ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

Kieran Kinsella
1 Posted 01/02/2008 at 00:26:26

If today had gone as well as past transfer deadline days like when we signed Jeffers on loan from Arsenal, Beagrie on loan from Bradford or when we attempted to sign Barry Horne on loan and then decided instead it would be more fun to sack Joe Royle. The good news is that we still have AVDM so, no matter how crap Gardner may or may not be, there will always be someone less popular in the squad...

Paul Coleman
2 Posted 01/02/2008 at 12:50:05

Well, I for one am not disturbed by the lack of purchases in the transfer window. I think Moyes has taken an acceptable gamble by not paying silly money for players this January. Moyes has taken two loans, one of which improved the quality of the midfield by 50% at least. The gamble is that we will finish 4th, and armed with a massive transfer kitty, this summer will see us attracting some star quality players, who want to play in the Champions League.

It is a slow re-building job, but slowly and surely we are getting closer to becoming part of the elite. Even if we miss out on 4th, my opinion will not change, I think Moyes made the right decision. Time for a little phrase that used to do the rounds on ToffeeWeb a few years back.... IMWT

Patty Beesley
3 Posted 01/02/2008 at 15:18:26

Paul - Where is the massive transfer kitty coming from for the summer? Are we having a whip round?

Ben Howard
4 Posted 01/02/2008 at 15:20:32

3 out 1 in????

OUT - McFadden, Stubbs, Anderson Da Silva
IN - Manny, Gosling, Gardner

I for one think this is an improvement although I was sad to see the back of Faddy

Jay Wilson
5 Posted 01/02/2008 at 15:21:27

I didn’t realise the transfer window lasted for just one day. I thought it was 3 in and 3 out.

Coming in we have a player we all craved, A young player with tremendous potential and 4th choice cover for centre half.

Going out we had a player who played 2minutes for us in a year, a 36 year old wanting first team football and player who failed to fullfil his potential and infuriated the hell out of everyone.

Are we better off as a squad than we were on 1st January? Numerically we are the same, quality wise I would say we are better.

But hey...that’s not good enough...we should have panicked and thrown money about like Sunderland, Fulham and Derby.

Martin Cutler
6 Posted 01/02/2008 at 15:15:21

Where do you get "3 players out, 1 player in" ?

Three players out yes.....Anderson who obviously wasn’t going to make it in the first team, McFadden who for the most part everybody complained about and Stubbs (I was as surprised as anybody but all the best to him I say) but at 36 should we be relying on him for cover?? I think not. Gardner, if injury free, at 27 sounds like excellent cover.
And THREE players in: Gardner as I mentioned, Fernandes (not half bad!) and Gosling (a very bright prospect for the near future).
Not to mention Yobo, Yak and Pienaar returning soon.
That said, I was hoping for one decent additional player but I’m sure Moyes isn’t sat there with a pile of money not willing to spend it!! If he had it, he’d spend it..........and none of us truly knows what goes on behind the scenes so there’s no need to be so negative about it.

UEFA Final here we come!! (I hope!)

Gavin Ramejkis
7 Posted 01/02/2008 at 15:32:38

Ben - bit off with those figures

8 out - McFadden, Da Silva, Stubbs all sold plus Vidarrson, Kissock, Jutkiewicz, Spencer and Boyle all out on loan in January

3 in - Gardner (loan), Fernandes (loan) and Gosling bought

Even arguing that the loans are kids yet to make the grade we have a threadbare squad still

Mark Griffiths
8 Posted 01/02/2008 at 15:36:48

If reports are correct, how much of this £40+m will we see in the summer, taking into account balancing the books etc?

Richard Porter
9 Posted 01/02/2008 at 15:47:49

I’d say our first team squad is now:

GK: Howard, Wessels, Ruddy, Turner

Defenders: Hibbert, Yobo, Lescott, Gardner, Valente

Defender/midfielders: Jagielka, Neville, Gosling, Baines, Rodwell

Midfielders: Pienaar, Arteta, Osman, Cahill, Carsley, Fernandes, vd Meyde

Forwards: Vaughan, Anichebe, Johnson, Yakubu

And I believe we have a recall clause for the young players out on loan, so we can bring them back if we need them.

