Please be nice to me

Those of you who have read my blog for some time will know that I am a season ticket holder at Carrow Road where I follow Norwich City, and that I have, since I was seven, been an Everton fan.

So after Norwich started the season last week losing 7-1, I was feeling a little bruised.

Imagine how I feel today with Everton losing 6-1.

So please be nice to me.

Well that's saved me some money - The New Everton home kit

I always ALWAYS but the new Everton home kit they produce every couple of year, so I was a bit excited at the launch of their new kit today.

Having seen it though and realised it is a direct rip off of one of their very worst kits from the 1980s, I think I can live without this home kit. Fingers crossed the new away kit is considerably better.

I know retro can be cool and I know that when Everton last wore a kit like this they were very successful, but so were Liverpool when they worse their famous "bird shit kit", but it appears Liverpool have no plans to revive that piece of garbage !

Are Cheshire Police "institutionally racist"

It seems that if you are a man window shopping in certain parts of Cheshire, not only is your custom unwelcome, but the local constabulary will turn up mob handed and try to make out that you are about to rob the shop.

What is so ludicrous in the case from last Wednesday was that not only was the person that the police did this too a Premiership footballer, but he was on crutches having undergone a major operation after suffering cruciate ligament damage in the Everton match against Newcastle some weeks ago and the police tried to take his crutches away from him.

Oh, and of course the player, Victor Anichebe is black. One might wonder if his teammates Philip Neville, Leighton Baines or Dan Gosling would have received such treatment from the Police. I doubt that those white men would have been treated in the same way.

The complete and utter hopeless incompetence of ITV and their FA Cup coverage of Everton vs Liverpool

After 90 minutes of football and 28 minutes of extra time, with the score Everton 0, Liverpool 0, for some completely unexplainable reason ITV decided to go to an advert break whilst the match was still playing, only to return from the break with Everton having scored !

Absolute total rubbish coverage from ITV and further proof why they are not fit to cover sport.

Update :And now to compound matters, they have returned from the post match advert break half way through an interview with the Everton goalscorer !

The half hearted throw away apology for "technical problems" does not do their incompetence justice.

30 years

I've just been checking the internet and realise that a very important anniversary in my life has just passed. Yes, the 28th October 1978 was the day I became an Everton fan, a burden that I carry till this day.

Now I know it will confuse people that I also support Norwich, but I follow Norwich out of duty to my home County, but whenever Norwich play Everton it is the blues that have my full and undying support.

So why was 28th October 1978 an important day ? You see, when I was at school we still had glory hunters back then and everyone I knew supported either Norwich (understandable), Ipswich (an inspiring team at that point of the 1970s, and sort of local too), or Liverpool (because they won everything and glory hunters would rather follow a team that wins instead of supporting a team). So even as a seven year old, I tired of people telling me they followed Liverpool and telling me that Kevin Keegan was their favourite player, ignorant of the fact that he had already joined SV Hamburg. So I decided that I would support the first team that beat Liverpool and when Everton beat them, and by pure luck they wore blue too (my favourite colour), it was a match made in heaven.

So 30 years on, I still suffer the agony and occasional joy of being a blue.

If you want to see the great Andy King winner in the 1-0 win over Liverpool in 1878, it is about 2 minutes in to the YouTube clip below.

If you were an Everton player ...

A short multiple choice questionnaire.

1) You are leading 2-0 and there is just 30 seconds left in the first half. The opposition have just had a free kick in you half, all their full backs are up the pitch. The ball breaks to you in your own half.

Do you :

a) Keep possession in an attempt to waste the final 30 seconds of the first half.

b) Try a stupid flick with the outside of your foot knowing that losing goal at this vital time could be disastrous.

2) You are drawing 2-2 in a game in which you were 2 - 0 up and cruising. There are just five minutes left and you win a free kick half way in the opposition's half.

Do you :

a) Take the free kick from the correct position, waiting for the full backs to get up in to the opposition's half in order to use their height to score a goal.

b) Take the free kick 10 yards behind where the free kick should actually have been taken ensuring that your full backs have not yet got forward and are now in a sort of no mans land.

Yes, if you hadn't worked it out, if you answered (a) in both cases, you are not stupid enough to play for Everton. If you answered (b) to both, write to David Moyes, c/o Everton Football Club Limited, Goodison Park Stadium, Liverpool.

P.S. Yes, as well as being a Norwich fan I am also an Everton fan (Everton are my first club) and yes, I am mightily pissed off at the inept display of footballing stupidity emanating from Goodison Park this afternoon.

