Blackburn Preview: Everton Kean on licking the Rovers
This is the beginning of a run of three games at Goodison for the Mighty Blues which could play a decisive role in the direction of our season. Most Evertonians would probably take four league points and cup progress as an excellent outcome, with a point against City seen as a decent return. From a league point of view three points from Blackburn is imperative. Goodison hasn’t been a happy home for the Blues this season with only three league wins. The last time we hosted an old-fashioned Lancashire derby, against Bolton a couple of weeks back, we turned in one of our worst performances in many a year.
Moyesy has asked for Goodison to get behind the players and drive them on during this run. Probably a polite way of saying it’s been like a morgue on occasions this season. The gloom surrounding the off-field issues has dampened supporters’ expectations and led to an over-riding frustration watching games at the Old Lady. This match brings along the one Premier League club whose supporters have been more angry and despairing than ours. They’ve had more demos than us – last week’s 24-hour protest outside Ewood Park being the latest. They’ve also been more vociferous inside the ground too. Most of that has been directed at owners Venky’s and the living embodiment of all things bad about the Rovers’ situation – Steve Kean
Moyesy does get some stick – he can frustrate with his conservatism at times – but the vast majority of Goodison is with him and recognises the constraints he’s working under. It tends to be on the internet and message boards he gets some Steve Kean treatment. Neither manager has had the proper backing of their boards, for different reasons. From a distance – don’t claim any expertise on Blackburn’s inner workings – it seems that Kean is the lonely figurehead who is bearing the brunt of all the anger. The Venky’s have dismantled the boardroom at Ewood and gutted the management structure of a well-regarded and previously well-run club. The workings of agent Jerome Anderson with the club are also unclear. The local press in Blackburn have highlighted a letter sent to Venky’s last January outlining the concerns of the then board members. Very prescient as it turns out. It looks like Kean reports directly to Mrs Desai in India and is alleged to travel there once a month to do so. Probably could do with investing in a video conference facility if they’re having money problems…Whatever they thought they were doing when they bought the club – raising their profile? – it’s not working out and they seem out of their depth. They might be ace at selling chickens but Steve Kean is often left looking like a freshly-plucked piece of fowl on the touchline as he gets stick from all corners.
His record isn’t very good and some clubs would’ve had him out by now – QPR spring to mind. Whilst we mention them, see Joey Barton is sticking the knife into Neil Warnock big time. “If I talked about Neil, he’d do well to get another job”, among other megalomaniacal quotes. Warnock is only the one who bought him and made him club captain earlier this season…Neither are pleasant characters – the best thing about Barton is his commitment to good spelling and grammar on twitter – so balls to both of them. Neither Everton or Blackburn seem to have any plumbs like Joey disrupting things.
Meanwhile, the Everton Chief Exec, Robert Elstone, released a candid blog on the club’s finances last week. It was a good response to the ‘where’s all the money gone?’ questions. He gave an assessment of the last five seasons and how new contracts to players, matchday income, etc all combine to mean we’re skint. Yes Bob, but why did you have to ruin it when talking about dropping gate revenues this season with “…rumours of the sabotage of ticket sales, programmes and other matchday income”. It’s clear neither he, nor Bill Kenwright, have any truck with the Blue Union, especially after the taping incident earlier this season. They seem to have a bunker mentality to any criticism. Well, times are hard, the team isn’t doing that well, we’re not exactly seeing sexy football at Goodison, so it’s not a big surprise gates are down. All Evertonians are concerned with what’s going on – if we can’t replace aging players, what does the future hold? Elstone and Kenwright should take the blinkers off and engage with all Evertonians – they can’t afford not to – as the search for new investment, or a new way of running things at Goodison continues. Kenwright is the boardroom figurehead at all the games which Rovers don’t have.
Rovers have had a slight upturn in recent weeks and last week’s win against Fulham with 10 men – interesting that the fans got behind the team on the back of a referee’s decision and they responded with a great win – means they’ll roll up with some confidence. Everton too, on the back of a more encouraging performance at Villa last week, can have a bit of optimism. We’ve not got any of our recently injured players back but the chance to see what Darron Gibson can offer the Goodison gallery intrigues. Landon Donovan, who had an excellent game at Villa – more through balls please lid – can hopefully inspire a much-needed home win.
