SpartyBlue

I tend to take a different view. Given how we set up for most of our games down the stretch a creative attacker wasn’t really what we needed. On top of that who would we have taken out? Richie? Gordon? Iwobi on the best form of his Everton career? I don’t think that was the time to get creative with our lineups and work someone into the team. Frank has said Dele knows what he thinks of him. I expect they’ve had conversations about his future role and I’d be quite surprised if a famous midfielder brought in someone of Dele’s upside to just play him 20 min every third game. He’s going to get his chance here in my opinion to sink or swim. We could do worse than being a place where big talents get their second chance.

So a minimum of 3 wins and two ties. Glad to see our expectations our back to normal after a near relegation season.

It’s not so much that it’s unsustainable it’s that you have to be accurate with your signings. We missed a lot and got punished. If we had done better we might have been able to bridge the gap.

Worth noting that Dele’s best appearance for us was in that Palace game. I think Frank has alluded to him being in his plans so I’d be surprised if he’s not given that opportunity. It’s all very up in the air in the midfield.

Never Zidane of course but he was quality his first season here. I think the injury did slow him down a bit and he’s a player that seems to need that time and space to operate as he lacks athleticism. In a league where he is afforded that he will probably do well.

Seems like clubs could wait us out a bit if we are relying on this sale to do most of our summer business. Particularly if we don’t have 3,4,5 clubs in for him.

It’s an odd spot. If he came and was successful does that lessen or increase our chances of signing him longterm? We were a bit lucky with Lukaku as he was blocked at Chelsea and didn’t want to wait.

We aren’t disagreeing really. My point is that alcohol or gambling is not inherently dangerous in the same way some other things are. This is true even for an addict. One beer or one bet is not going to destroy your life. It is that addiction makes it nigh impossible to stop at one. It is the escalation and abuse of these things that is the issue. In any case we’ve strayed a bit off topic so we can leave it there and move on to more important things like how big the script will be on our kits.

But again you’re going from a few beers to an abusive level. For an addict of course any alcohol at all is an issue and can lead to some very bad outcomes. Most people aren’t addicts though. They have their few beers and stop and are no worse for it. That’s what distinguishes alcohol from nicotine or heroin. Those things, even in small doses, are poison. With alcohol you need to get to an abusive level before it’s starts to be physically damaging. This is not to say alcohol isn’t a dangerous and destructive force in society. It certainly is. It just isn’t inherently so. In the same way a sleeping pill isn’t inherently bad but 7 sleeping pills are potentially deadly. I tend to error on the side of personal responsibility and choice. I’m all for programs that warn people about the potential dangers involved with alcohol, gambling, fatty foods etc.. I’m all for programs that serve to help people who develop an addiction to those things. I simply think it’s a person’s choice whether they want to have a drink or place a bet and aside from age restrictions and the like they should be allowed to do so. I believe the implications of protecting adults from themselves in matters like these is worse than allowing them to make a bad decision.

What I tend to care about are the direct quotes. Why would a player say “When I talk about leaving a club” if that was not on his mind and hadn’t been communicated? The most favorable reading of that from a perspective of him staying is that he’s intentionally doing that to strengthen his negotiating position. But this doesn’t seem in character for Richarlison and it’s also unnecessary. He can tell the club “Look unless I get X I’m going to ask for a transfer”. There isn’t a need to put anything in the press as you’ve already told the club. In fact putting yourself in the window like that could even hurt your chances as it hurts the club’s negotiating position and might make them less likely to sell. All things being equal the simplest explanation is usually correct and in this case the simplest explanation for a player to mention leaving the club is that he wants to leave the club.

If somebody asked you about if you planned to leave your wife and you responded “it’s difficult for me to talk about leaving my wife” I expect we/and your wife could guess your intentions. He could have answered by saying he didn’t want to leave. He could have answered vaguely and said we will just see what happens this summer. He answered in a way that makes it pretty clear he’s spoken to management about leaving but finds it uncomfortable to talk about because he loves the fans. Any other reading , for me, is very wishful thinking. It’s also very possible, given our financial situation, that Richarlison being sold this window is best for everyone, much as we like him as a player.

I’m not sure how it works in the UK but I would imagine you’d lose in court pretty handily where I am trying to do that It’s a hard road to ban a company selling a legal product from promoting its businesses. You’d be doing billions of dollars of damage to major industries. Without getting into whether that would be good or bad for society, I think it’s unrealistic. Gambling in particular is deeply tied to the English game. The majority of the best 50 or so teams in the country have gambling sponsors, you can bet in stadiums, people play fantasy football etc.. It would also open the door for other things. Nike has had a problematic history with some of its practices for instance. What about owners from Russia, Saudi Arabia etc.. with connections to problematic regimes. I’m not sure how much you can ban alcohol or gambling companies without opening up that can of worms.