Lessons on how to piss off 50% of the electorate - From Cllr Warren Bradley, Lib Dem Leader of Liverpool City Council

If you want to know how to :

a) Guarantee you will lose control of the council in 22 months time.

b) Make you and your political party seem arrogant.

c) Make it very difficult to win parliamentary seats in your city

d) Annoy and put off 50% of the electorate.

Take a lesson from Cllr Warren Bradley, who despite being an Everton fan, decided to give a short, rather miserable response to what seemed like some very reasonable questions from an Everton fansite.

It's no wonder the Lib Dems lose seats in Liverpool. I have to say, given the party's attitude towards Everton in the city and my own Everton leanings, I'd find it very difficult to vote Lib Dem if I lived in Liverpool.

Judas Rooney admits he lied

Wayne Rooney is, if the TV caricatures of him are to be believed, unlikely to be a member of MENSA or win any literary awards in the next few years, and his admission in court that he lied in his book when making allegations against his former manager, David Moyes, speaks volumes about the man.

Rooney alleged that David Moyes had leaked stories to the press about Rooney wanting to leave Everton and hinted that this was the catalyst for him moving from Everton. To me, as an Everton fan, this seemed like Rooney was trying to blame David Moyes for his exit whilst putting himself in the position of the victim. Everton fans, it appears, were supposed to read Wayne Rooney's account and say "Poor old Wayne". After all, Wayne Rooney famously wore a t-shirt emblazoned with the phrase"Once a blue, always a blue". No wonder he is referred to by Everton fans as Judas.

Now Rooney has admitted he lied he has to start taking account of who really did leak the story to the press. Who had the most to gain ? Whose management company would make substantial financial gain from him moving ? Who stood to gain most from Wayne Rooney getting a pay rise ?

It seems to me that Wayne Rooney's advisers had more to gain from Wayne Rooney leaving Everton than anyone else.

At the time of his move, I was gutted. It seemed that Manchester United had used their financial muscle to wrest a player from Everton's grip who was destined for great things. Ironically, Manchester United are now in the same position with Real Madrid looking likely to take Cristiano Ronaldo from them against their wishes. It's funny how Manchester United seem unhappy with Real Madrid doing it to them, but less worried when they are doing it to other teams. But despite my upset those years ago, it has turned out to be one of the best moves Everton have made. In the last four years Everton have finished in the top six three times, they have invested wisely in players who want to play for Everton and have proved to be excellent buys (Jagielka, Lescott, Yakubu, Cahill and Arteta all spring to mind) whilst Mr Rooney's valuation seems now to be more generous than first seemed.

Four years ago Rooney seemed like the greatest player in the world in waiting. Now, he doesn't. yes, he's a talent, but he is not a world beater, he's not winning games single handed like a Ronaldo, Torres or Henry. Would he be worth £27 million now ? I very much doubt it.

It is also worth pointing out that the sense of community at Everton has been highlighted today stronger than ever. David Moyes has shown this by generously donating the "substantial" damages to the Everton former players foundation, David Moyes shows that he is more of a "blue" than Wayne Rooney ever was.

The agony and ecstacy of football

I was reminded today in the beautiful sunshine of a not too dissimilar day three years ago when I travelled to London with my then girlfriend (now my wife) to watch Norwich City at Fulham on the final day of the season, For all those who do not remember the 2004/2005 season, Norwich just needed a win on the final day in order to stay in the Premier League. Norwich had, just a few weeks before, seemed doomed to go down, but a string of excellent wins, particularly a 2-0 win against Manchester United saw Norwich reach the edge of survival by the start of May.

So it was with great hope that we travelled with 5,000 other Norwich fans to South West London. Many Norwich fans travelled without tickets and we were offered £250 each for our tickets outside the ground by some ticketless Norwich fans, but it didn't turn out heads. We were there to see Norwich stay up and would be able to talk about this day for years to come.

So what was the result ? Norwich lost 6-0. Something of a travesty in many ways, Norwich were the match of Fulham in the first half and at 0-0 had a clear penalty disallowed whilst Fulham then scored their second goal from a free kick just before half time when the Norwich player had committed no foul. That said, at least they went down in style.

So I have a lot of sympathy today for the fans of Reading and Birmingham who suffered in many ways a worse fate than Norwich by winning their matches only to miss out on staying up because of Fulham winning 1-0 at Portsmouth.

As a neutral looking on today, I was slightly pleased to see Fulham stay up. Their manager, Roy Hodgson, is an absolute gentleman in the way he conducts himself and if anyone deserves success it is him. Also I remember the way Fulham fans treated us after the 6-0 defeat three years ago and they were nothing but charming.

Sadly the only bad thing about Fulham staying up is seeing Mohammed Al Fayed with a smug grin on his face. Despite wanting to see Fulham succeed today there was also a part of me that wanted to see them go down just so Al Fayed could try and pin the blame for it on MI6, the Press and Prince Philip !

