Cornish Steve

Did anyone have a clue we were bringing in Deulofeu before it was announced? No. Did anyone have even a hint ahead of time that we were recruiting Lukaku? No. Was there anything in the press about Everton loaning Barry ahead of time? No. The fact that there were loans and not buys is irrelevant. Real business is conducted behind closed doors and not in public. What appears in the papers is designed to sell those papers to the gullible - full stop.

The main headline at the BBC website right now is that a Malaysian Airlines jetliner has crashed in Ukraine. What do we think when reading this? For me, at least, I draw the comparison with the Malaysian Airlines plane that went missing earlier in the year, and it reflects badly on the airline. But no, that's not the real story at all: Someone on the ground in eastern Ukraine shot the plane down. The real headline should be "Passenger jet shot down over Ukraine". The airline is almost irrelevant. I don't believe there is any such thing as a neutral and objective news service any more, and maybe there never has been. It seems that CNN, in the US, stands for Commentary Not News, because they are just as bad as the BBC. Come on guys: Just report what happens and let others interpret.

Well, since we finished fifth in the league, we can obviously do better. I'm all for more practicing of set pieces.

Am I able to do that? Let me try. PS - done.

The thread relates to last season, not the coming season.

Until now, I never looked back to see how goals for and against played out last season. The consensus was that we'd score more goals and let more in. That's not exactly what happened. 2012/2013: Home (33-17), Away (22-23), Total (55-40) 2013/2014: Home (38-19), Away (23-20), Total (61-39) Quite frankly, the differences are subtle and not that great. At home, we scored 5 more over the course of the season and conceded 2 more than before. The surprising stat for me is that we conceded fewer goals away (and in total) than in the previous season. Who would have thought that Martinez would end up with a better defensive record than David Moyes? What will change this time around? If we can maintain our excellent defensive record, it should be scoring more goals - especially away from home. And that, of course, all boils down to which strikers join the club during the summer window.

What will be best of all is watching all the moneybags' waste their fortunes on super-sized egos only for Everton to finish above them in the league. Last season, we watched Spurs close to 100m and still finish below us. This season, it will be Liverpool and van Gaal's United that we'll beat. We will do so because a team is much more than a bunch of individuals.

Despite the distances being much greater, some of us actually get together in person.

Correct.

Not as big a conflict as most BPL clubs having betting companies as a major sponsor - several of them having the same one as sponsor.

Europa League is not a poisoned chalice. The press just love to moan about something!

I'm a Brit, though, and I have this positive attitude. No need to always be a misery-guts. Glass half empty or half full.

Strange they would do this after he becomes a West Brom player. What if they both say he's crap?

I'd provide an answer but I'm not abel.

I know this one. I know this one. They played for the West Indies right? And they both scored a century, right? No way I can remember the names, though.

You got your mucking words fuddled: "There's talk that he is in Liverpool for talks."

As you can probably tell by now, Evertonians are teetotalers who avoid the devilish seduction of filthy licquor.

It must be a full moon or something, with more than the usual amount of bickering. Thought I'd change the subject a bit. One of the main sponsors of the Fox Soccer channel in the US is a company that sells football jerseys and the like. They had this English commentator announcing names with inflated importance as each shirt was displayed on the screen. "Rooney...Gerrard..." Then they'd show a blue Chelsea shirt and shout "Luca-Koo". Hopefully they'll get it right when he's in an Everton shirt.

In that case, Broomfield separates the grounds of Bradford City and Bradford Park Avenue.

I lodge an official complaint!

Chester City Football Club was dissolved a few years ago. Chester FC doesn't play in the major leagues.

Wednesfield lies between Molineux and Bescot Stadium?

Glasgow Green separates Ibrox Stadium from Celtic Park. Does this count?

And here's one final table. This shows the average number of points per predicted game for everyone who participated - with no double points for the last game. verreauxi 2.06 Geth 2.04 MikeO 2.02 markjazzbassist 1.94 NyarkosLeftToe 1.81 TonkaRoost 1.77 PeterH 1.75 doc_bump 1.72 Matt 1.72 Vranny 1.69 Rubecula 1.67 Nikica 1.65 Alguna Vez Tonelada 1.63 Cornish Steve 1.56 Bailey 1.50 bluenosetoffee 1.44

So the Golden Ball is for the fewest number of passes made in the tournament by someone playing in the final?