Father Ted Posted 11 August 2014 Posted 11 August 2014 1: Can you explain what it has been like to go through such a dramatic decade (at least) of football supporting and how does it feel to finally return to the top flight after such a journey? In all honesty, being relegated to League One was a blessing in disguise. We had suffered a few years of dour football up until then, lingering around 16th/17th in the Championship every season, signing every no mark going from Scotland with a constant revolving door of managers. Big Nige came in and we never looked back (well we did but he resurrected!). Expectations were lifted after that and morale and confidence was boosted. Fortunately, the Thais have now provided us with a stable base for us to build off too and to allow us to comfortably sustain ourselves in the Premier League. 2: How have you found the constant Stadium name changes and indeed the ground move? Well.. just the one stadium name change however there wasn't much uproar at all as in all honesty, 'Walkers Stadium' hardly has much traditional clingyness to it. Whereas, had it been Filbert Street then perhaps it may have. Atmosphere is not as good as the old Filbert Street unfortunately but the increase in capacity makes us much more flexible and brings much more revenue and income on matchdays. 3. Despite reports over the last few years of 'huge investment' from your owners 'Asian Football Investments' there are few of your players that I would know by name, and so far your inbound transfers aren't exactly making the headlines, so do your owners actually have the ambition to 'stay' in the Premier League, in terms of bolstering the squad with proven faces, given their wealth? I mean Mathew Upson is 35 and has been playing for Brighton for example. You could have a team full of unknown world beaters, as let's face it, it's the 'team' that makes the difference, but am I being disrespectful by suggesting you might need a little Premier League experience in your squad? This is more down to Nigel Pearson. The Thais showed their statement of intent with big money spending under Sven, signing 'big name players' on big wages who (bar Schmeichel, Konchesky and Nugent) contributing the square root of **** all. Pearson's scouting network is excellent and he picked up some cracking bargains from across the coast in Riyad Mahrez and Anthony Knockaert, plucking Danny Drinkwater, Matty James and Ritchie De Laet from the Man United youth scrapheap and having faith in academy prospects Liam Moore and Jeff Schlupp. 4. What are your expectations of the season in terms of success, and how do you think your squad will match up against the Premier Leagues bank rolling? I think we will surprise a lot of teams. Personally I feel that we will comfortably stay up. We are a tight knit squad with great morale and confidence. Pace in abundance and some quality counter attacking football will have Alan Shearer jizzing all over the shop on Match Of The Day. Think we will come 11th. 5. What are your thoughts about Everton FC, in particular our recent history and squad? Much prefer them to Liverpool (not sure if it's just because of the blue/red aspect or the fact that Liverpool fans that I personally know are all full of s*it!). Never really disliked any of your players either, a very likeable club. 6. Finally, which teams are you excited about facing the most, and are there any teams that you particularly don't like? Looking forward to winning at Old Trafford. Personally hate Stoke (inbred backwards fans, stayed far too long in the Prem playing shit football with thug players and that baseball cap ****). Despise Chelsea too, pure arrogance around that side bred through their manager.
Simonb Posted 11 August 2014 Posted 11 August 2014 Welcome back to the Premier League to all your fans, and good luck for the season. I'd be grateful if you would answer a few well intended questions for our forum, which will be posted on our website as part of our Match Day thread. I've deliberately kept it short, so thanks for any participation. All the best. Love Everton Forum www.loveevertonforum.com 10 years since we last played you in the Premier League, with a goal from none other than Wayne Rooney not enough to stop on loan Marcus Bent (who would eventually sign for Everton) from scraping an equalizer in the 92 minute at the Walker Stadium. Everton finished in 17th place that thoroughly miserable season, one place above Leicester City, who were relegated, along with Leeds and Wolves. As if that wasn't bad enough after also having to go through administration a few years earlier, you then fell through the trap door once more into the 3rd tier of English football. But, lots of managers and one or two Chairmen later, you're back, and I have to start by saying both congratulations, and indeed 'respect', as it must have been one heck of a ride, and sometimes as Everton supporters it's easy to forget how lucky we are not to have had to experience what your fans have been through. After supporting Everton for over 40 years, I've seen some highs, including league titles and cup wins, and some real boring transitions where we were mediocre and lacking for long periods, but I can honestly say that I've never experienced relegation, and never experienced the thrill of promotion, so I think the first question surely has to be the following: 1: Can you explain what it has been like to go through such a dramatic decade (at least) of football supporting and how does it feel to finally return to the top flight after such a journey? In short it feels brilliant to b back. Its not been dramatic as such.. more of a learning curve. Fans are more positive and less over the top expectant. . The owners run us like a real business. . Players seem happy and are balanced and the manager is awesome. . After being the class clwn under mandaric and the