P.S. I should also mention that Everton came 5th and secured a UEFA cup place next year. Well done Everton. 6th last year, 5th this year, Champions League qualification beckons next year.

Spot the difference

Today Rafa Benitez, the Liverpool manager made a statement protesting at the verbal abuse shouted by Everton fans at Steven Gerrard and used this to have a go at Everton.

Everton responded by reporting that a number of Everton players were similarly verbally abused and that Phil Neville was spat at and punched by some Liverpool fans (which could be seen on TV at the time whilst the Liverpool stewards did nothing).

So both sides have complaints, but only Liverpool chose to go "public" and start the war of words.

So what is the response from the clubs themselves. Everton made a spokesman available, said that it was a disgrace for Everton fans to be abusive to any players and that both clubs need to calm the situation.

Whereas Liverpool ... made no-one available and have said nothing.

Is this Liverpool's way of condoning their fans behaviour ? Come on Liverpool. Speak out and condemn your fans (like Everton have) who have let down your club. let's see Liverpool ban the fans concerned and take action against the idiots in the crown (who were , again, easy to spot on TV) who kept throwing the ball away.

last year Rafa Benitez made a big deal about referring to Everton as a "small club". However, it is Liverpool who are acting small today.

Evidence that some refs do favour bigger teams ?

Ever since the last Merseyside Derby, there has been a renewed focus in the press and particularly amongst football fans about the bias shown by refs to bigger teams. For those who cannot remember the game and how the referee's actions decided the result, ref Mark Clattenberg;

a) Gave Liverpool a penalty when replays showed the Everton player made no tackle, with Steven Gerrard simply sticking his leg in the way of the Everton player in order to get the penalty.

b) Visibly ghanged his mind about what card to issue to the Everton player after the false penalty was given after Liverpool's Steven Gerrard told him what to do (TV replays showed the ref getting out his yellow card, Gerrard spoke to him, he then put the yellow card away and issued a red card instead).

After the match Everotn manager David Moyes said

"The game was not decided by the players but by the referee"

But more interestingly he added further information linking Mr Clattenberg to liverpool and what might be a rather cosyt relationship between Mr Clattenberg and the Anfield team when he commented

"Didn't Clattenburg go to Hong Kong with Liverpool for the Asia Cup this summer? Maybe he wants to be their friend."

These statements from David Moyes at the time earned him an FA charge, yet despite the game happening about four months ago, the FA had been very slow to actually call the hearing, which David Moyes was to speak directly to. The main point is though, the FA have now dropped these charges against David Moyes.

A hearing could, it seems, have been dreadfully embarrassing to the FA and to the reputaiton of referees. But if what David Moyes is saying is wrong, surely the FA would ot have dropped their charges, would they ? Surely they would want to see Moyes held to account for these statements if they were untrue ?

The fact is that the FA's decision seems to point to the fact that the David Moyes was right and some referees have far too healthy and cosy a relationship with some of the big clubs then they should.

2-1 to the referee

Well done to the idiot whe was in charge of the Merseyside Derby today.

Never before has a referee dictated the result so much in a game. He awardee a penalty and a red card against Everton for no reason except for the fact that Steven Gerrard fell over. He failed to send Kuyt off for a clear red card offence and he missed at least two clear Everton penalties.

To be fair to the ref, his red scarf did keep blowing in front of his eyes. What an absolute pillock.

Pride of Merseyside

Well done Everton.

To win 3-2 away from home in Europe is always a good result, and to go through 4-3 on aggregate after an abject home match in which Everton missed two penalties really was an achievement.

Well done you blue boys !!!

Everton in Europe - Send on the clowns

Watching Everton tonight in the UEFA cup was, quite frankly, embarrassing. Playing a quarter of the game against 10 men, missing two penalties, conceding a goal against ten men, laughable defending and no proper formation. Then the opposition went down to nine men, and still no Everton goal and nothing even close to it. It was embarrassing to watch.

Had they dressed up in clown costumes with red noses they may have played better.

I am not at all happy.

Top of the league - We're having a laugh !

Well done to Everton tonight, having more shots than Tottenham, more shot son target than Tottenham, committing less fouls than Tottenham and scoring three goals to Tottenham's one.

Top of the league already, there's no looking back now.

Well done to David Moyes too . Whilst other teams have spent tens of millions, Everton actually only spent a net £4 million overall, showing that you don't have to be owned by a foreign billionaire to have some success.

A new football season - time for Ferguson, Allardyce and Redknapp to grow up ?

When people criticise professional footballers in ability to speak to the media they ought to look at who these footballers learn from and be more critical of the terrible attitude that some senior managers have towards the press, and in particular, the BBC.

