Zoo 2.0

Which is exactly what I've said twice on this forum in other threads, I was simply answering the questions that you'd asked earlier after misunderstanding/not reading the article that was posted. Glad we are in agreement.

I don't know if you've missed the point completely, or just didn't understand what was being reported. VAR is potentially scrapped for this season as gathering officials together in a room isn't great for the welfare of those involved, removing the system altogether (when it's not exactly well received at the moment) is a logical thing to do if the game is to resume. As for the extra subs, players are going from no football at all to a congested fixture list so allowing more subs (or roll on/roll off) is common sense to allow injuries to be minimised - many players have been calling for this so again, a logical thing to do.

I'm staying away from this topic of conversation as much as I can, but Gary Neville hit the nail on the head yesterday. The fact that footballers will be given priority of tests ahead of the general public in order to kick a bag of wind around a pitch doesn't sit right with me when you've got hundreds of the general public dying each day due to the lack of testing and being infected with the deadliest virus to hit the UK and Europe in my lifetime. It's not because it's Liverpool, because for what it's worth I've said before I wouldn't begrudge giving them the title as they're so far ahead but this is public safety and once again the money making snowball that is the English Premier League is kicked into action in order to fund what is quite literally a billion pound industry that refuses to stop even for a worldwide pandemic. My love for the sport of football will never, ever die. But my passion for the Premier League (and others in Europe for that matter) has been slowly dwindling for a while now. The coronavirus has hit home a few home truths regarding football that I wanted to ignore, but simply cannot now. If the season restarts while the UK is in this current climate, I have no interest in following it or having any form of attachment to the results - Everton included.

When a manager who has won the Champions League with three different clubs, including countless league titles and trophies as both player and coach wants a specific signing, then you can't really disagree. If Carlo Ancelotti puts anyone at the top of his transfer list, then he should be signed regardless of public opinion.

I think it's too early to say really, if the virus lasts in full force until August/September then I think the best solution would be to void the season and start the new one behind closed doors or with staggered seating in the crowd. Taking bias out of the equation, every effort should be made to finish the season. If it was the other way around and we were 14,000 points clear you'd be miffed to say the least that the season had been cancelled, when so many options are still available. I'm personally in favour of temporarily restructuring the calendar so that the summer break moves to winter, which would help no end in 2022 when the World Cup starts in Qatar.

It works both ways though, if everyone is having to sell due to unforseen loss of income then there won't be tons of clubs throwing money around as they can't afford to spend themselves - as exciting as the prospect of cheap transfers is, there's absolutely no way that clubs will sell plays for 50% less than what they are worth when money could be saved in other areas such as staff redundancies, selling property and government grants. As you mentioned Barcelona, they will look to swap Greizmann with Neymar as this is a deal that has been in the works for over six months, along with Ivan Rakatic who they've been trying to flog all season. As you rightly pointed out, Ter Stegen, Messi and De Jong will be going nowhere. As for the transfer window in general, I don't think there will be much movement at all. Clubs will not have the money to spend that they normally do and will probably focus on the summer after next for any big targets, especially as this is when the European Championships will be starting and some bargains will be found throughout the lesser known nations. For us, Brands has always said that he wants to get to a point where we bring in 1-2 players a window as signing 11 and 12 players is just insane. I think we will probably add a center back (Gabriel?) and a right-back to replace Sidibe and compete with Coleman/Kenny. A number 10 is needed too, but after that I think the line will be drawn, 3 players in maximum with the option to then add a further one or two in January.

He's a decent option for Porto, but given his age would only really give a maximum of three years until heading into the twilight stage of his career, I don't think he is a big enough name to command such a late transfer - there's countless players half his age that would do a similar job or better, not to mention that it's not an area of the pitch that we desperately need to strengthen. Liga NOS (Portugal), like the Eridivisie (Holland) is at the top of the "B" tier for me and unfortunately players can look a lot better than they are due to the standard of opposition. For every João Felix you'll find a Renato Sanches, with no guarantee of what is being purchased. It's a big step up to play in England and not one that every export can deal with. It's just too much of a gamble for me, Porto and Benfica are renowned for being tough negotiators, simply because they have to be in order to compete in Europe so we would not be signing Corona on the cheap, he'd be a considerable transfer. It's a no from me, although I don't believe we're in for him. He seems to go against the foundations that Brands' has been building and for what we would spend, money could be put to better use (i.e - off the top of my head, Grealish).