We desperately need a crosser of the ball. No Digne, an aging Seamus and two wingers who prefer to play more directly does no favors to DCL. Gordon is going to be potentially very frustrating as we move forward as he’s rapid and dangerous but can be headless as you’ve alluded to. He’s a bit of a Richarlison clone for good or for bad. Hopefully he can take that next step and spends the summer working on his crossing and his finishing every day. Of course then we will have to sell him to Man U but that’s an issue for a different day. I’m very curious what the preferred midfield will be. I strongly believe he’s going to give Ali his shot. Wasn’t the time to work him in much in a relegation fight but he’s our best current option for a guy who can pull the strings. But who does that leave. Doucoure one assumes..Iwobi has earned his look. I’m not high on Allan given his aging legs but removing him and Delph leaves us without a true defense mid in there. Davies could be in the mix if he comes back well. I’d also assume we bring at least one in. I just really don’t have a good handle on the ideal situation there other than to say if we lose Richie I think you have to give Dele a chance as we will need the creativity

Some of that will change on its own though. A healthy DCL helps improve us. Gordon maturing some. Gray as well. Ali and Iwobi with more time under Lampard. I’ll be curious if we see how Frank actually wants to play or if it is again “this is what we have” for now. My question was more about how specially would you look to improve our attack? It’s not obvious to me in a limited budget what we will try to do there other than a backup striker and I suppose a winger option. I actually like Townsend as a bench guy. Decent player to bring on chasing a goal or using his experience to see out a game.

So let’s say we sell Richie. I’ll be generous and say Ali gets his shot. Gray, DCL, Gordon, Ali/Iwobi. Which position would you prioritize bringing into our attack as a starting 11 player?

The journalists from around the world aren’t relevant though. I agree that most of that is just rumors not to be taken seriously. What is relevant is that Richarlison himself has talked about why it’s difficult for him to discuss leaving a club because he loves the fans etc.. The implication there is as clear as we are likely to get. He’s a good soldier and he’s not going to hurt the club by being publicly difficult about a move but he’s obviously told them he’d like to go. There is probably some chance we don’t get a great offer and we put him on 150k a week and he stays but I think it’s pretty obvious at this point he’d like a move. Also, even without the rumors and quotes, it makes all the sense in the world for a player of his age and ability to leave. Particularly as it would help our finances a lot. We had our window to become a club he might stay at and we couldn’t make it happen.

The overwhelming majority of people that gamble or drink are not addicts. I’m not sure where your statistics come from that a big % of addicts become addicted after their first bet but let’s assume that’s true. By your logic you would have to ban other things that can potentially lead to addiction. No drinking because many people become addicts soon after. No cigarettes for the same reason. No pornography of course because people can easily become addicted and it can ruin lives. You end up with quite a restrictive society. Personally, I don’t like my government that intrusive. If you’re going to have a free society there has to be a certain amount of allowing people to make bad decisions if they want to.

Read your own comments back. “He says it’s difficult to talk about leaving”. No player would ever say this if he wasn’t having conversations about leaving. If you need him to say outright “I want to leave Everton” it’s unlikely to happen. Would be bad for the club and likely bad for him personally.

Again, he says “when I talk about leaving a club…” There aren’t many lines to read between there. He makes the point that he doesn’t like to do that publicly because of the fans etc.. Which is classy but also a clear indication he’s talked about leaving the club. For what reason would a player ever say that if they hadn’t had those discussions? If he was planning to stay he would never say “when I talk about leaving”.

They have 1000 avenues already to make a bet though. Stake.com’s goal is more likely to want a bigger piece of the already existing pie. More exposure for them means more gambling minded people see their brand and perhaps give it a try. I’m sure somewhere there will be young people whose first bet is through stake.com but if they are that susceptible I imagine they’d have bet somewhere else if that didn’t exist. Given they have deals with the UFC, Drake, Aguero etc.. I think the goal is to just get their name out there as much as possible.

Dangerous road for a government to start imposing on the rights of its citizens to make choices for themselves. Fine line between public health concerns and oppression.

Yeah if he was a 10% better finisher and decision maker in the final third he’d be very special. As is he’s still a good well rounded winger who works very hard but not quite at that world class level

We do though. Nevermind the general feeling before he said anything that he’d look for a move this summer . He was directly quoted as saying “when I talk about leaving a club..” etc.. which means he has talked about leaving our club. I suppose you could say they made up a direct quote but, barring that, he’s had those discussions.

I would argue that nicotine or heroin is inherently toxic, even in moderation. Of course people can find a way to live with it but it’s always damaging to some degree. A few beers or glasses of wine a week doesn’t have any real negative health consequences.

Haha. Right and at least in the states most gambling companies have warnings/hotlines etc.. dealing with addiction. I just think if you’re allowing gambling in stadiums or on fantasy football etc.. it’s a bit rich to say that a shirt sponsor is too far. It’s also slightly insulting in my view to say that someone with a serious addiction is so easily swayed by “stake.com” or a picture of a beer. It diminishes what’s really at play there. I don’t mean to diminish the seriousness of these addictions, I know many people affected, as do we all. I just believe a free country is the right to have personal responsibility and make choices/even destructive ones as long as what you’re doing is not inherently dangerous. * In the U.S. in New York State they tried banning “Big Gulp” drinks that are 72 or 144 Oz. You should have seen the backlash. You’d have thought they took away the vote.