Opening day win can ease Everton fears

That's Howard in goal; Jagielka, Yobo, Lescott and Valente at the back; Arteta, Neville, Rodwell and Baines forming a highly makeshift midfield unit, and Leon Osman playing off Yakubu up front.

Of course you can swop Jagielka and Neville around, or mix and match maybe Jose Baxter for Jack Rodwell, but the fact remains there are no other senior players to select from.

In an age when football is supposed to be more of a squad game than ever, Everton's has been decimated.

But if that starting line-up sends a shiver of apprehension down your spine at a time of the season when you're supposed to be gripped by optimism, try and name a substitutes' bench.

The Premier League, in its infinite wisdom, has allowed clubs to select seven substitutes this season.

Everton will have to fill their bench with kids.

After the goalkeeping substitute of either Turner or Ruddy, there's Gosling, Molyneux, Kissock, Baxter, Jutkiewicz and Irving. The goalkeepers apart, there's not a single first team start among them.

So has the club been spectacularly mismanaged this summer? Or is there a grander masterplan at work?

There is a train of thought that claims such a threadbare resource seems, ironically, to have been borne from a desire to improve the club.

Yes, really.

Don't laugh just yet, but examine the players who have exited Everton this summer.

Thomas Gravesen and Stefan Wessels hardly figured last season, Manuel Fernandes was peripheral, Lee Carsley was nearing the end of a distinguished Goodison career, while there was a rapidly growing view that Everton had outgrown Andy Johnson and needed to recruit a better all-round striker if they were to push on from fifth.

Now look at the players linked with a move to Goodison this summer; Jo, Arshavin, Diego Milito, Joao Moutinho, Vagner Love, Tiago. Few would argue that all would represent an improvement on the players they're replacing.

Except Everton haven't landed any of them.

To improve on a fifth place finish, Everton must operate in a more exclusive transfer market where players are harder to come by and more expensive to recruit.

Alan Smith appears to have been considered, but then discarded as no better than the player he would be replacing.

Which is an admirable, if high risk policy.

If this is, indeed, David Moyes' philosophy for the club, it would be reassuring to hear it articulated.

But sometimes short-term fits can prove spectacularly successful. Evertonians were enormously underwhelmed when Paul Power and Wayne Clarke were signed as covering squad players in 1986 and 1987. Both were integral to a title-winning team.

The signing of players like Alan Smith might not improve Everton long-term, but they would certainly offer some breathing space until Tim Cahill, Steven Pienaar, Victor Anichebe and co are available.

The most reassuring breathing space the Blues could be given, however, is a first-day win tomorrow.

A flying start has been historically significant for the Blues under David Moyes.

Last season's fifth place finish was built on a platform of three wins from the first five games.

The season before, three wins and two draws from five were a springboard for sixth.

Back in 2004/05 the Blues recovered from a first day mauling by Arsenal to rattle off five wins and an Old Trafford draw in their next six games. The reward was a season which saw them break up the established top four order.

The stark contrast came in 2005 when the crushing disappointment of a Champions League dream dying was reflected in an appalling run which yielded one win from the opening 13 league games and an eventual recovery to finish 11th.

So an opening day victory is crucial - and with the fixture list having been relatively kind, the Blues can build on that.

Some supporters have suggested bringing their boots along to Goodison Park tomorrow as a tongue-in-cheek protest.

While that would raise a smile, it's more important that Evertonians try and raise the roof.

In recent years the Blues have been at their best with their backs to the wall. A siege mentality has sparked productive performances.

Remember the summer of 2004, when the Blues licked their wounds from the worst season in living memory, sold their best player too late to recruit any replacement - and snarled 'sod you' at the rest of the Premier League to finish fourth?

Remember when Everton took a 2-0 deficit into last season's UEFA Cup clash with Fiorentina, and Goodison became a riotous, bouncing bearpit which saw the Italians overwhelmed in everything but a heartbreaking penalty shoot-out?

Remember when Blackburn came to Goodison in February 2006 and stand-in keeper Iain Turner was sent off for his first meaningful touch?

Goodison responded, so did the players and an unlikely win was secured by James Beattie's glorious header.

A win tomorrow could be more important than ever.

Everton's squad is pitifully short - even when Tim Cahill, Tony Hibbert and Steven Pienaar return.

But they still have time to add to it.

And have their nearest rivals really kicked on?

Portsmouth look in good shape to build on last season's FA Cup success.

But Aston Villa have signed Steve Sidwell and a decent right-back from Rangers, but lost a goalkeeper, their best centre-half and have a skipper desperate to leave.

Spurs have speculated wildly, but still look like losing last season's first choice strike force, while you wouldn't wish Manchester City's situation on your worst enemy.

Everton can still build on last season's progressive campaign . . . but if they do it will be in spite of this pre-season build-up, rather than because of it.