With the European Championships on the horizon he won't risk going off the grid with a spell in the Championship with Villa, regardless of where they finish this season he will be off I think. A new challenge has been long overdue for Jack and it's only been so long coming due to his unwavering loyalty towards his boyhood club - something that really should be applauded. I don't think we will sign him, simply because Manchester United have been all over him for years now and regardless of recent struggles they are still one of the biggest clubs in the world - there's an argument to suggest that they are starting to take shape under Ole too, with the good times not too far in the distant future. He will be seen as a cheaper alternative to Jason Sancho, who will most likely demand a nine figure sum to move from Dortmund. He would improve us no doubt though, lovely amount of flair and a hard shell, pretty much everything that you'd want in a creative midfielder. Anyone saying that we shouldn't go for him, or that he wouldn't come because he's too good for us isn't thinking big enough, the great sides didn't become great sides by being modest, you have to sign to improve - not stay sitting down.

Hard to argue against FC Barcelona's 2010/11 side which revolutionised tiki-taka and took the national team to back to back European Championships and a World Cup win, all in dominant fashion. To not only be great yourselves, but lay down the foundations for others to dominate too is the sign of true masterclass - similar to how the Ajax side of the early 1970's should be praised for their revolutionary Total Football, something that Pep Guardiola would build on 40 years later. Barcelona themselves were from another planet that year, winning the Champions League and romping La Liga receiving praise from Sir Alex Ferguson in the process as he dubbed them the "greatest side he had ever faced". Lionel Messi started to hit his peak form too with over 50 goals in a single season, backed up by one of the best midfield trios that football has ever seen; Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets. On another note, praise must go to Jose Mourinho for what he has done in the game, it's fashionable to point out his weaknesses now, perhaps he has been in the game too long but you cannot question that in his peak he was the best manager on the planet. Taking the reigns of FC Porto and taking them all the way to Champions League with a strong emphasis on organisation and professional fouls. Landing in England and taking Chelsea to their first Premier League title in dominant fashion before winding up at Italy and giving Internazionale a Champions League title. Never has a statement been so bold and accurate, he is not one from the bottle, a true special one.

Gareth Bale signed a record breaking £1,000,000 p/w deal to move to China, it was only Florentino Perez (Real Madrid's President) blocking the deal at the eleventh hour which stopped it going through. There's absolutely no way that he would leave for less than half of that, especially when he has all but confirmed he has little interest in football and prefers to play golf. He has stated numerous times that he is settled in Madrid and regardless of not playing will see out his contract. He won't be moving to anyone any time soon, let alone us. Aaron Ramsey was always criminally underrated IMO, it's only that Juventus have the most depth out of anyone in Europe that he isn't getting a game each week - the wages that he would demand would be phenomenal though (he's on around £400,000 p/w) at the moment so is a non starter for me.

It's a country with an insanely crammed population who in some cases are forced to live in appalling conditions. Despite being a rich economy and advanced in many ways, the level of hygiene is not something that you would find relatable in the UK or US. A lot of communities still deal with sickness with more traditional methods too as opposed to turning to medicine, so diseases can last for longer untreated and manifest into the likes of SARS, bird flu and coronavirus. Where you have an overcrowding population, you'll always have rampant disease as a side effect.

Congratulations @Romey 1878, time to head on outside now . A top bloke in all seriousness, introduced me to a ton of class bands back in the Last.FM days and someone who has been synonymous with Toffee talk as I've drifted in and out of activeness. Here's to another 50k!

I'd have fantastic work rate if I played for Everton, it's not an attribute that alone should place one player above another as it's a trait that can be switched on or off depending on the environment that that player is playing in. Under Ancelotti, Sidibe's work rate is great however I'm sure that would change if we were playing in League Two under a part-time manager on work experience. Whoever we sign should have good work rate, so I wouldn't use it as an indicator on whether we should sign Djibril on a permanent basis. For what it's worth I wouldn't, he's shown occasional brilliance but is unbelievably prone to losing his runner, the bread and butter for any defender and sloppy with the ball at his feet. Overall not good enough for an elite Premier League side which is what we want to be - the money that we would spend to sign him should be used to tie down someone with the ability to improve us. Exactly.

