lilpyrokid951

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=6354899 ESPN's list of the highest paying sports teams in the world. Everton comes in at 120th. Interesting and a little bit depressing to see some teams like Newcastle, Pompey and West Ham ahead of us on the list.

tbh i wouldn't want to qualify via fair play. it would mean we'd have to start from the 1st qualifying round and our season would start in early july. not exactly good for such a small squad like ours to start the season a month earlier. remember aston villa 3 seasons ago when they did so well for most of the season and were looking like they could finish in the top 4? they started their season early that year since they qualified for europe via the intertoto cup and come the end of the season they were incredibly tired and ended up dropping from 3rd in the league to finishing in 6th behind us.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story/_/id/909100/premier-league-clubs-in-limbo-over-european-qualification?cc=5901 Just read this article. Seems our hopes of qualifying for Europa League via league position are a bit complicated. I originally thought that only whoever finishes 5th in the league would get a spot in Europe, with the other two spots going to Birmingham since they won the Carling Cup, and to Stoke since they're in the FA Cup final (I thought they'd get a spot win or lose because Man City are sure to qualify for either Champions League or Europa League through their final position in the Premier League). Apparently in the case of the qualifier from the FA cup, it's not quite that simple. Before the UEFA cup became Europa League, it was simple in the sense that the winners of both the Carling Cup and FA Cup would qualify for UEFA cup if they didn't qualify for either of the European competitions through some other channel, be it final position in the league or through the fair play league. If it were the case that the winners of either of the cups qualified through either European competition through some other route, then the spot they earned by winning the cup would go to the runners up of the competitions. Here's where it gets a bit complicated. After the rebranding of the UEFA Cup to the Europa League, the qualification criteria when it comes to the domestic cups changed. In the case of both the Carling and FA Cup, the winners of both are still awarded a spot in the Europa League. However if the winner of either of the cups qualifies for either Champs League or Europa League through some other route, then things get a bit messy. If it's the case that the winner of the cup has already qualified for Europe through some other route, the runner up of that cup is only awarded a spot in Europa League if the winner of the cup qualifies for Champions League. To put it into perspective, here are a few scenarios: 1. Stoke wins the FA Cup. They get a spot in the Europa League with the other two spots going to Birmingham (winners of the Carling Cup) and whoever finishes 5th in the Premier League. 2. Man City wins the FA Cup, and finish in the top 4 of the Premier League. Stoke gets a spot in the Europa League, with the other two going to Birmingham and 5th place finishers in the Premier league. 3. Man City wins the FA cup, and finish 5th in the League. The Europa League spots go to Man City as FA Cup winners, Birmingham and the team who finishes 6th in the Premier League. 4. Man City wins the FA cup, and finish 6th or lower in the League. The Europa League spots go to Man City as FA Cup winners, Birmingham and the team who finishes 5th in the Premier League. In terms of what each of those means for us, the 1st and 2nd scenarios are the worst for us as it means we have to finish 5th in the League to get a Europa League spot which is nearly impossible (if not mathematically impossible?) for us at this point. The 3rd scenario is the best for us, with the 4th one being not quite as good. In the case of the 3rd scenario, so long as Man City finish 5th and the 4 teams above them are Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs, that means we only have to overhaul Liverpool to finish in 6th and get the last Europa League spot. Thoughts?

that was how we lined up against newcastle and birmingham wasn't it? right before arteta got injured

difference is that felli has actually said "i want to sign a new deal", unlike pienaar who was being vague about his desires. just because pienaar said he loved playing here doesn't mean he wanted to sign a new deal. "I’ve never once said that I want to leave Everton" does not mean he wants to stay or sign a new deal, whereas felli saying he's ready and waiting to begin negotiations over a new contract does.

hoping we'll actually get to see magaye today. wouldn't mind seeing vellios either

http://atdhenet.tv/36206/watch-everton-vs-aston-villa

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story/_/id/881312/hubbard:-seeds-of-doubt-over-david-moyes'-everton-future?cc=5901 another article saying it's time for moyes to leave. what do you all think? do you agree that the moyes era feels like it's coming to an end? if yes, where do you think we should go from here? if no, what do you think needs to be changed to get our long term plan back on track? personally, i see it two ways: 1) kenwright sells/we get significant investment so that we can refresh the squad we have. moyes stays, essentially just get rid of the dead weight players and combine giving rodwell, gueye and coleman more central roles with bringing in some proven quality 2) kenwright keeps the club, moyes walks, bring in a new manager, we sell one or two of the biggest players (fellaini, rodwell, etc.) and reinvest that in young players while also getting rid of/phasing out some of the older players (neville, distin, saha, cahill) while also getting rid of the deadweight (bily, heitinga). this would essentially put us into a "rebuilding" stage where it would be at least several years before we get back to where we were two seasons ago (imo we've regressed from the level we were at two years ago) i can't see moyes staying through the summer if we don't get any significant investment. all his body language and words give the impression that he's fed up with everything he's had to deal with here. What do you all think?

agree with you there. there have been more than a few times this season when i would not have blamed moyes for walking. the man has incredible patience but i fear that the board can't be so underwhelming in their financial support of moyes for much longer or else that patience will completely snap. the time from now until may or june is going to be crucial in determining the future of Everton

Article I came across today: http://www.footballtransfertavern.com/2011/02/premiership/why-david-moyes-must-leave-everton Personally I think Moyes could still achieve more with Everton, but I definitely think something needs to change behind the scenes, be it a new owner or fresh investment, for him to do that. I'm going to hate the day when Moyes leaves Everton, but unless our financial situation gets much, much better in the very near future, I'm afraid that day is going to be sooner rather than later.

