ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

Everton vs Spurs 'Race for becoming 'the big 5'

When comparing Everton and our own development with another team, Spurs seem to be the one everyone relates too. Rightly so too, Everton have finished 4th and 6th out of 3 seasons while Spurs have finished 5th on 2 successive seasons. The general consensus on this site seems to be that Everton are falling behind Spurs this summer. Much of this is a result of their £30mil spends and our £4mil. However, how much progress have they made?

£10M: Bale ? at 18, he is a huge risk, maybe a very good player in future but in all honesty I have seen him play two times and didn't realise, but he is a left back.
£16: Bent ? a good striker with pace and good finishing, he scared the hell out of our defence late last season. BUT, Defoe, Berbatov and Keane. In the latter, they have two of the most talented forwards in the league. Will another really inprove them or cause problems?

Spurs' problems lie in midfield with Zikora not sitting back and therefore conceding; Huddlestone needs to improve; and Dawson is over-rated. This hasn't improved, our defence is far superior. with Jags in stock we have Howard, Lescott, Yobo, Jags, Carsley. we needs a left back but our defence is far better than Spurs, and defence is harder to fix than attack. Arteta is better than Lennon and Cahill far better than Jenas.

We do need to improve, and Spurs at times do play wonderful football, but when they don't they don't have that team togetherness to work through it. Malbranque, Lennon, Jenas, and Zikora are not players who will sweat blood, this is where they will fail.

Moyes is also a better manager than Tony Soprano sorry, Jol. Spurs have spent this season, but they spent last season, the season before and the season before and are in the top 4-5 spenders in league and are not far above us.

I feel Everton will over-take Spurs this season and, with the turmoil at Arsenal, with two signings - Baines and a left winger plus some luck (Vaughan and AJ escaping injury; VdM playing more than 10 minutes a season), the top 4 is ours to be taken.
Oliver McAdam, liverpool Posted 09/07/2007 at 18:30:31

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Comments

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Jason Broome
1 Posted 10/07/2007 at 06:44:26

The addition of Younes Kaboul to the Spurs defence should not be ignored. He is a potentially world class defender.

Jason Broome
2 Posted 10/07/2007 at 06:48:22

You're dreaming.

To be top 4 you need a team that can over-take Arsenal. Spurs ran a good campaign both at home and abroad without breaking a sweat.

We gave our all.

The end result was that they came 5th and we didn?t!!

This season Spurs, Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea are raising the bar... and Arsenal have only lost one man.

While Martin Jol is a man looking up (Bale, Kaboul, Nani, Villa, Wilhelmsson)...

Moyes (with his relegation mentality) is a man looking down. That is why yet again he will play it safe.

Koumas, Smith, Richardson are not good enough for any of the top 5. Smith & Koumas we don?t even need, yet we are going to splash £10M on them.

Fernandes (loan), Baines (£5M), Mohammed Zidan (£5M), Park Ji Seung (loan), Christian Wilhelmsson (£3M).

My prediction, including Europe, top eight if we are lucky.

john farrell spurs
3 Posted 10/07/2007 at 08:43:49

you may have a point about tougher defence!but saying dawson is overated shows ignorance.the loss at home to your lot was the worst ive seen spurs play last season.jol realised that with king missing we had to change our game.which we did and we challenged on all the comps 2 qtrs and semi final plus 5th place makes us far better side then everton.also a team who beat you on your ground after falling behind!we got a promising future what have you got???

Erik Dols
4 Posted 10/07/2007 at 09:26:05

Jason, I honestly do not think Zidan and Wilhelmsson are that good, if they would come to us I’d only consider them to fill the numbers and warm the bench. And Spurs loaning Park and Fernandes, where did you get that? May be I just missed some transfer news last weekend...

Park would be a great addition to our own squad by the way. Good winger. don’t know if he has adapted to the PL though, but he certainly looked strong the times I saw him play.

Oh, and overall: I don’t care too much about Spurs, I care about us.

