We all want what is best for our football club, and all have different ideas on how the club should go about it's business on and off the field, but each season, the only thing that counts in a football league is results.
At the moment, there is far too much emphasis on painting a positive picture, and not enough on pure and simple facts.
Let me offer an example:
The positivity bandwagon will state this: "Everton have only been beaten once" and then it becomes "Everton have only been beaten twice" and then it will change to "Everton have only been beaten once this year" as it sounds better. Then when you've lost as many as some other teams, they stop shouting. I don't hear anybody proclaiming "Everton have only been beaten 4 times" so we're on a roll.
The realistic fans (the ones the luvvies like to call negative) will say this: "In 25 matches, we've failed to win 13 times".
When you say it like that, it doesn't sound as positive does it, but saying it like this is an honest evaluation that resists the opportunity to paint a false picture.
The realists among us will look at our current playing style, and acknowledge the efforts Martinez has put in to maintaining possession and becoming more fluent, but we will also acknowledge the fact that we were already playing some sweet stuff under Moyes too, and look upon it as a progressive evolution of style under the work of both men, where as the positivity / Roberto-mania bandwagon will claim that all credit belongs to Martinez, and Moyes was simply holding us back based on his United results.
The less naive among us know that Roberto came to Everton and took charge of a very strong squad of professional players, who played as a team, with the spirit and work ethic built over a decade of previous management. It was a well serviced engine completely ready for the journey, and Martinez could make some little tweaks to make himself at home, by adding a few go faster stripes and a fluffy dice, with a nodding dog on the back window if necessary, but strictly speaking, he was in the race, from day one, and although he didn't inherit the quickest car on the track, he would have to really neglect it for anything to go seriously wrong, and all the odds suggested a top 7 finish.
If you read Twitter, everybody is positive about our season, and proclaiming Martinez as this amazing manager, while they knock Moyes, yet what has Roberto done to deserve such praise?
We have sold some big players, and have not replaced them with any convincing investment, and I'm not talking about things our club can't afford, but simply reinvesting a little of what we sell.
Yes, we beat United at home, but heck, talk about kicking a guy when they're down; it was hardly a convincing win against a team on it's back. We beat Chelsea, but the truth is they completely and utterly battered us, and we held on. When we were given a simple test of beating the bottom team in the league in order to go on and create history, we still failed and lost to Sunderland.
We still fell out of the League Cup against a side everybody else was beating with ease.
We went to Anfield, our biggest game of the calendar, and were rudely reminded that we are still a mile off from having a squad that can compete over 38 games, yet still we sell.
So why is it that at every opportunity people are praising our manager and our club?
We are in 6th position after 25 games. Last year we were ahead of both Arsenal and indeed Liverpool in 5th position, so we are in fact now going backwards, but still the luvfest continues, because it is good timing for our club, as it distracts the fact that yet again they have chosen to promise funding at the beginning of the season, yet let us all down when it comes to delivering that funding, and when you consider we are in a great league position, or perhaps I should say 'were', it leaves a bad taste in the mouth to see us selling and not buying.
Who cares if we buy Lukaku in the summer? By that time the league is over and the chance is gone. I should point out also that Jelavic scored more goals when he arrived.
I like Martinez, and I also like Moyes, despite his leaving annoying me a tad. I've also been a big defender of Kenwright in the past, but at this moment in time I'm left shaking my head wondering why I'm the only one not being taken in by all the spin and hype going on.
I must be 'unique'.