under sven.. we're now back and ready to go 2: How have you found the constant Stadium name changes and indeed the ground move? Its been fine although we've lost our atmosphere. Name change is fine as long as clubs ok 3. Despite reports over the last few years of 'huge investment' from your owners 'Asian Football Investments' there are few of your players that I would know by name, and so far your inbound transfers aren't exactly making the headlines, so do your owners actually have the ambition to 'stay' in the Premier League, in terms of bolstering the squad with proven faces, given their wealth? I mean Mathew Upson is 35 and has been playing for Brighton for example. You could have a team full of unknown world beaters, as let's face it, it's the 'team' that makes the difference, but am I being disrespectful by suggesting you might need a little Premier League experience in your squad? mate... upsons got loads of pl experience. . We have a brilliant keeper a great player in drinkwater and attacking flair in mahrez vardy n knockaert.. we need more experience yes but I trust the manager. The owners are great and wud happily spend more but pearson dont want it.. you've only recently started spending big but you are established. . If we stay up we'll spend next summer 4. What are your expectations of the season in terms of success, and how do you think your squad will match up against the Premier Leagues bank rolling? I look earlier and we can compete with any of the bottom ten.. none of them have improved much this summer and teams like villa seem to have got weaker.. as you know from your years under moyes.. you dont need to spend big to get success... 17th or above ill be happy.. this years only target should be staying up 5. What are your thoughts about Everton FC, in particular our recent history and squad? One of my favourite premier league clubs. Great owner fans and I love how little youve spent to b an established top ten team after moyes went I feared for you.. but I think you're even better now.. I still see you as the top half underdog and enjoy seeing you're positive results.. although I hope you get a bad start on saturday 6. Finally, which teams are you excited about facing the most, and are there any teams that you particularly don't like? I dislike utd liverpool newcastle villa, despise qpr due to harry, and after their recent dealings in sell sell sell buy buy buy I dislike soton now looking forward to seeing us play the flair teams like arsenal chelsea man city spurs liverpool etc but most of all the relegation battle games against teams like the baggies hammers villa etc Thanks very much.
ZeljkoKalac1 Posted 11 August 2014 Posted 11 August 2014 "but am I being disrespectful by suggesting you might need a little Premier League experience in your squad" No you're not, it's a very good point. When we last went up we had a wealth of Premier League experience, however we were relegated that same season. When we went up previous to that under Martin O Neill we had hardly no players with Premier League experience, but we had a collection of up and coming players who went on to being top Premier League players (Izzet, Keller, Lennon, Heskey to name a few) and laid the foundations for a good period of time, a bit similar to Southampton you could argue. I can see something similar happening this time round and I think by the end of the season a few of our players will be household names, Danny Drinkwater and Anthony Knockeart to name two. Good luck for the next season and well done in securing Lukaku on a permanent deal! a great piece of business.
loveevertonforum Posted 11 August 2014 Author Posted 11 August 2014 Brilliant guys, thanks very much. We've got plenty now (probably the best response we've had in ages) so it makes for great reading on our rather humble abode. Feel free to come visit and post them direct yourself though if you want to chat with our small member base as we'd be pleased to have you. http://www.loveevertonforum.com Much obliged. PS. Don't forget to join us in our Fantasy Prem league Classic: http://fantasy.premierleague.com/my-leagues/59553/join/?autojoin-code=218615-59553
Big_Nige Posted 12 August 2014 Posted 12 August 2014 1: Can you explain what it has been like to go through such a dramatic decade (at least) of football supporting and how does it feel to finally return to the top flight after such a journey? It feels very good to be back in the top flight, and it’s been a long time coming. Following our relegation from the Prem in 2004, and up until the fall to league 1 in 2008, being a Leicester Fan was anything but dramatic. Going to games became a chore; I remember losing to Rotherham 1-0 at home one Boxing Day under Craig Levein and honestly thinking of jacking my season ticket in. Some of the players who played for us during that period were an absolute disgrace, and some of the managers were even worse. It was not a nice time to be a Leicester fan. Personally up until 2004 I’d been very fortunate in my Leicester supporting life. I was 9 when we played Blackburn in the first of 3 consecutive play-off finals and the football bug had just bitten me. I went Wembley 5 times, experienced 3 promotions, 2 relegations and 3 league cup finals. I was used to the polar opposites of football and to have this mid-table mediocre existence in the second tier was hard to stomach. When the second relegation happened it seemed to galvanise the club, Pearson came in, steadied the ship and we won League 1 at a canter. In the 5 years that followed promotion it’s been a case of when, not if, we get back to the Premier League, and in hindsight I think we’ve gone up at exactly the right point in time too. The squads we had for our two play-off heartbreaks were not ready, both technically and mentally. Last year everything felt right and there is such a feel-good factor around the club at the moment. It’s great to be back. 2: How have you found the constant Stadium name changes and indeed the ground move? Rightly or wrongly I’ve not really been bothered by it, I don’t particularly agree with ‘branded’ stadiums but I think when any club moves to a new stadium it is unfortunately part and parcel of it. You lose your identity and create a diluted one. Filbert Street will always be Filbert Street. The KP is just our stadium. I very rarely call it the King Power, like I very rarely called it the Walkers. 