Isaiah

Do I want Rafa? No. Even interviewing him seems to validate his words about us, let alone appointing him. But do I care enough to let it bother me if and when he's appointed and pre-season/summer transfers begin? Also no. It's Everton, fuck it, whoever said it would be something other than a weird rollercoster ride? I'll still enjoy it. Just get him announced on Monday if it's him.

What an absolutely terrible article. Not one single shred of actual information, just "a few of my colleagues reckon he'd be good for Everton and some random no-name says he's probably been made an offer but we reckon he must have turned it down". Garbage 'journalism'.

Yep, it takes a lot of character to come back from the poor form (and the criticism that went with it) he was in and produce the kinds of performances he's now producing. Really proud of him, glad he's ours.

Granted he hasn't had a great deal to do but I'd say he's had 2 flawless games so far for England, clean sheets in each and a few excellent saves. Love to see it.

Give it time.

Not if we nab their manager

Honestly one of the biggest indicators for me that we're going nowhere will be if Dunc is kept on as assistant manager. If he has designs to ever manage us then he needs to go and be a manager somewhere and show what he can do. The top job at Everton will always be waiting for him if he's successful in his own right. But no more hanging around the dugout doing God knows what other than "being passionate" and "loving the club".

Apparently he was insisting on his 7-man entourage joining him and Palace were baulking at that because Hodgson left behind some people they want to keep on. Nuno was insisting on only his own staff. Just what I'm reading online, could be wrong of course.

Done deal apparently. I'll back him of course, let's see what he can do. If nothing else we can dye his beard white and have him double up as the club Santa at Christmas if he's still here. Happy to have it over and move on to transfer business. I think it's a given that Gomes just got another season in our shirt, but hopefully Nuno will bring in some new blood like he did at Wolves. In...er, Moshiri we trust. Up the blues.

It may seem counter intuitive but the longer the hunt goes on, the more optmistic I am. It suggests the powers that be behind the scenes are taking their time and doing everything they can to get this right, which means appointing the right manager for what they feel the long term plan is. I far prefer this silence from the club (and the media blindly throwing out every name they can think of) to panic-appointing someone a week after Carlo's shock resignation. Watch me now end up looking like an idiot when the club panic-announce Alan Pardew as manager tomorrow.

Realistic lad our Dom.

I don't want to depress anyone but there are rumours going around that Steve Bruce is emerging as one of the club's main targets. Anyway, I voted Conte (but it's never happening), Parker (1st choice of realistic targets), Martinez and Potter.

The Conte-Spurs move made no sense to begin with. As I wrote in an earlier post his stock is extremely high. Moving to Spurs (or Everton for that matter) if you're a decorated manager is something you do when you've had a couple of disastrous stints at several top clubs and you're in need of a club to try and restore your tarnished reputation. He has plenty of time to fuck up his career and the likes of Tottenham and, if we're still stupid, Everton will be there waiting for him when he does. Now all the press will be linking him with us, and it'll annoy me because he simply isn't coming here this summer. We have to accept that going into the new season our squad is midtable, our immediate rivals are Villa, West Ham, Newcastle, Wolves and Southampton. We're not getting a big name, and neither should we be looking for one, not yet.

I wouldn't mind Lampard but if we're going down that route then call me sentimental but I'd have a better feeling about Rooney. It's based on nothing other than a gut instinct but I think he could be good for us at this time in our history. edit: he might prise his kid away from United's academy too, he's looking the business.

He's 51 and in the prime of his management career (Carlo presumably thought Everton would be his last 'big' job given no major team was interested in him when he signed for us). I think the 'challenge' Conte wants right now is winning titles and Champions Leagues, not getting a midtable club into the Europa League within 3 seasons, which is realistically what success looks like for us at the moment. Spurs at least have the likes of Kane and Son to offer him, plus they're a London team and a regular in Europe. Don't get me wrong I'd like him here, but realistically it just isn't happening. He's one of the hottest properties in management right now. Carlo wasn't, which is why we got him.

About Conte, all I'll say is that this group of players we currently have sat in a dressing room and time after time apparently thought to themselves: "It means nothing to me to be managed by 3-time Champions League winner Carlo Ancelotti, I'm going to go out there and make zero effort". I just don't get what anyone thinks Conte would get out of this spineless bunch. He is never going to stick around for the kind of 2 to 3 year overhaul we need, and any short-term 'success' (that means fluking a Europa League qualification) he achieves will see him leave for 'higher' climes and then we're back where we are now.

Christ, all we need now is for Koeman to get the bullet from Barca and the press will be able to throw all our former managers into the mix. That said, I recently read a good interview with Marco and he's apparently spent his time away from management studying the game in various ways, so who knows? Honestly I wouldn't be all that disappointed to take a look at what he's learnt (I'm NOT saying he'd be my choice of manager; just that at this point it's all just a lottery to me, who the hell knows what will work at Everton right now?). Ferguson - no. I love him but if his one main skill is geeing up apathetic players then why didn't he employ that skill against all those cannon fodder teams who were taking us to the cleaners last season? It was presumably one of his roles. Could he not have taken a few of them aside in the tunnel during half time against Sheffield United and given them a glimpse of why he was incarcerated? I was under the impression that Carlo was the tactics man and Ferguson was the passion man (otherwise why is he even there?). So where was it at the tail end of last season? Moyes, also no for me, his behaviour after he left was arrogant and disrespectful, and honestly I think last season with West Ham was a freakish occurance. Martinez, yeah I'd take him. He can only have learnt in the time since he left. He has the respect of some of the best players in the world at Belgium, many of whom ply their day trade under other world class managers. You don't get that if you're a mug. Let's see, who else? Walter Smith, no, I am still having twice weekly therapy sessions over his signing of Ibrahima Bakayoko. Mike Walker? Well, he brought Big Dunc to the club on loan but he's pushing 80 now and I question if he has the energy for the modern game. Like I said earlier, I'm honestly a bit apathetic to whoever gets the gig, because I don't think our problem is fundamentally one of who the manager is. Some of those performances last season were indicative of a team that is rotten to the core, and it's for that reason I'm not all that sorry to see Carlo go. First and foremost we need a clearout of playing staff over the next year or so (keep about 8 of them). Baines, Pienaar, Coleman, Cahill, DCL, Godfrey, none of these were big signings, yet they have been and are our most important players. Stuff your James Rodriguezes, get someone in who has an eye for the next Cahill, the next Baines, the next Godfrey (easier said than done, I know). We need a proper old-school coach. These boutique "I'll harness a team of big-ego superstars to victory" managers aren't what we need.

If there is fight in us, we'll make this new Europa Conference thing (i.e 7th place in the league). If there isn't, we won't. It's that simple. The run-in we have, we should finish top 7 at least. If we don't, it's because of a lack of fight and desire. Either result will be fine with me, because they'll both let me know where we currently stand. If we do it, we've progressed, and if we don't, we haven't.

If their defence was shit before, it's even more brittle now. For fuck's sake don't come out and be afraid of losing the lead. Attack them, put this game to bed with another couple of goals. Sick to death of our team treating these guys like they're something to fear.

Their weakness is defence so I'll be really disappointed if we sit back, have 18% possession, and no shots on goal until the 86th minute. Get at them.

If PSG don't have money to spend because of the pandemic, any thoughts on who we could reasonably swap him for from their squad?

When DCL went off and Kane came on, with the momentum going Spurs way, I thought we were gonna lose for sure. So much heart and grit in that performance. Even with all the individual mistakes (looking at you, Yerry) heads didn't drop. Fought it out to the bitter end. Fantastic to see.

We deserve Bournemouth at home in the next round just for that.