Makis

He could offer the thrust we need to break the barrier of Euro football.

He's better than nothing. A bit like the Townsend signing, better to have him on the bench than not. Rondon is similar to DCL in style. It would be nice to sign some promising youngster for 30 million to that role but looks like that's not going to happen. Any major signings need to walk straight into the first eleven. If this one goes through I hope the contract is also similar to Townsend's, i.e. short.

We were shite for most of the match & this was against a Championship team.

And just like that, it was just reported Markelo has moved to PSV. Scouting is not the main issue but competition. Every half-decent club can afford a tool like Wyscout etc. where you can get all the stats you need and even video clips. So it's much easier to narrow down and that's why every promising player is quickly on the radar of every team. So the problem is convincing these lads to join Everton instead of a dozen other suitors, most with much better records developing youngsters.

We do buy young players, just like everyone else. Problem is finding a development path. Chelsea hoards youngsters and then send them out on loan all over Europe. Everton's development path doesn's seem to work as well, quite often the loans turn out bad (e.g. player not getting enough game time). Holgate, Branthwaite and Nkounkou from yesterday's lineup were all bought like this. But there are also failures, like Markelo who at 22 doesn't look like he's going to make much of an impact. And there are dozens of clubs that are looking at players like this so competition is fierce.

People use quite strong language if they don't hate him then. It's just vile sometimes, I can't understand it. It's not like he's playing poorly deliberately.

Or maybe Benitez sees him as a bargain. He did play well under him and there were rumours ManU wanted to buy him.

Might just as well wait until January and make a pre-contract. Or offer 2 million in January.

This lad does look like the real deal and very much the type we could use (i.e. creative).

Short memories, eh? First match the team run like madmen. Last match was a really poor performance against a shite Arsenal side. And in-between we were knocked out of League Cup. The one other match was a draw against ManU courtesy of a Lindelöf o.g.

Same position, more points that the previous season in Silva's first season. Then he lost Gueye and Zouma and got no-one to replace them. How well did Ancelotti do with Gomes, Bernard and Iwobi? Bernard is already gone having done not much at all and Gomes should follow suit. Iwobi is the most hated player in the current squad. Mina had several injuries during his first season and only managed 10 starts in total. Tosun is clearly not PL quality. Calvert-Lewin started exactly half the matches in 18-19 season and one less before that so how he was more loved by Koeman I don't know. Allardyce's team got outshot pretty much in every match. If you are happy with that then fine. Silva tried to be more expansive. 17-18 season goal difference was -14. After Silva's full season it was +8. So he improved GD by a massive 22 goals.

Silva was dealt a really poor hand. Lost team's best midfielder and his replacement has played less than two matches since. Didn't get the forward he wanted so depended on an unproven striker. Ancelotti got two midfielders and a defender for big money and couldn't do much better.

I was thinking about Anne.. I mean Andre-Frank but if you know something about patto, spill it out!

Does he live in the attic?

We are buta few things to settle.