Cornish Steve

In the past, it seems they were wooed with transfer funds, which was our downfall. In Dyche's case, he wants to prove his worth as a PL manager. He's solid rather than glamorous, which is fine with me. He's also used to operating with a shoestring budget.

As a player? I really don't see that.

As assistant manager? I don't get it.

The bottom line is that, no matter who is the manager, we can't win games without scoring goals, and this is by far the single biggest reason we're in our current predicament. Now we have Beto, and DC-L will be back in action soon, and we have Chermiti, Danjuma, and Harrison, and McNeil will also be back soon, I'm optimistic we're about to turn a corner.

The last thing we need to continue is a manager merry-go-round. Dyche needs time, and I see nothing that worries me unduly right now. Judge him at the end of the year.

We've brought in Ashley Young, Jack Harrison, Arnaut Danjuma, Beto, and Youssef Chermiti - and "the squad is on its bare bones"? I can't agree. We might miss Iwobi, but we won't miss Gray or Maupay or Davies or Holgate. This is a stronger squad than before the transfer window.

Goodison Glory had a point but lost it by forgetting to predict.

Everton 1-1 Arsenal Beto

No 10-pointers in Round 4, but Boston Toffee wins again - this time tied with London Blue on 3 points. Another stat worth pointing out: Despite making four predictions, Romey remains on a big fat zero.

Twice you changed your prediction, and twice you came off worse.

10-pointers used to be rare, but we've seen one in each of the first three rounds - and Boston Toffee snagged his second. As a result, he's streaks ahead and easily won the month of August.

Sorry about that! Whenever someone new joins our prediction game, I must remember to add a new line in a dependent spreadsheet. When I forget, you disappear!

Pales in comparison to "Beto or not Beto - that is the question", which was pure genius.

You missed my pun.

Fact: Gray posted a deliberately negative comment about his manager. Fact: It's all over the news media, including the BBC. Fact: The words he chose to use are virtually identical to what he posted when leaving Leicester. Likely: It'll be raised as an unwanted distraction in upcoming interviews with Dyche.

So what you're saying is, with gray, it's not black or white.

Guilty as charged, m'lud.

But my scenario is based on the few facts available. Yours is not.

And this is good business.

Having watched the game last night, a few things come to mind. 1) Having a real striker on the field makes a huge difference. 2) We're really not playing badly and don't deserve to be this low in the table. 3) With new players in crucial roles, it's going to take time for them to gel. 4) For those who think Danjuma made too many wrong decisions, let me point out that he's scored twice in two games. 5) Note our height in the team spine: Branthwaite, Onana, and Beto. We're going to benefit from this. 6) The officiating was.. puzzling? Spraying a new line rather than tell players to move behind the existing one? Just crazy. I have no doubt that we're going to start climbing the table as this improved team line-up begin to understand one another better.

Imagine you're a manager with a company that's very well known. Imagine that one of your principal employees goes onto social media and calls you an inept and useless slob because you wouldn't assign him to a certain project. How professional is that? How do your other employees react when you, and possibly they, become the subject of media intrigue? Imagine that you're trying to do the best job you can and now you're distracted by this nonsense. Imagine that the media now starts calling your other employees trying to dig up dirt and they post fabricated articles when they get none. How do you feel about this problem employee - especially when HR tell you that he did the very same thing at his previous company? This is not just "the insta post". It's what that insta post means in context and the damage it's doing.

Well done to Mousehole AFC, who scored five in winning their FA Cup qualifying match this weekend.

A manager is not going to publicly embarrass a player when there’s a discipline issue. Instead, he’ll give a public excuse like injury. Dyche is receiving a lot of unnecessary criticism. Gray has always shown himself to be selfish, which will undermine team cohesion and spirit. Gray will feel quite at home in Saudi playing alongside overrated prima donnas.

Last week, we’d have lost this 2-0. As for the negative comments (too many grizzlies, to continue a theme), let’s remember that neither Danjuma nor Beto were here a week ago. As a team, we will improve.

Then we'll just have to start climbing the table and embarrass you into changing it.