As part of our Guest Writers slot, we post the contributions from small blog owners.  Todays is from @craighoyland1 and his blog can be found here: https://craighoyland1.wordpress.com/2017/01/16/tom-davies-a-new-hope/

Tom Davies – A New Hope

Everton fans have had a rough ride since Graham Stuart’s shot rebounded off the crossbar in 1995, for Paul Rideout to head the ball home & send thousands of blues into dreamland. Almost 22yrs without Silverware & the lack of much needed investment, both on & off the pitch has meant we could only watch as other clubs lifted trophies & we fell further behind.

February 2016 saw Farhad Moshiri announced as the clubs new billionaire investor & from that point onwards, things started to change. At last we had money to spend, money to bring in quality players, money to attract a top manager, coaching staff, a proven DOF in Steve Walsh & suddenly, after the disappointment of 21 trophyless years & the despair of the previous two seasons, we were all daring to dream again. Yet, Everton’s newest shining star isn’t the result of a successful talent spotting exercise, he hasn’t cost the club millions in transfer fees, his name is Tom Davies, he’s got a big future ahead of him & he’s home grown, a true blue, a scouser & the personification of Everton!

At 18yrs of age, Davies isn’t just a passionate footballer who happens to be a blue. He plays with ability, skill & vision way beyond his years, he gets stuck in, he knows how to play a tough, physical game & get in the face of his opponent but also has that touch of finesse required (Just ask Yaya Toure) to play that killer through ball & hit a team where it hurts. It’s also worth mentioning that in the seven Premier League games he’s played in this season, we’ve won five & lost only once – the game against Chelsea that never happened! He knows what it means to play & score for Everton. His reaction after that sublime finish against City was exactly what we want to see when a player scores a goal & it was pure passion, his love for the club & fans that motivated him to immerse himself in the celebrating crowd & share his moment with them. You can’t buy passion like that, it can’t be bottled or taught during training sessions & when a player feels like that about his club, I’d argue all day long that he’ll play better, it turns a 50/50 ball into a 60/40 ball, he’ll fight for the cause & it infects other players & makes them better also.

Having said all that, we have to be careful not to get too carried away. The last thing anybody should be doing is putting unnecessary pressure on a player so young & talented. However, Tom Davies represents something special to all Everton fans & that something is deeper than his talent, & it’s deeper than his passion & love for the club. He represents a new hope within most Evertonians. The hope for success, the hope that the new path we’ve recently found ourselves on is actually going to take us somewhere special & the hope that when it does, it means as much to every player as it will to Davies & the rest of us. He’s a new, shining talent that has the potential to achieve great things & If Everton were a footballer, it would be Tom Davies.

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