Brighton and Hove Albion V Everton

oh... nearly forgot.

FTPL

I think most of us would have taken a point before kick-off, but it's obviously disappointing not to get all three points in the end.

I watched the game on my phone waiting for an oil change, and when we scored I got some looks and wry smiles from the people there. I got similar looks when I sighed and cursed under my breath when they scored...

A late kick in the bollocks. Mind you, we didn't have a shot on goal for the first hour. Can't complain about only taking a point with that stat hanging round your neck.

Dyche getting stick online for still sitting back against 10 men. Do Evertonians realise just how shite we are? We can't keep possession, even against 10 players. Live in the real world please lads. It's the fickleness, and the fine margins, that get me. If that Dunk header goes over the bar then Dyche is getting lauded for a classic smash 'n' grab job. But it went in, because players didn't do their jobs, and EFC Twitter is now having a Dyche debate. I'm shedding Everton follows left right and centre as a result. The shite some people come out with just to get a reaction or a like. Can't be fucked with it anymore.

The fact that we've gained 31* points this season, with this squad, becomes less believable with each game that passes.

hairy cataract wrote:

Rotterdam 1985 wrote:A late kick in the bollocks. Mind you, we didn't have a shot on goal for the first hour. Can't complain about only taking a point with that stat hanging round your neck.

Dyche getting stick online for still sitting back against 10 men. Do Evertonians realise just how shite we are? We can't keep possession, even against 10 players. Live in the real world please lads. It's the fickleness, and the fine margins, that get me. If that Dunk header goes over the bar then Dyche is getting lauded for a classic smash 'n' grab job. But it went in, because players didn't do their jobs, and EFC Twitter is now having a Dyche debate. I'm shedding Everton follows left right and centre as a result. The shite some people come out with just to get a reaction or a like. Can't be fucked with it anymore.

The fact that we've gained 31* points this season, with this squad, becomes less believable with each game that passes.

Agreed.  I can't fucking believe some of our fans are debating whether Dyche should stay or go.  With this squad, he should be getting manager of the season if he keeps us up.  Of course, in an ideal world, we'd play like Brighton and have their manager.  But in an ideal world, I'd have two cocks and own most of California.

I don't ever engage on Twitter. I just read, and tut, and shake my head. I'm afraid that some of the better follows, the sensible intelligent ones (or so I thought) are now losing it themselves. Maybe they're just getting slowly worn down, being turned slowly irrational, crazy even, by the mundane mediocrity of our existence.

Everton FC right now is a skint, leaderless, badly-run organisation, in limbo and in trouble, desperately trying to keep its head above water for as long as it takes for the good times to come back, or at least until the floodwaters of the bad times start to recede a little. None of us have any idea when that will happen, just like people who live through war have no idea when it will end. We have the fourth best defensive record in the PL. That is our path to survival, by nicking 1-0 wins as we so nearly did today, away, against a really good team. If people think we should try to do it another way then I suppose Kevin Keegan is out there as an option. Good luck with that, with the players at our disposal.

In a way, I sympathise with those talking shite. What we're going through as Evertonians is horrible. Fantasy might just be their escape. Or maybe it's a form of belief, of positive thinking even, in that perhaps they're seeking a reason for our misery that offers a solution (sack Dyche) rather than face the reality that the damage was all done in previous years and cannot be undone. However ridiculous that solution is, it's better than doing nothing, eh? That seems to be the theory. Maybe they simply can't face the fact that this is us now, this is what we are, and what we'll likely be for a long, long time.

I fancy us against West Ham though.

Rotterdam 1985 wrote:

hairy cataract wrote:

Rotterdam 1985 wrote:A late kick in the bollocks. Mind you, we didn't have a shot on goal for the first hour. Can't complain about only taking a point with that stat hanging round your neck.

