Too long has Mr Green been able to spout off about a sport which he likes to think he knows a lot about, when in fact he proves again and again that he knows next to nothing about it.

Let us take each point as he writes it.

He writes “... principally [Everton finished 4th] due to a wretched season from Liverpool....”

Firstly, Liverpool’s dire domestic form cannot be attributed to Everton’s good form, and the opposite also applies. Secondly, there were 15 teams below Liverpool all fighting for as high a position as possible.

The way Mr Green perceives things, there were only five teams in the Premiership last season!

An elitist view that could only come from a fan of one of the big clubs.

He then gives a bit of medical advice to David Moyes, advising a trip to the doctor for saying “our target is to finish higher than last season.”

What should his target be then? To finish lower? Relegation perhaps? Targets are what they are Mr Green, whether realistic or not. If I finish second in a race (for example), my target in the next would be to finish first, not third as your logic would have it.

This was one of the most comical pieces of journalism I have read in ages. Thanks for the laugh by the way.

Mr Green then proceeds in the next paragraph to slate the advertisement for ‘Everton in Europe’ t-shirts, as if trying to sell club merchandise on the back of what is, let’s face it, a two-legged tie, is somehow a rip-off!

2-1 is not an insurmountable deficit in Europe as many teams have found to their cost.

Also, this coming from a supporter of a club who have purchased an Asian player purely to cash in on shirt-sales in his home country, despite lame protestations to the contrary, smacks of hypocrisy.

But this is where Mr Green shows a clear lack of football knowledge - the new Everton signings, in particular Per Kroldrup of whom Mr Green says ‘...a defender I hadn’t heard of...’. Now why does that not surprise me? Kroldrup is a cultured centre-back who was a fixture in a Udinese side which finished 4th in Serie A last season. He is also a permanent fixture in defence for Denmark and played in the European championships last summer. I guess football outside the Premiership is just not worth the bother to Mr Green.

As for Davies & Neville, the former is a classic winger who Spurs may yet regret allowing to leave and the latter is a seriously underrated utility player who filled in admirably in any position asked of him, and showed real professionalism in all his time at Manchester Utd, despite knowing a) he was never going to hold down a regular first team place and b) he is a better player than both O’Shea and Silvestre.

Furthermore, using the talks that broke down between Bellamy and Moyes is a bit underhand, when nobody but them knows what was said. Personally, I reckon the talks went something like this:

Moyes: “Craig, if you step out of line here I’ll drop you and fine you.”

Craig: “Righto, I’m off.”

Everton are better off without Bellamy anyway.

Finally, Mr Green patronises cheaply when he writes: “...[Everton] were so dazzled by the headlights they failed to comprehend they hadn’t actually qualified for the Champions league, only for a qualifying round.”

Am I missing something here? How well would his beloved Utd fare against Villereal instead of a distinctly poor Hungarian side (albeit a side that won it’s domestic league last season)? I leave that one open to debate.

Also, may I say that I have no great love for Everton, being a Tranmere supporter who has watched them poach many of our talented players (yes, we’ve had a few) down through the years, but I felt this piece warranted a balanced response.

Patrick Shanahan,
17 O’Sullivan’s Place,
Mallow,
Co Cork