Yes people, you heard right. Listen up, here's the news, Walter Smith can do well for Everton, but he requires something. Support!
I've read quite a lot of paper and website talk over the past week or so going on about possible replacements for Smith. The stupidest name I heard was George Graham. Ok, so the guy will do anything for money, but do you really think that he could do better than Smith with no money and half a squad? He won things with Arsenal, very true, but at the time he had a great team. He had one of the best defenses this country has ever seen and in Ian Wright a truly prolific goal scorer. Everton haven't got, and won't have, either of these for a while. Graham did what all managers do, he built his own squad over a number of years by spending lots of money and giving the team time to gel. This is not to say he's not a good manager, but he's no better than Walter Smith.
Everton have had problems recently, there are many differing views on what has caused these. Here are a few of mine for you to chew over. Firstly and foremost, the injuries. We have lost our forward line, plain and simple. Quite how anyone can blame the manager for this is beyond me. We don't have the money for a deep squad, so when we have injuries it hits us hard. Secondly, the money. We don't have too many world-class players. Although our squad is not as bad as some people (mentioning no names) on other websites may have you believe, we are not going to win the league with it.
Since Bill Kenwright bought the club he has made it clear that the new ground will help us turn the club around. There is a lot of misinformation regarding the stadium. People ask why the money isn't being spent on the squad. Well, the new stadium is costing Everton nothing. We will own 51% of it and get that share of the (substantial) revenue. This will make us money, how much noone knows, but it will be more than we have now!
Most of you will have heard all of the arguments that I have made before, so sorry for boring you, but it really pisses me off when I read articles that suggest that the problems at the club are all Smith's fault, they are not. He has made some mistakes, but this doesn't mean he should be replaced. It's an immature and naive reaction to jump on the manager at the first sign of trouble rather than facing up to what is actually wrong at the club. Things don't happen overnight. And too all those people who want Smith out, that's your opinion, and you are entitled too it just as much as I am entitled to mine. Debate is no bad thing, but I'd like you to take on board two points. One, what exactly would George Graham be able to do to make a £30m team play like a £300m team, hey? Also, we are all supporters of the team, so for fucks sake, support! Rant over.