Alex Ferguson, a great manager, but totally unable to take criticism from some BBC reporters or commentators, has refused to do BBC interviews for a number of years as a punishment to the BBC. Instead he sends out his number two, Carlos Queiroz, to speak to the press.

With Sam Allardyce, a regular on Match of the Day 2 on a Sunday night until a year ago, he fell out with the BBC because their news and current affairs team did an investigation in to bungs and dodgy deals in football, with allegations being made in the programme against his son Craig, who has acted as a football agent. So what happens next ? One week he is a regular on the couch and part of the team, the next week he refuses to speak to his old work colleagues in the BBC Sports department (not news, but sport), who had nothing to do with the documentary.

Harry Redknapp, who similarly had good relations with the BBC before the Panorama documentary refuses to speak to them now.

These managers believe they are punishing the BBC. The truth is that it is the fans who miss out, not the BBC. As an Everton fan I was always gutted that Duncan Ferguson, a hero of mine, refused all offers to do press interviews because he said the press always misrepresented him. Did the press miss out ? No. but I felt I did as an Everton fan as I wanted to hear his views. In the same way I think Manchester United, Portsmouth and Bolton fans (now Newcastle in Allardyce's case) missed out and will miss out by not hearing their managers say honestly what they think.

So it's time for these men to grow up. It's a new season and time to turn over a new leaf.

Does signing true "fans" make a difference to the way they play ?

As a football fan, I always dreamed of playing for my team. In my case it is Everton, although I am a big follower of Norwich City too. However, I get very frustrated at the mercenary nature of footballers these days and their perceived lack of effort.

So this summer Everton seem to have taken something of a departure from the norm in signing two Everton fans. These fans are not just ordinary fans, they are England Under 21 player Leighton Baines and England B international Phil Jagielka. But to me it is an interesting move. I am sure these players were signed on merit, but in both cases they had better offers and substantially more money offered to them by other clubs, but they wanted to join Everton and were prepared to except less (okay I know they are probably still earning £20k a week, but its the principle) to play for the team they support.

Will it make a difference on the pitch ? Who knows. Will they stay loyal to the club if someone tempts them to go elsewhere ? I couldn't say. But some players do play better for teams they support and love.

There is the horrific example of Wayne Rooney, a fool who emblazoned himself in a T-shirt with the words "Once a Blue, always a Blue" on it, only to have his head turned by money, celebrity friends and a firm of agents who it seems to me had no interest in giving him advice as an Everton fan, but instead used him like a commodity to be traded. Unfortunately I am not sure that Wayne lacks the ability to think independently and left Everton. Good luck to him, but it is something I could never have done.

But well done to David Moyes on signing some true Everton fans for the club. At least we will know that a defeat will be as bitter for the players as the fans and a victory just as sweet.

Hypocrisy from Peter Kilfoyle

Dizzy has on his blog a little piece from Peter Kilfoyle using an early day motion to have a dig at Lib Dem run Liverpool City Council over Everton's proposed move to Kirkby.

The problem is, from my point of view, that when the Keep Everton In Our City (KEIOC) group write to Peter Kilfoyle to ask for his support, his letter back was, to put at bluntly, a clear "piss off, I can't be bothered". If you read the story on the KEIOC website, and the story dated 18/04/07, and read the pdf file attacked, you will see as much.

So what do we owe this amazing turn around in Kilfoyle's actions to ? Does he genuinely care (the link to KEIOC) indicates not, but when it comes to political point scoring, he seems to be more adept at that.

My opinion is that Kilfoyle does not really give a damn about Everton, but only stirs when he has a chance to attack the Lib Dems.

Why I'm forced to support Manchester United today in the FA Cup

Whilst everyone else seems to be raving about the showpiece FA Cup final featuring the two top teams in England (Manchester United and Chelsea), nobody seems to realise that for some neutrals this is not exactly the final we wanted.

Knowing that the two most hated teams in England are playing each other does not set the pulse racing, What I want in an FA Cup final is a plucky underdog or two teams who are not at the top of the league but for whom an FA cup final is the most special moment of their careers.

However, I am able to be a little less biased, writing as an Everton fan today. As part of the deal that Took Wayne Rooney to Manchester United, Man Utd are forced to pay Everton a sum of money after winning each trophy, which I believe in this case would mean another £150,000 to Everton should United win.

So for today, and today only, "Come on you reds !"

Lost in translation - Babelfish is not always the answer

I found this wonderful post on "Things and Stuff", a rather nice Everton blog I look at regularly.

It's genuine and well worth a look.

If your' brain is feeling a bit tired, the problem appears to be distinguishing the word "fan" as in a "football fan" from the word "fan" meaning "something that ventilates".