Judge WH as a CEO of a Company Called America

I like the article purported by Bloomberg and would say it is the same benchmark I've always used to judged the WH. Technically, that's how I judge every system.

Trumpers argued that we should give him time to run the country like he should, the first time we elected a businessman to run the country, and hence, we should give him time.

Firstly, this is not the first time a businessman became a president, so why is this presidency any different from before? Because he had no prior experience? Why should that be different from anyone who are new to a job? CEOs are judged almost immediately for lesser blunders, so time is no excuse. Mindset, maturity and integrity is.

Now, I'll not hit him on things that are not wrong. I disagree on the travel ban, appointment of Sessions, rolling back of Obama-era laws to protect the environment, support of the poorly designed AHCA and immigration related policies.

However, I am not going to bash him for the Syrian strike, even if I don't view it as a positive, it is not a dire negative. Nor do I think the interactions with China to be negative. Happenings with NAFTA also did not look as dire as it was originally projected to be.

The problem is, when your accomplishments do not outweigh your perceived negatives, coupled with the constant self-inflicted PR problems, things clearly don't look good. Not to mention how reality is setting in with their non-WH business. No CEO in a legitimate corporate would have survived this long with so much conflict of interest, especially since his name is not Elon Musk.

The good thing is, unlike a corporate where the leader is the single point of failure, the president is one of many pieces of our democracy. He is a very big part of our democracy, but NOT THE point of failure that will collapse the system.

Of course, being highly invested in the market, I worry about every piece of news that is thrown out, every day there is a curve ball that can break the camel's back, every day seems to be a lower new low. Of course, the best thing that happened recently is the appointment of Mueller, of which, of course again, Trump doesn't understand the benefit.

All in all, if I have stock in a company where it's CEO keeps giving me news that causes selloffs, I would have either sold the stock or lobbied to fire the CEO. That is what is happening right now. I don't believe there is enough to prove Russian ties, nor clear-cut proof wrongdoing with Comey, but it is reasonable to be doubtful, especially with the massive amount of possible conflict of interest business wise and confusion operation and execution wise. There will be haters, but you are not helping yourself if you give them more reason to gather more hate.

Now, if only he can start exercising proper judgment now in terms of appointments and decision making, perhaps he can salvage it. I still stand by my prediction, he can be a good president, but that will be either because he abandons a lot of his campaign promises (becoming more centrists) or that he is so bad he will become a "good" precedent of a lot of future changes to prevent political extremism in the future. In my mind, if he can push for presidential election rule changes (or democratizing) and institute term limits on congress, it could really change my opinion.

p.s. I actually think that recent events have been good for the country, perhaps not Trump specifically. Not for our health exactly but if we survive this and learn from the mistakes, we can enhance the country's stability and success for the future.

Does Populism really mean what it is?

Tomorrow will be France's day to show the world how far the world has gone backwards or whether she will be another country to become a bastion of sanity. Things look OK going into tomorrow but like everything in life, never count the chickens until they hatch.

I am concerned by how this movement of violent attitudes towards other human beings is becoming more prevalent. Making things worse is the media's liberal use of the word "populism" on such trends. "Populism"...really?

From Google:

Yes, this is a simple meaning, "Support for the concerns of ordinary people". Or "the quality of appealing to or being aimed at ordinary people". Very simple explanations. So why am I baffled by the use of "populism" on candidates like Farage, Trump and Le Pen.

Now, it all goes down to math from here. What percentage of human beings in this world is considered ordinary? Or inversely, how many do you consider to be extraordinary?

We all like to think that we're extraordinary, but most of us aren't. We are more alike to one another than we think, but similarly, we are unique. OK, let's be less philosophical and more realistic. Let's use the 80-20 rule, just to be less populist and more realistic. Let's not use the 1% argument, because that is so cliche and make my arguments too easy.

