Everton’s football has remained lumpen since it became clear they were free of relegation danger and supporters are hardly being unreasonable wanting moreIn happier times for Sam Allardyce, back in the days when he was managing Bolton Wanderers and not carrying the same baggage that now weighs him down, he wanted some advice about the best way to deal with the media if, as he confidently assumed, his career in football management was going to continue on its upward trajectory.The man he asked was Alastair Campbell and the trick, according to Labour’s spin doctor, was to see the difficult questions coming in advance, be prepared with a diversion tactic and, if necessary, veer off on a tangent rather than providing...
Sam Allardyce has lifted Everton to ninth in the Premier League and José Mourinho’s Manchester United sit second but Pep Guardiola has altered fans’ expectationsAfter five minutes of Brighton’s game at Goodison Park on Saturday with the score at 0-0, a passionate and extremely vocal Evertonian took the opportunity to run to within five yards of the dugout I was sitting in and vent his anger and frustration by screaming “Get out of my fucking club” directly at Sam Allardyce – the man who, in my opinion, has successfully done the job required and expected of him. The Everton manager has stabilised a huge club that had lost its way to the point where relegation was a distinct possibility based...
Thrashing at Tottenham showed Everton’s early-season failings have returned and Allardyce must fix them quick if he hopes to have a future at the clubAs Everton’s players headed towards their supporters shortly after the final whistle had blown, it was not immediately obvious who there were more of. The exodus in that corner of Wembley was stark and had started some time before the end of proceedings, with many of those who had travelled from Merseyside and elsewhere clearly keen to get away from the misery taking place in front of them.It was hard to blame them. There is, after all, only so much any fan can take. The despair has been long-standing but this season particularly so given the...
Allardyce has made Everton hard to beat but the attacking play has been poor and, starting against Tottenham Hotspur, needs to improve if he is going to be kept on by the club’s hierarchySince becoming Everton’s majority shareholder in 2016, Farhad Moshiri has developed a reputation for being a man who does not understand that all publicity is not necessarily good publicity. This has been seen through his often toe-curling briefings to Sky Sports’ Jim White and once again at Everton’s AGM on Tuesday when the Iranian-born businessman claimed Romelu Lukaku rejected a contract with the club last summer because “he had a voodoo”. Lukaku, who is Catholic and not prone to making career decisions based on the advice of...
It was no surprise to see the former England manager attempt to frustrate Liverpool with his pragmatic tactics in the 1-1 draw at Anfield‘School of Science? Give me a break,” Roy Evans once complained after a particularly attritional Merseyside derby in Everton’s Dogs of War period under Joe Royle. Evertonians may soon be looking back at that era quite fondly, since the early indications are that Sam Allardyce’s tactics are going to make Royle’s battleplans look sophisticated.The former England manager pulled no punches here. He sent out his team with a horrible emphasis on long balls, in a disciplined defensive formation that allowed no room for individual flair or attacking invention, and even had them wasting time at free-kicks and...