Recent Reader Responses

Below are the most recent comments posted by readers to threads across the website. For context and to add your own reply, you can access the article in question by clicking the link appended to the item in question.

• ‘So called pandemic / so called virus’ - people do know that medical experts have been predicting this for years don’t they? It’s perfectly understandable if you understand a bit about zoonoses, nature and evolution.I also don’t need David Icke to tell me that someone somewhere will be making good money out of calamity; that is capitalism for you. You only had to get an idea of who was backing the Leave campaign to understand that even in what amounts to chaos and uncertainty for most of us, the money market guys will unashamedly make money even if the rest of us have to pay for it....
  Si Cooper in Chelsea to steal Gabriel from under Everton's noses
• Any chance the Live Forum can be put up with a topic for discussion, particularly on a Saturday afternoon. Some suggestions I would put forward our - VAR Yes or No ? EPL Refs Good Bad or Biased ? Best EFC Goalkeeper / Defender / Midfielder / Striker of the 21st Century. EFC Team of the 21st Century so far. I'm sure there are a million and one topics we could discuss whilst downing a pint or two in isolation and conversation. What say you....
  Jack Convery in Mystery Men #3: Andy van der Meyde
• Apologies, Michael K. I think I have, ever so slightly,moved off topic. Just watched Newsnight and saw a vile republican apologist for Trump and have spontaneously combusted....
  Andy Crooks in Fact-Check: How old are the Under-23s?
• Mike@21 I fear that he won't be taken care of. He seems pretty popular. What is it that makes this so? He seems, in my view, to be a monster who if not held to account by the American press and decent politicians would be a new Hitler.Thankfully, Mike I know that the good guys like you and Jamie and many, many others are keeping watch. Who will vote for him in November?I fear the virus in US will peak around then and we will have an unelected Trump with special powers. I prefer Putin, mainly because he humiliated Trump and exposed as a coward. Sorry about the rant.Love USA, hate Trump and the cowards who stand behind him....
  Andy Crooks in Fact-Check: How old are the Under-23s?
• Peter (54), I didn’t know that, about Stuart Shaw playing against us for Southport, I wasn’t at the game but we only won 1-0, did Joe Royle get the goal.Peter, I bet that fella who had his hand in your pocket was wearing a white mac, it was always a give away, Liverpudlians, every one of them....
  Dave Abrahams in Mystery Men #2: Rodrigol
• Phil Roberts. Just chuckling at your dedication to spreadsheets. That is some going. I like to maintain a spreadsheet of all the players I would like Everton to buy. This has become immensely detailed over the years (been doing it since I was about 13). I use it to 'scout' players from across the globe and to spend (in my own warped version of reality) Moshiri's money money wisely. Obviously it is a complete waste of my time. It is interesting to no-one but me. But I am glad I have a kindred spirit with his own utterly pointless spreadsheet that (and I'm biased) sounds even less interesting to the average fan than my own. Thank god for Toffeweb. ...
  Robert Tressell in Fact-Check: How old are the Under-23s?
• Thanks John! ...
  Sam Hoare in The English Game
• Tony @40, yes totally agree, don't you just despise these upstarts Liverpool, Manure, Spuds, Chelski, The Arse, et al. 😂They have no history as such, which is one thing we will always have over them, and it's something they can never deprive us of either....
  Derek Knox in The English Game
• Sam. Just finished watching episode 4. Brilliant Well Done! ...
  John Burns in The English Game
• Tony #40 Fixtures between Everton & Aston Villa are the most played League fixtures but not quite the oldest, as we didn't play Villa until the third weekend of the inaugural League season.However, you're quite right, I'm sure a request from one of the more fashionable clubs would have been looked upon much more kindly....
  Dennis Stevens in The English Game
• Len #39 Stoke were replaced, after a couple of seasons struggling in the League, by Sunderland. It was than that they joined the Football Alliance where their success was a mirror image of their previous League failures & earned them re-election to the League. Early in the 20th Century they went bust & ended up in non-League football. Their eventual application for re-election to the League was approved just in time for League football to be suspended for The Great War, so they had to wait for the 1919-20 season to rejoin the League. They changed their name to Stoke City in 1925 when the Stoke was granted City status....
  Dennis Stevens in The English Game
• I hope he’s taken care of sooner rather than later Mike G, but I think it’s better to listen to Michael, because it looks like he’s turned into a clairvoyant, with some of the moves he’s been making lately!...
  Tony Abrahams in Fact-Check: How old are the Under-23s?
• Wow, Michael, didn't know that. No wonder the property values up there have dropped. Congrats on a well-timed move. (Glad we didn't buy your house.) And don't worry about President I-Take-No-Responsibility. He'll be taken care of.Brian #14, yes I have, and she is quite noisy. I'd tell you her name but I'm afraid it would get back to my wife. (Kidding! Kidding!) ...
  Mike Gaynes in Fact-Check: How old are the Under-23s?