Brexit vote, 73% turnout, 52% or 18m (both rounded up) out of 65m. Out of nearly 50m eligible to vote, only 18m wanted out. That's less than 40% of eligible voters and less than a third of UK's population. Why is the idea of UK leaving the EU a "populist" decision? What about the rest of the 15m that aren't eligible to vote?

While we're on topic, what does UK gain with the Brexit vote? Well, UKIP promised trillions, right? OK, I can't remember the exact number but I remembered it was all about money promised to them. Sure, the words used might be "jobs" but people who voted for it is just thinking about their wallets.

Sure, Cameron was ineffective but Brexit is pulling the rug from under the future citizens of UK because not only is it bad now and near future, the extra barriers it will create for itself and future citizens aren't going to be much better. All these for made up dollar amounts that probably will never be real? Seriously? Isn't removing Cameron easier? Or removing the major political parties and perhaps the age old bureaucracies that, at least to Brexit voters, think is "plaguing" the British Isles?

Next, closer to home, at least where I am right now, 2016 Presidential Elections. Trump got 63m votes (rounded up) to Clinton's 65m votes (rounded way down). Total turnout is 60%, 137m votes (both rounded up) out of 324m in USA. Less than a quarter of the country voted for the president we have now, whose rhetoric stirred up so much hateful speech during and after the elections, with concerted effort to introduce a new way of life called alternative facts.

The people who voted for him were promised jobs, tax cuts, improved economy and repeal of ObamaCare, otherwise known as Affordable Care Act, while we're in an improving economy no less. Sure, they will argue they aren't benefiting much, well, I've not benefited much, and that's not due to a lack of trying on my part, but that's no excuse to hate the system keeping 324m people alive.

He's not a scientist, he's not an industrialist, he is a media personality with riches handed to him from his ancestry. So why is he called a "populist"? For stirring up irrational fear and hatred for other human beings? In less than 25% of the country's population?

There are other reasons why Clinton lost, Democrat Party self imploding, irrational hatred for Obama, Clinton's arrogance and underestimation of her opponent, lack of traditional groundwork at key battlegrounds, James Comey and perhaps Russia. Whatever my beliefs are on the situation, she lost and 63m voters put Trump in the White House.

Then we have France. Well, we don't know what will happen since the underdog win by Trump emboldened every underdog and gave them hope against frontrunners. Personally, I like Macron, I have no comment on his skills and ability but I want to see how a young yet fairly experienced politician and professional will do for his country while hopefully listening to all of his people, not just his supporters. Of course, Macron could be bad but I can only fear the worst if Le Pen wins.

But I digress as usual.

France has a population of 65m in 2012, registered voters 46m, and assuming the crazy case of Le Pen winning by 51%, that would be at best 23m given France's current population of 66m using the same rate of participation. So Le Pen appealed to at best 23m of the population and is called a "populist"? Especially when she has no concrete plan for her promises to even those 23m? Much less any attempts to listen to the non-supporters. Are those citizens disavowed?

I mentioned how disappointed I was when I heard a French former soldier supporting Le Pen because he wanted to close the borders and spend more time "watching" citizens. Like martial law? And another supporter willing to give up 10% liberty to get more security? Seriously, why do they think math work on civil liberties?

Anyway, the numbers quoted above hopefully brings out my point. Why does less than 25% of the population make their politicians "populist"? Especially when they are just yelling their demands and trying to take away civil liberties of non-supporters? OK, the far left has not been kind either but their percentage is at best as similar to those on the far right.

That's what normal is supposed to be, where more than 50% of the people are agreeable to, not just about 25% of the people wants. Also, the 25% quoted above multiple times above is at best, because with the misinformation out there, some centrists are misguided into thinking "populists" work.

My view of populists need to (a) have support for more than 50% (b) listens to everybody and gets buy in from everybody, whether they support him/her or not and (c) no violent behavior tolerated. That might be my pacifist beliefs talking but we have to believe it can be done for it to be done. And the 50% threshold is really where I want to emphasize as being a "populist".

