It’s finally happened.
Amongst a hailstorm of media consternation, and the withering lectures of outsiders who know nothing about the absolute undies we’ve been served up for the last 7 months, Allardyce has gone. One of the darkest, most embarrassing periods in our long history has come to an end and we can look forward to much needed change at last. A man who in my eyes should never have got anywhere near County Road, let alone the Goodison hotseat, he made a mockery of our standing, reduced us to “happy to exist” status, and was perfectly willing to patronise and take the piss out of us when it was clear we were never going to support him.
Now, had he conducted himself in a more professional way, respected the fans more and built on the decent start he made by committing to more attacking football once it was obvious in mid December we were never in any danger of relegation, perhaps he may have earned more support. But instead he stayed safety first, surrendered in nearly every big game and declared on several occasions that the only objective in the season was safety. For me, when he parked the bus in two winnable away games, West Brom and Bournemouth, and only picked up 1 point from them, that was it.
It’s very easy for the media or outsiders whose only glimpse of Everton they’ll see is a few minutes on Match of the Day to lecture us about how sacking him is a harsh decision but we were easily one of the worst teams in the league under his management. For shots, shots on target, chances created, and chances created from open play we were bottom of the Premier League. Bottom. The worst attacking team in the league despite having over £100m worth of talent available to him. Defensively we weren’t much cop either. For a manager who we were constantly told when he was appointed was the only candidate out there who was capable of sorting out our defensive issues, arguably we were just as bad under Sam as we were under Koeman and Unsworth. The fact we made it to 8th should be a damning indictment of how poor the standard in the Premier League has become.
We conceded 5 at Arsenal, (who the previous week lost 3-1 to Swansea) with 7 defensive players out, ending up 4-0 down after 35 minutes, proof if there ever was any of his prehistoric incompetence, 4 at Tottenham, got comfortably beaten by a Man City side that barely needed to get out of 1st gear, reducing us to chasing shadows having been set up like a League 2 team in the FA Cup, just hoping we wouldn’t lose too badly. It was embarrassing to watch and a disgrace that an Everton manager would set up that way in any game, especially at home. He bottled the best chance we ever got to end our derby drought as well, when he parked the bus for 75 minutes against a weakened Liverpool team with one eye on Europe. Only late on did he feel brave enough to go for it. Sunday’s defeat at West Ham summed up our season perfectly. The performance was horrific, defensively we were a shambles and the subs were pathetic. Taking Tosun off when we were 1-0 down? Setting up with 7 defensive players again, against a Moyes side? Really? It was obvious he was trying to boil as much piss as possible before he left with that team selection but it underlines just how much work is needed on that squad over the summer. Koeman and Walsh should share equal blame for the state it’s in, and us being so bad that we had to resort to appointing him in the first place, but no way was Allardyce the right man to lead the overhaul going forward.
As for his successor it’s looking increasingly likely to be a straight shootout between Marco Silva and Paulo Fonseca. The latter held talks with West Ham on Monday, which would be a strange decision if he was to go there considering how incompetent Gold and Sullivan are, but I guess it’s the London factor attracting him. Silva is the favourite but due to the petty bitterness of Watford, who have grassed us up to the Premier League despite the fact they sacked him 5 months ago, the possibility of a fine or at worst, a points deduction, is a potential stumbling block.
I have my doubts about Silva, mainly from his conduct when we approached Watford. It was no coincidence that their collapse began from there after a good start. Reports that he unsettled the dressing room by going round certain players asking them to join him and begging the board constantly to let him go were worrying. Another concern I have is the way Hull collapsed in his last 3 games having got themselves out of the bottom three. They lost 2-0 to an already relegated Sunderland, 4-0 to Palace managed by Allardyce and then lost 7-1 at home to Spurs.
I personally think it’s a shame Lucien Favre is going to Dortmund by all accounts because he would’ve been a good option to consider having overachieved at Hertha, Gladbach and Nice, taking all three into the Champions League playing a good style of football and bringing through youth. Unai Emery is also available having been sacked by PSG despite winning a domestic treble this season. A 3 time successive winner of the Europa League with Sevilla too, he would bring a winning pedigree we are desperately crying out for.
Regardless though of who the new man is, it’s vital that we all give him as much support as we can because this is no quick fix. In 3 of the last 4 seasons now we’ve failed to even get to 50 points, so a lot of work is ahead. But as long as visible progress is made and I can enjoy going to the match again, I’ll be happy.
Just found out Walsh has been binned too. What a day.
Up Farhad’s ruthless Blues x
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Ross Edwards
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