Newty82

Fantastic!!! Thats all.

What a man Jags is holding his foot like that! Proper captain! Man, thats real bad luck. Nasty. Wishing Bryan a good recovery.

I agree....so who you thinkin? Cos I aint got a clue!!! Or do we just leave it and trust the blokes at the club who do this stuff?!!! We just have to sit, wait and hope. I think something is gonna happen, no doubt about it. The cogs are going. Just no idea who!

I agree...but who??? Are we happy with anyone with legs? Jermaine Pennant now available on a free. Its a real dilemma...who can you bring in to make a real difference? Gonna be an interesting week me thinks!!!

Glad its going through. Looks like he could be a useful player and a pain in the arse for defenders. Need some clarity on his match fitness before I get too excited. Thinking that he may only be available for the last 10 or so games takes a bit of gloss off it. And if that is so, RM has brought him in to see us 'over the line', which is fine but then I doubt he will be the last bit of business in this window.

Guess it depends on our share of tv revenue. We'd get around £10mill straight away...the tv money is split in a 'pool'...I think it depends on home nations tv audience. So Bayern Munich won it and earned 55mill euros (of which 36mill was prize money, 19mill tv money) while Juve went out much earlier and earned 65mill....45mill was tv money!!!

I dont think it will be down to Myers. Down to possible circumstances at the club? As in, possibly slightly better 'feel' and slightly smoother accounts etc? People in his kind of position have to be political with answers. We all hate this aporoach. But at the same time, very few of us can handle the full truth. We want the truth...as long as the truth is what we want to hear....but take this forum as a small example and all the different views of its members. We all support Everton, but we all have different views on different topics at the club...so we see the 'truth' in different ways, and dissect it in different ways. Depending on the circumstances, Elstone has to make the 'truth' fit as comfortably as possible. Thats his job....and I'd hate to have it!!!

Haha...famous last words!!! Then we went onto the uefa cup...and got twatted straight out of that by dinamo bucharest!!! Anyway, all Im sayin really is I prefer to keep a realistic view rather than running away with uncertainty. Too many ifs n buts do no good. You still dont get a bucket load of money just for qualifying. Bayern munich won it last year and earned a total of around 50mill...we need that much to buy our loan players!!! Im just gonna enjoy the football and see where we finish. Gonna be a good season.

Yeah, the pitch...heard that one enough and I think we all went over that enough in the matchday thread, ha!!! But from what I remember, WBA did fine zipping it around. Anywaaaaay, I agree, nothing wrong with a bit of honesty from the lad, prefers to play a certain way. I prefer doggy to missionary, doesnt mean Im not gonna 'score' just cos I have to play a different way!!! Booyah!!!

Yeah, its cheap shots from teams around us because we are doing well. Most of the teams in the league loan in players as, apart from the usual 'big clubs', money is tight. As for whether I like it....yes and no. Yes......because we have brought in some good players who are helping our performance this season. No....because its a very short term fix. A lot of you are fotgetting, or ignoring, the fact that finishing 4th only gets us to a qualification round (the last time we did this, we lost to villareal!). This is worth £2mill...hardly going to buy a new squad?! Once you are through, the money picks up but you still dont know how much you get (£8mill for qualifying, £1mill per group game win, £0.5mill per draw...rest of money depends on tv audience in your country). Also, the 2nd leg of qualifying round is at the end of august...all current loanees most likely gone and if we get through we have one week to manoeuvre in the transfer market....stick or twist?!!! The loanees have to be worthwhile...so if they do well the owner club will either want an inflated fee (unless pre-agreed?) or want them back. Then we have to start again...get new ones on, integrate them etc etc. Dunno really.

The lad is only 20...and has always seemed fairlt intelligent. A student of the game type. Anyway...I thought against wba we did use him as a target man and it massively contributed to our poor performance....we hoofed it upfield all to often. Not sure RM wants us to go that way, would be a backward step surely??!!!

Enjoyed reading that, nice one. Elstone always seems to come across as honest, or as honest as our culture allows people to be!!! Some 'to the point' questions there, and indepth answers to boot. I too would be interested to see the 'other expenses' that suddenly appeared a few year ago...this one hasnt been forgotten by many!!! I suppose mose companies run with a degree of debt, being able to service the debt is what seperates the survivors from the dead. It feels that we are really vulnerable to home attendance numbers. And it is also slightly concerning that there seems to be no plan to pay down the debt to a 'safer' number, say 20mill...it does feel like its on a 'seesaw' at the moment. Overall, he gives a confident feeling of how things are being run. If I was to be sceptical, I'd say I guess thats his job.

Hahaha...I love this stuff! My 14 year old step son is the same...knows all the good players from FIFA. I used to be the same with Football Manager...thing is, these games stats are so accurate now...if they are 'mustard' on there, they generally are in real life!!!!

