jcrawfor

Don't think managing a good European run should have any impact on a manager of the year award given by the league. Fulham were shite in the Prem this year. Hodgson was, however, brilliant in Europe and did well enough otherwise. Glad for Fulham as I quite like them (how can I not with all those Americans )

Is this a real question?

(NO)

So, we haven't released a kit before Stoke, Burnley, Wolves and Bolton? Surely the board is TRYING to keep the club in a poor position. With the number of star players we currently employ there's no imaginable reason that this club should not be pushing the Everton FC brand global.

I think it might be smart to market our (relative) poverty given the global economic/financial situation. Maybe give new supporters something to identify with; doing well with little.

and we all know that the players at City would rather sit and be paid than play and get a bit less. wankers.

you have a short memory, they werent't doign so well season or 2 ago. infact they were 5th ahead of us before they really started messing around.

i am fairly happy with what we have, we are one or 2 players away really from genuinely challenging the top 4 i think, but we can't afford them.

edit: title.

We should be in the top 4 mix next year with this squad.

Those Manure shirts are shit. Are we sure that LCS didn't design those?

1) dont try and sell players cos people might not want them

 

2)keep 3 average players instead of two quality ones in case they want decent wages even though you'd have one less journeyman to pay

 

3)It takes a year for players to 'figure out how to play with each other'. give me a break. good players play, end of.

 

4)We had a horrendous injury list that is unlikely to be repeated, my point was it is worth the risk of having one less body to improve the QUALITY

 

5)HILLARIOUS

1) Didn't say don't try. But, there LIKELY aren't buyers.

2) yes. see 1)

3) See, Fellaini, Bily, Jags, Saha, and that's just recently for Everton. There are tons of examples where players take time to meld into the style of play in a new country/club.

4) I agree, I just question feasibility.

5) aw, shucks.

been watching the thread to see how it would play out. kenny, I think you've got reality and FM mixed up. I think we can agree that you are right in saying that there are better defenders out there than Yobo, Distin and Hibbo and that I'd (and everyone else) love to have them on our team. But that's about it. You have failed to see the flaws in your logic; most of which are largely financial, but there are several others.

1) No one is looking to buy Tony Hibbert or Silvain Distin, especially not for a reasonable fee. Sure, they might be values at 2 and 4 mil, respectively, but I can hardly see a lower level prem team scooping them up when they could just as well take 1 mil gamble on a championship defender who could turn out better.

2)The fees we would get, if we could sell everyone you wanted to, would not be sufficient to buy 2 quality defenders. Unfortunately, we have ZERO budget in the transfer market (see last 2 summers), so selling 12 million in players isn't going to see us spending 20-25 mil on new ones. And that's just considering transfer fees, not wages, bonuses and negotiation costs (as previously mentioned). Like was said, if we could sell Distin and buy Shawcross, we'd all do it in a heartbeat, but it's not happening.

3) The team cannot be so drastically disrupted in one go. If we're to get off to a reasonable start next term, it is best we have a team that has already figured out how to play with each other. We have that, no need to break it up for some modest improvement.

4) Squad size is crucial. One only has to look as far back as January to see how much we could benefit from a larger squad, not a smaller one. It is lunacy to suggest we'd be fine with FEWER players!

5) You assume that homo-eroticism and football are mutually exclusive. Twat.

cheers spursman. I've been hoping you guys were the ones to break into the top 4 (if it couldn't be us) for a while; you're the better option that Villa and those Sky-blue tossers. Best of luck on Wednesday, hope you guys give shitty an absolute drubbing. can't wait for next year's top of the table tussle.

Yes, Landon could be worth the investment. We need pace on the right and at the moment if we brought in someone who was on par (or close to it) with Mikky, Peanuts, Bily and Rodders for 12mil I'd be estatic. Sure he wouldn't be an improvement on oneof our CM players, but that's not why we'd be buying him. I don't think we can go around comparing players of different positions. Clearly Donovan is better than Ossie and Vic on the right; playing him (or someone similar) also allows us to play Ossie and Vic in their best positions, which makes our TEAM even better. I'd say Landon is a shoe in for players I'd pursue for that reason and one other: he took 0 games to "settle." His first game was as good as his last. I think that alone is worth 2-3 million.

Who would we bring in instead? (we NEED a right winger)

So sell 5 players to buy 2,maybe 3? I'll not even touch the other blatantly obvious reasons you're off the mark. Our squad can only afford additions.

I didn't intend to whine. Rather, just to spur a discussion as to the gap that still exists between us and being legitimate title challengers. IMO breaking into 4th place is a significant but ultimately worthless achievement if it doesn't quickly advance to challenging for the title. I also think this squad plus a right winger (Donovan or Reyes?) and a new striker (Bent) is more than capable of mounting a legitimate title challenge.