David Mathieson
10 Posted 01/02/2008 at 15:17:04

It makes me laugh the amount of people who go on about how "slow rebuilding" ? Is the way forward, some of the time-scales mentioned quality players who we have like Lescot will leave and any fan who considers ten years in one mangerial postion without a trophy as a success is on drugs no matter how far we have come in this time... A DECADE without a trophy!!! Second is nowhere! Never mind 4th (with a negative goal difference), 6th, 11th etc ? which to me is no achievement.

Coupled with the whimper in the semi final loss to ten men with one striker upfront when you're one down with 30 mins left at home. Young manager learning from pervious errors my arse! Subs after the goal again... Also, he never captilised on the situation when we finshed fourth ? do you think he could agian, if we finsh there? Anyway sorry for saying something bad about the blue-eyed boy Moyes.

Why will Fernandes improve are midfield by 50% Paul? This lad needs to prove his worth to Everton then show commitment to us ? both things I cannot see happening at all. To be honest, I am shocked at all lot of Everton fans the way you can't even air a complete valid point about David Moyes and his limitations. What has he done to be a lot of people's best manager or second best ever, as posted the other week? It is amazing to say the least... maybe from their lifetime if young but ahead of Catterick or even Royle ? that is shocking.

If you stop brown noseing him and had a real look you will see there is some fundamenatlly flawed parts to David Moyes?s mangerial style. Nil satis nisi optimum a lot of my blue brothers wana have a look at yourseleves... and I didnt even metion Kirkby either.

Peter Jones
11 Posted 01/02/2008 at 16:02:43

The pertinent point surely was that we are weak on the flanks. Pienaar and Arteta are first choice and are excellent; both can play in the middle if required but who have we when they are not available. Osman is far more effective in the middle than the flank. The left/right question is not so important as either can and do swap flanks but at the moment we are unbalanced. McFadden was the first choice go to and he has not been replaced. A full back is not the answer for a top four side. If five in the middle is the formation of choice then we need two natural flank men. Whatever the quality of player balance is the key to a good team performance.

Ric Wallace
12 Posted 01/02/2008 at 16:15:15

How negative is this guy??

3 players out that would never have started even if we had injuries (an injured Baines was considered ahead of Stubbs).

Why is that a problem? It lowers the wage bill.
Can someone tell me if any of our rivals have strengthened sufficiently:

1) Man City- an unknown Ecuadorian.
2) Villa- Wayne Routledge. World Class yes..
3) Rovers- Nobody!
4) Pompey- Defoe and Baros. Baros has failed at 2 Premiership clubs already. Defoe is a threat granted, but will it make much of a difference when they have good strikers but a poor midfield?

No one strengthens in January. Why are people so worried that we haven’t?

We got Fernandes and Gardener.

True we’ve have problems with injuries at the moment, but what team doesn’t? Rovers are crippled at the moment too at the back. We are in the midfield.

True team is no different from that against Spurs on Wednesday but when we face Rovers (who according to my Rovers mate are playing awful football at the moment, and in the form table are in the bottom 5) and Reading we should win these games with our current squad.

If we can’t beat teams like Reading then we don’t have a cat in hells chance of finishing 4th!

Jay Wilson
13 Posted 01/02/2008 at 16:19:09

It makes me laugh...Nil satis Nisi Optimum...No trophies in 10 years blahblah blah... We have only won the title 4 times in over 50 years...Only really competed at the very top for about 10 or 12(if that) of those 50 years. And yet we have some divine right to greatness. Since the war we have been footballs nearly men with the odd exception. The present manager has me excited about being a blue...I have not seen us play this well in nearly 20 years and at long last I can see something on the horizon and despite the occasional set back, I prefer to look forward with optimism rather than back with blue tinted spectacles.

Philip McAvoy
14 Posted 01/02/2008 at 17:12:33

Gavin - I don?t honestly think you can count those as first team players. The only players who have made any contribution who left are Stubbs and McFadden. Our squad is stronger if not bigger than it was before the window opened.

Eric Holland
15 Posted 01/02/2008 at 17:12:25

Jay!

Well said that man.

Jonathan Fletcher
16 Posted 01/02/2008 at 18:00:48

You can’t count the Boyles, Vidarsson’s etc of this world. They are reserves and wouldn’t have featured anyway!

