blueblood

NSNO reporting that Neville and Moyes had a barney after game due to Pip's subbing. Hence all players dragged onto coach and no post match comments. Anyone know if this is true or 2+2=5? Wouldn't be a great move pi55ing Neville off going into the transfer window. We'll have enough trouble keeping hold of Baines, Felli, Arteta, Jags this summer without losing the captain

We don't test the opposition's goal keepers enough. Aside from Cahill's long range efforts I can't recall any other shots on goal. Will accept a point away at a very good side and it extends the unbeaten run but we need to start shooting at goal more. As others have mentioned, I'd have liked to have seen the unknown quantity that is Gueye given a run on the right ahead of Beckford; if he's not ready to play then don't put him on the bench. All in all a good point that I've had taken before kick off

I went for Jags as there were a few occassions when he got blocks in when, if missed, Spurs would have been through on goal. So, match saver for me. Howard... as good as he can be his lapses to these types of errors or propensity to get beaten from 30+ yards continues to wrankle. Baines, quality free-kick. Take note for when Arteta come back and resumes responsibility, players in the wall have fear! Saha did nothing when he came on for me. Heitinga, comments about his fitness aside, if we don't want to play him CB then when Felli and Rodwell are back fit I'd struggle to justify a place in the starting XI Apart from one attempt at a 40 yard cross field ball that went no-where near the intended target (which happens every game) Jags snatched it for me.

Anyone got anything to post about the player?????? Not seen the Barcodes go in for him yet, has anyone barred their membership to these boards?!

Wouldn't make the first XI if all XI fit but how often does that happen?! It's a squad game, as we found to our detriment last season IMO he'd make a fabulous addition to the squad. He plays with real power and that would add a new element to the squad that we don't have an abundance of at present so would be a massive yes from me. If we were looking at another 5ft 8inch skillful central midfielder I'd ask what's the point but not with someone different to what we have.

Having seen all 3 of the USA games now this lad is a poor man's Emile Heskey... who I rate as highly as smallpox. Vic looks like the new Pele compared to this pile of steaming horse manure. Next!!!

Tell City, Man Utd and Arsenal to stop sniffing around our best players then or we'll struggle to qualify for Europe next season...! All's fair in love and football, it's a business now and making a 1100% profit on a player after 12 months is an exceptional piece of business. Blackpool must realise that this is a 1 season trip to heaven, cash in whilst you can via whatever means. They should keep all of their cash made, no rash signings, and then strengthen their squad when they go back into the Championship to give themself a better chance in a few seasons. I'm pleased for Blackpool, but they need to be realistic. Wouldn't pay £6m for this fella though

I'd inclined to believe that there may be more to the Baines story than meets the eye. Either way I have to agree with others and question the merits of some of the selection: Heskey... I wouldn't pick him if there were only 22 fit other players, never been any good in my opinion. Doesn't score goals EVER! I'd have taken Walcott to run at tired central defenders for the last 10 minutes of games Carrick... been poor all season. Scott Parker for me, but even he's not been great Upson... why take 5 central defenders? He's got to be fifth choice so would need a lot of bad luck and injury to even get a game. Should have taken an extra forward player- Adam Johnosn for the left??? Plenty to discuss, just a shame the "players picked on form not reputation" stance crumbled when it came to decision time.

I'd take him for £2m... at least then we'll make 10x that in a year or so when City come sniffing around him

Another player we help to turn their career around who has his head trned at the first sign of interest from a "big club"... a big club that we did the double over that is!!! The bidding surely starts at £30m as he's far better than Lescott

Before the world cup, after the world cup... his agent seems to contradict himself in every quote. I wouldn't want this to linger on all summer, we end up selling him in the last few days of the window and not have enough time to replace him- we all know that quick deals are not the clubs forte!! Set a deadline, offer the maximum wage (which I had heard we already had) and if no signature comes ship him out. Funny how short a memory some of these players have. EFC straighten out their career and bring out the best in them only for them to chase the £££ at the first opportunity. Saying that, loyalty in the game is very rare nowadays so chasing the money is to be expected. Just hope Mr Heitinga won't be the next name to do likewise. You'd think that watching Lescott disappear up his own rear end would have made them think, but they leave that to their agents Bad times if he moves on, but as long as we cash in and replace, with Billy coming back better this year we'll manage.

the 3 games before today cost us a place in Europe, throwing away leads at West Ham and Villa and not taking the spoils from Wolves. We would have finished 6th had it not been for these games. Still, not a bad season, had this been offered at Christmas I'd have been made up

Went for Jonny H as he never shirked a tackle and played some good long balls out wide. Thought Jags was ok but his distribution still leaves a lot to be desired, but I've always thought that Saha was poor, since he got called up to the France squad and subseqently injured he's been off the pace. I'd give the Yak the start for the rest of the season, at least he looks a threat. Seems like we won't take the chances to climb any higher so let's shake it up a bit last few games

Gave it to Arteta for the display in the first half. Everton never came out in the second half and I thought every the midfield especially was very poor. The midfield couldn't get a touch second half and the game was crying out for Rodwell to come on and take Pienaar off- who was massively poor imo- yet Moyes held out until they equalised. Vic looks like he could be out, Saha out, Vaughan at Leicester, wrap the Yak in cotton wool for the next 9 games!!! Poor second half display, should never have let a 2 goal lead slip.

