nogs

What the hell happened there? Watched the last half hour and we looked clueless, never looked like scoring. Why the fuck can we never get off to a good start?

If we fulfil his aspirations, i.e. regular Champions League football in the next five years, it shouldn't be a problem. He clearly thinks we can do it, I see no reason at the moment not to believe the same.

Tbh is was a bit concerned about some of our defending against Norwich, today it's just been awful. Distin, Jags and Yobo last week all guilty of being sloppy, would have thought it was worth giving Heits a run out today ahead of Blackburn game

YEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSS!! Get in my son!! "Something is happening here and I want to be a part of it." Love it, everything falling into place to absolutely terrorise the 'big club' pretenders, can't wait for the season to start now

Wouldn't Ireland make a ready made replacement for Cahill? Tbh I don't know that much about him attitude wise to judge whether he'd fit in with the Moyse way of seeing the world, so can't comment, but from what I've seen of him I think he's a class player and I can't believe City would be so stupid as to want rid of one of their own with so much potantial. But if he's a money merchant its pretty fair to assume we won't be seeing him in a Royal Blue jersey any time soon! I agree with you on Bellamy, think he's a star, yeah he's a nasty, difficult, aggressive little bugger but its sheer determination and desire to be the best, think he'd fit right in with us. Can play on either wing or through the centre, pacy, skillfull and direct, would be a better signing than Donovan IMO. Only negative is his age

Yeah Gosling and his agent have acted like cunts but why, WHY didn't we think to protect our own backs but getting the formal written contratc to him?! 'Gentleman's agreement?' - well sorry, bollox, football isn't a gentleman's sport these days, we might as Moyes always says like to conduct ourselves with a bit of dignity and class that others in the game lack, but when £4 million is at stake, you don't do things on a hyandshake, it makes us look amateurish and quite frankly ridiculous

Vaughan looks like a favourite pet's just died when he scores his goal, he's practically shaking his head!

See your point with the youngsters but I think Rodwell and Gueye will be counted in the main squad whatever. Can't see us signing anyone else unless we sell so think we'll go with what we've got, and would imagine Baxter will get a squad number again too

Where does the Daily HateMail get its info? £9m for Arteta? Jesus wept I think you should be dragged out into the street and shot for that kind of journalism

Can't agree with you there at all, he was only just back from injury in the derby! IMO Arteta gives us something no other player in the squad can give us, and much of our form Feb onwards (post derby) coincided with him returning to fitness. Pienaar was probably our most consistent performer all season, but I reckon Fellaini had more of an influence on turning our season around, at times he was just dominating games in the middle of the park single-handedly, he doesn't offer the guile or spark of Arteta, but when you have someone like him who just seems to stop everything going through him and quickly turns defence into attack, it gives you a great platform to win games even without your best creative player. For me, Fellaini and Arteta is a central midfield pairing that can win the league, with maybe Rodwell adding an extra dimension. If we lose anyone, for me it's Pienaar all day, Arteta would be virtually impossible to replace, and yeah I'd take Donovan for Pienaar quite happily

Don't remember The Shite winning the title for 20 odd years, pretty shoddy return on investment I'd say! Back on topic, Mancini was on Five Live this morning just rattling off a list of 'good players', basically saying we've got to the end of August, we can buy any of these we want, we're like a big fat over paid kid in a sweetshop. I don't think he will sign Donovan, I just think he likes bandying names about reminding people he could have whoever he likes, I think he's after better players to be honest. And listening to his smug drawl as he went through his shopping list made me really want to stuff the horrible bastards again like we did last season!

My dad drove me from Chester to go watch it, only to find Liverpool 4 was utter chaos and we couldn't get in. By the time we reached the tunnel on the way home we were 2-0 down, I was in tears and I didn't bother asking for the radio to be turned on again once were out the other side on the Wirral. As we got home my dad turned the radio back on to check the other scores, just in time to hear the report that Horne had equalised! Awesome day

Interesting that the OS doesn't mention either triallist... http://www.evertonfc.com/match/report/0910/clyde-fc-2-2-everton-res

You're probably right, just don't think Distin has got the class of either Jags or Heits. Johnny may well start the season in midfield anyway with Fellaini still being out, in which case it will be Jags and Distin (PRAYING Jags stays.... )

I think one of the main reasons we can't let Jags go is the Lescott saga - we'd be very hard pressed to get in another top-class replacement a la Heitinga, and centre back is a bit like goalkeeper in that it takes time to get someone settled in the position who builds up an understanding with those around him. Lescott leaving badly unsettled our team because we basically had to field a totally knew CB pairing with Jags being out, and before John H settled in there. Now we've got Jags and Johnny H which I reckon is a pretty damn good looking CB pairing that had some time playing together before the end of last season, be a big blow to have to changing that round again. Anyway, I thought Wenger had already signed one CB from Europe and was sniffing round a couple more, anyone know any news on that? Ah, he let three centre backs go.... bugger

