Mersey Blues
Six months ago, with the thermometer pushing 39 degrees, Everton strode out at Wembley in the FA Cup final hoping to topple a big-four-foe and end a 14 year wait for silverware. Those dizzying heights must have given the Toffees as strong sense of vertigo as now, with winter in full flow, they are staring a relegation fight in the face.
Such a dramatic tumble is par for the course for the Blues, most Evertonians will tell you. After nearly two decades of disappointment they have become used to dashed expectations and broken promises. But in a week that saw a hammering by Man United, a battering by Hull and the rejection of a proposed ground move, the final kick in the teeth was inflicted by their bitterest rivals on Sunday, as Liverpool stole a 2-0 victory in a game they barely deserved to win.
Not that it is much consolation for the fans who now see their club in apparent disarray both on and off the pitch; and Everton’s Premier League relegation odds on the decrease.
The one consolation for Toffees fans in this winter of increasing discontent is the commitment of boss David Moyes. I doubt you will find a more determined football manager and I firmly believe he has the stomach for the fight ahead. Injuries have crippled their season, with key players missing throughout their team – it is ironic that the European adventure the club and fans crave appears to have damaged their season as the extra games wear an already thin squad to the bone.
However they found themselves in a similar pickle four years ago. Then, in the warm May sunshine, the club were celebrating Champions League qualification after nudging ahead of Liverpool in the table. But like this year a spectacular collapse followed, with the club tumbling out of two European competitions and finding themselves anchored to the bottom of the league come November.
But the team rolled their sleeves up and managed to clamber up the league, admittedly only to mid table by the end of the year.
The relative comfort of mid-table is a luxury they don’t have at the moment and while they can point to ‘05 as proof they can get themselves out of trouble, it can’t be taken for granted that they will in what is proving a highly erratic and unpredictable Premier League season.
In other sports news, the odds for the 2010 Grand National are heating up, so it could be worth your while to keep an eye on them.