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Why apologists and their negativity will hold us back
Anatomy of an Apologist: Part one
Get real gents. We haven’t been a dominant force in England since the 80’s and are unlikely to be again in the next decade. We’re not Chelsea, we’re not Man United and quite frankly we’re not even Liverpool, as sh*te as they are.
Sheffield Blue
What is apologism?
Meliorism is an idea in metaphysical thinking holding that progress is a real concept leading to an improvement of the world. It holds that humans can, through their interference with processes that would otherwise be natural, produce an outcome which is an improvement over the aforementioned natural one.
In comparison, one may contrast this concept with that of apologism.
Apologism is the metaphysical philosophy that argues that it is wrong for humans to attempt to alter the conditions of life in the mortal sphere of influence. It is opposed to the idea that absolute “progress” is a desirable goal for the pursuit of human endeavours.
Apologism stands solidly in opposition to the metaphysics of meliorism, which states that absolute “progress” is the desirable goal of all human endeavors. Apologism is not to be confused with apologetics.
(Thanks to Johnny Todd)
To sum up Sheffield Blue has given the game away.
Apologists for David Moyes and more pertinently Bill Kenwright don’t just believe that the club can’t compete, they also dismiss out of hand the idea that the club can compete in the short, medium or long term.
Remember this when they attack you for being negative when you criticise Moyes or Kenwright as they are the negative ones. Those who criticise Moyes and Kenwright for their repeated failings are the positive ones, not them.
This is the worst aspect of the Kenwright years the lowering of expectations; this is much worse than Kirkby in my view. This is the biggest barrier to change; the apologists and their negativity.
David O’Keefe
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28 Comments
You’re a fuckwit who is living in a dream world.
Its called ambition, Dan and thank you for proving my point.
There’s a difference between being an apologist and being a realist.
We’d all love Everton to win the league, but the reasons why they can’t/won’t is due to their financial limitations compared to their top 6 rivals, and this cannot be ignored.
Are you related to Greg by any chance, if so leave the articles to him in future.
I’m all behind this article but what i object to is unnecessary criticism which happens in my opinion on this website all too often. it must be constructive and i dont think it always is in alot of articles published here.
having said that, we must all be ambitious and if we do not belive we can be the best, then what is the point?
Dixie, I am a realist in my own way. I want the club to improve, resolve the stadium problem in a satisfactory manner so that we have the monies to compete.
In the short term, I believe that the club has a squad that can break into the top four, if the players and manager perform to the best of their abilities.
Realism doesn’t mean you can’t have any ambition, but tell that to the apologists.
Jim Bobbys’ The comments thread here are admittedly a bear pit, but I’m the only one getting any flack here for the moment.
I also think Joe deserves some credit for publishing Sheffield blues opinion piece. It was certainly illuminating.
it is a bit ridiculous if we do not even believe that we can reach higher levels than we have alreday achieved. there is no reason why we shouldnt believe we can make the top 4 next season. we can be good enough and if you dont really believe that, then you should be ashmamed of yourselves. we absolutely must have higher ambitions because like i said before, what is the point?
it is true, and i have only just read sheffield blues’s article – some of it is quite shocking, is he really suggesting we are not as good as the redshite??
I think we sholud all thank him for revealing what the apologists truly believe. The intelligent apologists are usually more circumspect than that, but he came straight out with it and revealed what they truly believe.
Good article. I too think we should be challenging for a top four position. Our results last season prove that on our day we are more than a match for the top four. Four points against the champions. Maximum points against City, completely outplayed Arsenal at the Emirates and outplayed Utd at home. We deserved something from both games against Spurs and Liverpool and Villa needed an injury time equaliser. I too have been critical of Moyes but without a doubt Everton would have been nowhere near Europe every season without him. Kenwright is just utter rubbish ditto the board. Elstone is a waste of space and his syrupy comments of all things Kenwright are not only nauseous but also an insult to the intelligence of most blues. His suggestion that Kenwright is somehow responsible for the minor success that we have had is laughable, considering that since Moyes arrived at the club he has had to sell to buy because of a board with no ambition. This season is no different. Once again the board promise that funds are available to drum up season ticket sales and then once again Moyes is left scrambling for buys with loans or from the proceeds of players sold.