3. Despite reports over the last few years of 'huge investment' from your owners 'Asian Football Investments' there are few of your players that I would know by name, and so far your inbound transfers aren't exactly making the headlines, so do your owners actually have the ambition to 'stay' in the Premier League, in terms of bolstering the squad with proven faces, given their wealth? I mean Mathew Upson is 35 and has been playing for Brighton for example. You could have a team full of unknown world beaters, as let's face it, it's the 'team' that makes the difference, but am I being disrespectful by suggesting you might need a little Premier League experience in your squad? From the outside looking in we have no experience, no household names and no hope of staying up. From a Leicester perspective we have a very talented squad of young, hungry players with something to prove. Last season we were the best team in the championship by a long way. We dominated the league and looked a class act. The gulf in quality between the two leagues is obvious, but the way we dispatched teams with quick, incisive, one touch football was more akin to the upper echelons on the Premier League than the Championship. We, and I’d like to think I echo the majority of our support, really think we can upset a few teams this season and a lower midtable finish is achievable. The owners have money, and they spent a heck of a lot under the ill-fated Sven era. They have learnt a lot about how to run a football club from the expensive mistakes Sven made, and I’d like to think we are building slowly, allowing us to sustain ourselves in the premier league without having to resort the QPR style panic buying of 2 years ago. What the owners have done that is not that well documented is the continual investment in the clubs infrastructure. Our academy has been category one for a while now, our training facilities are up there with the best in the country and we will have one of the best pitches in the top flight. We are improving the club as a whole, not just the playing side. The long term ambition is for us to become a competitive premier league team, it might be pie in the sky, but at least we are doing it in a way that sits right with our supporters. It ‘appears’ we have been quite lucky with our owners, and when you see the goings on at Leeds you realise just how lucky we’ve been. 4. What are your expectations of the season in terms of success, and how do you think your squad will match up against the Premier Leagues bank rolling? Success is hard to measure. The obvious aim is survival, and I’ll take that anyway possible. However the ideal scenario is we emulate Southampton’s success (before this summer’s exodus) without the managerial changes. They play good football, have a good philosophy and trust in youth. On paper I believe we can do this. It’s easy to write off promoted teams players without seeing enough of them to base an opinion on, but there have been many examples in the past few years of players who have made that step up. Lalana, Rodriguez & Lambert at S’ton. Dyer, Williams and Britton at Swansea. Look at Jagielka and Baines for your boys. Both stated in the lower leagues at Shef U and Wigan, helped get their respective teams promoted and had good debut premier league seasons before moving on. Yes, we have untried personnel at this level and a lack of experience in the premier league on the whole, but in Danny Drinkwater, Matty James, Liam Moore, Kasper Schmeichel & Jamie Vardy we have players who are, in my opinion, good enough for the season ahead. Nigel Pearson built a squad to take into the premier league, not just to get us there, and I’m excited to see them compete against the bank rollers. 5. What are your thoughts about Everton FC, in particular our recent history and squad? I like Everton, Always had a lot of admiration for them as a club. Great ground, manager and fans. I really enjoyed watching them last season under Martinez; he got you playing some cracking football. It’s strange, I love Liverpool as a city, I’m always popping up there with some mate’s for a night out in the Cavern (massive Beatles head) but I can’t stand Liverpool as a football club. Can’t put my finger on exactly why, maybe it’s their reliance on history and their false sense of entitlement but the fans love a good whinge. Everton fans as a whole just seem more realistic, good laugh and talk a lot of sense. Ive only been Goodison once. A 2-2 draw back in 2002 I think. Big Brian Deane scored a brace, went 2-0 up and then in true Leicester style let in a late equaliser. Ferguson I think. Really looking forward to going again this season. As for your current squad, I like it. Howard is a class act in goal and you have arguably the best attacking fullbacks in the division. Coleman was unplayable at times last season. Stones looks like a real prospect and in Jagielka and Distan you have two very experienced, high quality centre backs. Distan might be knocking on a bit though and I don’t think Alcaraz is of the level of back up you need. Same goes for Hibbert but I’ve heard good thinks about Garbutt without ever seeing him play. In Midfield obviously Barkley is an immense talent, it’s a big season for him but (with my England hat on) I’m genuinely excited about him as a player. James McCarthy is an