Joe McMahon
17 Posted 01/02/2008 at 18:16:15

I’m with you Allan, as Yak ain’t here and when he does come back we have to hope he won’t get injured or suspended, COS AJ certainly ain’t gonna score the goals! A striker that cannot trap/control a ball is not good enough for any club serious of competing. I just hope Vaughan starts instead tomorrow. Shit they have Sanat Cruz...mmmm

Gavin Ramejkis
18 Posted 01/02/2008 at 18:53:58

Guys I said the kids out on loan even if they havent made the first team would need to be called upon given just a few injuries and suspensions, you need players on the pitch and on the bench not go crying to the FA saying sorry we havent got enough players because we are building slowly on a shoestring. I’ve nothing against those we have brought in but have for the last few seasons posted here about the size of our squad and how just a few injuries and suspensions would seriously impact our league performance.

Trevor Thompson
19 Posted 01/02/2008 at 19:36:30

Jay, it’s true. I realise that we haven’t really done much since the glory days of the 80s apart from ’70 when we won the league we didn’t do much either; although we came close. Football as changed a lot and it’s going to take money to compete with the "big three" (guess you have to count Chelsea because of their spending power) It’s going to take time, a whole lot of patients and time to do it right - sorry just remembered that George Harrison song, but if we keep finishing in Europe and winning a cup hear and there then we’ll be able to get more money and attract better players...or we can wait for a Russian billionaire to come along.

Chris James
20 Posted 01/02/2008 at 17:27:39

Another day, another round of half empty glasses...

One minute these boards are berating the interest in Downing, the next there’s a slagging because we haven’t reinforced in wide areas...

Admittedly a midfielder would have been nice and I’d have liked to see Sidwell myself on loan, but clearly Chelsea weren’t keen to part with him (and am sure wages would have been an issue!).

As it is we’re a little short in midfield, but looking on the bright side wasn’t it a small, tightly-knit squad that secured 4th last time round?

Terry Cotterill
21 Posted 01/02/2008 at 20:25:12

WTF are you lot worrying about? Hibbert is again available which will allow The Moyestro to regale the midfield with the silky skills of Phil Neville! How blessed we are with talent in this direction.

Oliver Mcadam
22 Posted 01/02/2008 at 15:52:12

I tkink Gardner could be a very astute signing. Firstly, he is gonna be better cover than stubbs, and he is also looking to prove himself. A few years ago he was highly regarded but injury troubles meant he fell down the pecking order, but maybe he has something to offer

Also, not sure if mistaken but I think he played in that holding role previously for Spurs. At 6'5'' he has much needed hight and steele, in those games where Tim, Ossie, Piennar etc are a bit small and weak. He could offer an alternative to the tiring Carsley (our tallest midfielder at 5'10'').

...or he'll have a fruitless 6 months and leave without anyone noticing he was here.

Gavin Ramejkis
23 Posted 01/02/2008 at 20:58:59

Oliver a guy who sits near me in the Park End made an interesting point during the Spurs game, did you know the average height of the Everton ladies team midfield is taller than the first team!

Jay Harris
24 Posted 01/02/2008 at 21:14:43

Gavin, As always some good points but I would like to point out to everybody that with each league place being worth 500000 approx from Sky and presumably lots more from other sources including the Champions league worth c. 30mill now is the time to invest in quality reinforcements not the summer when the opportunity is lost again. To those that say we have no money - I would say we never will have unless we invest at the right time and that time is now. The team were dead beat for the last 15 mins the other night and were lucky to end with only 2 points lost but if we lose more against Blackburn tomorrow you can kiss goodbye to 4th. TIME WAITS FOR NO MAN.
NSNO

Steve Pugh
25 Posted 02/02/2008 at 07:42:45

I have never come across such negativity. Does anyone on here think that United fans are saying "lose to spurs and we can kiss the title goodbye". Of course not - the normal response from the Manure fans that I know is more along the lines that Arse etc will slip up at some point as well and they will go on a run and win it anyway.

I hop that none of the players look at this site because all we see is a total lack of belief in the teams ability to achieve. If any of the detractors on the site think they can do better then come up with alternatives, not sarcasm, not slander and not useless moaning.

Personally the only thing I can’t understand is why we didn’t sign Vogel.

Dave Arrowsmith
26 Posted 02/02/2008 at 18:12:30

This is to comment on David Mathieson's comments and how negative he is. First of all David Moyes hasn't been with us for 10 years and anybody who can take us to Europe and Champions League after 5 years and taking over the abysmal squad that Walter Smith left behind is a miracle. Secondly Catterick was a legend and still is but he inherited a top team. Yes he (David Moyes) does have some flaws but what manager hasn't?