I have to admit I was surprised at how many people were playing down Chelsea before the game, they aren't the machine that they were under Jose Mourinho but are still a very good outfit under a very good manager in Frank Lampard. I didn't expect anything from today, especially given out record at Stanford Bridge but seem to be in the minority. I've said it before but the remaining games are glorified friendlies for me, there is so much mess to fix that Walsh, Koeman, Sam and Silva left behind that will take a good summer to clear out and repair. We're never going to tear up trees with an obvious problem at right-back and a questionable centre midfield partnership. There are more than a handful of players that quite simply aren't good enough for European football which is exactly where we want to be so away trips to Arsenal and Chelsea will always see us second best and underdogs. Onto the next one, learn that bit more about each player and see where Carlo takes us in 2020/21.

Tremendous gratitude to Ferguson and Ancelotti for how they have worked with Dom and improved him into the player that we see today, it wasn't 6 months ago that my opinion of him was that he was a decent striker, but never going to be good enough for a team wanting to play consistently in Europe - nor Everton in the long term. He has come on leaps and bounds this season, seems to have bulked up and become that bit more aggressive. Bullying defenders week in and week out whilst having the end product to score goals - the bread and butter for any striker wanting to make it big in the professional game. Just my opinion of course, but the fact he has gone from "take him or leave him" to a key figure in our long term plans is fantastic, and long may it continue. People seem to forget that the best signings you can make are internal, tying Mason and Calvert-Lewin down to long term deals is some of the best business we will do this season.

Football is no longer a sport, it's a commercial entity that's geared towards people who don't go the game and get their football fix from internet streams and a PlayStation. The game as we know it has gone, goals aren't celebrated anymore in stadiums because VAR looms over every decision like an unwelcome fart at a dinner party and when these decisions are "analysed" the matchday fan doesn't see a thing. Commerically, the Premier League has never been better which is what those at the top want. There will never be another Leicester City because it won't be allowed - Manchester United being a mid-table team on the field yet +6-8 points directly because of VAR speaks volumes. Money talks, and god forbid Manchester United Ltd ended up in the wilderness of the bottom half. I'm surprised about how uninterested I am to the whole situation, my love for the Premier League evaporates with every passing match-day. So proud of Carlo though, he gets it.

I could understand this conversation potentially taking place 10 years ago but not now, if you don't invest in the multi millions then you will quite literally be left behind and sleepwalk into the Championship. When you have Manchester City, Liverpool, United and Chelsea all being bank-rolled to take anything out of them is going to take similar (if not more) cash. Not to mention that on the European stage you have PSG, Real Madrid etc all throwing around paper like it's going out of fashion. I want us to win, @Romey 1878 summed it up perfectly. I don't get excited about being mid-table and any investment is good for us as it gets us that step closer to being the Champions League, flirt with a league title kind of team that we all dream of. It won't happen overnight, but Carlo Ancelotti is leaps and bounds better than anything I've seen at Everton in my lifetime so serious investment alongside his management is something that will only get praise from me.

Tin foil hats at the ready but this could be another Manchester City sponsorship model in the sense that (if rumours are to be believed) they announce a £100 million shirt sponsorship deal with the sponsor actually paying around £2,000,000 with the other £98,000,000 being "gifted" to the sponsor through family friends of the owners to be pumped back into the club, it's a way of funding the club without it being seen by FFP as it's part of the club's genuine income stream - Manchester City and PSG are the known two that do it although I'm sure there will be more. Odd time for me to say this I know with the recent City/FFP story breaking but you never know, I wouldn't be surprised to see USM/Megafon announced in a record breaking deal that's funded by Usmanov, Moshiri and whoever else already at the club recycling cash. I'm happy about the news too, I wasn't that bothered about SportPesa in truth but given the option I'd steer clear of gambling companies, I'm part of the lucky group that can gamble and walk away as and when whoever there's the unfortunate percentage of folk that let it take a hold of their life. It won't happen, but I'd love it if there was a rule where the chest sponsor could be whoever each club wanted but the sleeve has to be a registered charity (i.e. - EITC, a hospice, mental health awareness) would allow 20 charities to get exposure each weekend without paying a penny. Think of the amount of people who go the game with a phone in their pocket (pretty much 100%). If even 10% install the app after seeing the adverts they're making some nice money - especially when said people get hooked and tell their mates.