excellent player, and one who reminds me off Leicester’s own Matty James. Only a young player but capable of controlling a midfield. Reads the game well. Very underrated. I’d never heard of Besic till the World Cup but he looked a clever little player for Bosnia, and if Barry has as good a season again as he did last year your midfield will be very strong. Osman and Gibson (if fit) are good deputies. Attacking wise I’ve never really rated McGeady, good dribbler but with no end product (watch him bag now on Saturday) Pienaar links up so well with Baines and when they play in tandem cause problems for everyone. Naismith gives you everything and is a useful player to have available to you. Whether he is enough of a goal threat to play up top by himself is debatable, but he seemed to pop a few scrappy goals in last season so he has a knack of being in the right place. Just leaves to the two Belguim lads who I really hope aren’t fully fit to play on Saturday. Both quality and in the signing of Lukaku you’ve sent a real statement of intent to the rest of the prem. Proven goal scorer at such a young age. Will only get better. I think you’re lacking a little bit of depth, especially with the Ropey league to play in this year, but a fully fit first choice XI will give any team a game. 6. Finally, which teams are you excited about facing the most, and are there any teams that you particularly don't like? I’m excited about everyone. The first 3 home games Everton, Arsenal and Man U are particularly mouth-watering. As mentioned above I’m not a big fan of Liverpool, but I am of Brendon Rodgers (sorry). Plays football the right way. It’s probably Chelsea I despise the most, but I think it’s just the arrogance of buying whoever they want, whenever they want. They hoover up young talent from all over the world with no route available to the first team. They’re just player collectors and I’ve never met a level headed Chelsea fan. I’m not a fan of QPR, but that’s mainly because I can’t stand Redknapp. A complete charlatan of a manager if I’ve ever seen one.
iancognito Posted 12 August 2014 Posted 12 August 2014 1: Can you explain what it has been like to go through such a dramatic decade (at least) of football supporting and how does it feel to finally return to the top flight after such a journey? Like coming home. No-one's got a right to be in the top flight but those first 5 years away were like being in a bad dream. A dull, grey, bad dream where the only door was a revolving one where you couldn't get out because of an endless stream of mediocre players coming through it. With the odd blip, the last 5 years have built up to this moment. 2: How have you found the constant Stadium name changes and indeed the ground move? The ground move has taken ten years to get used to. No proper singing end, far more empty seats and an identikit stadium. I preferred the character of Filbert Street, even if it was a cowshed in comparison. The name changes have been easier to get used to as there was never a non-commercoial name to begin with. If they ever try to get you out of Goodison, fight like mad to stay put because it takes a bit of the FC's soul away. 3. Despite reports over the last few years of 'huge investment' from your owners 'Asian Football Investments' there are few of your players that I would know by name, and so far your inbound transfers aren't exactly making the headlines, so do your owners actually have the ambition to 'stay' in the Premier League, in terms of bolstering the squad with proven faces, given their wealth? I mean Mathew Upson is 35 and has been playing for Brighton for example. You could have a team full of unknown world beaters, as let's face it, it's the 'team' that makes the difference, but am I being disrespectful by suggesting you might need a little Premier League experience in your squad? Maybe but but buying the likes of Keown and Ferdinand didn't keep us up before. We do need a touch of quality but we've got a young squad with a lot to prove. They're far closer to the O'Neill side than the Micky Adams one. 4. What are your expectations of the season in terms of success, and how do you think your squad will match up against the Premier Leagues bank rolling? I expect us to take the odd beating, it's inevitable but if we get a run of 2-3 games unbeaten, we showed last season that confidence can take you far. As cliched as it is, I'd be happy with 17th and then build from there. 5. What are your thoughts about Everton FC, in particular our recent history and squad? A big club that has retained it's soul and kept in touch with it's fanbase. The squad has developed over the last five years from a solid defensive unit capable of beating the big four on their day, into an entertaining attacking side capable of pushing on. 6. Finally, which teams are you excited about facing the most, and are there any teams that you particularly don't like? None that I dislike with any passion but after ten years of Doncaster, Barnsley, Yeovil and Millwall, I'm looking forward to them all
loveevertonforum Posted 17 August 2014 Author Posted 17 August 2014 Cheers for the help folks, and for the game yesterday. It's not the result we wanted but if we want 3 points we have to maintain performance throughout 90 minutes, which I felt we didn't do. I thought we were quite classy in the first half, and allowed ourselves to sit back and get drawn into a lesser quality performance in the 2nd. That's football though, so just to wish you well for the season, and look forward to playing you at Goodison Park. If you missed the game, I've put the full 90 minutes in our forums match room, but you 'will' need to register and have a minimum post count of 5 to watch it as per site settings, but you're very welcome. All the very best. http://loveevertonforum.com/forum
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