Moyesy’s comments about nursing Big Vic back suggest he may start on the bench again. If nursing back means he’s a goalscoring super sub then we can live with that. Vellios boosted himself with a hat-trick against Rovers in the Reserves 4-2 win on Monday. An interesting comment from Alan Stubbs in the Echo after that when he said Vellios played for the team rather than himself – maybe explaining a bit why he’s gone off Moyesy’s radar recently. Joes Baxter slotted one and played well too, so expect Jose to be on the bench against Rovers. In the unlikely event of Denis starting, it looks like Saha up front again. Come on Louis, give us a goal.
At least the Yak won’t be proving the immutable law of the ex…but there weren’t many Evertonians who didn’t want rid of him in the summer. Not fit, not scoring goals and the chance to get some money for him meant his move was welcomed in most quarters. Well, the big lad has done great for Rovers since he’s been there. It’s the other end where they’ve had big problems. It’s uncertain whether big Chris Samba will play against us – transfer request and all. As long as he doesn’t do a Gary Cahill and slot on his last appearance.
Here’s hoping the Toffees can notch one early – remember those first half goals? – and ease ourselves to a comfortable win. If not, we may need Moyesy’s substitutions to work their wonders again. In all the despair this season, Moyey’s subs have been the one bright spot. There’s always someone with the ‘Change it Moyes’ but he has handled that bit well and we’ve scored more goals by subs than anyone.
So then, up the Toffees.
Ian Marshall's Matters 
Some Blue transfer thoughts…
So, the king is dead. Long live the king.
A bruising deadline day for the Blues passed with Evertonians coming to terms with the loss of the best little Spaniard we know. It was all a bit undignified, watching Sky Sports News with baited breath as a load of beauts, let out of their local Borstal, gestured, gurned and shouted next to various smarmy Sky reporters, with the honourable exception of Rachel Brookes outside Loftus Road…Sad bunch of ninjas, and up there with the worst of them, were the knobheads outside Arsenal. Down, then up, and eventually down again, Evertonian emotions were in direct contrast to those Gurners. In the end Arteta’s transfer was pushed through it seems by his own willingness to smooth the deal and confirmed with minutes to go. It must have been true as Sky were telling us so, Jim White pulling the strings in the studio. He had two wooden puppets in Dave Bassett and Iain Dowie to help explain things…but their awfulness was offset by Natalie Sawyer and her knowing looks and smirks.
The whole day seems more set up for journalists and the public – a modern day ritual which binds the country together – rather than football clubs. The social fabric may be in shreds, riots and all, and just who did let those kids out, but on the last day of the transfer window everyone is watching the same TV, live web blogs, twitter feeds from journalists and players (Jack Wilshere you tit), etc. Jim White is held in absolute reverence by Sky on days like this – he was trailed and then introduced at 8pm like the world heavyweight boxing champ. Undoubtedly, some players benefit from clubs’ panic and some clubs are vulnerable to late bids with no chance to replace departing players. That brings us back to the Blues then.