I know I'm in the minority here, but I can't fathom why people pay monthly for phones. I've never once paid monthly for one as like anything else, you work out what you can afford and pay for it outright. Never understood why paying bit-by-bit is the norm when it comes to mobiles yet not anywhere else. It's a bit like going to Tesco and then asking to pay off your shopping in £10 monthly intervals.

Shame to hear that the derby was called off due to the windy conditions although you can understand their reasoning - safety has to come first. There's been a lot of damage in my town too including the local cheese factory. Debrie everywhere.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think we have anything to fear against Arsenal but anyone thinking that this will be an easy win need to have a look at themselves (not specifically anyone on here, Twitter mostly). They are still a good side capable of hurting anyone on their day and they've got home advantage - not to mention that they've now got a very good manager in Arteta. They're in a transitional stage at the moment but will be a different beast once he's had time to mould them and has had a summer window to get rid of the deadwood and bring in his own players, I just hope that they continue to be hot and cold and have one of their off days against us. Coleman, Holgate, Mina and Digne as the back line for me (JP in goal). Schneiderlin in the middle with Andre Gomes (if fit) alongside to play box to box, if not then I'd give Sigurdsson the nod again although I thought he was a bit anonymous against Palace. Arsenal have a real Achilles heel in their centre back pairing for me, David Luiz I've never understood the fascination with and Mustafi has been stealing a living for a while now. Both DCL and Kean up front bullying them would work well IMO with Richarlison and Bernard operating as inside forwards, basically giving us four options in the final third to attack with. I'd have him as the last option to be honest, I don't think he has done anything of note to justify walking straight back into the XI. Long term I'd be happy with calling it a day with him in summer too, just don't think he's the kind of player that we need going forward.

The defending for all goals was woeful to be honest, the Richarlison goal was arguably the one you could let slide for me, just because of how fast he was able to break away. For the first goal there's absolutely nobody near Bernard (as they'd played three in the middle with Zaha and Ayew really advanced) which was always going to cause problems. For the third goal DCL is in a totally different postcode, he has time to flick the kettle on back home and get back in time to stick the ball in the back of the net he's so alone, criminal to give someone such space in the box at a Premier League game but it'll get no complaints from me. Driving home I heard that they've got one of the worst scoring records in the whole division and have relied on a solid back line to keep them out of trouble. With a lot of time between now and May coupled with the fact that the transfer window is closed they could be a dark horse for relegation.

Could have been so much different that, we were very much second best at the start of the second half and scored through Richarlison completely against the run of play. It took a massive save from Pickford to keep it at 2-1 too as we did our best to shoot ourselves in the foot. I thought for the first 45 minutes we were very dominant and hardly gave Palace a sniff, with them playing three through the middle we were always going to have fun down the wings and it was no surprise to see a cross from the right flank be met by Bernard on the left. A few moments later DCL was inches from scoring to double the lead but just couldn't get there. As I've already mentioned, at the start of the second half we were woeful. So scrappy with our ball movement and playing at such a jittery tempo, we allowed them right back into it and conceded through a very soft goal - Mina not getting tight enough and Jordan allowing what was a weak shot to slip through his legs (I'll have to see the goal again to see if it was deflected as I'm stunned that such a tame shot was able to find the back of the net). Richarlison was fantastic today though and pulled us back into the game, Sidibe was totally unmarked on the right wing but to his credit Charlie went all the way. DCL then finishing the job with a tap-in late in the day and no less than he deserved after another solid graft. Disappointed to see Walcott leave the game so early, so fingers crossed his (knee?) injury isn't too serious. Coming away from the game I'm hearing that we're right behind the Top 4 now which is astounding considering where we were at under Marco Silva - Ancelotti is a God Heart skipped a beat when DCL blazed over in the final few minutes too, I had Bernard to score first and us to win 3-1, never wanted a shot to both go into the back of the net and about twenty feet over the bar in all my life. Edit: Just seen Benteke's goal, it's really poor from Pickford to be honest and he won't want to see it back. Just doesn't get his feet and hands sorted quick enough and in the end just let's the ball squeeze under him, would have been better just saving with his feet although you'd expect a Premier League goalkeeper to scoop that up (with hands) for fun.

He has mostly been used as a sub in the latter third of Madrid's games, it's not as though he is getting the minutes that he would have been expecting. He removed himself from the warm down training after their last game and as a result was totally absent from the squad to face Real Valladolid. After much hype (unjustified I might add) his career at Real only seems to be heading one way and that's the exit door. Another South American to add to the conveyor belt.