Dyche getting stick online for still sitting back against 10 men. Do Evertonians realise just how shite we are? We can't keep possession, even against 10 players. Live in the real world please lads. It's the fickleness, and the fine margins, that get me. If that Dunk header goes over the bar then Dyche is getting lauded for a classic smash 'n' grab job. But it went in, because players didn't do their jobs, and EFC Twitter is now having a Dyche debate. I'm shedding Everton follows left right and centre as a result. The shite some people come out with just to get a reaction or a like. Can't be fucked with it anymore.

The fact that we've gained 31* points this season, with this squad, becomes less believable with each game that passes.

Agreed.  I can't fucking believe some of our fans are debating whether Dyche should stay or go.  With this squad, he should be getting manager of the season if he keeps us up.  Of course, in an ideal world, we'd play like Brighton and have their manager.  But in an ideal world, I'd have two cocks and own most of California.

I don't ever engage on Twitter. I just read, and tut, and shake my head. I'm afraid that some of the better follows, the sensible intelligent ones (or so I thought) are now losing it themselves. Maybe they're just getting slowly worn down, being turned slowly irrational, crazy even, by the mundane mediocrity of our existence.

Everton FC right now is a skint, leaderless, badly-run organisation, in limbo and in trouble, desperately trying to keep its head above water for as long as it takes for the good times to come back, or at least until the floodwaters of the bad times start to recede a little. None of us have any idea when that will happen, just like people who live through war have no idea when it will end. We have the fourth best defensive record in the PL. That is our path to survival, by nicking 1-0 wins as we so nearly did today, away, against a really good team. If people think we should try to do it another way then I suppose Kevin Keegan is out there as an option. Good luck with that, with the players at our disposal.

In a way, I sympathise with those talking shite. What we're going through as Evertonians is horrible. Fantasy might just be their escape. Or maybe it's a form of belief, of positive thinking even, in that perhaps they're seeking a reason for our misery that offers a solution (sack Dyche) rather than face the reality that the damage was all done in previous years and cannot be undone. However ridiculous that solution is, it's better than doing nothing, eh? That seems to be the theory. Maybe they simply can't face the fact that this is us now, this is what we are, and what we'll likely be for a long, long time.

I fancy us against West Ham though.

I wish I had invested in Mars plc. Was listening to US News (via VPN) and a political commentator decide he had gotten fed up with "X formerly known as Twitter" and just started calling it 'Twix". Now Elon Brand might actually like that and decide to use it and then needlessly spunk millions on "appropriating the trademark" using a free speech defence,. but I would fancy the Mars lawyers and company could do really well out of that particular spat.


As to your posts (you and Hairy) my friendship strength with some of mats has really weakened. Dyche is a good manager, far better that we probably deserve to be honest especially given our last 3 years. The Benitez/Lampard fiasco atop of the Koeman/Silva period is why we are in the position we are in. Special archaelogocial mention should go to Peter Johnson and his ownership. That is where the seed of rot germinated.

Our football is just about good enough that we will hopefully avoid the axe. When we get the move completed and the revenue streams realign, who knows, but realistically Dyche to my mind is a Moyes-reboot. Yes he had his critics, but to be honest I can never see us having the problems we have had - had he stayed.

"C'est la vie! Cette merde est le prix énorme pour l'encroyable!"
That's Life! This shit is the huge price for the unbelievable

Da Judge wrote:

Rotterdam 1985 wrote:

hairy cataract wrote:

Rotterdam 1985 wrote:A late kick in the bollocks. Mind you, we didn't have a shot on goal for the first hour. Can't complain about only taking a point with that stat hanging round your neck.

Dyche getting stick online for still sitting back against 10 men. Do Evertonians realise just how shite we are? We can't keep possession, even against 10 players. Live in the real world please lads. It's the fickleness, and the fine margins, that get me. If that Dunk header goes over the bar then Dyche is getting lauded for a classic smash 'n' grab job. But it went in, because players didn't do their jobs, and EFC Twitter is now having a Dyche debate. I'm shedding Everton follows left right and centre as a result. The shite some people come out with just to get a reaction or a like. Can't be fucked with it anymore.

The fact that we've gained 31* points this season, with this squad, becomes less believable with each game that passes.