Attacking is definitely the one part I thought I might be leaving out. But, I do think that the goals will come with Fellaini back and Arteta, Pienaar and Baines on top form. If we can manage to land(on) Donovan this summer or again for a loan spell, that would be immense in helping us get a bit of attacking grit.

I think Distin is a great CB. He's been quite consistent the whole year. Not near as prone to mistakes as Yobo or Senderos. I say sell Yobo, sign up Senderos and we'll have CBs sorted. Jags and Johnny aught to be given the shot at forging a partnership next year with Distin coming in for either one against more physical teams (Bolton, Stoke, Blackburn, etc.)

As most Evertonians are filled with enthusiasm and optimism over the potential next year holds (myself included, mostly)I'd like to point out three obvious and crucial gaps that, at this point in time, will prevent us from making a proper go at the title. I really, honestly believe that we've got the squad to do it (with 2-3 more senior additions in the summer).

1) Clean Sheets. This can perhaps be blamed on our lack of a constant central pairing and could be solved easily by establishing a first XI CB pair early on. But I really don't think it is that simple. Some of the goals we have allowed this year have been absolutely embarrassing (see the Derby at Anfield, and the Baines error last weekend). Something has got to change on the back lines next year, because clean sheets=points.

2)Failure to close down quickly. Over the past few matches and in those during that awful beginning of season run, we have failed to close down on the opposition, giving them space and time to do what they want. Villa had it, Stoke got space, Hammers received tons, even Fulham were allowed to much...this has got to stop if we are to be a top squad.

3) Inability to properly deal with set pieces. Embarrassing, I don't even need to explain this one, cuz if you can't see it, well, you're blind.

So there they are, three huge defensive gaps between us and being great. Find it ironic that after praising Moyes' defensive mettle for the last two years and having issues with his middle of the park and finishing tactics that I'm not writing saying that same defensive mind has a few things to work out. Hopefully the summer does our players some good and the back 4 is as strong as ever next year. COYB.

For me there were only two reasonable votes. I gave it to Vic, but could have just as well gone with Distin, hemade some impressive tackles early on and provided great cover for the several mistakes Baines made defensively today. Vic however, was the only player on the pitch who looked like he knew where (or what) the goal was! He hustled, made runs, looked to get inside his defender and SHOT. Fuckin' hell I've never seen a team more afraid to shoot (except maybe Arsenal last week!)

Howard 6. Nervous all the time, uncomfortable with anything that resembles a cross. Horrid distribution, not a single one of his hoofs went to a Blue shirt today.

Baines 5 poor, except for the shot that hit Vic.

Distin 8 great tackles and cover throughout, also made a good effort to play to our midfielders feet.

Yobo 6.5 Did fine, made some poor mistakes but always managed to get himself back in the way.

Jags 6 Obviously out of position, can't understand why Hibbert or Neville weren't played there instead, esp with Rodders back.

Neville 6 Not one for my starting XI at all. He's just not that good.

Osman 6 Ran around a lot, but couldn't keep possession worth shit. Made a lot of mistakes.

Arteta 7 picked up after Rodwell and Yak came on, but it was obvious how much better he plays with Pienaar on the pitch.

Anichebe 8.5 Had our only real shots, made runs and generally looked like he could be arsed to put in a shift even with Europe out of sight. Good game, I say play7 him on the right or up front.

Cahill 5.5 Worst game in some time. Can't even see EvertonToffees giving him MOTM on this occasion.

Saha 4 Absolutely embarrassing. Didn't see him try once today, maybe touched the ball 2x.

Yak (for Saha) 7 Did more than Saha in the first minute on the pitch. Looked like he wanted to make something happen.

Rodwell (for Osman) 6.5 Did fine for the 20 mins he was on. Definitely better than Ossie.

Bily (for Vic) 6 No time to make any impact, either positive or negative. Foolish time to use a sub, esp for the only person on the pitch who wanted to score.

anichebe the only bright spot. horrible performance.

Bullshit that.

Yak and Rodwell on. Thank god Saha is off. Waste of space today.

Need to see Bily on for Osman, Yak for Saha and Rodwell for Nev.

we should go out and get muncha beckfrod and sendros on a free then get that youg striker called silvia i think then zigth the valencia stricker the get crainy in from hull then get in donavon. to sell i would sell yobo ruddy jukebox and that would get us about 8 mill

punctuation?

I hate both Chelsea and United. Would rather Chelsea won it this year though. They've been the better team, whereas United have been the better Rooney.

Going to be a boring final.

They've brought in Fulop for the remainder. Here's hoping he's worse than the one they've already got.

English and Champs is about all I've got time to watch with school and work. I watch a Barcelona match here and there but not with any regularity. It's all about Everton matches for me.