Hi

[fast lane]

I just joined this forum, because another Evertonian recomended it on Last FM (username fastlane01), where a new Everton group has been started under the name, you guessed it, Toffee Talk.

I come from the Netherlands, and live 13 kms above Alkmaar, the town where the new Dutch champions, AZ, come from.

 

I'm a fan of theirs too, but primarily I'm an Evertonian, having been born in England, in rural Lincolnshire to be precise.

 

I used to be a member of NSNO (those of you who are also on there, will recognize my user name), before getting banned by some immature narcissistic bragger of an admin. And what did I do to deserve this? Well I had the nerve to laugh at him, and deservedly so, I would do it again.

It used to be a great site, with some some very nice people on board, both male and female, who I have met in real life, and have had the pleasure of having drinks with. There were also some guys who knew their stuff, so it was a pleasure exchanging thoughts and ideas. I hope this site can be similar.

 

But the NSNO site went downhill bigtime when this immature prat was made an admin. Perfectly normal threads disappeared (for no reason any normal person could think up, except him) and things started looking more and more like a schoolyard from hell, with bullying and namecalling being the order of the day, and he being the focal point in all this nonsense.

 

He even had the nerve to threaten me, after I laughed at him the first time, so I laughed some more. His immature (very large) ego couldn't take this of course, so against all on rules on the site, he banned me. If I'd done something wrong, I should have got a warning, but then again I didn't. This all must have been very confusing for the poor kid.

 

The reaction of the owner was a disappointment, I've met him in real life, and thought he was a good guy.

He wanted me to come back and act as if nothing had happened. But that wasn't on.

I would have thought an apology was in order, but this wasn't forthcoming.

So no more NSNO for me, and I told him so, if I wasn't to get the apology.

 

All this happened in February, and to be honest, I haven't missed it to this day, even though I'm still one of the major posters on that site, I think a little more than 18.000. That's quite a number. I don't think I'll reach that number on here, but you never know.

 

What can I bring to this site? Well living in The Netherlands, I can offer more insight into Dutch football specifically, and European football in general (I'd seen Marouane Fellaini play several times, before we signed him, to give an example)

 

As of now I'm wondering how to programme my VCR for the big match coming Sunday.

A short while ago I subscribed to a Dutch pay channel, to see the Everton games, it sure beats watching a fuzzy stream, even though the commentary is a lot poorer. The difference in picture quality is immense, and well worth the 15 euro's a month I have to cough up. I'm not very good with technical things, but I'm sure it'll come ok for Sunday. I had already organized something else for that day, before we beat Villa in the last round, so I'm hoping I can get the best of both worlds (to quote a Robert Palmer classic)

 

I think we have a good chance of reaching the final, but it's going to be a very tough match.

[Romey 1878]

Welcome to the site mate, it was me who recommended it to you .

 

I didn't realise you were fastlane on NSNO. I don't really post on there but I regularlylook on there.

[fast lane]

Welcome to the site mate, it was me who recommended it to you .

 

I didn't realise you were fastlane on NSNO. I don't really post on there but I regularlylook on there.

 

Well thanks again then.

[holystove]

welcome fastlane.

 

 

congrats to AZ, they were awesome this year.. but i do hope Van Gaal leaves you guys and becomes coach of belgian national team :-)

 

also, hope Moyes will sign dembélé

[aaron]

welcome to toffeetalk mate

[fast lane]

welcome fastlane.

 

 

congrats to AZ, they were awesome this year.. but i do hope Van Gaal leaves you guys and becomes coach of belgian national team :-)

 

also, hope Moyes will sign dembélé

 

 

Thanks for the welcome, Aaron too.

 

AZ were indeed very good this season, and that after the disastrous last season, and hardly spending any money in the summer.

Getting Stijn Schaars and Marten Maartens back from injury was far more important. Those two midfielders were what the team was missing in the previous season, plus they got rid of some bad apples too, in the keeper Boy waterman, the defender (now at West Brom) Ryan Donk, and a couple of others.

But getting Stijn Schaars back made the real difference, he is so influential, and Louis van Gaal has said of him that he was his most important buy. That's really saying something.

Mounir El Hamdaoui has improved a lot, scoring for fun, but their best player is still Moussa Dembélé, who has started scoring more, making him even more important for the team.

 

As for Louis van Gaal going to coach Belgium, you wish. He has stated, and has in his contract, that he'll only leave AZ for five teams to go to the World Cup next year, they are our country, Germany, Spain, England and Argentina. Normally nothing will come off it, but you never know. A lot can happen in football in a year.

 

Next year the Champions League, it's vital to keep the team intact. Barcelona has already been sniffing around El Hamdaoui, and it's been rumoured that Dembélé is going to AS Roma, so lets hope nothing comes of these moves.

 

Moussa Dembélé is a terrific playerm I've always been a fan, you could see his potential when he was still at Willem II.

But I can't see him moving to Everton, and thats for one reason only, we can't afford him.

AZ don't want to sell, and who can blame them, and will only do so for a very big sum of money.

[LexKing]

You hope this is similar? Your wrong, this is better Welcome

[dark]

Rember that UEFA Cup game in December when we ended the 32-unbeaten record that AZ had produced. I think it was James Vaughan that got the winning goal, might be wrong. If I'm not mistaken that was one of Rodwell's first games as an Everton player, it might of been his first. Back on topic though welcome to the site Fastlane! I'm WhiteMartin from Last.FM and started the ToffeeTalk group over there.

 

Good to see you on the forums, its a lot better than NSNO.

 

Enjoy!

[fast lane]

Rember that UEFA Cup game in December when we ended the 32-unbeaten record that AZ had produced. I think it was James Vaughan that got the winning goal, might be wrong. If I'm not mistaken that was one of Rodwell's first games as an Everton player, it might of been his first. Back on topic though welcome to the site Fastlane! I'm WhiteMartin from Last.FM and started the ToffeeTalk group over there.

 

Good to see you on the forums, its a lot better than NSNO.

 

Enjoy!

 

It was James Vaughan who scored the third goal. And a very good one it was too, with Victor Anichebe lobbing the ball over a defender to put him free diagonally in front of goal. He duly strolled it home.

It was Jack Rodwell's debut, as a 16 year old (!), away in an European match. It must have been very humiliating for Louis van Gaal. I made a post about this on NSNO, and mailed it to friends and family. They all thought it was too.

 

I managed to not know what the score was at Wembley on Sunday, and saw an half hour summary on the pay channel I'm subscribed to yesterday at 17.00. Excellent, of course.

It was pretty difficult avoiding the score, a mate sent a mail with the heading Everton (it was probably more likely to be good news than bad, but of course I couldn't open it), and in the library in Alkmaar yesterday, I read The Times from front to back (usually I do it the other way around) and stopped at Andy Robson'sexcellent daily Bridge article. I turned over the next page half, and could see Ferguson doing his crazy dance. That looed like being good news too (it was of course when Riley refused to give them the penalty).

 

So all in all very good news, in a very good weekend. Don't think we'll have much of a chance against Chelsea, this time, the 120 minutes at Wembley will have taken a lot out of our players. I'll be very happy with a draw.