
 
LinekersLegs said:
Hope his wife recorded this weeks match - she forgot to record Fulham when he also won MOTM.
Click to expand...

Saw this on twitter earlier (sorry for the broken formatting)

  1. Moya Naismith ‏@MoyaNaismith 14h
    Delighted for Everton fans, players and staff today
    1f499.png
    26bd.png
    AND I recorded the match #topwife

  2. Jock ‏@GOT_bluejock 7h
    Can you tell your in-laws that I'm terribly sorry about everything I said during the first 35 minutes of the Chelsea game @MoyaNaismith Ta

    Hide conversation
 
Jaytality said:
As much as I wanted the 'naismith is [Poor language removed]' tag removed, I now want some of the new tags removed, such as he is a 'tryer' or 'work horse' or 'not technically gifted'. Maybe I have it twisted on what technicals are in the game but his finishing is up there, his intelligence and awareness is great.

I know he does work etc put to call him a work horse takes away his intelligence and awareness and to call him 'not technically gifted' takes away from his finishing. Maybe I have a different understanding of these terms than most but its how i see it.
Click to expand...
To me "not technically gifted" means superb ball control with the feet and although he is clearly working on it and improving on it I don't think that is his natural skill any more than its say Distin's. But to say you are not superb at something doesn't automatically mean you are appalling at it or that you don't have other, sometimes more useful skills.

As you say Nasmith is good at finishing and general reading of the game - he is one of the best in our team at passing to a teammate running in on goal (a skill that Mirrallas, Deulofeu & Barkley who I'd class as "more technically gifted players" aren't as good at). I'd also add aerial skill to that list, for a small guy he wins an awful lot of headers and is very accurate with them.

And that probably sums up why I like players such as Ossie and Naismith so much - they have not necessarily won the genetic lottery on technique or physical power but they have worked hard to maximise what they are good at and improve where they aren't.
 

LinekersLegs said:
To me "not technically gifted" means superb ball control with the feet and although he is clearly working on it and improving on it I don't think that is his natural skill any more than its say Distin's. But to say you are not superb at something doesn't automatically mean you are appalling at it or that you don't have other, sometimes more useful skills.

As you say Nasmith is good at finishing and general reading of the game - he is one of the best in our team at passing to a teammate running in on goal (a skill that Mirrallas, Deulofeu & Barkley who I'd class as "more technically gifted players" aren't as good at). I'd also add aerial skill to that list, for a small guy he wins an awful lot of headers and is very accurate with them.

And that probably sums up why I like players such as Ossie and Naismith so much - they have not necessarily won the genetic lottery on technique or physical power but they have worked hard to maximise what they are good at and improve where they aren't.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure we said almost the exact same thing...agree with everything you've said except his passing.
 
Absolutely completely different player! It's pretty unbelievable the change really.

I honestly thought he was one of the worst players to pull on the royal blue. So happy to be being proved wrong
 

Status
Not open for further replies.

Welcome to GrandOldTeam

Get involved. Registration is simple and free.

Register
Back
Top