Hi, Everton fan here from Love Everton com forum.
Anyone fancy writing a little article about your club's history, great players etc. and aspirations for the new season including what you think of your new signings plus what do you think of Everton for our preview section of the upcoming game. 1st bit will be added to our already extensive history section of each club. Pm me if you would like to contribute or post in here and will copy/paste it.
Cheers in advance and hope you have a decent season
Si
(P.S. Apologies if in the wrong section admin)
Since noone else is, I'll give it a go.
For ancient history, honours, former managers and club hall of fame, see wikipedia.
Our recent history is what is most relevant for where we are today. Levy's reign as the chairman of Tottenham Hotspur has been criticised by some fans and pundits. He has been berated for hiring the wrong managers, for firing them, for being to cheap with transfers, and for wasting money on flops.
The fact of the matter though, is that before Levy took over our average league position the last five seasons was 11th. We had not been above tenth since '96. Since then we have finished below tenth twice, amongst the top four three times and fifth five times. The last seven seasons we have one third, two fourth, three fifth and one sixth. In short, we have established ourselves as one of the five main contenders for the four Champions League spots. This has been done while having a negative net spend on transfers in six of the seven last seasons, with a total negative net spend of more than £30 million. Simultaneously we have built the arguably best training facilities in the UK and we have started building a brand new magnificent stadium.
2015/16 is so far the pinnacle of our quite succesful recent history. Under Pochettino's management it seems we have seen the end of soft Spurs; no more lazy dribblers, no more sicknotes, no more being bullied; we are younger, fitter, and we train harder than any other team in the Premier League. Our manager is ballsy enough to say that we will be fighting for the title. Some of us fans even actually believe him.
Compared to other clubs aspiring to win the Premier League, our signings may not seem very ambitious: Vincent Janssen has had one fantastic half a season in AZ Alkmaar, and Victor Wanyama comes of a couple of good campaigns with Southampton. Both are expected to primarily add squad depth. The concensous, though, seems to be that both are excellent captures, adding quality depth where it was sorely needed. While some fans still hopes to see a marquee world class signing, most of us rest easy with the trust in Pochettino and his methods, and with the trust in the fantastic young squad that gave us so many truly enjoyable games last season.
Everton is a side that many Spurs fans probably sympathise with. In the last 50 years, our average league position is 8.84. Everton's is 8.98. During the Moyes years, Everton was very close to the top four on several occations, through hard work, despite not having the money the top clubs had. Both clubs have annoying, shit clubs in red widely recognised as big brothers in their respective cities. You have the chance to overtake a struggling Liverpool. I think most have our fingers crossed, hoping you will, just like we hope to finally overtake our downward spiralling north-London rival.
Your future seems potentially bright, with your new owners and Koeman in charge. On the transfer side, it seems you have focused on retaining the services of your very bright young stars rather than splashing cash on new ones.
Your new acquisitions seems very sensible:
A new goalkeeper was desperately needed. Stekelenburg used to have a great reputation. If he plays his best football he will definately win you more points than your goalkeepers did last year.
Gueye's stats, playing for a chaotic Aston Villa side, was almost on par with those of Kante for a very organized Leicester. If the Senegalese defensive midfielder can perform in the same manner for you as he did for Villa, it is very likely that your defence will look better and that you'll win a lot more points than you did with the lackluster defending you showed last season.
I truly wish you well. Just make sure you stop stealing points from us, and that you finish below us. Thanks.
