MikeO

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.'

Was on one of the links that some players are only on $20,000 . Roughly equivalent to minimum wage over here and they're expected to perform at the same level as Donovan and Beckham. Madness.

I had one over the eight but couldn't get past the drinking connotation .

Very sad....know how you feel....happened to my local (at that time) club thirty-six years ago http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guildford_City_F.C. still makes me sad . Claim to fame (among others) was that Gary Peters started his career there....later to be Davey Moyes boss at Preston . Hopefully the new club will prosper....wish you well.

The keeper will always struggle in any MOTM situation over a season (unless he's a genius like Nev was) but you're right on that. It's obvious that Coleman's made a lesser contribution. I'm not overestimating or underestimating the validity of the system but it's the only one I have to go on. People (I believe) vote objectively on each match. The Donovan bandwagon was in full steam before the Lisbon game but he played poorly....he was the flavour of the month but got no votes. How would people jumping on the Jagielka bandwagon explain how Pip got twice as many votes as Lescott? My point now (forgetting Lescott) is that you think people vote according to image and prevailing reputation and I believe most (not all) vote purely on what they've seen over the ninety minutes in front of them. Not going to argue it with you....I know Bill has at times voiced a similar opinion...I just think the majority of our members are able to put personal preferences aside when they vote, and I think Ossie winning the last two backs that up .

If people voted MOTM on "flavour of the month" then how has Ossie won the last two? And how did Pip get more than twice as many votes as Lescott did last year? They've never been the flavour of anything; don't think you credit the members of TT with enough intelligence. Lescott had a brilliant 07/08 for sure. Last year less so.

Last season he came eleventh in the TT player of the season. Pienaar 243 Jagielka 229 Fellaini 219 Baines 186 Arteta 164 Cahill 140 Neville 134 Osman 126 Saha 71 Howard 66 Lescott 59 He got one MOTM against Villa which accounted for fifteen of his votes. Given that he played in forty-seven games over the season that means he averaged less than one vote a game for the rest of it.

If I was you I'd either phone the number or try again . Failing that use another payment method. Bellamy!?

If it was a boxing match it'd be stopped in the first. Lescott looks like a liability this season, Johnny's been fantastic.