So journalists, real or not, please stop using the word "populist" and "populism" on people peddling fear, hatred and violence in order to get elected. They should be given a label suitable for their rhetoric. Like "hatredist" or "hatredism", because the people who peddle fear and hatred should be labeled for who they are, no matter how much they would deny it.

After all, we should not expect a lying, hate and fear peddling person to do any less hating and lying any time soon. So please France, do the right thing and not pick a fake populist, because their foreigner and minority hating tendencies can easily turn towards you when it suits her.

What will the sky look like in 2020?

While I have no say in the election, it is easy to be emotionally invested in this divisive.

Cooler heads in my office, though Democrats, are more focused on decisions made from now on rather than share the widespread fear shown on TV right now. Republicans, mostly, held the same "business as usual" attitude, opting to focus on the economic aspects that they voted for. Unfortunately, the appointments so far do not bode well. As one of my Democrat pals say, "Can you fault him for catering to his constituents?" Well, my answer was, "Not promising still."

But this normality is very different from what I read on internet and TV. Nobody who says anything on social media wants to listen, just yelling their point and assuming winning a yelling match is justice. That isn't just on social media. That happened during lunch at office one day this past week.

This person has always shown no respect for the civil rights of others even before the incident. The topic that tilted for the worst was on the security around the president-elect's proposed border wall. It is not unthinkable that it will not deter desperate people on trying to beat the system, trying to cross despite the way. What this extremist said was that border patrol should shoot them, even if they are women and children. To make matters worse, me particularly, this extremist tried to justify these comments by relating it to Singapore's use of caning for vandalism. I was so disturbed that other Republicans I know had to personally convey their denouncement to this insanity.

This is an extreme case of the current problem. The election result empowered people like this extremist to think they are right to ignore human rights. However, the left painting Republicans with the president-elect's rhetoric word for word is not leaving any room for reconciliation either. It is easy to say they are at least willing to overlook the hateful rhetoric, but rhetoric and action aren't the same thing. One causes fear and one causes actual hurt. Support can help ease fear but conviction is the only way to oppose bad intentions. And if they made good decisions, isn't that good? Isn't trying to smash our beliefs into others the same as bullying and propaganda? Funny how the SNL weekend update SNL said similar things (why not praise them to get them to do what you want?)

But I digress. The troubling part is not just the extreme nature, but knowledge that this person will not hear reason. Much like people drawing swastikas to show their unbridled hate. The same as those on the left swearing off people for exercising their right to vote and voting the president-elect into office. The same left blaming people voting third party candidates for the same right. The same attitude neutrals and right calling left leaning comedians smug and not admitting a single point they made. The willingness to ignore another's viewpoint completely, in my opinion, the first and defining step for them to ignore other people's lives. The hypocrisy not unnoticed by Jon Stewart and that is what is most disturbing to me. The world made better by science not having room for facts and ideas. And according to John Oliver, 38% of right leaning falsehoods and 19% of left leaning falsehoods. Just because one is lower doesn't mean it's better. Both sides are just as bad. Not that science is in good shape these days with corporate-funded scientific publications.

I see the current events as a testament of how the current democracy is working correctly, the checks and balances, though unfortunately all falling for the Republicans. An undesirable candidate voted in because he connected with an underserved constituency. A series of peaceful protests being allowed to voice their displeasure. Sure, the appointees do not look good social policy wise, but many are able to exercise their right to protest it. And when they get to work and try to pass laws we don't agree with, we need to continue to show our disapproval. If they do something good, we should praise them and if they are not, we should denounce them and voice our displeasure.

Solidarity and support for the underrepresented is far more important than trying to drill our egos and beliefs into another party. I feel the elected's remarks are obnoxious, but denying the result of the vote is undemocratic. Perhaps the worst we could do is to make for an unproductive four years because people are protesting so much, assuming for the right reasons and against bad legislation.

