MikeO

Was there last June....incredible place.

Great result for Fulham....got that one wrong .

Yup, it's over. Without taking tonight for granted looks like the easier option on paper. Galatasaray are top of their league while Atletico are 13th in Spain.

Sensible team....bring it on .

Current Player of the Year standings.... Fellaini 268 Pienaar 159 Heitinga 143 Osman 135 Saha 109 Cahill 108 Rodwell 94 Baines 84 Bilyaletdinov 82 Hibbert 71 Coleman 70 Donovan 68 Howard 61 Distin 42 Yakubu 24 Duffy 23 Yobo 20 Neill 15 João Alves Jô 10 Neville 10 Vaughan 8 Gosling 6 Arteta 6 Nash 3 Senderos 3 Baxter 3 Agard 2 Anichebe 1 Forshaw 1 Akpan 1 MOTM winners.... Manchester United (H) Leon Osman Sporting Lisbon (H) Leon Osman Chelsea (H) Landon Donovan Liverpool (A) Johnny Heitinga Wigan (A) Tim Cahill Sunderland (H) Marouane Fellaini Birmingham (H) Steven Pienaar Manchester City (H) Marouane Fellaini Arsenal (A) Marouane Fellaini Carlisle (H) Marouane Fellaini Burnley (H) Steven Pienaar Sunderland (A) Marouane Fellaini Birmingham (A) Leighton Baines BATE Boresov (H)...Shane Duffy Chelsea (A)...Johnny Heitinga Tottenham (H)...Seamus Coleman AEK Athens (A)...Steven Pienaar Liverpool (H)...Marouane Fellaini Hull City (A)...Johnny Heitinga Manchester United (A)...Johnny Heitinga West Ham (A)...Johnny Heitinga Benfica (H)...Marouane Fellaini Aston Villa (H)...Diniyar Bilyaletdinov Tottenham (A)...Tony Hibbert Bolton (A)...Louis Saha Benfica (A)...Sylvain Distin Wolves (H)...Diniyar Bilyaletdinov Stoke City (H)...Johnny Heitinga BATE Borisov (A)...Tony Hibbert Portsmouth (A)...Tim Howard Hull City (A)...Leon Osman Blackburn (H)...Louis Saha AEK Athens (H)...Diniyar Bilyaletdinov Fulham (A)...Sylvain Distin Wigan...(H)...Jack Rodwell Sigma Olomouc (A)...Steven Pienaar Burnley...(A)...Tony Hibbert Sigma Olomouc (H)...Jack Rodwell Arsenal (H)...Steven Pienaar

Amaretto filled dark chocolate eggs from Lidl....I'm in love .

Pretty sure there was no automatic yellow for deliberate handball back then .

Administration and consequent points deduction tomorrow... http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/p/portsmouth/8527495.stm Certain relegation (they were going down anyway) but at least the winding-up order will be suspended.

FYI to play it safe we'll be back in "Performance Mode" again tonight...hopefully a busy and successful one .

Not disagreeing with the motive, if that's his intention, just think he'd be better going about it differently. Scenario, next summer, England lose the semi due to appalling mistake by Lescott/Warnock/(God forbid) Baines. Press immediately all over the "fact" that Bridge would never have dropped suck a bollock. Big story for ever. Terry, the girl (don't know her name) and Bridge by his response cost Enland World Cup. Or....England win the World Cup without him, Baines gets a winner's medal. Bridge's kid grows up and Wayne says to him, "....that could have been me son (or daughter, again no idea) but I pulled out to protect you!" "Dad, you're a twat!" GET OVER IT (the child will). Life's too short.

He's making an issue of it by pulling out for me....bowing to the power of the tabloids. If he just said, "Think Terry's a bit of a twat for behaving the way he did but she was my ex and can sleep with who she likes...I'm over it..." that would be far and away the best way to put it to sleep from his angle. Now Terry's behaviour is picking the England squad and that's a huge story for the red-tops to get their teeth into. He's either been badly advised or (as I said) he's being a pussy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8536491.stm What a pussy. Good news for Baines though .

