RuffRob

this all sounds a bit strange regarding Nuno - media say CP now not interested due to increased demands after speaking to Everton. That would suggest Everton offered him something and he either turned it down, or has also sounded out CP while he mulls over our offer. All sounds a bit fishy, as this sort of tactic would in the end see him at neither club - or at least it shouldn't. Wouldn't think he was that sort after to be able to play clubs against each other, and still have them wanting to sign him.

for all his faults the last manager to actually do a decent job with us and not was David Moyes - I would say a Graham Potter appointment would be similar type of appointment, is British, has done very well with a lower team and is well respected by his peers. He has rightfully earned a move to a mid table club, with his style of play and forward thinking. Have just seen £11M a year wasted on jonnie big potato Ancelotti them maybe the brightest young think in British management is the way to go again, maybe it better suits our clubs DNA.

Well we can't complain to much if it's Potter - he has the most TT votes (or was he most people's 5th choice!!). It doesn't sound like Brands was overly enthused in the Nuno interview - I am guess we could have had him if we wanted him, but have chosen no to). Last time around how late in the day did Ancelotti's name jump to the top of the bookies list.

But what is scary is that Eddie Howe is so high on that this list and even though we all have 5 votes each, not a single one of us give him the benefit of the doubt with one of our votes. He would not be a popular appointment.

It does make you wonder what the fucks going on - missing out on this type of player (who you would think would come here if he's gone to Villa) surely the best player in the Championship must be on somebodies radar at the club. I can understand that we would struggle against a big 6 club to catch his eye, but Villa for fuck sake. We are already paying 'squad' players more!!!

Fooking hell - Mr Eddie 'No Votes' Howe is currently the favourite with the bookies.

I would have thought even without a manager - a DoF may sound out an agent of any possible club targets to register any interest in a player - even though it might me a few weeks or month before we put in any formal bid. Once its been discussed with new manager. What we can't do is sit twiddling our thumbs and hope deals are not done early - like what Villa seem to be doing.

I just feel a bit gutted somebody like Buendia looks to be signing for Villa. £33millon doesn't seem extravagant for a player of his ability and experience and wages of around £75-80K for your creative midfielder seem reasonable for a team with ambitions of top 6. We are not going to get the £50-60M player that go to Chelsea and Man U etc, but would have thought this sort money for a still developing talent would have been right up our street. Buendia could quite easily be a £50-60M player in a couple of years time.

Not so bothered about big name players coming to Everton, not sure how much value they really being. Would rather the right players be at the club and any who want to leave - then bye bye. Decent hungry player's seen to be go to Dean Smith's Villa at the moment, I wouldn't say he is any more box office than Graham Potter.

The thing is if you actually look at the spending (compared to other teams), he hasn't actually spent anywhere near enough to buy our way to the top. Wages wise, he has spend enough to get us to around 7th to 9th. Its crazy how much you now need to spend in this league to simply tread water. Not nearly spending enough to actually realistically expect to be breaking in to the top 6.

same site - the one I put on was for past season (20/21), link is for upcoming season (but that will change after transfer window). I am just trying to highlight that we are not a club who are actually paying a 'top 6' wage bill and are quite far from it. As much as we are spending, it seems its only about enough to keep you in the top half of the Premier league, but not enough to realistically put you in the Top 6 or keep you in the top 6. I would hazard a guess that if Leicester keep being 9th top wages payers then more likely than not they will slid down from annual champions league battles toward Europa and then top half of the table battles over then next 3-4 years. Its no accident that, give two or three positions, most teams final league position will pretty much mirror their position on the Premier League salary table, with only an occasional outlier. What I am alluding to is that there is a significant jump in what the 'Big 6' spend on wages compared to ourselves. It is going to be tough for any manager to break in to this with a significantly lower calibre squad.

joking aside, they would actually do well to take some note of what the fans feelings are on potential candidates and the footballing philosophy they trying to entertain us will over the next few years. Not sure I could stomach a continuation of the dross we where watching at the end of this season.

I think they would have to rightly interview a few candidates first, it sounds like a fair few have put their hat in the ring for the job (not sure of the quality of them though). Still only a week since bombshell was dropped on us.

Interesting leading group of TT favs. Of the front runners_ Not sure I think Conte would be a good fit for us. Massive wages and not sure I see him as somebody who would stick it out trying to break in to the top 6 - end up one of two ways - does OK and does an Ancelotti and fooks off soon as a big budget club comes a calling, or flops with us and a average bunch of players and costs us an arm and a leg to get shut. What a don't see is steady improvement over 3 or 4 years. Potter looks popular - totally different to Conte, will be on more modest wages, looking to prove himself on a bigger platform. More likely to be with us much longer term, can't see Europe's elite clambering for him even if we do improve and break in to the top 6. Think he would be a good fit, but would feel a bit shady on Brighton stealing him away. Don't think James and Richy would be overly keen to hang around, and might struggle to get bigger name players enthused to sign - although that might not be that bad a think. Ralph Rangnick is gain different and not sure why he is so popular for head coach managers position - as he has not been coaching for a while in my eyes. I would see him more as a replacement for Brands. Think he would be a strange choice, and not entirely sure its the type of job he would want. One I do find interesting is Farve - he looks a popular choice on fans short list (myself included) and he is available. However, he is well down the list with the bookies, which seems strange. What is clear there is no real obviously stand out candidate.

