THE BUBBLES BURST<\/p>\n
After spending the best part of 30 years letting their own fans down, Everton chose Sunday afternoon to disappoint fans of almost every other Premier League team. David Moyes had one big chance to end a season that promised so much but ultimately fizzled out into nothingness on a high! Instead, while Leeds were holding up their end of the quid pro quo by letting West Ham steamroller them<\/a> in east London, the scouse spoilsports couldn\u2019t even manage a shot on target at Tottenham until the ninth minute of added time. Indeed, even if Tyrique George\u2019s late drive hadn\u2019t been saved by redemption\u2019s Antonin Kinsky, it wouldn\u2019t have counted for anything, because Jo\u00e3o Palhinha had already given Spurs a one-goal lead. And that was that<\/a>. Spurs are safe and, after Hearts not winning the Scottish Premiership and Arsenal not bottling the title race, it was further evidence to suggest that many people with skin in the beautiful game are simply not allowed to have nice things.<\/p>\n Having successfully completed the mission he was drafted in to do seven games ago, Roberto De Zerbi immediately singled out a particular hack on the Tottenham beat he felt had not been positive enough about the prospect of writing up player ratings after Championship defeats at the hands of Lincoln City and Stoke next season. \u201cWhere is he?\u201d he enquired. \u201cThe one who is always there at the Tottenham training ground. He was negative and I\u2019m positive. But I want to hug him, not to fight. I have no energy to fight anymore.\u201d A summer truce duly brokered, De Zerbi went on to say that Sunday\u2019s win was far more important<\/a> than last season\u2019s Bigger Vase victory over Manchester United. That it was just as unpleasant to watch was neither here nor there, given survival was achieved. \u201cI think we deserve to stay up, because we made 11 points in seven games and we deserved more,\u201d honked the Italian. \u201cFrom tonight, we have to start to organise and to build the new team.\u201d<\/p>\n Happier times in north London. Photograph: Dylan Martinez\/Reuters<\/p>\n Having gone down with Burnley and Wolves, West Ham must also start to organise and build a new team. It is one that may or may not be coached by Nuno Esp\u00edrito Santo, who remains in place for now but was summoned for a meeting with his employers on Monday; the board is said to be split<\/a> on whether it wants the Portuguese to continue. It is also a team which is likely to be shorn of Jarrod Bowen, its standout player and any high-earning low achievers with delusions of grandeur they can fob off on other clubs in a bid to recoup some of the \u00a3105m of Declan Rice money (and the rest) they blew and are still paying out to assorted other clubs in annual instalments.<\/p>\n While the fortunes shelled out on your Kilmans, your Pablos and your Todibos may have proved a total waste of money, a lot of it still has to be paid. \u201cWest Ham spent a lot of money in the transfer market and they owed \u00a3196m in unpaid transfer fees at the end of 2025,\u201d explained Football Daily\u2019s favourite Brighton-supporting accountant and football finance expert Kieran Maguire on TalkSport earlier. \u201cThose instalments have to be paid on a year-by-year basis and you do wonder where the cash is to pay them over the next 12 months.\u201d One can only imagine how tight things will be the following year if they follow Luton and Leicester\u2019s paths down to League One.<\/p>\n QUOTE OF THE DAY<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t look at where players come from or their background. What matters are Spanish players who are proud to represent their country\u2019s national team and to be part of a united nation\u201d \u2013 Spain boss Luis de la Fuente there, confirming that the total of Real Madrid players in his Geopolitics World Cup squad is: 0<\/a>.<\/p>\n Luis at his squad unveiling. We thought that tasty cerveza was among it. Photograph: Dennis Agyeman\/AFP7\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n double quotation markBefore the season started I had a letter published which gently (?) mocked Granit Xhaka for joining Sunderland. Their (and his) spectacular season has proved me entirely wrong. If the prize for today\u2019s letter o\u2019 the day is a portion of humble pie then I think I should win it \u2013 and make it a large one\u201d \u2013 Phil Taverner.<\/p>\n double quotation markI\u2019ve only followed the Premier League closely since Mo Salah joined Liverpool (could there be a link there?) and, from my distant vantage point of a TV screen thousands of miles away, it seemed at times that many people cared more about outrageous financial sins, outrageous pundit comments and outrageous refereeing than the actual football. But then my family gifted me a trip to the UK for my 70th, including tickets to the Mecca (Anfield). First came a visit to London Stadium to witness West Ham\u2019s stoppage-time goal against Everton and maybe stay up. Oh. But being there to be part of the fans\u2019 moment of joy was memorable. And a week later, singing YNWA at Anfield. That was enough to make up for the sleepwalk against Chelsea \u2013 at the end, the booing was clearly out of love for the team, not nastiness. To those of you who are there for every match, even in the rain and cold, yes, I\u2019m jealous, but mostly I want to thank you for making football what it is, and for trying to fight the $$$ control despite the odds\u201d \u2013 Steve Plever, North Carolina, USA (ugh) USA (ugh) USA (ugh).<\/p>\n If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com<\/a>. Today\u2019s prizeless letter o\u2019 the day is \u2026 Steve Plever. Consider this your punishment, Phil. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here<\/a>.<\/p>\n RECOMMENDED LISTENING<\/p>\n Get your ears around the latest episode of Football Weekly<\/a>, as pod squad Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning, George Elek and Ali Maxwell deliver an EFL playoffs special, diving on the Wembley wins for Hull City, Bolton Wanderers and Notts County. Women\u2019s Football Weekly<\/a> is also live, with Faye Carruthers joined by Sophie Downey, Emma Sanders and Ayisha Gulati to reflect on Bunny Shaw\u2019s shock U-turn<\/a> and Barcelona\u2019s dominant Bigger Cup final victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE BUBBLES BURST After spending the best part of 30 years letting their own fans down, Everton chose…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-696044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}