• Phil (18), Forgive me if we've discussed this before, we did have a Comparisions thing going a few years back, doing what you described. I'd modelled it on something from the matchday programme that gave this information. It's been a few years and I found updating it from one season to the next especially taxing of my limited spreadsheet skills... But my desire was to include it on the site. Here's a link to the last one: 2006-07 Comparisons.If you have something that fits the bill and would be okay having us publish it... just saying!!! ...
  Michael Kenrick in Fact-Check: How old are the Under-23s?
• Thanks guys, especially Mike (11) and Tony (12). I have to let you into a little secret... we abandoned the Left Coast, sold up and moved back to Limeyland at the turn of the year. It's tempting to say The Donald forced our hand... couldn't face another 4 years!!!We are currently renting a place just outside Tiverton in Devon, and what a lovely part of the British countryside this is! The huge irony is that I had to persuade my US firm that I could be just as effective working remotely (this was a month or two before Covod-19 hit)... and now the whole company is doing it! But yea, we were actually living in downtown Kirkland, which is at the heart of the King County epicentre. I guess you could say we did a runner....
  Michael Kenrick in Fact-Check: How old are the Under-23s?
• When you have a lot of time and you are a spreadsheet geek - or should that be nerd? - you end up doing countless stats which are great for you - but maybe nobody else.One I like (I'll get back to the topic in a second. We are not in a rush to do something are we?) is comparing results this season to last. Consistently, season after season between 45-55% of results are exactly the same. So whilst it is often decried as rubbish, it has some sense of predictability.But back to the topic, I have a spreadsheet of players minutes on the pitch going back to the 1984-85 season (how sad is that? Very!! I hear you cry). Now it was in the day of 1 sub, not the any 3 from 7 and maybe not a squad game like today, but the first choice team started 92% of the games. But the average age of the team running out was 24 years 4 months. And they aged 9 months over the season! That means 24y at the start of the season and 24y9m at the end gives an average of 24y4m.Compare that against the current...
  Phil (Kelsall) Roberts in Fact-Check: How old are the Under-23s?
• Rob. Not sure but it's bloody noisy!...
  Brian Williams in Fact-Check: How old are the Under-23s?
• Brian, # 14. What's one of them??...
  Rob Halligan in Fact-Check: How old are the Under-23s?
• Bring back the Central league. I used to watch them when Everton where away, along with thousands of others, trying to spot the next ' Star'. Except when my RS mates used to tempt me to Mordor. When Best, Law, Charlton, Greaves, Gilzean or my personal favourite Charlie Cooke, played the RS....
  Alan McKie in Fact-Check: How old are the Under-23s?
• I always liked Shankly. A lot of what he said was tongue in cheek and he showed he really didn’t mind us with the amount of time he spent at Bellefield after he retired.A great football man - if your day was shared with Creasehead then you’d have a problem!!...
  Dave Williams in Devastated
• Mike#11.Mate have you found the washing machine yet? 😂...
  Brian Williams in Fact-Check: How old are the Under-23s?
• When we won the league in 69-70 we had Wright, Labone, Harvey, Royle, Morrissey, Whittle, who where local lads. Plus, Husband, Hurst and Kenyon who came through the ranks. Add West, Brown, Kendall and Ball, plus standby Tommy Jackson and you have Champions. Why?? Couldn't it happen again ??? Them days, you had time to cultivate players and mould them. Now, everyone wants instant success. We where once called the millionaires club. But even then, we could only afford one star a season, be it, West, Kendall or a Ball....
  Alan McKie in Fact-Check: How old are the Under-23s?
• Echo what Mike G, says Michael, because keeping this website open in such testing times, has helped a lot of people, I’m sure.Thanks Michael, I didn’t know where you lived and how bad your city, has been affected, but ToffeeWeb has been a godsend at times mate— so thank you very much, to both yourself and LL!...
  Tony Abrahams in Fact-Check: How old are the Under-23s?
• Derek@30, I think you have got a couple of good points mate, and I’m sure if our neighbours or United, had been part of the story from the beginning, then maybe there would be another badge in circulation right now? (They would tell us they don’t need it, of course!) When Everton, was the “first team in England, to play 100 seasons in the top league” they made a request to the league, to open the season against Aston Villa, another founder member, of this elite club.They requested Villa, because it was the oldest fixture in the country, and yet this request was actually turned down, and we got to play Spurs instead, in a game in which Wayne Rooney, possibly made his full debut.Imagine if Arsenal, Liverpool or United, would have got there first, because something tells me, that such a request would have never been turned down, but a very big deal, would have been made out of such a fabulous achievement instead?...
  Tony Abrahams in The English Game
• Thanks for asking, Robert. Unfortunately she's still there and locked down. With the current travel restrictions, it will likely be months more before they can come home. As for me in Oregon, I'm in an area not yet touched by the virus -- the nearest confirmed case is 100 miles away. Hope you and yours are keeping safe as well. ...
  Mike Gaynes in Fact-Check: How old are the Under-23s?