We should have won comfortably at Goodison even though Pienaar and Donovan both had relatively poor games (Landon in particular was anonymous). Our resident Sporting fan has said their full-backs are poor so I think if the wide players tonight have any sort of a game we should have far too much for them. Like an early goal and a stress-free evening personally but that's just not the Everton Way is it? Maybe tonight it will be. I'm sticking with a 2-1 win.

GOT's not too bad, browsed it a bit from time to time (American politics would be a big problem for me though....some pretty serious Republican opinion on there occacsionally), better than the others I think. Welcome Nick .

Hehe....tried to get on last night to share in their misery but if was forever crashing, so many of them queueing up to dig the knife into the team/the manager/the owner/each other . "Utter utter wank. You can take that bollocks you spout and poke it mate. They pay the bills. They allowed a shit manager to spend a Fucking fortune on journeymen , they have only themselves to blame. If they want to Fuck off, they can for me. Nothing has changed, nothing at all. A shit team, run by a shit manager but now paying bankers wages, and like the bankers, they don't give a Fuck as long as their earning their coin, I am officially now disgusted with this club. Same problems, just a higher wage bill."

Fine post.

I think the squad make-up is pretty sound....certainly wouldn't get rid of Hibbert and Yobo. We may need a bit of like for like replacement if anyone leaves but we've got the keeper so if we can tie down Donovan (or if not get someone similar) I don't think we're in desperate need anywhere. Maybe left-back cover?

All sounds a bit odd to me. As I understand it they're justifying a £17 rise by saying that there are six premium games next season (how many were there this?). To me individual game pricing should be totally irrelevant when it come to season ticket pricing....bit shabby I think. Or am I misunderstanding it?

That would be OK but not so good for the neutral....they don't want to see a red bus parked at one end for the whole game. Seems to be Rafa's chosen tactic this year even against the lesser teams.

What's this about ? "That would mean the player, on top form for Everton recently, might miss the Bafana Bafana World Cup training camp scheduled to begin in Brazil on March 6. After that, the team will to Germany for another training camp, from April 13 to 28." Surely we don't have to release him for those?

From The Guardian article linked in the shoutbox... "Saturday's game at Goodison was really all about the style of Everton's victory. This has been a transformation as comprehensive as Arsène Wenger's refashioning of the lingering George Graham era: eight years ago in Moyes's first game in charge he picked a midfield of Tony Hibbert, Lee Carsley, Scot Gemmill and Thomas Gravesen. On Saturday his midfield was made up entirely of neat, skilful ball-players, three of whom were 5ft 7in or under. Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, Steven Pienaar, Leon Osman and Mikel Arteta more than matched the visitors for invention. Add the injured Marouane Fellaini and Tim Cahill and Everton have arguably the best midfield in the country (perhaps behind only Chelsea). Also: Phil Neville should be in England's World Cup squad. Who would you rather have playing at right‑back against a team who can attack properly? Wes Brown? Micah Richards? Still quick at 33 and always a sounder option on the right than the left, Neville is the best English right-back playing."

Mark Lawrensen (for what it's worth)... “David Moyes is right to be relaxed about Jack Rodwell’s future. “There’s no doubt that any potential suitors for the 18-year-old will have sat back and admired his solo goal against Manchester United on Saturday along with the rest of us. Except Sir Alex Ferguson perhaps. “But if the Old Trafford manager is, as has been suggested, planning another swoop on Goodison Park, then it says everything about where David Moyes is taking Everton at the moment that he’s likely to be sent away with his tail between his legs.” “It’s more to do with the fact that Everton is undoubtedly the perfect place for youngsters like Rodwell to progress and mature into top footballers. It’s a totally different situation to Wayne Rooney.”

Benfica cruised through tonight, 4-0 destruction of Hertha Berlin to win 5-1 on aggregate. I'd love to play them in the final .

DM... 'He is back training now and we will try and push him on quickly as we might need him on Thursday,' 'He is physically not ready and he needed an injection in a cyst on his knee that kept him from training for a week. We hope that has cleared up. He is back training and with the people we've got out for this game I could do with him.'