How can anyone forget Preki??? (was he from the American Indoor Football League) Or Joe Max Moore for that matter? They were poor players. Jo doesn't look interested half the time though so I can understand the frustration, the fact that we are all able to reel off a shopping list of some of the worst top flight footballers and they all played for Everton is the most depressing thing

From bbc website: Everton are battling it out with Bolton for Maccabi Haifa's 23-year-old midfielder Lior Rafaelov. (Sunday Mirror) Anyone know if he is any good??????

I rate him as a player his only downside is he doesn't have amazing pace from what I've seen (could be wrong though?) He's (apparently) going to be offered an 800% pay rise by Boro though to keep him so it could mean he is out of our price range. Don't think he'll see himself in contention for a World Cup place so that won't be a contributing factor. Also, not sure he'd start for us. Will depend on injuries as the season progresses... speaking of which, is Pienaar ok???

I went for Howard but I thought the game was awful. "Heitinga looked...well...Hibbert looked much better suited at right back. Rodwell was surprisingly bad today but went about his business well when not missing passes." EW, agree with you, I thought Heitinga looked quite poor today, maybe he was right when he said he wasn't a right back??? I actually think that in games like that away from home Hibbert may well be more suited to the game... hopefully Heitinga will improve (dramatically) as from what I've seen I'm not sure what all the hysteria was for when we signed him (cue abuse from other members! ) Rodwell didn't do a great deal today but that will happen with him in some games. I didn't think he was bad, more anonymous from time to time. I suppose when you look how he ran the Blackburn game that display was immense whereas yesterday everyone was a lot worse. Still, three points and to play that bad I'll take it. It's 3 points more than we took off Pompey last season

Looks like Chelsea and Inter Milan are having similar success withuot using FM though. Not a chance in hell of signing this lad unless he pulls an EU passport from somewhere. Inter however will manage to sign him no problem

His goal scoring record may be similar but I don't think we'll see Jose scoring against Argentina in the latter stages of the World Cup next year! He's a prospect, but the club has loads of them and then releases them without giving them a game.

I can't see a team without Cahill in it, nor would I want to. 4-5-1 is our best formation and Cahill will score more goals than any second striker we have so I say stick with it. Use Jo/ Yak/ Saha interchangeably with maybe Jo out on the left if Moyes is feeling a bit fruity against a team he really feels that we can beat handsomely. I like the idea of Arteta behind the core midfield players but think Bily the Russian will take quite a long time to settle into a regular starting berth. I see him as sub until after Christmas at best

Can Bily the Russian play for us or is he cup tied in europe too???

Yes we have strengthened the "starting XI" but how many games a season do we manage to put out the strongest 11 players on the pitch? We are without Arteta and Jags with Yakubu only just getting back to fitness. Every season we lose one of our big ticket players for prolonged periods. Arteta is our only real creative force (argue for Pienaar if you will but Arteta is the main man who without we look lost) therefore I feel that we really did need to strengthen more. It's a squad game, you need to replace like with like and our bench has an average age of what, 17 or 18 and these young lads although prospects are miles away from regular first team action, especially at a supposed top 5 club. Which other top 6 club has a bench as weak as ours? None is the short answer. Now, yes we have brought in Heitinga which seems to be a good signings but we are still without any creativity on the bench and until Arteta gets back on the park too Someone said earlier that they would only be concerned once the performances have suffered... seeing the first 3 league games I'd say that this has happened already. Our first XI is strong, there's no debating that, my only concern is that we won't see that list of players play more than 20 games together this season and we do not have sufficient strength in depth to challenge the likes of Villa, Spurs, City, let alone the "big 4". This means we may fail to qualify for Europe, will that mean the established players will then want to leave for clubs in Europe? I'd say this is highly likely.

Which just goes to show you how we have made a mistake in not signing cover for left back. One injury to Baines and our entire defence needs to be rearranged with 2 players moving and 1 sub coming in. When we had Lescott it was much easier for him to move across and Yobo to slot in, less movement. The defence needs to remain solid and as static as possible and not having cover for LB means wholsesale changes which can cause all kinds of problems. At least we've got this one in the bag and he can play RB and CB if anything happens to Distin or JoYo

Quite a disappointing end to the window in my opinion. I thought we needed to bring another 2 players in at the very least. There was Krancjar who chose Spurs but that was always going to be the case. I just hope neither Yobo or Distin get injured and Jags gets back to full match fitness before Yobo goes to the ACN otherwise we'll have to do a reshuffle yet again. Fortunately it seems that Heitinga can play CB but he was clearly bought to play RB and that is where he should remain if at all possible. I'd have liked a CB/ defender to cover LB and CB and a central midfielder but then again if we cannot bring players in during the first 2 months of the window I'm not surprised we fail on deadline day