The sad truth is that as much as we have paid for our players, along with the salary we are paying them we are still some way behind the top 6 clubs - battling 7th to 10th place is pretty much what we should be expecting based on what we are shelling out in wages (even though we seem to be throwing money around). Table below suggest that we should be looking to increase our annual wage bill by a whopping £45M (or 65%) to be on a level playing field with the self proclaimed super 6. Leicester City are the stand out exception of one team who have managed to consistently punch about their weight, but they are a one off (can't really count West Ham of a single season). The depressing reality is we are just not spending enough to realistically be competitive in the top six - no matter who comes in as new manager. I think this reality hit home with Ancelotti this passed couple of months -

Anybody else pig sick it looks like Buendia will be signing for Aston Villa, a team who finished below us, with no 'headline' manager in charge at the club. They'll building and will be overtaking us as well.

Its looking like Nuno is the the most realistic candidate and most likely. I also think he will be a good fit. I think as a manger he is at the same level as us as a club - wanting to break in to the top table of the Premiership. Still young (47), he already has experience and knowledge of the continental clubs, the English Championship and of course the Premier League as a manager. I was quite envious of Wolves when I was hearing the Nuno was looking to change up from counter attacking football (which was serving them pretty good), to more possession based football in order to take Wolves up the next level to break in to the top 6. Shows the man is both ambitious and brave (to change a working formula). He is still a developing manager and obviously has talent. I sometime feel we are just so unlucky as a football club. No matter what we seem to try, we land flat on our faces - maybe Ancelotti suddenly leaving (and us getting a bit of compensation) and Nuno also fairly suddenly being available (so us not having to pay any compensation) it might just end up being a lucky break we deserve. I now think Ancelotti was actually out of this comfort zone managing a mid table team. I read today that one of his instructions to players would be no more than 'just play' with a very much hands off approach to coaching. Devoid of much specific direction or instruction. In many of the performance we witnessed on the pitch I could actually believe this.

As much as I love big Dunc, I am in the camp of him not being given the managers job. He has to cut his teeth first in the lower leagues first. Trying to break in to the top 6 is a massive ask of an experienced manager, never mind a rookie. We actually need somebody a little more worldly. It has the making of a disaster for both Everton and big Dunc. Lets look at the facts - Ferguson joined the coaching team in 2014 and has been an ever present - there have not many highlights during this period. The managers he has been working alongside have been failures with us. He's not been part of anything good. If he wasn't the legend that is 'big Dunc', would anybody be seriously suggesting we promote the coach we have in place since 2014 to be the manager!!!! The argument that he has worked alongside the great Ancelotti who was delivering the poorest football I have ever seen over the past 3-4month - is not a positive to me. in a way we need some fresh coaching ideas, and it may be time for Dunc to take a managers position and gain the worldly experience he will need to be a top manager. At the moment I fancy Nuno, as he was doing good things with Wolves, and this season at Wolves was a little transitional as he wanted to play with more possession, as he knew this had to be done to progress and break in to the top 6, but Wolves owner appeared slow in backing him. His goal over the next few years was breaking in to top 6, so aligns pretty well with our goal!! Think he will also suit our Portuguese and Spanish speaking players. He may turn out to be a better fit than Ancelotti.

nobody really sticks out as a realistic standout candidate. Dust settled a bit, and I feel massively betrayed by Ancelotti - I am now glad he's gone as on Tuesday he showed his true colours and is one of those people who are just full of shit, but actually think's they have integrity. I read his book, it's full of stuff about honesty, integrity, trust, commitment, proffesionalisum. The very moment his integrity and commitment was tested he was out of the door, and to a club that are the ringleaders of the European super league. I bought in to his bullshit, but I have totally lost every bit of respect I had for him (which was a lot). He sold us a fucking lie and has done a fair bit of damage to the club - I wonder what all the player must be thinking now he has jumped ship as soon as he got the chance. What must they think of the Everton project now!! Turned out his football was pretty shit as well!!!!