Kenwright is holding this club back, i for one dont believe he’s ‘searching 24/7′ for investment as he doesn’t want to dilute his shareholding and money is what this club is desperate for. The board are clueless, i mean whats the point of this Jon Woods? what purpose does he serve? Ditto Robert Earl. Kenwright is achieveing his ambition by running the club and ‘living his dream’ but he’s out of his depth and outstayed his welcome, yet we still have fans who support him and make excuses for his hundreds of errors.
Moyes has done a good job,not without mistakes,but i would like to see him with a decent transfer fund every summer and not having to sell to buy,pick up bosmans and loaners.
Gareth Fieldstead- i agree with your every word mate, particulary about Elstone.
Hey guys before this blows up into yet another Toffee civil war I think we should all take a step back. I agree the article in question was too negative towards what could be achieved if we have a fit squad and play the way we all know we can.
HOWEVER I think we should try and read a little deeper to what our blue friend was trying to say. I honestly think the guy was just trying to stick up for Moyes, first and foremost by saying that actually what we have achieved thus far is pretty good and if we play with a fully fit squad the way we know we can, then who knows what will happen. At the same time realise life isn’t easy in this league and it gets harder with every season.
I know I get angry when people say moyes has taken us as far as he can. This guy has obviosuly placed a flag in the Moyes camp and tried to dispell the arguements of those who constantly say we should sack the manager.
Believe me Id love to see a trophy, even another league title to our honours list. I don’t see how sacking one of the best managers in the league will help us. I think we should all remember since January (even without our lanky afro’d up teenage anchor man) we’ve been unstoppable.
NSNO
In Moyes I trust.
What ever happened to just telling it like it is.we are all behind moyes and kenwright because we have to be because they are the ones steering the ship.I am not moyes biggest fan and I am certaintly not kenwrights but just because I say something the way I see it doesn’t mean it’s being negative it means I’m being honest.when I praise moyes and on the rare occasion kenwright then people know I truly mean it.optimism is for dreamers and people who don’t face up to the truth.realism is how it is wether you like it or not.it’s the best way to be.
Lee there is nothing wrong with optimism, in fact i dont how you can support everton without being an optomist. are you really saying you dont want BK to sell his stake to some billionaire or you dont hope that our stadium situation can be sorted out? the realists amongst us would look at the current situation and just give up. we absolutely have to optomistic about the future, it is all too easy to blame the reality of our situation in regards to ownership / financial backing and other problems. it is so easy to say ‘oh we cant comptete because we dont have as much money as them’ well i say bollocks to that, we can comptete and it has been proved already last season. lets all be optomisitc about our future and get behind our team.
Thanks David for putting the idiot who wrote the other article in his place.
I think you are getting ‘apologist’ confused with someone who doesn’t want to see their beloved club turn into the next Leeds United. You can call it a lack of ambition and you can show me screen grabs of how you managed to increase your clubs bank balance on Football Manager but in reality, we are doing bloody well for ourselves AND we are improving.
I really hate this ‘us vs them’ thing that seems to have been dividing Evertonians for the last few years. In a league of 20 teams only one of them can be the champions, unfortunately money dictates the rise and fall of each of these teams; we have no money yet we’re still rising (although clearly not fast enough for some).
Anyone who can class themselves as “not Moyes’ biggest fan” needs to really have a think about the amount of awful football that we had to put up with through the 90s. DM has managed to turn us around, like it or not, that is a fact. We have gone from being the scruffy ‘other team’ in Liverpool to being genuine European contenders and we are beginning to assemble a squad that can offer good (not just sufficient) back up, a luxury that we have not had in a long, long time.
Things are good and they are getting better, you have to be realistic but an apologist or whatever you want to call it, i’m not too sure. All that I’m certain is that to huff and puff that we aren’t competing with the biggest teams in the world to win the biggest tournaments in the world and to say that ‘we could compete if….’ and ‘look at how much they spend! We’re better than them…’ is just delusional.
well put Claus
Shorter Claus “at least were not Leeds”. Straw man argument.
