A view on Chang.

Chang Beer.

I've just noticed this Chang hunt on NSNO. A very good idea! I must track some down. Along with 'Timothy Taylors Landlord' and 'Cains FA,' I'd like to make it one of my Christmas in-house beers.

The eye of the beholder.

My views on Chang have been set down here many times [I love it]. Budvar-like [the Czech one], for me it towers above all of the mass-consumed lagers in that it has sufficient flavour to stand up to being served lukewarm. It may be because I am a real ale drinker and like my ale not to moisten the outside of the glass, that it tastes great to me. If you're like me and normally like real live bitter, I recommend that you should try a warm Chang soon. If you are a traditional lager drinker, I'm sure you'd like it cold, but you may be disappointed by the temperature of the product in the Ground, if you order it too close kick-off and get a batch that hasn't been cooled.

I'll henceforth be monitoring Chang Hunt with interest.

The Villans [Aston Villa].

Have you ever thought that Lee Hendrie looks like he could be Robbie Williams' little brother?




Some preview links for the imaginatively nicknamed Aston Villa ['The Villans']. On the plus side for Villa, they're one of a very small band of truly great clubs that we can't rightly sing, 'Who the f----ng hell are you?' to:

B-b-b-b-b-uuuuuur-ming-ham

Finally, love him or loath him, he's had a great season and we'd miss him if he went. Good to see some positive smoke billowing about one half of Jordan's melons uncovered.

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Sticky post
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colin.wilkes@gmail.com

I’d be grateful if the webmasters of all Everton Fans’ sites would consider copying and pasting this open letter, to Evertonians, from Colin Wilkes. Feel free to publish it to your pages if you wish. No need to refer to the EvertonBlog if you don’t want to, although a Colin Wilkes ref. [incl. his e-mail address] would, I suggest, be in order. I [and Colin, no doubt] would like as many Evertonians as possible, to read this.

---------------------

THE PEOPLES CLUB - POWER TO THE PEOPLE

Upon first hearing David Moyes saying those now immortal words "This is the People's Club," I thought, ‘you'll do for me Ginge.’

Some two and a half years on I still wonder what was that he really meant. Was there some deep hidden meaning in what he had said? Did he see things as I did? Was he preparing himself and us for a football political battleground? Or is he just another dilettante. Or was the fact he wanted acceptance immediately. Like I said, you'll do for me Ginge.

For my part any notion of "a" or "the" Peoples Club implies; of the people, by the people, for the people. This in turn gives cognisance to the notion of people power. And as in this context "people" are the "supporters" of the club it therefore follows that people power is supporter power. This is then just basic logic a=b, b=c therefore c=a.

Events throughout the summer, all well documented and still there for your perusal can be found on the Toffeeweb or Toffeeblog, highlighted the fact that supporters of EFC have no collective power whatsoever. The only individual power they have, which some chose to exercise, was to withhold their monies from renewing their season tickets and not to attend matches. Yes I know there was one abortive attempt at collective action but once outside there you stay.

It is my belief we have reached the crossroads. The question now is do you the supporters of "The Peoples Club" really want to have collective power and hopefully all that that may bring. The transparency, a removal of the lack of trust, an option to buy into the club via a supporters share scheme and supporter share holder directors. A voice that will be taken into account on the issue of old ground, new ground, shared ground, the pricing of admission. To take a stance and have any payment to agents be made solely by the player and not the club. There are a host of other issues that I am sure you can all add to this list and for me there is nothing mutually inclusive or exclusive everything is open for discussion and debate.

However the overriding factor here is not we the supporters can get out of this for our collective good. Rather it is what we can put into the club for the for its growth, development and the fulfilment to move the greatest club the world has ever seen back to the pinnacle of English football and then onto Europe.

In 1995 the Labour Party published its document Charter for Football three of its key points stated:
(1) Local "core" support being Priced out of the game"; proposed investigation into more equitable pricing policies
(2) Fans views "should be accorded greater weight within the running of the game"
(3) Labour will undertake "to ensure that the views of the fans are listened to in all aspects of the game"

In the year 2000 the government, following on from the 1999 Football Task Force Report on Investing in the Community, established and funded Supporters Direct. This organisation offers funding support and guidance to fans who want to take a more direct involvement in the running of their clubs by setting up community focused mutual organisations. Having a set of principles similar to those of the CO-OP Society these organisations are run as an Industrial Provident Society (IPS).

As of September 2004, 117 football clubs in England, Wales and Scotland have active running Supporters Trusts set up with initial help from Supporters Direct. Whilst most of these are clubs in the lower divisions and who have faced near financial catastrophe the wealthiest of the English clubs Man ure has its own Supporters Trust. Other Premiership clubs include Arsenal, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, Fulham, Middlesbrough, Norwich City, Tottenham Hotspur and West Bromwich Albion.

This is not the only route to take if we want a say in our club. There is the notion of Football Club Councils. To my mind these are just talking shops for paper tigers and should be sent to the dustbin of history or room 101.