Ed Miller
5 Posted 10/07/2007 at 09:47:03

You're deluded Oliver ? we will be lucky if we manage to finish in the top 8 this season, Spurs will be hoping to challenge for a top 4 place this year, either Spurs, Liverpool or Arsenal will fill the remaining the top 5 places, with the top 2 going to the usual suspects, I also expect more of a show this year from, Newcastle, City & Villa. Bolton and West Ham will also be hoping for a top 8 finish this year. I expect Moyes will be looking to see how we are doing at Xmas before adding to the squad in January.
We only need to loose a couple of key players and our season is Fucked. I honestly think as long as we are not relegated, our Board will be happy, screw the fans and what they want. I don?t expect the club to spend big, but I expect them to show a bit of ambition and I haven?t seen any so far in the closed season. Top 5 my arse

Seamus Murphy
6 Posted 10/07/2007 at 10:50:24

Why do we need a new left back?? Whats wrong with Valente with Lescott able to cover should he get injured?

Dave Lynch
7 Posted 10/07/2007 at 11:04:44

Have to agree with Ed on this one lads.
Avoiding relegation, i think is the primary target this season.
Why? I think it’s that old chestnut the ground move. The board has put all it’s eggs in one basket for this, avoid relegation until the ground is sorted and wait for the sponsors money to come rolling in.
Trouble is, it just may bite them on the arse.
yes Ed your’e right my son. Screw the fans, they have done for years mate at the expense of footballing talent.
Selling our best players and bringing in mediocre replacements.
The Everton way! Don’t you just love it.

Andy Tomczak
8 Posted 10/07/2007 at 11:09:30

Bolton will be shite next season under that fat little turd, they?ve already lost Ben Haim, soon Diouf, Anelka & Jaaskelainen will all look to leave and that will leave them with the massivily overrated Nolan.

J-Lloyd Samuel and Gavin McCann are shite signings ? I predict they go down in three years if they keep Lee in charge

Pete Smith
9 Posted 10/07/2007 at 10:25:50

McAdam

Well written!

Comedy at it’s best!

Connor Rohrer
10 Posted 11/07/2007 at 12:49:59

Just a little message to John Farrell. We where missing Cahill and Johnson. Two of our most important players. I think our defense is better than yours. Dawson is a good defender but lacks the pace to ever be top class. We have Yobo and Lescott who are both very pacey centre halves. As for midfield Arteta is miles ahead of Lennon. In terms of pace Lennon is the winner but Arteta is far more technically gifted and an all round better player. We seen against seville that if you put someone quick on him he can not do anything. To be honest both Cahill and Jenas are limited footballers. Not the best passers or tacklers in the world but they give there all. Cahill edges it because of his superiour goal scoring record. In the strikers department you win. I think Keane and Berbatov are great players. Berbatov first touch is immense and most evertonians have wanted Keane for years. Bent for me is very similar to Andy Johnson. Both very quick, hardworking yet have many flaws in there game in terms of first touch and technical ability. Johnson for me edges it because he does not go missing against the big teams. Chimbonda is better than Neville. In my opinion, a fully fit Nuno Valente is better than both Lee and Bale. You dont win the eufa cup and champions league for nothing.

Oliver McAdam
11 Posted 11/07/2007 at 20:59:07

I admit top 4 is a bit optimistic, bbut that is what pre-season is for. Its the only time you can be optimistic. However I dont believe the sentiment from the responces. 8th finish maximum! Relegation battles! Has moyes ever said this seasons target is to escape relegation! NO, under moyes 3/5 have had better than 8th. Europe 2 out of 3 shows our improvement, Spurs are not as far ahead of Everton as the sentiment suggests. 10mil on bale How many people have actually seen him, Bent doesn’t improve them too much, as they already had 2 strikers better than him. West ham are the new Newcastle, Newcastle the new bolton and bolton the new charlton Villa are just Villa and will remain un-important (would you want any villa player?), Man City have Sven so willremain shite, Arsenal are in crises and for me the battle for 4th is Everton v Spurs & Arsenal. Oh, and Dawson is over-rated, make too many mistakes for a top 4 defender, he good but there is far better. Kaboul I heard is good but never seen him to rate.