Interestingly, at this time, I am watching SNL, a few hours after watching Jon Stewart's interview. It seems that people are catching on, how this left against right is the true toxin and enabling the right to fight back more when the left complains, much like the robots in WestWorld resisting the humans' control. OK, perhaps that not like robots.

At this time, I feel better, though knowing the negatives happening outside, the appointments, the arguments to and fro, the alternatives, all are not well but we can do something, we still have our voice. Perhaps the president-elect will make bad decisions and will become the terrible leader we all predicted him to be. But if we break the rules that got him there in fear of him, we'll no better and we'll regret it. We should provide alternative ideas and advocate through identifying shortcomings.

It was wonderful to hear mayor de Blasio for keeping NYC a sanctuary city and hopefully others will follow suit. He's not doing well on the homeless problem but hopefully he can turn it around. And if anything I hope the president elect accomplishes, it would be term limits. The positives of term limits are there but so are the negatives, so hopefully a balance can be struck.

My biggest concern for his presidency, as big as the drastic negative effects he and his appointees can make and already pointed out by many others, would be his conflicts of interest. The reason behind this fear is that these conflicts of interest can and will be the undercurrents for all of his decision making, particularly the bad ones. The availability of a monetary incentive for a decision to be made other than it being the right thing is a mistake. That in itself is allowing a can of worms to exist. Having his daughter in the same meeting with Shinzo Abe is quite a preview to how these conflicts of interest can lead to, especially if they are discussing economic policies that can affect real estate.

Without severing his family from his business through a blind trust, major conflicts of interest is there. Not "there" as "valid points", but actual breaches of trust and office. None of his children and relatives should be in business while he is in office, Hopefully, we will not have to see massive protests to right the possibly many wrongs that can be made. That I'm just worried because I am over preparing. I can write a whole lot that could go wrong but I hope they will not come at all.

March into Twilight

I never geared up for this weekend. Little hope to see Everton win and be in the FA Cup Final. This is considering how bad United are compared to the many glorious seasons over the past few decades.

Then, before I went for my appointment, they scored. Everton players just doesn't seem to be close to making it a game. Some put in effort, but mostly fragmented during the first half.

I missed the second half, but came back in time to see the celebrations by the United fans, including the worst commentators at Fox, talking up a game they might have played but have no insights on.

The defeat was expected, and hope for a new manager had been the highlight for the last few games of the season. The thing is, nobody knows, since no one inside Everton will talk about it, and everyone outside Everton is just yelling their voice off.

It's silly to think that Moshiri has no clue and allow Kenwright to dictate his decisions. It is also naive to think that Moshiri will act on impetus like the fans. Whichever way he decides, it will be based upon his plan when he first bought into the club, revealing Kenwright's last struggles to dictate the club's future.

A new manager is preferred to be installed over the next week to give the new man time to assess the damage, ship out deadwood and wantaways, bring in reinforcements and whip some discipline into the frail minds of the current squad. Fitness too. But judging by the names being touted, Moyes seem the only man to take over right away, the worst of the many mentioned.

Should Moshiri not act immediately, what I fear, like many others, would be a complete loss of the dressing room. Most expensive option perhaps as the new man might find himself having to sell players that could otherwise be salvaged if discipline is put in place early. Yet, it would be a tough decision since few are available to come right away.

Koeman might be available given his team having little to fight for. Bielsa, sure, but his linking to us must surely be more of a rumor to begin with. Pellegrini, Wenger, LVG, AVB, Flores and De Boer are in the tail end of their fight for some glory. Klinsmann, Mourinho, Mancini, NO. Simeone and Emery are dreamland mentions. Other possibilities like Howe and Dyche will be risky plays, though it's not like we're in a much better position given our payroll and recent acquisitions.

Then there is the question of the caretaker while we wait for the new appointment. Most want the entire backroom gone, which I don't disagree, but I don't recall us having players on their way to coaching badges. One crazy idea I had when Bielsa was mentioned, appoint him and make it part of the deal that he train Gareth Barry for the future. Osman and Hibbert might disagree but Barry's impact on the field has been more renowned.

