Zoo

I can't say I'm surprised. Duffy will have to wait another 1-2 seasons before he becomes a regular at Goodison and it's not down to his performances it's just down to how the manager goes about his business. The only way that I would be happy taking Ridgewell is if we would be able to get him really,really cheaply as I'd rip my own dick off in anger if the £5,000,000 gained from Billy goes onto this fella.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst could be one. I'm sure he's played for Glasgow Rangers and Arsenal. I'm just unsure whether he was there when they both won the league. Worth a shout I guess... Nope. Keep guessing - I'll give you a clue. Arguably his most famous match for all the wrong reasons was back in 2002 against Turkey.

It's no myth, the fact with Yakubu has always been that he does extremely well in his first year and then goes off the boil. He did it at Middlesboro, Portsmouth and at Everton. He will become lazy for Blackburn in time and deep down they probably know it, just because he is their hero now dosen't mean that he's going to get a statue outside Ewood Park anytime soon.

Not a reliable source by any means but his Wikipedia page says that he has signed for CSKA Moskow on a three and a half year deal. £10,000,000 tops yes. He's played 45 times for Russia making him quite an established international scoring 6 goals. He has played in the Premiership (arguably the best league in the world) for three years racking up 59 appearances for us meaning that he's good a really good CV for European clubs. I think that at the very least we should re-coup the £7,000,000 we paid for him in the first place especially seeing as he's 26 (still young) and obviously having a bundle of talent.

Indeed he is, he is arguably Ukraine's greatest ever player and at the moment he's playing there for Dynamo Kiev. I'd be disgusted with £2,500,000 for Billy. For that money I'd say keep him, if I was going to sell Billy then I would at least expect £10,000,000 given how the transfer market is going. This is yet another blunder by the board if it's true and £2,500,000 will not get us the striker/replacement that we need. Not a happy bunny now people..

Well I've had a look around ToffeeTalk and there is no thread about the upcoming European Championships so I thought I'd start one myself! The European Championships plays second fiddle to the World Cup for us English but nevertheless it's still a great occassion. I think that this year we've got ourselves into a tricky little group but one which is in no means impossible, we've managed to escape from the group of death and I see no reason why we can't reach the Quarters/Semis this year and make up for our shocking display in South Africa. The tournement kicks off on the 8th June and will come to a close on the 1st July, just in time for the Olympics. There are 16 strong teams all fighting for the trophy and this will be the last time that this is the case, for the next Euro's held in 2016 (in France) there will be 24 teams meaning that Wales might get to qualify. Stick your predictions, questions and news in here! Let's get excited! Group A: Poland, Greece, Russia, Czech Group B: Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Portugal Group C: Italy, Spain, Ireland, Croatia Group D: Ukraine, Sweden, France, England

Up front shoulden't be a problem for us I don't think. There are plenty of decent English strikers that might miss out on Capello's call such as; Bobby Zamora, Darren Bent, and Gabriel Agbonlahor to name but a few so I think that up front we will be looking good at the Euro's. Scott Parker might also be a nice addition to our midfield as there is no way that he will be playing at Euro 2012 so he would fit perfectly into the team (although would his age stop him from competing?). I'm excited about the European Championships if I'm being honest. I'm a big England fan and always look forward to the top tournements whether we are in good form or not.

I'm liking the sound of that lad from Fiorentina, a winger is just what we need and I trust Moyes to sign someone that can fit the bill. For all his tactics have been poor this season he always seems to sign the right people for the jobs we need doing. Bloody hell! He scores one wonder goal against Bolton and King Kenny wants him! For £35,000,000 he's yours!

I loved the Modern Warfare 3 campaign (especially the ending) and Spec Ops is a right laugh if you've got a mate. A couple of drinks helps too as when your half pissed it becomes nothing short of hilarious, the only downside from Modern Warfare is that I can't get into the multiplayer, it's not a patch on Black Ops in my opinion. I myself have just started Halo: Anniversary which is boss, I woulden't have paid £40 so I rented it out, the visuals are obviously much better than the original whilst still keeping the 'feel' of the original. Multiplayer is nice too even though I got raped (not been on Halo online in months...)