Agreed.  I can't fucking believe some of our fans are debating whether Dyche should stay or go.  With this squad, he should be getting manager of the season if he keeps us up.  Of course, in an ideal world, we'd play like Brighton and have their manager.  But in an ideal world, I'd have two cocks and own most of California.

I don't ever engage on Twitter. I just read, and tut, and shake my head. I'm afraid that some of the better follows, the sensible intelligent ones (or so I thought) are now losing it themselves. Maybe they're just getting slowly worn down, being turned slowly irrational, crazy even, by the mundane mediocrity of our existence.

Everton FC right now is a skint, leaderless, badly-run organisation, in limbo and in trouble, desperately trying to keep its head above water for as long as it takes for the good times to come back, or at least until the floodwaters of the bad times start to recede a little. None of us have any idea when that will happen, just like people who live through war have no idea when it will end. We have the fourth best defensive record in the PL. That is our path to survival, by nicking 1-0 wins as we so nearly did today, away, against a really good team. If people think we should try to do it another way then I suppose Kevin Keegan is out there as an option. Good luck with that, with the players at our disposal.

In a way, I sympathise with those talking shite. What we're going through as Evertonians is horrible. Fantasy might just be their escape. Or maybe it's a form of belief, of positive thinking even, in that perhaps they're seeking a reason for our misery that offers a solution (sack Dyche) rather than face the reality that the damage was all done in previous years and cannot be undone. However ridiculous that solution is, it's better than doing nothing, eh? That seems to be the theory. Maybe they simply can't face the fact that this is us now, this is what we are, and what we'll likely be for a long, long time.

I fancy us against West Ham though.

I wish I had invested in Mars plc. Was listening to US News (via VPN) and a political commentator decide he had gotten fed up with "X formerly known as Twitter" and just started calling it 'Twix". Now Elon Brand might actually like that and decide to use it and then needlessly spunk millions on "appropriating the trademark" using a free speech defence,. but I would fancy the Mars lawyers and company could do really well out of that particular spat.


As to your posts (you and Hairy) my friendship strength with some of mats has really weakened. Dyche is a good manager, far better that we probably deserve to be honest especially given our last 3 years. The Benitez/Lampard fiasco atop of the Koeman/Silva period is why we are in the position we are in. Special archaelogocial mention should go to Peter Johnson and his ownership. That is where the seed of rot germinated.

Our football is just about good enough that we will hopefully avoid the axe. When we get the move completed and the revenue streams realign, who knows, but realistically Dyche to my mind is a Moyes-reboot. Yes he had his critics, but to be honest I can never see us having the problems we have had - had he stayed.

"C'est la vie! Cette merde est le prix énorme pour l'encroyable!"
That's Life! This shit is the huge price for the unbelievable

It's impossible to analyse accurately, what would have happened if Moyes had somehow stuck with us for the last ten years during the Mosh era. But I like a bit of counter-factual "what if?" history so let's give it a go.

Moyes always worried me when he had big (by our standards) money to spend. He was a genius at the bargain bucket end of the market, as his deals for Arteta, Cahill, Pienaar, Bent, Carsley etc demonstrate. Unbelievably, according to TransferMarkt, he only spent in excess of €9m six times for us, and his record here was patchy - Fellaini was a success, Andy Johnson too. Beattie and Yakubu were "meh" signings. Bilyaletdinov was disappointing save for a couple of screamers, and van der Meyde a total disaster (never realised we paid €9m for him, I thought we found him pissed in the corner of a pub shouting at other punters that he used to play for Ajax, so decided to give him a trial on the strength of that.)

So Moyes with Farhad's money to spend might well have been a bit up and down in the transfer market in terms of value for money, although I think he's spent pretty well at West Ham, Remember that he had a lot of control at Everton over who we bought, and I honestly don't know whether he has that same control where he is now. What I'm pretty certain of is that Moyes would have acted as a brake on the excessive spending of the Farhad years. Apart from anything else, he would only have wanted players who fitted what he wanted to do, so the multiple number 10's we signed that season right at the point when no. 10's were going out of fashion - yeah, that wouldn't have happened.