I’m not saying I don’t want kenwright to sell to a billionaire and for moyes to turn us into championship chasing contenders I hope and pray that happens.all I’m saying is I’m a realist and I face up to the truth and the truth is we are nowhere near being bought out and we are nowhere near moving into a brand new stadium and we are not championship contenders.that is the reality.have we improved under moyes yes is this the best squad we’ve had for 20 plus years yes are we fighting relegation no we are not.moyes has done a great job and I am ever grateful to him for that but are things gonna get better time will tell.I believe we now have quality players to push for top four but pienaar looks as if he’s going arsenal are sniffing around arteta and jagielka is being linked with a move away.alls I will say is watch this space.
Lee we will lose our top players like the ones you’v just metioned if we don’t show ambition and the club shows none under this gobshite chairman and his cronies on the board.
And who could blame them for moving on.
Exactly mate we have got no ambition and for that reason they will leave but some blues I speak to are so sure they will stay and I wonder why they think that when we are giving these players no incentive.moyes has spent no money over the last two seasons no matter what anyone says he hasn’t spent a penny.where is the fuckin money.
I haven’t a clue were the money is mate, consistently high finishes,decent cup runs,on tv a lot,a low wage bill and spend nothing yet were always skint. And what does Billy Bullshit do about it?
Nothing! (apart from giving us a few more tales fom the boys pen).
No mate he tells us how we’ve smashed our club record transfer fee every year but forgets we payed 15 mill for felli but sold mcfadden 6m and andy Johnson 10.5m so them two transfers covered that fee felli was the only player we actually payed for that year.then of course last pre season billy 10m jonny 6m distin 5m a combined outlay of 21 million oh but hang on we sold lescott for 24 mill so actually we made a 3 million profit last season on deals.television money money for finishing 5th two years running money for reaching a cup final.WHERE THE FUCK IS OUR MONEY.as paying and loyal fans we have a right to know why the fuck we are “looking under the carpet” for money as our dickhead CEO put it last week.
To right mate, that ‘looking under carpets’ line by that fuckwit Elstone was utterly embarrassing and made us look so small-time, even Wyness wouldn’t have come out with that. Then he went on to say Kenwright ‘deserves credit’, what for i dont know as he’s useless.
Our club is riddled with idiots from top to bottom.
David, I’m not sure how my comment about not wanting to end up like Leeds is a ‘straw man argument’, if we over spend, and that is what we would have to do to get in the top players that we need (a new right back, a fast right winger and a young striker with potential). I agree with everyone that is angered by the lack of spending, and it is frustrating that we need to sell first to buy players, the money coming in must be going somewhere but the majority of other clubs in this division are also having to keep the books balanced before they go out and buy.
To get back to my ‘straw man argument’, MY fear is that if we over stretch and bank on getting into the champions league to pay for our new acquisitions we will run the risk of losing any chance we have now of making steady (yet slow) progress. You can accuse me of exaggerating and scaremongering, if that is what you are implying, but with all of the other teams around us improving their squads we could quite easily find ourselves next season in the same position as we are now if we suffer the same sort of luck with injuries (but with a bigger wage bill and more debt).
Personally I am optimistic about next season, we have shown that we can play anyone and beat them when we have our full first XI out and by building on the group of players we have, keeping our key players (piennar, arteta and jagielka) and selling players that are slipping or not currently essential to the team (Yobo, Vaughan and Rodwell as much as it pains me to say it) we could increase the numbers in our squad without pushing ourselves into the same position as other teams chasing a quick entry into the ‘top four’.
Its a familiar argument that is always used by apologists, Claus that critics of BK want the club to spend money it hasn’t got. Only problem with that is that no one is demanding that the club do that.
Straw man argument. Easy to build up and knock down.
We haven’t spent any money David zilch.We are a premier league club for fuck sake and we haven’t spent a penny over the last two years.What the fuck is going on here.kenwright is a twat simple as that I’ve lost patience with him now.he’s more than happy to come out and talk when things are rosy but as soon as the shit hits the fan you don’t see him for dust.
I speak the same language Lee, Kenwright loves to hog the limelight when things are going well but the bungling bufoon goes into hiding when the shit hits the fan and we want answers. You couldn’t get him off the tv or radio or out the papers in the build up to the FA Cup Final yet once we lost and fans started to turn to player acquistions he done one and wouldn’t communicate with us when we wanted to know why we wasn’t signing anyone. (the shithouse he did the same the summer before)
I wanted him out as far back as the summer of 2004 and still do.