It is written in Indonesian and translated comes out as 'Wigan announce interest in attacking midfielder James McFadden' so I'm guessing that when his contract is up here he will be heading down the the DW to help them out in the Championship. It would be nice to get some money for him but I think that he is only contracted till the end of the season - isn't he? Ha!

Due to him playing for donkey's years I would have to agree with Matt and shoutout Samuel Eto'o. I'm sure he's managed to bag a fair few in the World Cups that Cameroon have taken part in so he shoulden't have had a problem scoring in the African Cup of Nations. I'll have a think too about some of my own questions, I can see this being a thread I'll enjoy! Edit: Here we go my first question, hope it's one that can keep you thinking for a little while at least. Q: In Brazil's history of football which player has scored the most goals? Given that those who have retired will not be counted (i.e - Pele cannot be the answer because he has retired, the answer must be someone who still plays at club level).

That's who I would have gone with. I don't have too strong memories of Gallacher but I do seem to remember him popping up with a handful of goals for Blackburn so if anyone I'd say it was him. I'm sure Duncan Ferguson has bagged one for us but I don't think he has done it twice. Did Kenny Dalglish ever play in the Premiership? If so then he could be a shout if Gallacher is wrong. Edit: This is the first time I've been in this thread so I don't know the rules, if I find an interesting question can I post it? Or do I need to answer a question right first..

I didn't really understand the last article, it was unclear whether Cagliari are in for him or Genoa (maybe even both) along with Palermo. He looks like a decent lad and a loan deal with an option to buy would be better as it would give Moyes a chance to see how he fits in well with the team. I'd hate to see Drenthe miss out on being in our setup but we will just have to wait and see if this lad is something better. I'm not getting excited though, if he plays in Italy now he might want to stay there given the interest from other Serie A clubs - let's just wait and see.

Bollocks, I would be in favour of selling Jack Rodwell and I'm sure I've explained on numerous occassions why here on ToffeeTalk. I do however feel that he would be loyal the club and play for as long as we want him, he's home-grown and dosen't seem the type to spit out his dummy and demand a transfer request especially at this time now when he could easily cock it up for himself. (With being injured teams might not want to take a gamble on him and with submitting a transfer request he will surely piss of Moyes and screw up his Everton chances). He might go and a part of me hopes he does but I don't believe he has handed in a request to leave.

Not that I will complain about it, if he hadn't of handballed the ball to TC then we would be sitting here with no points. The Blackburn goal looked to me like Howard had two hands on the ball and should have been disallowed but this was when I was sitting in the ground. Upon closer inspection on Match of the Day he clearly missed the ball and can have no arguments. It was a bit strange how he literally argued with the linesman about 20 minutes after the incident as it was obvious on the TV that he missed it. TC could have done better but I guess it was a heat of the moment thing... It's also amazing how close Fellaini came to giving us the winner with his header, the ball was almost in the top corner when Robinson somehow managed to get a hand to it, unbelievable. No highlights from Duffy either, his header onto the crossbar mysteriously didn't make the cut!

A few of the people on here (myself included) are season ticket holders so we'll get to see the team at Goodison every time that they play there. People that don't have season tickets will almost always follow the game a few seconds behind on internet streams and most of the time when Everton are playing away our members will either travel down with the Blues or watch on streams and discuss what happens in the matchday thread not to mention our ToffeeTalkers buying tickets for the home games. 99% of the opinions about today's game will have been from people who have already seen the game and I think that the comments about Shane's performances are accurate. He played with the qualities of a pro with only one minor error at the end, a 9.5 you could say. He's got a bright future with Everton Football Club and there is no reason why he can't have his sights on the national side in years to come.

I woulden't disagree with that, I think because it was Duffy's debut and because he's unknown to the Premier League Kean's men tried to target him in the hope of him making an error. I have to say that he dealt with everything that came his way like a true professional and he has been one of the few positive things to come from Goodison this season. I can't wait to see him back in action again (hopefully Moyes chooses him over Distin based on performances) and we can start to have some serious stability at the back. ...he could have scored his header at the end though

That's exactly what I and the rest of the people on ToffeeTalk have been saying for months. We would gain a lot more points by playing the likes of Barkley, Duffy, Vellios and the other young guns rather than the shite we have playing week in and week out such as Saha, Cahill and Neville. The players at the top seem to be too comforatble in their positions and it's hurting the club. Louis Saha knows full well that he is going to get a game each week whether he performs or not and it means that the fans and the clubs position suffer. We will not make any progress unless we start dropping some of our so called superstars.