So, with all these questions floating around, is there an end in sight? Yes, firing Martinez is the first step, with the chaos in the backroom ensuing to create some noise until a new man is installed. And after that, things will look brighter, unless the new manager is an egghead like Martinez. Sure, it isn't 2001, but after Moyes' steadying era and the expenditure that has happened since, bottom half is not acceptable anymore. Moshiri should surely feel the same with his millions at stake.

The Dreaded Death March

Finally, another weekend of Premier League Football.

Predictably, another nail in the coffin for #FireMartinez.

I was disinterested in the game to begin with. That was furthered by the finding of how this lack of interest was shared by many other fans on ToffeeWeb. Not that I was surprised. I WAS surprised by the number of comments actually. Why would anyone bother with the predictable lack of indecision by #EFC? It was predictable, understandable, even feared to be the rot that had been allowed by BK all these years. Still, we will only know of the direction after the season ends.

My prediction was that we would lose ALL our remaining games. Arsenal and now Manchester United. 6 more to go. The only reason there should be a stay of execution will be because we're still in the FA Cup. As much as I want us to win the FA Cup, let's not ignore the disastrous league performance over the past 2 years and give the moron another game after our final FA Cup game.

While I'm unmoved by anything Everton right now, I am still watching the EPL for the below storylines:

• Leicester to win the league. Pretty much a certainty now barring a complete collapse unseen ever. If that happens, I would be more suspicious of corruption by the English FA more than anything else, perhaps bribery of match officials and club personnel.
• Norwich to survive despite veterans and name power in Sunderland and Newcastle. I picked them for the drop because of Big Sam being in Sunderland. 2 consecutive wins and a 4 point gap is a big deal. 1 more win and they are pretty much safe IMO.
• City to fall outside Top 4. This is more of a punt, but as many jokes are flying around that Pellegrini will sabotage Pep's arrival, I offer a bigger "middle finger goodbye" by Pellegrini. Win UCL and end up 5th. Sure, it might not screw Pep over (Oh, and what has he done since taking over Bayern's perfect season?) but it sure makes Pep's UCL magic less attractive. Also, it screws the English FA because they have to choose between 2 favorite sons. Man Utd will lose out most likely, but if City loses out, it would be the English FA that screwed Pep.
• How low can Palace drop? I picked them over West Ham to be 4th but clearly that jinxed their season. Pardew may not be sacked but something gotta give. They might even get relegated IF 2 of Sunderland/Newcastle/Norwich go on a winning spree. Unlikely but mathematically possible. This is way worse than what Everton is going through and only acceptable because of the lower benchmark set by Palace. Now, will the fans be happy with that?
• How much more embarrassment can #FireMartinez make out of our "Top 5 Team" #EFC? He's dead to me but apparently, many fans think BK wants to keep his "What A Manager" appointee. Mosh needs to act, but I can see the reason why not to act before our final FA Cup game, but the silence is killing fans. A word from Mosh to whip up the team before the end of the season would be good, ideally to spur them onto a cup win. THEN #FireMartinez.

My Mosh dream of Everton

Dear Mr Moshiri,

Firstly, can I call you Mosh? It sounds too cosy because I hate to be foreign to anyone I meet. Sure, I'm a recluse, but I'm not antisocial. Anyway, I digress, and I should perhaps start with my dream.

Like any fan, especially one who has been supporting the club for so decades (and no I'm not that old), I dream of my team winning the UCL, perhaps quintuple or six-tuple, or whatever insane number of cups a team can win in a year. A team of such stature who plays in quality stadium with an academy that churns out players that can challenge the best in Europe if not the world. Well, that is the dream of a fan.

It is this dream that sharply contrasts, if not contradicts, reality. At the risk of unsettling people, (e.g. manager and players, however much I doubt nor want it), the downtrend has gone on far too long.

