Callum Jones

Johnny Heitinga, where do I start eh! It’s got to the stage now where I’ve just had enough, I can’t tolerate the lad. His blag hardman perception, his ridiculous hashtags in his tweets, and most importantly, the constant mistakes on the pitch costing us points. Today was the tip of the iceberg, you could put him at fault for all 3 Villa goals. The first one, for a centre half to just be breezed past like that, it’s terrible. I understand Christian Benteke is a strong boy, but to get past Heitinga that easily, it’s just poor defending. The second, he just stands there and watches Agbonglahor nod it in. No challenge, Heitinga is the closest person to him. He just watched Agbonglahor nod it in. The cross could have pressured better but again, terrible defending from Heitinga. Then the third, not completely Heitinga’s fault but could have put a better challenge in. When a ball is inside the 6 yard box the keeper should be coming and claiming it, not just standing there and watching the ball like Howard did. Tim Howard is another one I’m losing patience with but that’s another story. By the way, I’ve not seen any highlights that’s all from the view from my seat. It’s not just today though, there’s numerous times he’s cost us points this season. Wigan away, one of the worst performances I’ve seen, he was always as bad as today. He was at fault for their second goal, making us drop points. Norwich at home, last minute, just stands and watches Bassong nod it in. There again with that goal, there’s a shout that Howard should have come and claimed that one, but still there was no challenge from Heitinga. Then on Wednesday night against West Brom, he didn’t cost us any points but he certainly put us under pressure. Cruising at 2-0, a grim bit of defending on the line. 2-1, game on again and putting the side under pressure. The only decent thing he’s done this year, that winner at Bolton. When in all honesty, he shouldn’t have been on the pitch it was a negative substitution that got him on the field. I think what annoys me most about Heitinga is, when he plays our best centre back gets shoved to right back. Phil Jagielka isn’t a right back, he’s a very good centre half though. He showed his class today, when he went centre back after Heitinga went off. It’s not right that the best centre back in the club gets shoved to right back. The whole clapping the fans thing as well, see if I thought he meant it, it would be a good thing. When Tim Cahill used to clap the fans, he meant it. He never talked up moves to other clubs like Heitinga has in the past. How he won player of the year last year is absolutely baffling, the guy has had about 10 good games in the entire time he’s been at the club. He only won it because some of our fans our fooled by the whole “proud to be blue” image. He’s not proud to play for Everton, to him it’s just a job. I’m telling you all, don’t be fooled by his outrageous twitter hashtags. Now, booing him off today. I’m of the view, I pay my money for a season ticket at the start of the season, so if I want to boo someone I’ll boo them. He needed to know that we weren’t happy with his performance, booing him shows him that. The boos weren't just directed at him though they was directed at bringing Mirallas off. So, where do we go from here? If he is starting centre half at Old Trafford next week, they’ll stick 6 up us. Get Neville back in at right back and Jagielka back to centre half with Distin. If we’re going to get 4th spot, we have to start playing our best players in their best positions. Heitinga isn’t part of our best 11, and never has been.

Going into deadline day Evertonian’s had a great sense of hope and anticipation, a positivity and a general excitement as opposed to the normal dread and nerves of will we hang on to our key players. Tuesday afternoon Everton agreed a deal for FC Twente midfielder Leroy Fer, believed to be around 8.5 million. The player flew to England to have a medical and undergo talks. The talks all seemed to go well, and Fer trained with Everton Wednesday morning and all looked well. The deal was set to be announced and Fer unveiled to the Goodison faithful before the West Brom game. However, there was a snag, for some reason Everton decided they wanted to restructure the deal. Believed to be because of problems with the medical but that is unconfirmed, so the two clubs restarted talks. Everton weren’t willing to pay the original agreed price, Twente weren’t willing to renegotiate. At about 4 o’clock Wednesday afternoon it was announced the deal was now off and Everton would be looking at other targets. Various names were thrown about including Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe, The Toffees narrowly missed out on the 23 year old Belgian international in September, a deal had been agreed but wasn’t granted FIFA clearance. By the time the time the West Brom game had finished, and The Blues had secured an important 2-1 victory. Alvaro negredo had emerged as the number one target, with The Toffees looking to bring the Sevilla forward to Merseyside for around 10 million pounds. So deadline day arrived, Toffees fans gripped to Sky Sports news and twitter. Alan Myers was outside Finch Farm, and the usual Twitter accounts were on hand ready to provide any info on possible deals. Panic set in early on as whispers of Chelsea launching a 32 million pound bid for Maroaune Fellaini. They didn’t last long and people eventually calmed down and realised the big haired Belgian was going nowhere. The Negredo deal never really was a possibility, the clubs valuations were too far apart. Sevilla were looking for a fee close to €15 million, whilst Everton realistically were never going to pay more than €10 million, so the possibility of a deal died down about 3 o’clock. The usual twitter rumours started, sightings of players, as well as the customary “Just seen Riquelme in the Oak having a pint” gag. About 5 o’clock, twitter exploded with shouts that the Leroy Fer deal was back on and the clubs were negotiating a deal. These were soon quashed by Sky Sports, and again, another wave of disappointment it The Blues fans. Whilst all the speculation about big money transfers took place, a transfer that took a back seat was the one of John Stones from Barnsley. The 19 year old right back had had an offer from Wigan, but unsurprisingly decided to choose The Toffees, heading to Goodison park for approximately 3 million pounds. That deal was announced about 20 past 10, and whilst Evertonians hoped there would be that one marquee signing, it never arrived. The last bit of business for The Blues before the window closed was Magaye Gueye leaving on loan to French side Stade Brest. All in all, it was a day of disappointment for Everton fans, a sense of a missed opportunity but things could have been worse, a lot worse and it could have been better, a lot better. The Blues brought a promising right back in, he’s an England u19 international with a very bright future. Ive thought Everton have needed a long term replacement for Phil Neville and Tony Hibbert for quite a while, Seamus Coleman has played there quite a lot this season. Although the Irishman has done well, he’s prone to defensive errors and he’s not quite the answer if Everton are going to push on into the top four in my opinion. Many Evertonians are incredibly frustrated at the lack of a major signing, that one signing that would push Everton into the Champions League. Blaming the board and chairman, some of the criticism justified, some of it being idiotic at best. A few people decided to blame the manager, which quite frankly I find that absolutely astonishing. Personally, not paying 8.5 million for a player with a bad knee, not paying 14 million for a player worth 10, and signing a promising right back on a 5 and half year deal is good business. Yet, I can understand that people did want that one extra signing to bolster the squad. It wasn’t just Everton who were quiet during the window, Champions League contenders, Arsenal and Spurs were also very quiet. So it’s not all doom and gloom, if Everton can keep players like Kevin Mirallas and Darron Gibson fit during the second half of the season and they can get a run of games then they can definitely secure fourth place.

Wrote an article on why I think this year is all or nothing for us. Comments will be appreciated! http://thesportsjabber.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/all-or-nothing.html Cheers