AlbanyNYToffee

Agree. Call me crazy but I'm actually encouraged by the window with one major caveat. Simply, our chances at relegation haven't changed all that much, nor would they have with a signing or two but we've managed to create much needed flexibility in the summer. Thelwell will either be buying 3-4 prem players or turning over the roster in the championship but either way we'll have the resources to accomplish our goal. All that said we're still completely unable to change the perspective around our club. Encouraged by how many targets Thelwell had and their profile for the most part. No more Tosun's, Walcott's, Niasse's for christ's sake. What he couldn't overcome (even without the board meddling in his business) was the fact it's incredibly clear players are put off by our current situation. Without changing that Thelwell is f***ed. Our options for this season were/are: Stay up and have an active window, stay up with what we've got, relegated and have an active window or relegated with what we've got. Option 3 would obviously be worst case. Option 4 is next then Option 1 then Option 2. We've (unintentionally mind you) gone for the best option.

Know absolutely nothing about this lad, is he the 2nd striker or left midfielder in 4-4-2?

Maybe we stand pat and let Dyche do his thing with what we've got. Our January record is abysmal. 2017 - Lookman and Schneiderlin for 27.5 total 2018 - Tosun and Walcott for 47.5 total. Jesus f***ing christ. also Mangala on loan 2019 - None 2020 - Branthwaite 2021 - Josh King 2022 - Mykolenko, Patterson and Dele for 29 total assuming we never pay for spurs for dele. El Ghazi and Donny van de Beek on loan.

No one worth buying will be sold this late in the window because the selling club doesn’t have time to find a replacement. Also no good player in their right mind would risk signing for us in our position. idk the loan rules but here are some players we should chase…players at big clubs not playing: cole Palmer, Lucas moura, djed spence, Loftus-Cheek, ziyech, Mariano Díaz, Thomas lemar, Lozano, brozovic, Andrea bellotti

TBF we'd be losing our goddamn minds if Moshiri or Bill were still making football decisions. We're in this mess because they meddled for far too long. The only reasonable and acceptable outcome is to allow your DoF to make the appointment. The owner cuts the checks based on the boards asks. The boards asks come from the DoF on the footballing side and CEO on the business side. We've managed to make a pretty simple process very f***ing complicated. Also TBF plenty of other examples out there of bad ownership and leadership in sports.

Genuinely like frank as most seem to as well. Yesterday was the end for me. The back 5 recently is absolutely criminal. Our cbs prefer a back 4 and our wing backs are horrible going forward. We should be asking our defenders to sit deep and throw an extra man in midfield to help Gana who is clearly not the same player and can’t cover the ground. Hope he does well wherever he lands next but he’s lost here and I don’t see how he comes back from it.

IN: OUT: LOAN IN: LOAN OUT: We've been busy improving the squad and trimming the fat.

West Ham 0 - 0 Everton None

Well here we go again. Very few of us have any faith or hope left. West ham away 1 arsenal home 1 Shite away 0 leeds home 1 Villa home 3 Forest away 1 brentford home 0 chelsea away 0 Spurs home 0 utd away 1 fulham home 3 Palace away 1 Newcastle home 0 leicester away 1 Brighton away 0 city home 0 wolves away 1 bournemouth home 3 arsenal away TBC 0 25 points from 19 matches. Unlikely. Found 17 points and even that seems generous.

Onana first half was stuff of legends. Should have sold Gordon then, do it now. Coleman is finished. Gray unbelievably wasteful. Not franks fault but he has to go. We’re going down.

Everton 1 - 0 Southampton DCL

Bobby Brown Shoes off to Portugal so we need not worry about that.

Sorry plaid. Abysmal performance only the pints to save you. Appreciate the heads up on the Ship and Mitre. Will hit that next time. Safe travels!

Everton 2 - 0 Brighton DCL

Exactly. What have we seen from Holgate to think we’re improving a team close to us. I’d love to see us play Holgate in a starting XI, as long as we’re playing against them.

Just curious can anyone remember the last time we recalled a loan player? Seems exceedingly rare.

We’ve had some dreadful players recently. This fella right up there. Almost unwatchable. Horrific touch. Terribly slow. Tactically unaware. Hope he’s one season and done here.

Enjoy! We hit the Brick and of course the Winslow. Both great spots, but something special about the Winslow. If you find any others please share. COYB.

Now is the time to find out if he can stay fit (ever) again. If he gets hurt we open the checkbook. If he doesn't we might just win a few games...and we hopefully still open the checkbook Would be so Everton to protect him in January, not sign cover and he gets hurt in early February. His career and our season are at risk of going off the rails, time to see what he and we are made of.

Haha I never pick them to lose so if you see me pick a draw it means i'm expecting them to lose. In this case, big. Perhaps that's why I never do well in this pool.

What's your plan @plaidharper? Living vicariously through you on this one.

We need a striker and winger. Gonna have to survive with the rest. Want both of them to be young and hungry to prove themselves on the biggest stage. Elanga on loan makes sense and if we could somehow sell the project to Jonathan David that would be great. Some bias here but considering the fees the clubs would be seeking Yunus Musah (CM) and Tim Weah (W) are great value. Same argument for David - we'd have to sell the project.

Would love this signing - for the long-term. If we're expecting him to solve our goal scoring issues immediately this is destined to fail. It's going to take him 12-18 months to settle coming from MLS. Numerous examples out there - Almiron, Aaronson (Salzburg), Harrison, Pepi, Reynolds, Buchanan etc. Alphonso Davies was the exception to the rule at Bayern.

Thanks Shukes definitely see where you're coming from now and I 1000% agree with you on the high press. We're just defining work rate differently I suppose. I wouldn't say any of the players you mentioned (Son is best example and I know the shite has quite a few hard workers) give their all every match. Many have large stretches where they're complete passengers. But this is where we agree on the high press. A good one hides so many of your other flaws and allows players to rest at certain points in the match. As I know you would I'd also love to see us adapt a high press and really challenge teams physically and Frank is trying but it's hard to press with unathletic dogshit. Speaking of that's the other part of your post we're on the same page. The players you mentioned are naturally gifted athletes. We only have a few those. I don't think it's particularly popular because we're desperate for success after so many years of tough sledding and more recently relegation battles, but when you look at our recruitment in 17/18 (I'm a huge believer Everton is the only club who could have survived this long), 18/19 and 19/20 it's nothing short of an absolute miracle we're still in the league. For 3 straight years the team got worse on the field, more expensive and had no sell-on value. A club our size, no matter how rich the owner, can't do that. And I know I'm completely beating a dead horse right now and mostly off-topic from where we started above I just can't say it enough. I'm completely done with this game where we pile on a manager after a year and get him sacked (Benitez excluded, the rat). We signed Maupay as a backup to DCL, not expecting to need him for large stretches, not because Frank or Kevin or anyone on the staff thought he was good. The whole world can see he's not. He's the best we could do in our current situation. I have absolutely 0 faith in Moshiri and Kenwright to run the club. I have some faith that Frank and Kevin can improve the team and academy enough to make us a worthy investment for some other rich dude. Maybe, just maybe, the next rich dude will be more competent. Until that day comes I'll be supporting this club with everything I've got and expecting a relegation battle at all times. COYB.

Fair enough. I think we're just in a different era of football. When you say players in pretty much 90% of premier teams that are like that who are you referring to? I'm sure you have some examples - off the top of my head I can't think of any. Who is doing what you describe for City? Utd? Spurs? Chelsea? the Shite? Arsenal?