The other thing of course is that a period of stability in the manager's chair would have meant that the club didn't have to go out and recruit a succession of managers with completely different football philosophies to the bloke they replaced, and indeed with different philosophies to the DoF they were expected to work with. We would have had stability and consistency there. A combo of Moyes and the right DoF from the start of the Moshiri period could have been spectacularly successful. We talk too much about the money that we spunked on players and not enough about the lack of manager succession planning. We went from Moyes (pragmatic) to Martinez (Poundshop Pep) to Koeman (fuck knows) to Allardyce ('Ave It!!!) to Marco Silva (overcomplicated "project" manager) to Ancelotti (catenaccio genius) to Rafa (cunt who alienated his players and changed formation every 10 minutes) to Lampard (nightclub celebrity without a clue) to Dyche (pragmatic).

So we'd have been more stable, probably with more sensible, targeted spending, and if Moyes were capable of taking us further with his experience and with the new money to spend then it could have been wonderful. But I can't stop thinking that we (and most importantly, Moshiri) would have been too impatient, and he would have been hounded out within 18 months for not immediately winning the league. Remember that Moyes did things steadily, at his own pace. Not sure that would have been enough.

Rotterdam 1985 wrote:

Da Judge wrote:

Rotterdam 1985 wrote:

hairy cataract wrote:

Rotterdam 1985 wrote:A late kick in the bollocks. Mind you, we didn't have a shot on goal for the first hour. Can't complain about only taking a point with that stat hanging round your neck.

Dyche getting stick online for still sitting back against 10 men. Do Evertonians realise just how shite we are? We can't keep possession, even against 10 players. Live in the real world please lads. It's the fickleness, and the fine margins, that get me. If that Dunk header goes over the bar then Dyche is getting lauded for a classic smash 'n' grab job. But it went in, because players didn't do their jobs, and EFC Twitter is now having a Dyche debate. I'm shedding Everton follows left right and centre as a result. The shite some people come out with just to get a reaction or a like. Can't be fucked with it anymore.

The fact that we've gained 31* points this season, with this squad, becomes less believable with each game that passes.

Agreed.  I can't fucking believe some of our fans are debating whether Dyche should stay or go.  With this squad, he should be getting manager of the season if he keeps us up.  Of course, in an ideal world, we'd play like Brighton and have their manager.  But in an ideal world, I'd have two cocks and own most of California.

I don't ever engage on Twitter. I just read, and tut, and shake my head. I'm afraid that some of the better follows, the sensible intelligent ones (or so I thought) are now losing it themselves. Maybe they're just getting slowly worn down, being turned slowly irrational, crazy even, by the mundane mediocrity of our existence.

Everton FC right now is a skint, leaderless, badly-run organisation, in limbo and in trouble, desperately trying to keep its head above water for as long as it takes for the good times to come back, or at least until the floodwaters of the bad times start to recede a little. None of us have any idea when that will happen, just like people who live through war have no idea when it will end. We have the fourth best defensive record in the PL. That is our path to survival, by nicking 1-0 wins as we so nearly did today, away, against a really good team. If people think we should try to do it another way then I suppose Kevin Keegan is out there as an option. Good luck with that, with the players at our disposal.

In a way, I sympathise with those talking shite. What we're going through as Evertonians is horrible. Fantasy might just be their escape. Or maybe it's a form of belief, of positive thinking even, in that perhaps they're seeking a reason for our misery that offers a solution (sack Dyche) rather than face the reality that the damage was all done in previous years and cannot be undone. However ridiculous that solution is, it's better than doing nothing, eh? That seems to be the theory. Maybe they simply can't face the fact that this is us now, this is what we are, and what we'll likely be for a long, long time.

I fancy us against West Ham though.

