I could easily approach Tossers 0 Toffees 3 in one of two ways. One way is to shout and swear a lot, blame everyone that moves, slag off Drillo for not putting the subs on early enough, and basically cause myself a coronary in the process. But I’m not going to do that – instead, I am actually going to be quite calm and philosophical about this.
Yes, it was bad. Yes, it was probably the worst performance this season (certainly at SP). But remember that this is our FIRST loss at “home” since August 1999, and whilst our away form has been nothing special, at least our “home” form has been pretty OKish, and (dare I say it) we normally are very good on Palace’s patch. The fact that this is more or less the same team which beat a resergent Newk team a couple of weeks ago, a high-flying Sunderland team before that (etc etc) is probably the main reason why I’m not slitting my wrists. Either that or it’s shock.
Now, where did it go wrong today? Don’t know, is the answer. Nobody played well – Leaburn must surely have played his last game for the club, and indeed the only reason for his inclusion is the fact that we only have JH in that role and nobody else. True, the fact that he was booed as he got subbed (and this was not the isolated boo that you normally expect) was wrong, but I can fully understand the frustrations of those who did it.
The fact that as soon as Ardley and Dry Martini came on we looked much more mobile and threatening up front than we had done all game is surely a sign that the Cult Of Leaburn must be stopped dead now. His fans claim that he “holds the ball up well”. Well, he didn’t exactly do that today, though the increasing ineptness of Euell, Gayle and Cort (more on him later) didn’t exactly help matters. Sullivan was utter toilet, he flapped more times than a seagull on LSD, and was certainly at fault for the second goal.
What is it about our goalies and playing against Everton? Segers let in THAT goal for money (come on, you can’t honestly think otherwise can you?), and now Sully has gifted Bluescouse more goals in two games than he has for most of the season. Wonder if SH has shares in Peter Johnson’s hamper firm (or maybe Bill Kenwright slipped Sully a couple of free tickets to his next production?) ? We could also single out the defence, the midfield and everyone else, but maybe today was just a bad day at the office? Time will tell, Celsi next week is vital. Very vital
Of course, everyone needs an excuse for that debacle, and Sky have come up with the gem that it’s all to do with the Norwegians wanting some money, and a player or two MAY have to be sold to cover that debt. Well slap my thighs with a wet codpiece and call me Geri Halliwell. You mean we could spend £15m on players and not expect to get some money back somewhere? Didn’t Drillo say late last year that he needed to get some cash for players? And that the little known fact that nobody whatsoever has come in for the likes of Ardley, Michael Hughes (yes, I know he’s injured) etc means that one or two of our top players may have to go instead?
The latest rumour involves Bambi On Ice, aka Carl Cort, who is (reportedly) available at £10m, yet Spurz want to pay £7m. Now, judging by his recent performances, Carl Cort isn’t worth 7p, yet for some reason everyone rates him. Some people have even threatened mutiny if he gets sold – my attitude is, if they put up the right dough, sell them. What people may be forgetting is that selling players at WFC is nothing new. It’s never really done us much dis-service in truth.
Yes, we have never really replaced Fash up until JH came along, yes we’ve never replaced Wisey, but those have basically been the exceptions. When we sold Nigel Winterburn, we got Terry Phelan. When we let Warren Barton go, we got KC. To keep it up to date, Chris Perry goes and we get Hermann. The fact that we have Wayne Gray and Patrick Agyemann (sp) coming through the ranks means that we could afford to get rid of someone like Cort. In fact, some people – not me – have noted that playing the likes of Gray is better than playing Cort because “they’re much more hungry”. Nobody employed by WFC (and I mean nobody), be it players, management, staff, even owners is irreplacable.
So we sell Cort, it keeps the bank off our back, and it would give us scope to improve in other areas. That’s market forces. That’s the WFC way, we’ve always had to sell players. I just can’t understand why it’s suddenly become such a point of contention amongst some people……