First, our finances, being kept in the dark for so long, and despite your investment, shed little light towards where we're going. While we need to keep grandeur plans secret from being foiled by our opponents, this is a club that has been rudderless for at least 2 seasons now, after many more years limping along as clubs embraced the golden era of TV revenue.

To my knowledge, we don't own Goodison Park, nor Finch Farm. Yet we're building a stadium at Finch and tinkering with upgrading Goodison or move to an eternal new home. I'm for the new stadium idea by the way, and appreciate the community service we're doing by upgrading Finch.

But we need a plan, a plan that puts us on the map and not tenants that can be kicked out if we don't pay rent, not especially when TV revenues are through the roof. A plan where we know how much goes into the stadium and how much we can put into our team. Hopefully, when we have that plan, we can think about what we can do to improve our commercial value. (If you check, it is abysmal for a team that ranks top 10 for a good part of the past decade) Yes, run this team like a well run company, one that has good community links and works, but also efficient in the financial aspects.

Second, our team, to be exact, our manager. I'm going on a limp here and say, we're likely to score 60 and concede 55, perhaps ranking around 14th with 47 points. I will avoid talking about statistics (unless you requests for it) even though that's my day job and just say, that is abysmal. We've been top 10 for most years under Moyes and we're at least 5 positions off Martinez' best year 2 years in a row and still falling. While I don't want Moyes back, he scored less than 50 points just once, in his sophomore slump year in 2004. Sure, I can ignore the standings sometimes, but surely, being that close to relegation must be a concern. I can't imagine paying millions to buy 49.9% of a club that is trending downwards in the league.

I believe we need an overhaul on the playing side of things. Many of Martinez' fans will say, he bought well, attacked well, but success (as prescribed by the media and the business world) is a numbers game. Where we rank and how many titles we win matter.

We need to win titles to mark how far we've come, yes, but that should not be done by sacrificing our league performance. Money wise, losing 5 positions (assuming 9th to my predicted 14th) means 6 millions pounds. The FA Cup, from the mighty Google search, is about 2 million. And if I can be frank, a big IF we win. So there you have it, bad business sense in opting for cup over league.

I don't have many names to throw up, and if some optimistic fans are correct, you might already have your target. Sadly, I work with numbers which prevents me from being overly optimistic, however positive I truly am. Hence I'll throw 3 names to highlight the caliber of managers that we should be looking at that is worthy of your investment. Diego Simeone, Unai Emery and Thomas Tuchel. There are some local coaches you can go after, but someone could knock them due to their less than stellar performance with a club (e.g. Enrique Flores, Ronald Koeman). Older heads (e.g. Wenger, LVG, Hiidink) can help but personally, I think the next manager should be one that can lead your team for many years to come (at least a decade) so that you can set your mind on better things, like a new stadium or generating more marketing revenue. Ideally with a fiery passion for football and success.

Last but not least, the youth academy. This is listed last because it is the least of our problems. We have a good youth setup, and if history to go by, our scouting network is pretty good also. That should be enhanced by nailing down similar tenant issues like Finch Farm and having a great coach as our next manager. My dream setup would be one that both improves our youngsters on the field and off the field, like education to improve their lives regardless of their football career (e.g. Ajax, Santos from what I've read). Sure, I want us to have produce a player of Messi's level, but that is a lottery. Still, a good academy will produce good players and personality around the club, and score more social points with the global community.

That's my wishlist. I understand that it is your money and I hope my wishlist provides can generate ideas with great ROI for the club. I am currently not putting much effort into watching the mess under Martinez outside of the FA Cup (e.g. I switched off after West Ham scored their first in our 3-2 loss to them). You may find me more related to trending #EFC #FireMartinez than anything else.