Think you answered your own question there! Put it this way - do we have a better squad than we had 12 months ago? I reckon yes, definitely, as we have done every season consistently under Moyes. Anyway, this argument goes on on this forum every summer, some of us worry the wheels are about to come off, some of us predict we're gonna win the league. Inevitably it will be somewhere between the two, maybe slightly exceed expectations, maybe slightly underachieve, but what we can guarantee is we'll get plenty of entertainment watching what is now undoubtedly one of the best teams in the country

Just to continue the off-topicness a while longer... Yeah I hadn't thought about the fact our centre backs are generally quite dreadful at distributing the ball. Surely there must be a way to train the big hoof out of them - electroshock maybe? Thing is, as you say, even if we do play a centre forward, the big hoof doesn't work anyway, so what formation we play becomes pretty obsolete. Back on topic... Bily's best natural position is probably some kind of old-fashioned inside left, so maybe best way to accomodate him is in the 4-3-3 you drew out Bailey, just swapping him and Pienaar, or maybe a 4-1-4-1, something like this: (yeah I'm going back on the six-man midfield thing for now...) ----------------Howard Coleman------Jags-----Heitinga------Baines ----------------Felli Osman/Rodders---Arteta-----Bily/Cahill---Pienaar ----------------Saha

Haha, need you say more? I'm with this. BTW, why is EVERYONE going with Chelsea? The core of Drogba, Terry and Lampard is starting to age, maybe their last tilt at Champions League glory, I think they'll put all their eggs in that basket and be distracted in the league.

Are we now counting the cost of not qualifying for Europe? Even in the Europa, I bet that extra TV revenue goes a long way in convincing the bank manager to loosen the ourse strings a little. Saying that, apart from Man City and Chelsea, I dunno where these clubs are getting their money from, banks won't lend to anyone. Maybe we're better off living within our means before more clubs go the way of pompey when their debts get called in. Yeah it's disappointing we aren't splashing cash on big names, but it's hardly a surprise. I agree Romey, we are Everton FC and yeah that means something, but I don't think we're standing still at all. This is the best squad we've had in a quarter of a century, I have no doubts that this time next year we'll be getting ready for another tilt at Europe, and if we're lucky we'll have a trophy in our back pocket to boot. Just keeping my fingers crossed Pienaar or Arteta don't walk the second week of August

Yep, all day for me, looks quality on paper. There's even an argument to play Cahill up top in that team. At the risk of straying off topic slightly, I personally think the centre forward as the role is traditionally understood is becoming redundant anyway - look at the world cup, apart from Klose, all the other top 'forwards' weren't playing down the centre, they were either pulling out wide or dropping deeper in what at times became highly fluid six-man midfields. I think we've got the kind of players who can make this kind of football work - mobile, disciplined, tactically aware with a fair amount of technical ability between them to boot. Cahill is brilliant at getting back, doing his job defensively and then making runs from deep to provide an outlet upfront - it worked when he had to play up top on his own a couple of seasons back coz of all the injuries. Anyway, just a thought...

Nevermind whether Gosling wanted out or not, what an absolute f***ing disgrace from the club's point of view! How much did he cost us? £1 million? And we've lost him for nothing because of an 'administrative error'?! If this is true (I assume the club will have to make an official statement at some point), then heads should role, no business can afford to throw a million quid down the drain because of some cretin who's incapable of doing their job properly. You might have known there'd be some crisis or other this summer, ffs Everton, sort it out and start doing things with a bit of professionalism!

Abdullayev Passes Everton medical By Ryan Grant • Jul 1st, 2010 • Category: News | Araz Abdullayev, who scored a wonder goal against Scotland U21’s for Azerbaijan, appears to have passed a medical and could become an Everton player soon. For some unknown reason that game was actually on in my local, and I remember commenting to one of my associates about how that strike was indeed one you would usually associate with phrases like "top drawer", "take a bow, son" and "shit, did you see that...?" Make up your own mind, second Azerbaijani goal, bout 40secs in

Guess the obvious response is, IF none of the first-choice 15 or 16 leave, do we need a marquee signing? A world class striker perhaps, but we all know we haven't got the cash for one of those. The injury armageddon that hit us last season showed we need strength in depth, when we has a mostly fit squad we proved we could beat anyone, there's a hell of a lot of top-class talent there already.

Well Paul Merson did compare us to Barca last season - bring on the fantasy football I say! I guess 4-3-3 is only a small tweak from our usual 4-5-1 anyway. On another note, imagine the shit we're gonna get when Ma-Gay Gay turns out in the pink shirt...

Why would Baines, who was so candid about suffering from homesickness it probably cost him his World Cup place, want to move to Munich so he can warm the bench as Philip Lahm's understudy? Utter bs, disregard. I'm surprised at how busy the rumour-mongering hacks have been this summer, given the fact there's allegedly a World Cup going on and the transfer window hasn't even opened yet. Must fancy some of our players - wonder how many of said idle journos will tip us for the top four when we sell none of our oh-so-highly-coveted prize assets?