My purpose in writing this piece is to:
(a) Stimulate some debate on the democratisation of EFC.
(b) Outline one of the possible routes to achieve democratisation.
(c) Receive some feedback on the subject of democratisation.
(d) Discover if there is a real interest in the democratisation process.

Whatever your thoughts on the subject maybe, please do not lose sight of the omnipotence of what underpins my writing. To paraphrase John F Kennedy "don’t ask what the club can do for you but rather what can you do for the club".

Individuals will come and go but EFC will carry on. The time is now right to move the club and supporters on to its and their rightful place at the top of the football world. This however will only be achieved collectively and in harmony.

Perhaps if you have a printer you could print a few copies of this piece and pass them on to your friends who do not have access to a computer and/or the net.

Many thanks
Colin Wilkes

For those wishing to do some follow up research try the following as a start:
http://www.supporters-direct.org/
Download the handbook in pdf format

http://www.le.ac.uk/fo/
Look for Fact Sheet 7: Fan 'Power' and Democracy in Football

http://www.co-op.co.uk/
Look for The ICA Statement on the Co-operative Identity

colin.wilkes@gmail.com

Betting v Aston Villa

Everton v Aston Villa betting.

P2P betting exchange, Betfair, has the following markets on offer:

Asian Handicap
Correct Score
First Goal Odds
First Goalscorer
Half Time
Half Time/Full time
Match Odds
Next Goal
Odd or Even
Over/Under 2.5 goals
Total Goals

Concentrating on match betting:

Everton: Back at 2.26, Lay at 2.28

Aston Villa: Back at 3.75, Lay at 3.85

The Draw: Back at 3.3, Lay at 3.35

To win the League:

Everton: Back at 400, Lay at 420

Aston Villa Back at 1000, Lay at [no price offered].

William Hill trumpeted 200/1 for Everton to win the League! Compare this with the Betfair price of 400 and you see why people are deserting the high street bookmakers in their droves, in order to get vfm. Also, just try and get a particular price advertised by one of the 'big bookmakers,' to be actually honoured in-shop! In my experience, you [virtually always] only have a snowball's chance in hell of getting the price advertised, for a decent stake. I have had a long and eventful betting career and I have grown sick to the back teeth of the antics of certain high street bookmakers. Long live the betting exchanges.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow and Aston Villa info.

Thoroughly enjoyed last night's win over PNE. A heavily populated Goodison was treated to a fairly mundane 1st half and a quite exciting 2nd half, resulting in a deserved 2:0 win of Moyes' old friends.

Preston brought a huge number of fans and virtually filled the Bullens stand.

'Where's your Rooney gone?' was rebuffed with a mix of 'Where's your Moyesy gone?' and The '...red hair but we dont care,' chants. Infantile, but nonetheless quite funny to my ears, especially after a couple of wonderful '660 Changs.' Why the hell haven't Chang flooded Kwik Save etc with this beer? It would make sense to make the product ubiquitous in an area, when you're bothering to sponsor the local club.

Last night was particularly enjoyable for the kids in our party, I had the pleasure of taking my own lad to watch the Blues and witness the first game for a young lad from my brother's side of the family. My first match was a night game and I have forever since been of the opinion that it's the best way to see them for the first time. There's nothing quite like your first glimpse of the pitch and initial sighting of the Blues, in the floodlit ground. It should be noted that 2 of our party last night, are of mixed-race [Afro-Caribbean and white] and they not only enjoyed themselves immensely, but also [obviously to my eyes and ears] felt very welcome and fully 'accepted,' great!

Oh, and it's Arsenal next...

I've trawled for some 'aftermath' links: here, here and here.

Turning to the next match. Villa are coming on Saturday and it may well be a sell out. Half price tickets were had by some, remember that this was the game that Everton offered the 'bring a mate' discount. Villa will be without Darius Vassell and [I have just learned] Samuel or not. Hopefully their confidence has taken a knock after a drubbing by their claret and blue spit-ringer's, Burnley, in the Carling Cup.

The usual prediction poll is on the right hand side of this page.

Match betting and more preview articles will be posted here tonight.

Check the link for a view on the Blues' worst 11, according to Bluekipper.

The more things change...

Notice the incorrect headline in this link. At the time of posting, it was: Everton 0:2 Preston!

Don't 'keep the faith,' share it.

Share and share alike.

Moyes: "It is important to share the goals around the team.

"You want your strikers to be getting the goals, but if you are sharing them around the side that will do fine.

"It is good for all the players to feel good about scoring goals and feel as if they are capable of scoring goals."

Full article.

Club's stats on the Beeb.

Ups and downs of the ins and outs.

Saha.

Saha doesn't feature in the poll re: the next striker, if you'd like to see him as the main January arrival, you can vote for the other' option.

Bent on Grav.

Bent is speaking out via the media, hoping that Grav. will opt to stick around when decision time arrives.

Crewe and England U21 striker, Dean Ashton.

A fella on a Barnes coach to Norwich, claiming to be 'Dean Ashton's cousin,' claimed throughout the journey, there and back again, that Ashton has already agreed to join us in January.

Ball-breakers.

We're showing little inclination to help 'Gers out of a hole. You'd think that after we got Walter Smith from them, that we'd be only too happy to 'assume the crab position,' by way of thanks, over the Ball imbroglio.