Some of it came across as arrogant, thats not to label you as arrogant (hell, I dont know you so I make no assumptions and couldnt give a shit anyway!!!), mainly dictating what RM should have done despite RM being the one who spends the time coaching and managing these guys, he knows them better than any fan, he has the knowledge.. So, in the meaning of arrogant, possibly too strong a word to use, but only slightly. The reason I accept a draw at WBA is....because it happened! So, if I dont accept it, does it change the result? No. So I accept it and look forward to the next game. Thats life...if you cant influence it, whats the point in being a blabber arse about it?! If you read my comments, I have said that both the team and martinez had a poor day. That is criticism in proportion to the big picture. We all have bad days...imagine being at work, you've done ace for months on end, hit your targets etc...you have a bad day and your boss rips you to bits for it 'blah blah blah, in your face, blah blah blah, cost us millions today.....' You'd be like 'thats a bit unfair isnt it?!!!'...same principle really. And the reason I say 5th would be an acheivement is because there are 6 clubs ahead of us in terms of spending power and size (maybe 7 if you count Newcastle). We have finished in the top four once in past 25 or so years. In that same time, we have finished 5th twice (last time being 4 & 5 years ago). So, for me, yes, 5th would be great and loads of you didnt even give us a sniff at that at the beginning of the season...now suddenly only 4th is good enough?! You touch on a slightly different subject...what we need financially. Hell, financially we need 1st, thats the real money! 4th doesent mean we suddenly get a load of CL money, we would still need to qualify to the proper rounds to see real money. This game is a lot easier to follow if you keep a realistic view on things and put the emotion to one side. Not that you'll give a shit what I say of course, haha!!!! Big shout to 'Zolton' too...dead right in what you're saying. And yes, we are being disrespectful by expecting a win. WBA always give us a tough game. The pitch was nothing to do with our performance, WBA seemed comrtable zipping the ball around.

Well, as you like to use IMO quite a lot, kinda makes it hard to argue against, its your opinion. Fair enough. I agree that RM has to take some flack when it goes wrong...as do all the players tonight. Its a bit funny to say you aint going overboard with criticism but also say (mind if I use some of your " " here?!) "he has cost us largely in race for 4th", "he bottled it" and "he let a lot of blues down". IMO, bit over the top...!!!! Also, in your post further down, you pinpoint everything, In your opinion, Martinez should have done that would have won the game. Bit arrogant, IMO. Anyway, we'll wildely disagree on our opinions I think...no hard feelings, each to their own and all that. Where I think we all have some common ground is the feeling of dissapointment. I think we fell into the same trap as our players, we expected a win. But all in all, it aint too bad. It doesnt matter too much where we sit right now in the table, theres so much back n forth going on. We need to remember that 5th would be an achievement, 4th would be....gobsmacking! Bring on the kopshites!!!

Couldn't pick anyone to be honest. Poor team performance as a whole. No one stood out...well, thought Anelka was quality but cant find him on the list.

Gotta be constructive here gents, bit OTT bringing Moyes up (fuck sake, is moyes the only manager we have had in our history?!) and I see the Martinez bashers will jump on this one (Martinez has cost us majorly in the race for 4th?! Have a word pal...its because of RM that we are in that race to start with!!!) But, anyway, lets be honest...we were shite! Really frustrated watching that. We have all got use to a particular style of play in a short period of time. However, credit to WBA...they pressed hard, tackled hard, found space, looked sharp, passed and moved with pace. And we did none of that. We just looked empty today. Too many long balls upto lukaku, who won very few. We were basically the opposite of wba. Lets not go overboard with criticism, it was poor all round...players and martinez... Bring on the kopshites!!!

Big vic!!!

God, that was a crap half of 'football'. Baggies are clearly pressing to win the ball back quickly, giving us no time on the ball at all. We need to respond to that...so far we are too slow, look a bit too relaxed and slightly disjointed. Good thing is we lead...we aint played our best yet...but I think baggies have played as good as they can. Oh, and that Anelka is giving us a 'mare!!!

Not a strong argument that....howard, baines, jags, distin, coleman, miralles, pienaar, osman...and the rest...have had to adjust. Cant see why Fellaini would struggle. And I say that because I thought the same at first!!! He's a good player...would have been ace either in Barrys place or alongside Barry.

How it effects our long term goals is the slight, and I emphasise 'slight' niggle for me. Dont get me wrong...lovin' these players being here, the football etc. But you have to think...apart from Barry who is a freebie at end of the season...how much would it cost to buy Gerry, Luckylucky and 'another' quality loan signing? Looking at at least £50mill. To gain continuous success you need continuity. Just a thought.

Tell you what is pissing me off....the amount of shite being linked to us. And I know its pissing others off too! Relegation threatened teams get linked to all sorts of shite....teams with around 20k at home games get linked with shite...but a team chasing CL footy? Oh fuck off! Is it a true reflection of finances though? That does make me wonder! I'd rather we just wait until summer than bring in some shite arse.

Looks like he would be awkward as hell to play against. Knows how to play with his assets...height, strength and gangly legs!!! I know peeps say 'mah, its only russia'...but believe it or not, every team in the EPL definately dont have the best defenders in world football...absolutely not!!! Downside for me is also that it is another loan. Monaco have just brought him, like last week, so aint gonna sell. That would be him, Barry, Gerry and luckylucky all on loan...bit too much 'short term' stuff that.

You've already drummed up a bit of self interest.

To be fair, Bainsey deserves to earm top whack. Fortunately for us, he doesnt seem to be a total mercenary, say like Ashley Cole would be. So we may get away with paying him less than he deserves. However, Im not a big fan of playing devils advocate with already fragile club finances, so I hope we have worked out a ceiling of what we can afford now, not what we might be able to afford if we do 'this, this or this'...and if it aint enough, then sell on. No hard feelings. However, I am pretty sure it would be easy to say 'we'll give you xxx now, xxx if we get into europa and a fat xxxxxxx if we get into CL'. Happy days.