Oztoffee

Froogle? Is that a euphemism?

What happened to him? Didn't travel to Dresden.....thought he might feature as we badly needed forwards.

Bugger!

I rarely visit the official site but today at 2am UK time I checked it out hoping for some news on the managerial front. Don't know how long this has been up but a ad for 2016/17 Season Tickets says 'Nothing will be the same'. Can this be true? Apart from a new manager what do we need for this to happen? Can't wait!

I'd like to have given it to Stones today. Found his confidence again and was moving forward, but I gave it to Joel because he made a couple of good saves and cut out a number of crosses and kept us in the game when we were going backwards.

Honest to God, we have to sort another manager out quickly though because if we leave it too long after Martinez's departure current players will be looking to go elsewhere. We have to get a manager with some credentials if we are to attract players to the club. A 'going nowhere' club with a 'done nothing' manager will ensure that we remain 'also rans' in the Prem. To be taken seriously management needs to secure someone with credentials, to show we mean business. I've assumed that Martinez will be going, perhaps at the end of the season if not sooner as we can't afford to be discussing this again next season as we did with Moyes for a number of years while the management dragged it's collective feet. We need a new face with new ideas, getting the players back real early, getting them fit, drilling the defence and organising various plays to suit various scenarios (plan B, C and D!). Stop these annual pre-season shit games with Bury, Preston, Rhyl, Tranmere etc. and get some real opposition. Martinez's World Cup pundit scenario screwed this club to the extent that we're still paying for it. Time for a change of outlook for this club. Get rid of 'the plucky underdogs' shit, 'punching above their weight' shit. If you want something to happen, you have to change things to make it happen. FFS let's get professional and do away with the 'that'll do attitude' that we've had to endure since Howard Kendall' departure. We need Joe's 'dogs of war' attitude to get management moving. Hopefully the new boss will assert some authority here and lose Bill's loyalty outlook (laudable though it is in certain circumstances) that has kept us in the 2nd tier....sliding to 3rd tier of Prem clubs. It is an unhappy fact that Kenwright alone is responsible for an awful lot of what has happened in the last 20 years in this club. His refusal to sack managers at times where other clubs would have had them gone for years has taken this club into the mess it is now. Moyes should have gone 3/4 years earlier, but Bill procrastinated for so long that the decision was taken out of his hands. Martinez should have gone 2 months into last season, yet here we are hoping he will be gone this season. A 'let's give him till Christmas' scenario should not even be on their minds behind the doors at Goodison at the moment. I sincerely hope that the new boss with his past experience will see what has been going on here and fix it fast.

I have to admit to being an early fan of Aiden, he looked pretty OK to start and I thought like many that he needed the summer break and a good pre-season to show his true worth. But it never happened. He got starts and never caught the eye, came on as a sub with the same result......never really fulfilled the promise that everyone thought he had. Scotland? Surely! Has Martinez made the same mistake with Niasse? Right at this moment I'm inclined to say yes.

Nah, not into head burying. I face up to reality. However, I realise that your reality may not be the same as mine. Mine says he was a good player.....he hasn't become a bad player, just lost form and his head at times. FFS he's only a kid! When I was his age I knew fuck all....my wife says I havn't changed:) He will come good again, whether he'll be wearing a royal blue shirt when he does I don't know. But it's people who are sharpening the knives as we speak will make it happen. Believe it.

Players do not ever, I mean ever, become bad players overnight and deserve the wrath of the great unwashed. Sure, they lose form or confidence or have to change the way they have been encouraged to play because a new manager has new and different ideas but they are still good players. I honestly feel that Stones has 'new manager syndrome' and is uncomfortable with the new setup. I meant Martinez's idea of being a new manager, as during his first season he played it much as Moyes had done. I think Stones among others is just a victim of Martinez's total change of formation and tactics. Sorry if I confused everyone.