I wish I had invested in Mars plc. Was listening to US News (via VPN) and a political commentator decide he had gotten fed up with "X formerly known as Twitter" and just started calling it 'Twix". Now Elon Brand might actually like that and decide to use it and then needlessly spunk millions on "appropriating the trademark" using a free speech defence,. but I would fancy the Mars lawyers and company could do really well out of that particular spat.


As to your posts (you and Hairy) my friendship strength with some of mats has really weakened. Dyche is a good manager, far better that we probably deserve to be honest especially given our last 3 years. The Benitez/Lampard fiasco atop of the Koeman/Silva period is why we are in the position we are in. Special archaelogocial mention should go to Peter Johnson and his ownership. That is where the seed of rot germinated.

Our football is just about good enough that we will hopefully avoid the axe. When we get the move completed and the revenue streams realign, who knows, but realistically Dyche to my mind is a Moyes-reboot. Yes he had his critics, but to be honest I can never see us having the problems we have had - had he stayed.

"C'est la vie! Cette merde est le prix énorme pour l'encroyable!"
That's Life! This shit is the huge price for the unbelievable

It's impossible to analyse accurately, what would have happened if Moyes had somehow stuck with us for the last ten years during the Mosh era. But I like a bit of counter-factual "what if?" history so let's give it a go.

Moyes always worried me when he had big (by our standards) money to spend. He was a genius at the bargain bucket end of the market, as his deals for Arteta, Cahill, Pienaar, Bent, Carsley etc demonstrate. Unbelievably, according to TransferMarkt, he only spent in excess of €9m six times for us, and his record here was patchy - Fellaini was a success, Andy Johnson too. Beattie and Yakubu were "meh" signings. Bilyaletdinov was disappointing save for a couple of screamers, and van der Meyde a total disaster (never realised we paid €9m for him, I thought we found him pissed in the corner of a pub shouting at other punters that he used to play for Ajax, so decided to give him a trial on the strength of that.)

So Moyes with Farhad's money to spend might well have been a bit up and down in the transfer market in terms of value for money, although I think he's spent pretty well at West Ham, Remember that he had a lot of control at Everton over who we bought, and I honestly don't know whether he has that same control where he is now. What I'm pretty certain of is that Moyes would have acted as a brake on the excessive spending of the Farhad years. Apart from anything else, he would only have wanted players who fitted what he wanted to do, so the multiple number 10's we signed that season right at the point when no. 10's were going out of fashion - yeah, that wouldn't have happened.

The other thing of course is that a period of stability in the manager's chair would have meant that the club didn't have to go out and recruit a succession of managers with completely different football philosophies to the bloke they replaced, and indeed with different philosophies to the DoF they were expected to work with. We would have had stability and consistency there. A combo of Moyes and the right DoF from the start of the Moshiri period could have been spectacularly successful. We talk too much about the money that we spunked on players and not enough about the lack of manager succession planning. We went from Moyes (pragmatic) to Martinez (Poundshop Pep) to Koeman (fuck knows) to Allardyce ('Ave It!!!) to Marco Silva (overcomplicated "project" manager) to Ancelotti (catenaccio genius) to Rafa (cunt who alienated his players and changed formation every 10 minutes) to Lampard (nightclub celebrity without a clue) to Dyche (pragmatic).

So we'd have been more stable, probably with more sensible, targeted spending, and if Moyes were capable of taking us further with his experience and with the new money to spend then it could have been wonderful. But I can't stop thinking that we (and most importantly, Moshiri) would have been too impatient, and he would have been hounded out within 18 months for not immediately winning the league. Remember that Moyes did things steadily, at his own pace. Not sure that would have been enough.

Good points. Aside from the managerial characterisations (very close) - the one thing not mentioned is the huge sums spent on severance and compensation on the managers alone. Put that sum back into the accounts.

I do think about Moyes and Lukaku. Moyes pragmatism and regularly qualifying for European Footie keeps Lukaku here longer... he'd almost certainly have incrementally improved the squad more efficiently (just as I believe Dyche will once given the chance). I think we can look at the table and see clubs with managerial stability generally rise to the top - the flip floppers at best flat on the top of the dross.