All I want to do in my column is talk about football, about the players on the pitch and how we can improve but I’m having to discuss people who haven’t got a clue and are totally out of touch.
Southampton was already a huge fixture but as a player you don’t want all that outside noise. If you’re a player like Anthony Gordon or Conor Coady, you’re going to have everyone ringing you up asking ‘what’s going on at the football club?’
You’ve got a game that you’re trying to prepare for and do your job but your friends and family are going to be bothering you and you’re like ‘go away.’
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Farhad Moshiri’s reply to the Everton Fans’ Forum left more questions than answers, and so he’s felt the need to get back on the phone to Jim White. Moshiri has got a fantastic media team but he appears to have gone against them and has said what he wanted to say.
It leaves everyone at the football club from the manager, players and fans thinking ‘what the heck is going on?’ I don’t get what Moshiri is trying to achieve from it all, he’s opened a can of worms, talking about money, the stadium and appearing to blame the fans for driving the sacking of managers.
He told Jim White that he’s put his money where his mouth is – and I agree – but does he care?
If Elon Musk, the second richest man in the world, came to our football club, nothing would change overnight, given the situation we’re now in. At least he turns up and looks at ways from the top to bottom of how he can improve a company – he’s bothered, he shows passion.
We haven’t seen Moshiri at a game for over 14 months. How can you spend over half a billion pounds of your own money on a company and not turn up?
There are almost 40,000 Evertonians paying to go, Moshiri owns the club but seemingly can’t be bothered. Offering sound bites to best mate Jim White doesn’t wash with the fans and neither do letters with no real content in them.
I understand that you’ve had more correspondence with supporters than any other club but Everton are in a crisis. Who is to blame because someone must be given the situation we’re in so is it the owner, the chairman, the board, the manager, the director of football, the players?
There’s no accountability though and there hasn’t been since Moshiri walked into the football club. Who is making these decisions that are making our football club a laughing stock?
As an owner you can’t blame the fans for the sacking of managers and if you do think it’s true then you’re weak.
The mediocrity at the football club was there to be seen when I was there and I called it out. I was young and naïve and said something honest to the press about us being mediocre.
The club hierarchy weren’t happy and Bill Kenwright spoke to Walter Smith about it but to be fair to the manager he backed me and told him: “Well we are.”
That was 25 years ago and nothing has changed. It wasn’t until after I’d left Everton – something that I was devastated about – that I realised just how far we’d fallen as a club.
Going to Rangers, PSV and Manchester City, you had to win. The board were often present during training, the owner would turn up and like in any walk of life where the big boss is present, you want to impress and standards remain high.
Whether it’s the chef or the cleaner, everyone around the football club is trying to raise the bar because the owner is about, showing they have a passion for it but Moshiri can’t even be bothered to turn up on a matchday. He’s having it fed back to him by hiding away on Zoom or having his own people telling him what’s going on at the football club.
I could tell him on Zoom that I’m the best agent in the world but I’m not, you’ve got to be there, seeing it with your own eyes, stepping out at Finch Farm at least once or twice a week, being in and around the football club. It’s not your hobby, you’re messing with people’s livelihoods.
The staff at Goodison Park are brilliant and they love working for Everton Football Club but they’ve got an owner who doesn’t appear to care. We thought he was going to be the answer to everything for us but he’s not.
Everybody I speak to outside of Everton, they all ask me questions saying: “What is going on?” You try and explain to them, you try and protect your football club because you love them to bits but there are no answers.
What is the solution too? I’ve not heard anyone come up with a reasonable one.
If the board were to resign tomorrow, nothing would change straight away on the pitch because we’re stuck with these players. However, if the board do step away, all that anger and toxicity from the fans would disappear.
Our club is all over the place right now and I think there’s no way back for the board. I was there under Peter Johnson; it was horrible, we were bad, we were very poor.
I think Johnson got more grief than what we’re seeing right now but he still turned up and clapped us off the pitch after getting beat.
If I was a board member and my input to Moshiri and advice to him was not being listened to, I’d be asking myself ‘why am I here?’ and would step down. I know they’re on good money and it’s a dream for them to be part of Everton Football Club and I’d love that job – I live local – can I have it? #AllTogetherNow
Shocking to see idiots confronting players in their cars
While the post-match protest inside Goodison Park was peaceful, I’ve got to say something about the footage showing those idiots after the game who confronted Everton players in their cars.
What were they trying to achieve? That doesn’t show the club in a good light, it’s absolutely shocking.
Protest, be angry, show your frustration while you’re inside Goodison Park, that’s fine but players had their families with them with children in the car. What answer are you going to get pulling players on their way home?
Yes we didn’t play well and I know you care, I know you’re frustrated because it’s ruined your weekend – it ruins my weekend – but there is a line and you’ve crossed it. Also, while you are pulling stunts like that, you’re taking the pressure off what is going on upstairs because the focus is now on you being stupid.
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