i can't understand why there are people lining up to buy clubs like portsmouth, west ham, man city (at least before the arabs) when there seems to be no one interested in everton. our club has a much greater history than any of them, a very good squad, and buying everton would be considerably cheaper than buying a liverpool or spurs. as has been mentioned before, our squad is not the problem. i think the order of things that would need to be changed at the club are: 1. kenwright selling the club to someone who can actually finance a move to a new stadium and being able to give us transfer funds for each window. 2. moyes out, new manager in. two, three years ago it was the general consensus that moyes was a young manager on the up, tipped to be the next big thing. in the past two years, it looks like moyes has stalled, and some people even argue that he's regressed a bit in his tactical abilities so i think unless we start to see more positive development from moyes soon, this may be as far as he's able to take everton. 3. trimming the squad of the players not fully committed to everton, such as bily (possibly), johnny, yak, arteta (he's been crap this season), etc. we need to start giving a chance to the younger players and building the team around players like coleman, rodwell and gueye. it can be said that playing the youngsters more regularly would result in bad form but when we're in the form we are this season, i can't understand why moyes doesn't use the youngsters more. he continues to use the same players that really haven't had it click this season so why not use that as a chance to bring the younger players through, especially when they're the ones going to make a difference in the next few years. those points being made, i wouldn't want any of those 3 to happen all at once which has been mentioned. i would only want one of these to happen at a time and the order i've put them in is just the rank in which i would desire them to happen. now, no one really wants us to be relegated. i can understand having a bad day and feeling a bit depressed about the future of our club after how crap we were yesterday and all the news about financial state in the past week, but no true fan should ever wish relegation on everton. it would absolutely destroy our club and as mentioned it would be a long time for us to even get back to the state we're in now.

exactly what i've been thinking. if moyes keeps starting him, mikel won't really see the need to put his head down and work harder at the training ground since he's in the 11 every game. if moyes dropped him, imo hes done so shite this season that he deserves to have been dropped twice, then arteta would realize he needs to do much much better, especially considering how much the club is paying him. moyes keeps saying he's hoping for arteta to regain his best form and that's why he keeps playing him, but i think playing jack for a few games would do a better job of getting arteta to put in the extra effort on the training ground to get out of his bad form. its also worth asking how jack must feel sitting on the bench behind someone who's playing shite

not only do they want to sign a ton of our players, they also basically use us as a scouting network, after we're linked with a young player then it seems like only a few days later spurs become linked with the same player. most recent example i remember is that right back from sheffield united, can't quite remember his name, it was kyle something i think

Howard Neville Heitinga Distin Baines Coleman Fellaini Osman/Rodwell Bily Beckford Vic/Saha i'm getting fed up with arteta. he looks nothing like a player that deserves 75,000 a week. I wish moyes would drop him for playing like shite but when does moyes ever drop one of his favorites despite how badly he's playing? I would much rather see ossie or jack play at the weekend because they actually have some desire to play well

i agree, i think both of them playing together could be a great strike partnership for us. imo moyes should play them together next game as they're both quick and victor is big and strong as well. both are raw talent that need some grooming and i think the more games they play together, the better they'll both get

sky sports seems to think its neville also. him and baines are the only other two that have been mentioned a ton in the press and baines has already made a point of saying to the press that he's going nowhere so i think the other player in this case is neville

i thought that was because he was in a lower league? aren't the rules a bit different if its two prem clubs?

ya something sounds a bit off. the only way he'd be able to talk to them is if we're allowing him to and that would mean we'd accepted a fee proposal from them. if that weren't true, the club would never allow him to go and agree terms with a rival team during the middle of the season just so that he knows where he's going after his contract with us is up. we couldn't do anything if he talked to clubs abroad but he's certainly not allowed to talk to other english clubs

don't suppose that some highlights have been posted already? was sleeping because of the time difference and assumed this one would be hard to find streams for

couldn't have said it better myself. there have been a few times this season when we get one good result and then us fans suddenly feel as though we're going to win every one of our next games (after huddersfield, man utd and man city to be exact) and we end up doing shit for the next few games. i'll be honest i bought into it earlier in the season but seeing what's happened afterwards i'm not going to have that same level of confidence. yes we did put in a good performance yesterday, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. we want yesterday's win to be part of a larger unbeaten run (where we actually win games instead of drawing them) and so it should be thought of as a starting platform, not the height of our ascent.

coleman for me. was amazing all through the second half and deserved his goal. not saying its MOTM worthy but its worth noting the big difference from saha. i think its no coincidence that this good game of his has coincided with us playing 442. moyes take note

i think its no coincidence that saha scores the first time we start him with another striker

happy johnny finally gets a start in defense and that moyes has gone with a 442. only thing i would change really is start with yak instead of saha. i can't think of a single reason why yak is in moyes doghouse and that saha isn't

had to be howard for this one. that being said, this was distin's best game in an everton shirt IMO. didn't put a foot wrong all game long and had a couple of runs up to the front to start a counter attack/relieve pressure on the defense.

city, chelsea, man u and redshite are all on course to not be eligible then aren't they? i wonder what will happen to the premier league's european places if teams that are ineligible financially finish in them. would they go to the next highest finisher or would the PL be penalized and have spots be voided for having poorly run clubs?