only just heard the news after a nice day out - I am so disappointed its back to square one, and thought we had been so lucky getting a manager of Ancelotti's stature and pulling power. However, as much as I have been behind him and hoping we where building towards something really exciting, I have not been without concern as we approach the end of the season, particular some of his after match interviews where you could see he couldn't understand why he was not getting the performances out of his players at the business end of the season, bringing Delph of all people of the bench. Signing wise - James and Allan are Ancelotti's - Doucoure and Godfrey are Brands - Ancelotti seemed surprised how good the later two players have been. my reading in to all this - Ancelotti has spend a lot of his career as the manager of world class players and teams - he's been able to get them to be able to confidently go on to pitch and do their stuff. He gives his players and staff ownership - this approach works well when you have a collection of worldies, but maybe not so much with less gifted players who maybe need a bit more direction - its been a long time since he has had to build a team, I think he is actually finding the challenge Everton project harder than he thought it would be and has basically bottled it - for me going back to Real is maybe more comfortable for him. If he has doubts in his own mind that he might struggle to build a team (which I think he must have to jump ship), then perhaps him moving on is best for all parties - at least we will get some compensation rather than paying millions out in 6 to 12months time. Anyway, I wouldn't mind Eddie Howe getting his chance at taking the reigns. At the very least he is one of us.

From a selfish point of view, glad he's not having to play for his country this summer. Even more selfish, it would be nice if he decides to retire from International football after this disappointment, and the focus of his football is purely club based. I think people are maybe misunderstanding my concerns with James, I don't want him out of the door or anything like that, I think he is a fantastic player. I just don't want him getting any special treatment IF there is any sort of 'commitment' or 'happiness' issue with him at Everton, especially if Ancelotti is calling the team out on this sort of issue. We know there has been a bit of an issue with maybe a lacklustre attitude of some players around the place, so it has to be nipped in the bud and applied to all players, with no exceptions. Given his injuries and stop start nature of being available for selection to play for us so far this season (and his general similar type of injury record before he came to us), I just think it is risky to build a team to specifically accommodate him as the fulcrum of the team as our main game plan. There is a reason we where able to get James on a free transfer, as good as he can be he is not without risk - we have seen both sides to this signing this season - the great play, but also the frustration of his lack of game time and ultimate effect on our offensive capabilities. I just think it would be foolish to go in to next season on the expectation of having James available week in week out. We need to plan to be competitive without him and consider a fit and available James as a bonus. The cherry on the cake, so to say.

sounds like the £30m asking price is making it prohibitive. He is still only a good young prospect, I would guess you could get a lot of RB from the continent for £30M.

is he better than what we have? Yes Is he worth spend a significant percentage of our transfer funds and paying big wage too? - I am not so sure. Think I would like to see that type of investment in to a top quality youngster - such as Leon Baily.

I would like nothing better than to be proved wrong, but think Ancelotti betting on a re-invigorated James consistently providing the goods next season will be a high risk strategy. When Ancelotti is asking for commitment, hard work, intensity and 'happy' players at the club (which we will all agree with)- he would be hard pressed to be able to hold James as an example this season. Based purely on my powers of deduction of what I have read and heard, which is all any of us can do, I would have James in the category of one of the players than need to pull his socks up in this department. We definitely should not be looking to be building our A game around him next season. We should bring enough offensive players in that will allow James to be Plan B. If he does enough to become the Plan A as the season progresses - then great. But we rely on it at our peril.

Unfortunately, as good as James looked as a signing at the front end of the season, he has looked very much a poor signing at the back end. Our season to a degree, has somewhat mirrored James's enthusiasm (or at least seems that way). He was a signing we had to make given how the deal was put together, it looked a master stroke for the first dozen games, but since Xmas has looked like many of the recent signings before him - well paid, but not really up for the fight and maybe here for the wrong reasons - he may have been a commercial hit for the club, so maybe not the same financial burden as others before him. However, a lack lustre culture at the club is something we are trying to dump, and as gifted as he is when on form, unfortunately his commitment seems to be far removed from what most of us expect of any player. The stories around the New Year of him not really liking it in the UK (similar to not liking it in Germany) would appear to be true (not seen anything since this story to suggest he is enjoying his football!!). It quite embarrassing that he didn't play in the Wolves game because he was tired - I would have pissed myself reading that of another teams star player. What does that say to the rest of the squad when the 'headline' player is afforded this. As much as I have wax lyricaled about some of James's performance this season - I don't think he is the role model we currently need in this squad as the moment in time. If we are calling other out for not having the fight or desire to play, or that are unhappy players should move on, then James has to be near the top of that list - In this department you just can't have one rule for one and one rule for others. James's at this moment in time is somebody who is letting Ancelotti down. As much as we here about the James/Ancelotti relationship I am not convinced that if you also then throw being locked up in the UK, our weather and cut and thrust of the Premiership into the mix the limits of this relationship can't be stretched. I don't think there has been enough from James this season that I feel is worth Ancelotti pretty much betting his future at Everton upon. If Ancelotti sticks with James, then he has to improve on what he has brought to the team next season, and I don't personally think he has the drive an fight in him to do this. Something I have also noted is that the number of games that James has turned out of us this season seems quite small, but the worry part is that if you look at his career stats - his turn out in the league this season has been about average for him over his career. This is a stat is one I don't think he is going to improve on over the next couple of seasons as he gets older. I don't think the positives are enough to outweigh the negatives when it comes to James.