The team needs you, an element of change, metaphorically and literally, since the board have not improved our financial odds even through this golden era of TV revenue. We survived, sure, but financially, we're not improved much beyond our stabilization years. I hope you're not another false dawn but I don't believe we need you to "give all you have". You saw a project, hopefully a long term one, one that I hope will bring glory days to the blue half of Merseyside.

In that, if you actually read all this to the end, thank you and good luck.

Dennis

Haters and Apologists (Everton)

I find this very interesting due to the topics I've been related to recently.

First Everton.
As of this writing, I do not know the result of the Spurs game yet, so might have more anger to give after that, but it does not change much of my view on the state of affairs at the club.

• Apologists' most common theme
• We're a small club
• BK has done well in preventing us from bankruptcy
• RM needs time for his tactics to gel and get better players than the crap we have
• Players (particularly Howard) is letting the team down
• We only need the right money so get lost John Moore
• Haters' (not that they hate anyone or anything) common theme
• We have increased TV money, so we should be able to compete
• Where's the money BK?
• RM outspent Moyes already and keeps playing the same failing gameplan and players
• Players might be crap but the boss doesn't drop them
• Any change is better than what it is now

Generally, the true answer is neither, a good mix of the two but not veering into each pole. Yet, irrespective of the attackers or defenders, the screamers seemed to miss the point.

• Fact is we did better than expected during the hard schedule and poorer in the easy schedule
• We are insanely good in short bursts of linkup play
• We defend well for good parts of the game, evident since we're not losing every game by 10-5
• Some players are off form, but for unknown reasons, RM still plays them
• RM has not outgrown his naivety from year 1, which shows a lack in caliber for the position Everton was in when he took over
• Up until recently, RM has not taken responsibility of the failures, which recently changed because he admitted liability in an interview

That last point is good progress in some ways. You want your leader to know how to lead, including owning up to mistakes. We no longer live in feudal times where the leader is always right.

Yet, circumstance is pretty dire. Lose to Spurs and we might be in a death spiral. If Moore refuses to move forward and drive other interested parties forward, we might be seen as a collapsing star. Add that to debts and not owning our own stadium or training ground and we could become a homeless team should we stop winning.

Still, it is merely a winning streak away from being righted. A few wins and things are forgotten?

No, as the haters and apologists fail to come to terms with the middle ground.

To stabilize, we need to win.

To improve, we need to win beautifully.

To attract advertising and investment, we need to win titles.

To win games, we need to defend well.

To win games beautifully, we need to attack well. 

To win titles, we need to be good at both attacking and defending.

It might all seem that simple, but everyone who is arguing are always arguing over one aspect of the game rather than the big picture. They would say they are looking at the big picture, but here's the key that is always missed. TIMING!

The great disappointment that is now is due to the failed run that should have placed us in Top 4. I actually foresaw the banana slip early when RM repeated what I said in how important the last 12 games is. Yes, seeing the timing is sometimes easier than just executing!

Now, the tricky part is, while all seemed lost, all is not lost, yet. Win the next 5 and things can go on as is again. Of course, people will be saying "Are you crazy? You can't even beat Bournemouth." As of today, Leicester couldn't too, so minor slipups can be forgiven if we can get back on track quickly. Well, let's make it simpler. It's the Carling Cup or nothing. 

The lack of proper player rotation. The disarray of the defence during tight games. The lack of ideas when opposition parks the bus. All these can be corrected with fans forgiving you if you shell out a decent run over the next few games and a Cup in return.

But can you do it? RM, can you ignore the haters and not hide behind the apologists (which you absorbed blame for the first time, commnedable, but rather late) and make changes? Or are you just too stubborn to learn how to get out of the vicious cycle that you created?

I love Everton, since I was 10, in a country that doesn't even allow you to like Everton (Try having people sing YNWA despite the national anthem). Now don't screw up the club I love. Show it in the next 5 games that you have the necessary tools to make things right. If you fail, I don't blame you if you can at least put things in place for the next manager to take over. And that might jolly well start with a defensive assistant coach, get some other wins and get us through the Moore's takeover!