Neville: Everton can achieve something special

Everton captain Phil Neville admits his team are disappointed with last season’s campaign, but says they are close to something ‘special’.

David Moyes’ side made a slow start to the English Premier League season but recovered to finish seventh.

The campaign has left the Goodison Park faithful in low spirits heading into the 2011-12 season, but Neville, 34, said there were many positives to take out of last term.

“I think if you ask a lot of Evertonians, I think they’d be quite disappointed with the season,” he told the club’s official website.

“I think the manager would be and I think the players would be. There’s been a lot of negativity surrounding the club, but we should snap out of that.”

“We finished seventh in the table, we finished eighth the season before that so in terms of league position we’ve improved.”

“I think we’re so close to something very special here, the positives we can take out of this season are the foundations are as strong as ever, the spirit and the togetherness of the manager, the players, the staff, the supporters, the whole club is still there.”

The 59-time England international also pointed out the club’s strong youth system, which saw Everton collect the Youth League title last season.

Neville urged fans to be in a positive mood ahead of next season, with their first game an away trip to Tottenham on August 13.

“Yes, we’ve had disappointments this year, probably more disappointments than the good bits but we can still look back on this year and be proud that we’ve recovered well from a bad start,” he said.

“We’ve finished the season strongly, we’ve beaten some very good teams and we’ve played some fantastic football.”

“Maybe we should concentrate on the positives rather than the negatives.”