Hafnia

Don't even dare call me a racist. I object to the very insult. Now jog on and do your Pro Belgian trolling else where. You are lucky I haven't submitted a complaint to your post as the allegation is factually incorrect and is a serious allegation. As it happens, your posts regarding Belgian players aren't even balanced, pure idiotic, you used to vote for Mirallas as MOTM when he had a stinker and other players were head and shoulders better. You have turned your particpation in this forum into a "Don't care about Everton, just following the belgian players" - then actually use this place as a means to troll when we are playing Chelsea. If you take my objection to such behaviour as racisim then you are an idiot, My objection to it is to stop you behaving like some Pro Belgian campaigner when you have no reason to campaign. It has been stated on here many a time that the belgian national team is a strong looking group of players who should do well. Surely thats enough to quench your insatiable need to have your ego massaged? Now politely - do one.

A few years ago I would have been coming out with what you are regarding McCarthy. Appreciation changes with age. Tempo, positional discipline, awareness are just the things you aren't seeing at all. Makes me laugh, if he was at United he would be the new Roy Keane to all the pundits. We would have seen montages as to why. I'm happy that he hasn't had such publicity. One of my mates who is a Liverpool season ticket holder and played a fair bit rates him as the player they should have got, far better than Allen and Henderson.

From the perspective of "reading Lukaku" my opinion is that he is kid in a mans body. He has a lot to learn but values himself as champions league player as stated in previous interviews. His support of Anelka was stupid - if Ross Barkley had come out with that statement then the english press would have ripped him apart - being foreign I believe Lukaku escaped that one lightly. In short, hugging the manager etc etc means nothing - he will go to the club that is best for his ambitions and pocket.

He had an 88% pass completion for Wigan in the season they were relegated. He had a 78% pass completion last season for us with average pass length of 22m. Show me a player with 100% and I will show you a player who doesn't make many passes. Not too sure you can accomodate for slipping - i've seen many players do that this season and the pitch at the Emirates has come in for some heavy criticism from players. He is pretty near the finished article technically and tactically - the rest of his development will be physically and mentally. Tactically he is years ahead of his age, technically he will not improve much at all (see Lukaku), physically he will get stronger which will be a great asset to his tremendous stamina - mentally he just needs to get a bit more "dominant", more confident, become a leader because for me he is the closest thing we have to a real captain in years.

If I said Tin Tin was the worst cartoon I have ever seen and that Stella wasn't exactly my favourite beer you would probably say that I was talking nonsense. BTW, just to get this one straight too:- Neville Southall was twice the keeper that Jean Marie Pfaff was.

Fellaini was on £75k a week or something like that.... Has it been confirmed that he is going to be offered £80k a week? Either way i'm not really too moved by this, if he is on £40k a week then yeah maybe the next increment is £60k to be put alongside the likes of Jags - I just don't believe that he gets a double your salary deal after one season. I played football against a lad in the west cheshire prem - had been at a few clubs as a young lad but never quite made it, it was my job to keep him quiet at centre mid. After the game I knew why he had been at a few clubs and I couldn't work out why he was playing at west cheshire level, I literally didn't get anywhere near him. What did he do??? In all the 90 minutes he took no more than 2 touches of the ball but must have had 150 touches in the game. He didn't dribble past me once, he never got any shots away, he never made any defence splitting passes, but he never misplaced a pass, he managed to evade me every time to receive the ball off a team mate and lay it off, he broke down our play and gave it to a team mate. I did manage to foul him with 5 minutes to go - that was about it. Up till that game I had played against fancydan midfielders who were so called superstars, every one of them allowed me to get a leveller on them, a proper hard tackle where they let themselves be put in a position where they were made to look like a fool. Yeah, they did the odd nice thing and let fly from 30 yards but I was able to get near them. McCarthy reminds me of that lad I could not get near - my mate who was watching said "I thought that lad was meant to be amazing, he didn't do anything" - my response was "he is, the best player i've played against". Without that lad in their team we would have won that game - simple as that. McCarthy's worth is just not appreciated for what it should be.

Dave Biggar... previous role was Sales Director at "Atlanta Dream" - 1 year he held that role for... got to be honest the club needs a proper restructure doing. I have absolutely zero faith that we will replace him with the right talent, corporately I don't like the noises that I hear coming out of the club, everything smacks of pure amateurish "jobs for boys" - don't rock my world and I wont rock yours. First person to look at for me is Elstone - the way Alan Myers left the club after sorting out the badge fiasco and basically reigniting the right relations between fans and the club stunk and clearly there was something more to it. Some fans will look at reducing debt and increased TV money etc etc - commercially and professionally we have been left standing for years. The club that did the first overseas tour, first matchday programme etc etc - we now are lucky to be able to copy the initiatives that other clubs do. We are quite good at getting Non Disclosure Agreements nailed though.

Alcaraz Prison, boom boom! - he's a funny guy is Antolin

Bony is 25, 8 months older than Gareth bale. For me he demonstrates attributes that I don't see romelu developing. Excellent link up play, holding the ball up, and aerial ability. I would not be surprised if Chelsea or arsenal came in for him.