Moyesy was clearly looking to free up space on the wage bill when allowing Yakubu and Beckford to talk to other clubs, which became apparent were Blackburn and Leicester respectively. He must have known a situation like the Arteta bid could/would happen at some time. Recent speculation was that Arsenal might come in for Jags. That had died down with reports of their interest being firmer on Gary Cahill, plus they’ve probably watched Jags play this season. Moyesy wants to keep his squad together but when money is so tight, and we can’t add to it without losing someone, then ambitious players will look elsewhere. Arsenal were seriously weakened by the loss of Fabregas and Nasri and were humiliated at Man Utd. They were always going to splash some cash. Probably thought Arteta warranted more than 10 million quid but it’s all about how much Barclays keep and how much we can use in January (surely we’ll get someone in then?) So, what have we lost and Arsenal gained? It’s a sad day when such a respected player (by team mates and fans) leaves the club. He’s one of our leaders on the pitch – brilliant at keeping hold of the ball and one of our best passers. When he was ‘on’ he made us tick and has been involved in some great moments: numerous victories at City, last year’s derby goal, his equaliser against Fiorentina, the free kick for Big Dunc to nod in against United, his first goal versus Palace and the hope he gave us against Villarreal. Fantastic memories. But he was also the cause of much frustration. His corners not beating the first man have been a standard for several years now – Baines has usurped him as dead ball striker of choice by nearly everyone at Goodison. There was a bit more anxiety than normal with a last minute penalty when Arteta stepped up to take that Blackburn spot-kick rather than Bainesy. However, it was fitting his last touch was to win us three points. The elephant in the Sky Sports studio was his injury record over the last couple of years and his erratic form. We’ve done well with him but also without him. He regularly failed to dominate his personality on big games in the same way as, dare we mention them, Gerrard and Lampard have done. The reaction from Sky and that mob outside the ground was they’d signed a real marque signing, someone to bring the good times back. Really? He’s not in the Spain squad which suggests he’s not quite that top player they think he is. Is he the man to drive them forward in the Champions League? Certainly him and Benayoun look like cut-price versions of Fabregas and Nasri. Maybe he’ll flourish at Arsenal with players equally adept at keeping the ball because some of our lot certainly struggle to do so. Whatever – good luck to him, we’ll miss the little fella.
The impact at Everton will be hard to gauge. Arteta was part of the group keeping the flame of Everton’s team spirit burning. Now one has gone it’ll make it easier for another to leave. Fellaini has two years left on his deal – there’s talk of a new contract. That may well happen but can the club afford to turn down any serious offers for him in the near future? Maybe a new contract will give him a few more quid and boost his re-sale value? What the Arteta business means is that others have to step up. Leon’s form at the end of last season was a revelation and more of that means we won’t drop too far. Jack Rodwell needs to finally show us he’s the player everyone thinks he is. Of course, Fellaini staying injury free and keeping consistent form makes him a huge player. And then there’s Ross Barkley…The Great Royal Blue Hope. In a perfect world Ross fulfils his potential with his boyhood club; we somehow get a few bob and build a team around him. Let’s stay positive, eh?
We’ve now got an exotic Argentine with a nickname: El Traca, aka Denis Stracqualursi. The Firecracker will earn himself a few more names if the Goodison Gallery doesn’t like what it sees. He’ll be given a chance and we can only hope he’s another astute Moyes purchase. Apparently Leicester gave him a brief trial and didn’t fancy him. Looks like we’ve had him watched earlier this year – at least it wasn’t a youtube compilation. And then there’s Royston Drenthe. He seems a real livewire. We’ve had a fallen star of a Dutch winger before and must hope he turns out a bit better than that one. (What did happen to Andy van der Meyde’s dog by the way?)
Classically Everton, Big Denis and Roy weren’t officially confirmed until right up to the deadline – probably because our officials were otherwise engaged. Someone to hold the ball up front and bring others into play has great potential, that neither the Yak nor Beckford were regularly capable of. Victor is far too inconsistent – another whose been given plenty of chances and not taken them. Some pace down the left wing to complement Baines is something we’ve needed since Pienaar left. Both signings offer us hope so we’ll have to do the thing we do best – keep the Royal Blue faith. The new players have spoken positively about being here and are useful additions to our squad.
In other news, Shane Duffy has gone on loan to Scunthorpe and the forgotten man of Goodison – Joseph Yobo – is still here. That’s been one jinxed transfer to Fenerbahce, which the Blues are hoping ends when the Turkish window closes on Monday. It looks like it may be another loan spell while the Turkish club goes through the wringer with match-fixing allegations.
Most Blues were secretly hoping for some kind of Fellaini moment where Moyesy pulled off some coup at the last minute. Alas, it wasn’t to be. But in the words (tweets then) of our captain
That’s what we need to hear but, most importantly, see. Come on you Blues.