Not so many moons ago most thought that Stones could walk on water. A stupid error on either his or his agent's part (transfer request) and a few below par games and the knives are out. What a pathetic bunch of arrogant pricks some are. All this 'I could see two years ago that he was crap' shit and many are only too willing to re-watch every game he played to find an error in order to say "I told you so'. The lad ('cos that's what he is) has had his world collapse around him and he will eventually be stronger for it but he needs support not a crowd baying for his head. I wonder if there's an element of 'Tall Poppy Syndrome' around Goodison, where because some people are so angry that their lives are so shit will take any opportunity to make other's lives as shit as theirs? And the taller the poppy, the more they want it cut down. Players do not ever, I mean ever, become bad players overnight and deserve the wrath of the great unwashed. Sure, they lose form or confidence or have to change the way they have been encouraged to play because a new manager has new and different ideas but they are still good players. I honestly feel that Stones has 'new manager syndrome' and is uncomfortable with the new setup. That may or may not change any time soon but until Stones gets his mojo back he needs support, not bollockings from a hostile crowd. FFS folks get off the lad's back because if he's forced out we'll get to see him excel in another shirt and still be England's captain. Move on people, there are far more things to be concerned about right now than an early hiccup in what will be an exemplarary career. I just hope it's with us because if the fans get on his back too much, he will move. And we will regret it for a long time.

FFS! How prophetic. Never were truer words said

I'm sorry if the point I am about to make has been said before, but I couldn't read through the whole thread as it hurts too much. Romy, you said it all. Coleman and Lennon worked their arses off, Barkley never showed up, Besic and McCarthy were absolutely f''n woeful, Mori was a liability at times, Robles was really, really lucky with the Giroud 'goal'...he just flapped as badly as Howard had ever done....I could go on. But the thing that really got to me (and I watched the game twice whilst flogging myself with wet celery) was the utterly careless attitude of most of the players including all the midfielders. They just seemed to think that someone else would get it going. I was absolutely disgusted when on so many occasions the ball carrier had nobody to pass to. Midfield were hiding behind Arsenal players or standing so close as to make a successful pass impossible. They were virtual statues. It became apparent in time that they didn't want the ball. McCarthy and Cleverley were the worst offenders....they weren't making the angles to make themselves available. Barkley wouldn't pass unless he absolutely had to...and mostly left it too late and was dispossessed. Rom must have been wondering why he bothered to put his boots on as he got nothing in the way of support. Football is a really easy game....the aim is to score more goals than the opposition. OK? The best way to do it is when the other team has the ball, you look for the other players. When your team has the ball you are looking for spaces. Right? This is basic schoolboy stuff, Football 101 if you will. Why then do Everton's high paid players find this so friggin' difficult? It didn't help that Jags seemed out of sorts and Baines is certainly off the boil, but what is Martinez doing about all of the problems? Nothing it seems. Does he know what motivation is? Maybe as some have suggested he's lost the dressing room, but to lose it means that you had to have had it in the first place. His first season was great and the team deserved the plaudits, but then the 'new look, ticky-tacky passing' Everton showed up and last season was lost. This season is worse. I think he may have lost the team before Xmas last season, now here we are still debating.

Because of my location, I'm not up to speed on what the situation is now, but I went to the derby game 3 years ago (another draw!)and got the free bus from Sandhills station. It was an easy way to do it but getting back out was a f'n nightmare....just a couple of buses doing the run and there were hundreds of fans waiting. Anyway, I digress. At Bank Hall I saw hundreds of acres of wasteland and disused factories and wharves....doing nothing! Surely the land can be turned into something useful like a stadium. Good rail links, good road access not far away on Scottie Rd.and Stanley Rd., heaps of parking space....etc.A good idea? Was the Kings Dock thing a good option access-wise and why is it not happening?

As far as access goes it would be a massive plus for rail but parking would be a killer! What parts of the city are ripe for improvement these days?

Is this the time to talk about rail access again?