English FA Premiership: The chairman was not applauding for the cameras. Everton had just followed failure in the Champions League qualifiers with a 5-2 aggregate defeat by Dinamo Bucharest in the first round of the Uefa Cup, yet Bill Kenwright meant every clap of his hands.
On Thursday night the side had at least beaten the Romanians 1-0 at Goodison and the return of zealous competence was worth some approval.
These, of course, are scaled-down pleasures. It feels like a long time since Everton felt a sweeping joy at seizing fourth place in the Premiership and anything short of defeat at Manchester City tomorrow would make the players glow. They are currently bottom of the table having scored a single goal.
With tedious predictability, foolish doubts have been raised about David Moyes' job security. The vote of confidence in the manager, however, was no dutiful ritual and the chief executive spoke out in exasperation. "We have enjoyed our greatest period of success for over 15 years with David Moyes," said Keith Wyness. "I'm angered by the short-term approach. It seems to be the new disease in football."
Moyes set himself up for blame by doing much too well. He will have already learned it is only the wealthier clubs who can settle near the Premiership peak. Everyone else is soon evicted and Moyes may well have been steeling himself for the present difficulties. He got Everton to seventh place in 2003 but his team wound up 17th a year later.
There is not so much a glass ceiling in the Premiership as a rubber one. Many clubs who leap high rebound hard. In particular, the heart-warming tale of Ipswich Town soon turned into a spine-chiller. The remarkable Moyes has been named manager of the year twice in his three full seasons at Goodison but he realises, too, what happened to George Burley after he received that honour in 2001 for finishing a stratospheric fifth with his newly-promoted side. He was sacked in October the following year, by which time Ipswich had been relegated and were on course for temporary administration.
The Ipswich chairman, David Sheepshanks, has a great regard for Everton, believing Moyes will establish them in mid-table this season. "There is a difference," he said, "because they have had sustained membership of the Premiership while we had just got there."
He also realises how risky a heady, unexpected achievement can be. "We hadn't experienced European football for a long time," he said, "and it had a dramatic effect on us. We lasted for three rounds of the Uefa Cup when we couldn't win a game in the league. Perhaps if we had carried that into the Premiership we would not have been relegated."
Having qualified for Europe, though, the club had little option but to take the hazardous step of altering the way they operated. "The consequences were disproportionate for any mistakes we made," said Sheepshanks. "It is a symptom of the unfair distribution of income in football. We had exceeded our wildest expectations by coming fifth . . . In the same situation I would still support the manager's judgment we needed to add to the squad. Had the foreign signings fitted in as well as all of George's previous buys we would have been fine."
Ipswich were concentrating on a different and complex area of the transfer market. No names cross Sheepshanks's lips but fans still speak of the goalkeeper, Matteo Sereni, who floundered, and of Finidi George, who barely made a contribution at all. "Some didn't fit into our culture," said Sheepshanks.
Everton have had a cosmopolitan character for quite a while and the tapering off in results last season is regularly linked with the sale of Thomas Gravesen in January, but Moyes labours at a club of moderate prestige where he cannot make the sure-fire signings available to elite managers.
It is not a matter of money alone, because Everton have spent all they received for Wayne Rooney, but no one can be certain of exactly what they have bought. James Beattie has been hurt or disappointing; Nuno Valente and Matteo Ferrari are settling in; the injured Per Kroldrup and Andy van der Meyde have yet to make their debuts.
Barry Horne scored one of the goals against Wimbledon that kept Everton up in 1994 and a year later was part of the "dogs of war" midfield that sank its teeth into Manchester United in the FA Cup final, giving the club its most recent honour. He does not see needless disruption in Moyes' remoulding of the squad.
"It's very rare," said Horne, "that you can avoid bringing in new players anyway because there's a natural wastage every season. You can't stand still. There isn't any drawback so long as the person who comes in is better than the last player."
Horne is sure clubs in Everton's situation will tend to lack the funds to follow one fine season with another. "It can be a problem when you overachieve. There's no consistency because you don't have the depth in the squad. You would expect Everton to be mid-table now but with the lack of resources and a little bit of bad luck you can fall a long way."
The perils do not, for the time being, look all that great. When Ipswich went down, the old First Division they were rejoining was being devastated by ITV Digital's collapse. "There was mass panic among the banks and in the boardrooms," says Sheepshanks.
Listening to him, life at Everton, who need only a win or two, appears almost idyllic.
Guardian Service
