Blueherts

we lost two mediocre strikers, and we still have potentially four more, we play 4-5-1 so what? in case you have'nt noticed, most of our goals come from midfield anyway. And we are'nt a creative midfielder short, we bought one three seasons ago, we' just have'nt played him in his proper position yet or given him more than 45 mins in a row. try a thing called "youtube" and type in bilyaletdinov. He did'nt just suddenly become shit overnight you know. Players need to be give the role and the time to show what they can really do.

Exactly what im talking about. James beattie, Andy johnson, marcus bent, daniel amokachi, DUNCAN FERGUSON!!!! need me to go on? We've always had unproven strikers BECAUSE WE HAVE NO MONEY. My logic is perfectly sound thankyou, allowing our most costly player to leave gives the clubs financiers room to say "ok, we'll lend you another xxmillion quid next season" You have to think of the bigger picture, one season of mediocrity could allow us to balance the books. Do you want a new stadium or not? Robert elstone cant just fart out 250+million quid y'know. we have to be in the position where someone will lend it to us. in order to do this, sacrifices have to and will be made.

Honestly, i think everyone bemoaning our plight should quit their yapping. We've suffered much , much harder times than these and always got through and we will do again. It's always the worst thing about evertonians, the blindness of negativity, so allow me to spell out the positives for you..... 1) We got the left winger and striker we so desperately needed, you know, the ones we spent all last year begging for? 2) Beckford and Yakubu have gone, woopdeedoo. becks was a petulant second division makeweight, who scored ten goals. ten. James beattie scored ten goals too, don't remember anyone calling him the messiah. And as for Yak........well, lets just say his pie count at eawood park will almost certainly outweigh his goal count 3) and finally.........Mikel Arteta. gave us six years of loyal service and won fuck all. he's 29 and we got 10m for him. we also would have paid him 14m in wages in the next four years. So we have just saved the club 24MILLION pounds. Rememeber, it's the books that are screwed at everton, not the team or the manager. 24m goes a very, very long way to adressing that issue. Give the man every ounce of respect he deserves, because he is a true blue legend. The point is Everton survives. We dont NEED those players to survive, not one of them influenced our season last year, you know, the one when it eventually picked up pace was as good as any of the top six and the one that only lost european action due to a couple of flukey cup runs? One chapter ends, Another begins. Same as it ever was.

Agreed, we played our best football without him last season. Ossie will step up as he always does and bily will finally get some playing time.

Dear davey, You have done many many great things for this club and will be respected and revered at goodison until it collapses in aproximately three seasons time. I do however think you should take some advice from your mate alex, who knows a thing or two about horses. When an old horse reaches a certain point in its life, it's kinder to all involved to take it out back and relieve it of it's grey matter. this also applies to donkeys, regardless of age. please refer to this list and act appropriately....... Nev (glue factory maybe, for honourable service) Tim (Bily is better, surely you realise this, you bought him afterall) Bill (nothing to do with you i know, but i'll sort you out with a water tight alibi) Vic (gimme the gun, i'll happily do it myself)

I don't think we need worry about that. I honestly don't think we will sell anyone of importance unless felli fails to sign a new contract soon, in which case he will probably be sold in january. Besides, mikels value to the benefit of the younger squad members is worth more than his resale price at his age and with the amount of serious injuries he has suffered. As for my squad selection, that would be my starting lineup at the moment seeing as coleman and gueye are both injured and rodwell is still struggling for form. Given the chances, billy could be deadly if we played him in a more forward role, after all, the one thing we do know for certain about him is that the boy can shoot. And from what i've seen in pre-season, a midfield three of barkley, arteta and felli could match man utd, arsenal or chelsea for skill any day of the week.

Seeing as the thread started with a quote about playing like barca, I'd love to see us ACTUALLY playing like barca with a form of 4-3-3 Neville - Jagielka - Distin - Baines Barkley - Fellaini - Arteta Ossie - Saha - Billyaletdinov That could cause some serious damage in my opinion.