Ebay watch.

Notts. Forest have been put up for sale on Ebay.

Next match: Preston [Carling Cup].

Previews: here, here and here.

The usual Prediction Poll is on the right hand side of this site.

Current 'Top 100' players in the Premier League

This makes interesting reading. Notice how much better our chaps are rated, when compared with those from the shyte.

------------------
Sticky post
------------------

colin.wilkes@gmail.com

I’d be grateful if the webmasters of all Everton Fans’ sites would consider copying and pasting this open letter, to Evertonians, from Colin Wilkes. Feel free to publish it to your pages if you wish. No need to refer to the EvertonBlog if you don’t want to, although a Colin Wilkes ref. [incl. his e-mail address] would, I suggest, be in order. I [and Colin, no doubt] would like as many Evertonians as possible, to read this.

---------------------

THE PEOPLES CLUB - POWER TO THE PEOPLE

Upon first hearing David Moyes saying those now immortal words "This is the People's Club," I thought, ‘you'll do for me Ginge.’

Some two and a half years on I still wonder what was that he really meant. Was there some deep hidden meaning in what he had said? Did he see things as I did? Was he preparing himself and us for a football political battleground? Or is he just another dilettante. Or was the fact he wanted acceptance immediately. Like I said, you'll do for me Ginge.

For my part any notion of "a" or "the" Peoples Club implies; of the people, by the people, for the people. This in turn gives cognisance to the notion of people power. And as in this context "people" are the "supporters" of the club it therefore follows that people power is supporter power. This is then just basic logic a=b, b=c therefore c=a.

Events throughout the summer, all well documented and still there for your perusal can be found on the Toffeeweb or Toffeeblog, highlighted the fact that supporters of EFC have no collective power whatsoever. The only individual power they have, which some chose to exercise, was to withhold their monies from renewing their season tickets and not to attend matches. Yes I know there was one abortive attempt at collective action but once outside there you stay.

It is my belief we have reached the crossroads. The question now is do you the supporters of "The Peoples Club" really want to have collective power and hopefully all that that may bring. The transparency, a removal of the lack of trust, an option to buy into the club via a supporters share scheme and supporter share holder directors. A voice that will be taken into account on the issue of old ground, new ground, shared ground, the pricing of admission. To take a stance and have any payment to agents be made solely by the player and not the club. There are a host of other issues that I am sure you can all add to this list and for me there is nothing mutually inclusive or exclusive everything is open for discussion and debate.

However the overriding factor here is not we the supporters can get out of this for our collective good. Rather it is what we can put into the club for the for its growth, development and the fulfilment to move the greatest club the world has ever seen back to the pinnacle of English football and then onto Europe.

In 1995 the Labour Party published its document Charter for Football three of its key points stated:
(1) Local "core" support being Priced out of the game"; proposed investigation into more equitable pricing policies
(2) Fans views "should be accorded greater weight within the running of the game"
(3) Labour will undertake "to ensure that the views of the fans are listened to in all aspects of the game"

In the year 2000 the government, following on from the 1999 Football Task Force Report on Investing in the Community, established and funded Supporters Direct. This organisation offers funding support and guidance to fans who want to take a more direct involvement in the running of their clubs by setting up community focused mutual organisations. Having a set of principles similar to those of the CO-OP Society these organisations are run as an Industrial Provident Society (IPS).

As of September 2004, 117 football clubs in England, Wales and Scotland have active running Supporters Trusts set up with initial help from Supporters Direct. Whilst most of these are clubs in the lower divisions and who have faced near financial catastrophe the wealthiest of the English clubs Man ure has its own Supporters Trust. Other Premiership clubs include Arsenal, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, Fulham, Middlesbrough, Norwich City, Tottenham Hotspur and West Bromwich Albion.

This is not the only route to take if we want a say in our club. There is the notion of Football Club Councils. To my mind these are just talking shops for paper tigers and should be sent to the dustbin of history or room 101.

My purpose in writing this piece is to:
(a) Stimulate some debate on the democratisation of EFC.
(b) Outline one of the possible routes to achieve democratisation.
(c) Receive some feedback on the subject of democratisation.
(d) Discover if there is a real interest in the democratisation process.

Whatever your thoughts on the subject maybe, please do not lose sight of the omnipotence of what underpins my writing. To paraphrase John F Kennedy "don’t ask what the club can do for you but rather what can you do for the club".

Individuals will come and go but EFC will carry on. The time is now right to move the club and supporters on to its and their rightful place at the top of the football world. This however will only be achieved collectively and in harmony.

Perhaps if you have a printer you could print a few copies of this piece and pass them on to your friends who do not have access to a computer and/or the net.

Many thanks
Colin Wilkes

For those wishing to do some follow up research try the following as a start:
http://www.supporters-direct.org/
Download the handbook in pdf format

http://www.le.ac.uk/fo/
Look for Fact Sheet 7: Fan 'Power' and Democracy in Football

http://www.co-op.co.uk/
Look for The ICA Statement on the Co-operative Identity

colin.wilkes@gmail.com