My guess is that the deal will double his weages "eventually" in increments.

I think they are an effective barometer to be honest - like a diary... seriously go in and have a look. I was going to copy and paste comments in but not getting petty, they do indicate big concerns regarding a players ability to control and pass a ball. Who goes missing and appears lazy when things aren't going his way. Listen, if we sign him he gets 100% support and I trust Martinez to make the best use of his budget.

I just reviewed the match comments for Palace and Southampton - 2 key games. The comments regarding Lukaku were pretty much summarising that he hadn't controlled a single pass, that he was a waste of space etc etc. I don't fall for this goals per games ratio nonsense - its what you do in the games and the ones where you don't score. Its all very well doing it in fits and starts and getting 2 goals here and there - what do they do when the team really is needing them and we need the ball to stick up front. I observed him closely in a good few games last year and basically whilst he can impress with his dynamic nature "running on the ball" and getting the odd goal, he just really is lacking in areas which forum comments picked up in the above mentioned games.

I'm simply going to draw a line under this one as being - for what he is going to cost he isn't going to offer us what we need. Yes goals he will score, and some will be happy with 15 goals a season, for me that simply isn't enough - cast your minds back to the games where he wasn't scoring - he offers very little else IMO and some comments regarding him justify this. A poor touch and poor ability to find a team mate. If we had the luxury of money then I would get him as a player for the last 20 minutes - where his energy can be concentrated and his size can unsettle defenders.

Because they are the single focal point. Strikers are a different breed, they don't like passing when they can shoot and end up sharing the spoils - if there is only one then it takes away that issue. This season I seen Suarez and Sturridge score very well but in all honesty it wasnt without its problems, the madness is they could have scored more. Biggest example is Rooney, as the single point of focus striker he scored more goals than any other season. Even with Berbatov, Berbatov dropped into a number 10 role.

Lets properly throw our hat in the ring, starting bid £17m to let the player know we mean business and then take it from there. He enjoyed Europe last season and i'm sure he would like to meet up with Kone. I don't like our players getting unsettled, but thats the way other clubs go about it. Monk will look at that money as a means of strengthening their team - £20m will be the magic number I think. Get it done Bobby.

As a lone striker you expect more goals for a team that finishes in the top 6 IMO, last season Berbatov, Lambert, Michu, Benteke scored 15+ playing as lone striker. Fellaini scored 11 goals from attacking mid last year. All I am saying is that 15 goals isn't a massive landmark for a striker especially when the team scored their highest premier league points total. He did well - don't think i'm slating him but he is being vastly over rated and people are using age and 15 goals as some sort of justification. We are talking about Everton spending £20m on a player who has a fair few flaws here.

For me he is the one who I would spend the £££ on, he is the finished article - reminds me of Alan Shearer. Holds up the ball very well, probably the strongest player in the league - look at this link (brilliant) http://talkingbaws.com/2014/02/09/5-examples-of-why-swanseas-wilfried-bony-is-the-strongest-striker-in-the-world/ He has more of leaders mentality - bosses defenders, has pace, can pass well, good touch. For me £20m gets a player who does what it says on the tin - build up play, lone striker, determined, hard working, good in the air, scores goals. With Lukaku if you could gurantee me that he will develop the footballing attributes I would gladly spend £20m but I think the player you see now is 95% of the player he will be at best. For me Bony is the real deal and in a team that generates more chances you are looking at a £40m striker.

I would have loved to have seen the 2009-2011 Louis Saha play in this Martinez set up. If we did it would put Lukaku into a real perspective. I would have backed that version of Louis Saha to net 20 goals+ and get a fair few assists... if we had seen that, then some fans would be far less desperate to get Lukaku. That's the problem, Everton fans have become brain washed into thinking 15 goals is a miracle for a striker to score. Jay Rodriguez scored that for Southampton this season.

The reality is that spurs can't keep a £15m asset on the bench and dictate who he will go to if Dembele wants to play in europe etc.

lets be honest Spurs have a ridiculous amount of options in midfield, they can't keep them all happy.

It invariably means that you end up seeing Paul Inces fat face on Sky every time we play, where he will be using every opportunity to plug his son. Tom Ince comes with the ego associated with top prem players and he is in reality a lower level prem player - for me he is the wrong type of signing. The club has a good crop of young lads coming through who have worked their socks off to get where they are and I don't want this lad giving it the BIG I AM after getting a privledged start because of who he is. In reality he has does nothing.

People going mad for those goals by 21st birthday. He was playing for anderlecht first team at 16 years old and had done 33 goals in 70 odd games whilst still 17... The lad was probably growing pubes whilst his class mates were getting rid of their baby teeth.

Apparently Jags was like a mentor to Stones on the games he was covering Jags injury - he would go into changing rooms at half time to talk him through how he was doing to give advice etc.

Bentner is one bad beaut

Playing for Boca soon to be 36.