For me it was a toss up between Duffy, Fellaini and Gibson. I thought that Duffy made an exceptional debut and looked very calm when the ball came to him, there was numerous chances when Blackburn pumped the ball towards our box and on every attack he seemed to cope quite well, I think that the only reason for not giving him man of the match was because of his little error at the end which I'm sure he will learn from. Fellaini for me looked really comfortable and didn't put a foot wrong throughout the whole game, I'm a little surprised that he isn't being talked about more today to be honest as he put in one of the best shifts on the pitch bar Gibbo who was my Man of the Match. He looked very calm on the ball and always looked to get us up the field rather than turning round and bouncing the ball back towards Howard, he provides stability going forward and was very unlucky to go into the referee's book. An impressive debut that won me over - well done.

Was a very average performance today, we looked good in some parts but never had that cutting edge to kill Blackburn off. The goal for us was dubious and so was theirs, so dubious in fact that half and hour after the goal Tim was still arguing with the linesman (must be his time of the month) so I don't think we can complain that the referee cheated us out of the three points because against Blackburn we really need to be putting in four or five. We seemed to create lots of chances which I'm happy about but we really needed to have started Vellios as when he came on he sparked so much life into the team it's just a pity that with so little time remaining it's always going to be a big ask to get him winning us games. Saha was shite and so was TC up until his goal. Finding the net seemed to spark some confidence into him and he actually had a good game today, something which I haven't been able to say for a while now and I was made up to see him giving the corner flag what for again. Donovan was average and let himself down with his poor first-touches, most of our attacks came to a halt when he got the ball because he would ping his touch to a nearby Rovers player. Heitinga looked solid along with Duffy who was unlucky not to have scored from that header which bounced back off Robinson's bar, he got himself into a muddle towards the end when he should have hoofed the ball into Row Z and instead took one touch too many but he played with the stability of an established Premier League defender which is nice to see from such a young lad. Gibson was good and so was Fellaini - Baines was pretty shite.

Given our current situation I'd take a win in any shape or form. A 90th minute header from Louis Saha would make me a happy man, I just want to be able to go to Goodison and see us win rather than sitting through defensive football leading to our inevitable defeat. I'm choosing to wear my Coleman shirt for the game as whenever I wear my Vellios top he dosen't play.. I'm hoping that Moyes has seen his hat-trick this week and used this as a reason to kick out Louis and bring in the Greek god. I'm going for an Everton win; 1-0 (although more realistically I'm looking at 1-1) even though its a very good piece of news that Yakubu isn't playing. Baxter is out on loan isn't he at Tranmere?

Also it would be rather funny if the B team was in the FA Cup, another Everton versus. Everton? That is a very good point that you just made as surely if there was a Manchester City B then it would almost surely have starred the likes of Craig Bellamy, Carlos Tevez and Wayne Bridge (had it been created around the start of the season of course) and surely they would be no match for the teams in the 9th division. I'd say that the only way to get around this would be to have a cap on how much you can pay your 'B' team a week. This would mean that there would be a ban on having superstars and it would mean that only those on low pay (i.e - the reserves and academy) could be fielded which is what this whole process is about.

I think it would benefit the club as a whole and others around them. Like J said the clubs down at the bottom would get some funding from attendances as people like Tamworth would be able to see some of our reserves play once a season guarenteed. There would probably be a cap on how far the 'B' team could progress though as with the Spanish and German leagues the 'B' teams can only go as high as the third tier. It's something that I would be in favour of though and something which I think the FA should consider.

How about a deal? Tony Hibbert scores and we get to see your passport photo

Considering that Louis Saha's return is a goal every 4 seasons I'll take a punt with him. The stats about his goals isn't taking into account the goals that he creates though, he is a really tall forward that could knock balls down for our smaller players like Ossie and Donovan (pretty much what Stracq should be doing) and I think he would fill one of the holes in our squad. The pricetag does put me off somewhat but if he signed tomorrow I woulden't bounce down to Moyes' HQ kicking and screaming.