Comment: The week in review

Last updated : 02 January 2003 By Sean Graham

Everton will end the year up amongst the big boys sitting in fifth place in the Premiership as we are about to leave 2002 to enter 2003,not bad for a team that would normally be fighting relegation around this time every year!

It is a vast improvement from the Everton sides of old and signs that the club are going in the right direction under David Moyes and his backroom team.

In days of old we would have been happy collecting three points from three matches but not any more. In the Liverpool match, ok it might have seemed like a fare result but a lick of paint on the crossbar saved Liverpool in that match from going behind to a well struck Wayne Rooney shot, it also saved the bookmakers paying out to one flustrated Evertonian from Glasgow for a correct score and scorer double around 50/1 was the odds available for that one!

Much has been said and written about that match and the tackle by Steven Gerrard on Gary Naysmith all I will say is it was a bad one and the tackle that Wayne was sent off for in the following match was no worse than that but yet he was red carded and was the victim of all sorts of abuse from the media. No wonder that David Moyes has been trying to shield Wayne from such exposure, they have built this kid up and now are trying to break him by writing all sorts of trash, Wayne ignore what you read in the papers, good or bad and just listen to your Manager he knows what he's talking about and he and everyone at Everton Football Club have your best interest at heart!

So after those two matches v Liverpool 0-0 and Birmingham 1-1 we headed back to Goodison for the match against Bolton. I watched it on the Premiership and could not believe how we did not win. Young Wayne was brilliant and almost won the match for Everton on his own. It seemed like he was like a man on a mission, unfortunately again the crossbar denied the youngster, he did everything but score in this match he was great, once Wayne gets one I am sure that the goals will come flooding.

With all the striking problems we have at the moment I wonder will David Moyes dip into the transfer market when the window opens again in January? We have Kevin Campbell now added to the injury list alongside Big Dunc and Nick Chadwick leaving only Tomasz Radzinski and Wayne Rooney as our forward line. Remembering that young Wayne has to miss matches also after receiving his red card v Birmingham it is leaving the club well short on the striking front so maybe now is the time for the boss to bring in some new faces to help with our push for Europe and silverware.

I know that the club have been linked with moves for Ibrahim Said and Colin Healy and these guys would be welcomed at the club but what about young James McFadden at Motherwell or someone maybe in Europe to help our younger guys at the club, I will leave it up to the Boss he knows best.

Now before I go I would just like to say thanks to my mates Andrew, Tommy S, Tommy B for the time they spent with me up in Scotland before Christmas. We had a great time and a good chat about all things Blue...it was very enjoyable to say the least. Also Thanks to them for the gift for Catherine and my Everton goodies they were all very much appreciated!

I would just like to wish all Evertonians all the very best for 2003 lets hope we have only good times ahead!

And to our two Chinese players, Li Tie and Li Wei Feng and all our followers in China I would just like to say, "Kung Hei Fat Choy"!