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Reasons to be Cheerful!
Comments (28) : Eight first team slots are well locked down with quality players and another will be kept in reserve for Tim Cahill's impending return to fitness. The curious lack of inward transfers has given the unexpected benefit of first team play for the likes of Baxter, Gosling and Rodwell and their time will surely come off the bench as a long busy season develops.
The rumours of movement in this strange transfer market over the next ten days seem to be a little firmer than some of the fairy tales that we have heard since 'the window' opened in July. I think we did good business with the AJ sale and maybe two other fringe players could be on their way before the month is finished.
I like Blackburn at Goodison as an opener and there is no very good reason for EFC failing to collect 15 points from our first five Premier games although we face three big guns in the next five matches after that. Sure Moyes (and almost every other manager who ever lived) will tell you that his focus is on the next match.
There seems to be some mystery surrounding the absence of James Vaughan over the last two matches and maybe he will still pick up a three match suspension for that daft lunge in the US but on the brighter side, he may be fit and available for Saturday.
There has been a lot of gloom around these pages and media comment about the club recently but I don't see any huge threats emerging from the other seven clubs who might be likely challengers to our 5th place from last season. I believe like last year, a better ending to our season could leave us with a small chance of finishing above LFC in fourth slot although I do not expect either side to bring a trophy to Merseyside this time. I know many have written off our chances but let's see what kind of team we are fielding by the end of the month.
To the misery mongers who have us doomed already before a ball is kicked in anger ... shame on you ? what are you thinking about? To the 'eternal optimists' who believe we should be looking for a Premier League and FA Cup winning double with the European Champions League to follow next season, I urge you back to reality. A more realistic target should be a better standard of football throughout the season than we were able to offer for much of last season and more points.
Premier safety with 40 points in the bag should be our aim by December and let's come up with a better finish to 2008-09 and double that 40 to a more than respectable 80 by May. Sure come back and laugh at my comments at the end of the season but nobody has been able to do that over the past 18 months.
So Big Smiles for Saturday and a packed Goodison roaring the lads into an early lead on Saturday. Forget about the Yes and No crap... this is football... this is Everton. Rumours of Everton's impending death have been drastically over-stated.
Good stuff ahead !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reader Comments
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Obviously injuries may occur and there is absolutely no contest for places...anyone who wants to play can.. what/s the alternative? Bring back Stubbs, Weir, Davies, Kilbane and resurrect Dunc if you have a shovel. This club is a shambles and I've watched them since 1950 ? even when they got relegated there was more players... Stoke, Wigan and Sunderland are showing us up, all have spent to improve their side. Stop looking for escape routes for BK and the rest of them and look at things realistically. We should never have been allowed to start a season in such a parlous state... it's rank bad management.
I’m a little worried about our summer - it hasn’t been ideal, but when has a summer recruitment drive ever been as good as the fans want?
"Stoke, Wigan and Sunderland are showing us up..."?
If you?ve been watching Everton since 1950, surely you should have realised that spending big and making signings for the sake of it, doesn?t guarantee success.
Tottenham/ Newcastle anybody?
I?m not saying it?s a bad thing to gripe (it?s arguably a central component of what makes us fans) but I reckon if there was a Moaning Event at the Olympics then Team GB would be packed full of Evertonians. And win the Gold, obviously.
The transfer window is open for three more weeks.
The season lasts for nine months.
Yet some of our fans have already thrown the towel in.
Jesus wept.
And before anybody points out we have yet to sign anybody can I tell you that the same people will be falling over themselves to slag off the new signings (and yes I do believe we?ll sign players) the split-second they make their first misplaced pass.
So, just like those who couldn?t wait to tell the world that we should cash in our chips and sell The Yak in last season?s January window why don?t we all just wait and see?
Or would you actually prefer things to go tits-up?
Have you ever considered a career in public relations ?
Your first job could be helping Kenwright out at the impending EGM. I think there will be alot of those horrible negative types there with their awkward questions.
I’m sure your positivity & glowing prognosis of our situation and indeed confident predictions regarding our early games would be useful.
Good luck
I must admit I’d rather have a gold medal for moaning than a NOBBER award for being so bloody Naive !!!
Now this is someone who obviously has the inside track at the club and that to me spells bad times ahead.
Still, I?ll be there on Saturday to cheer on whoever is wearing the royal blue.
No signings yet, maybe because DM knows who he wants, is fighting against clubs that don’t really want to let go, but won’t panic and keeps going.
Loads of people at the start of the summer wanted Love. If Moyes has spent the whole summer pushing CSKA to get this loan deal then you should be happy. Or would you rather he got told no by CSKA 5 weeks ago and said "ok I’ll sign David Nugent instead". Same with M’Bia.
I read a comment on here that Villa managed to sort out 2 signings in a few days. Get real guys, O’Niell worked on those transfers for weeks. The only transfers that take a few days are the desperation transfers that happen when managers give up on their real targets.
I for one am glad that DM is still pushing to get the players that he wants, if he doesn’t get them then I am sure some others will suddenly appear, but lets give him all the time we can to get the right players in.
The season will not be lost in the first five games, we may not get 15 points but I bet we will be in double figures.
We are expecting to play at least 60 games this season.
We have lost Johnson, McFadden, Ferrnandes, Gravesen, Stubbs, Wessels and most of all Carsley from a squad that limped into 5th last season.
We need 4 or 5 signings not just 2 or 3.
I dread to think what will happen if Howard gets injured.
I also worry that throwing the young lads into a weakened team will destroy their confidence.
Money or no money questions have to be asked why it has taken us months to get to this situation when it was known about before the end of last season.
Spurs have signed Modric,Bentley,Dos Santos and 5 other players with the minimum of fuss.Happy Harry has gone out and bought new players and we end up reducing our squad by 7 players.
This season sees an increase in the number os subs allowed on the bench I dont think we’ll even be able to fill our quota.
Personally I think we’ll end up with two good quality signings coming in (and possibly a couple of potential bargains) and the 11 that we put on the park on Saturday will be the strongest we have seen in the Premier League era.
Howard
Baines
Lescott
Yobo/Jagielka
Neville
Pienaar
Osman
M’Bia/Moutinho/ANOther
Arteta
Love/Vaughan/A 5th mid/ANOther
Yakubu
I don’t see another team outside the top 4 that have a settled 8 or 9 from last season and an 11 that can match us. Injuries will bite but it’s not like the teams below us are boasting massive squads full of quality.
No doubt Moyes could go and find 5 or 6 warm bodies but that wouldn’t be progress - they would just be filling bench space for most of the season before they get moved on. That’s been Benitez’ approach and that lot made zero progress until they wised up and opted for quality over quantity. That mantra is even more important in our position - 2,3,or 4 million pound players on the bench is a less efficient use of limited money than a top player on the pitch.
Better football, top 6, and hopefully a cup run. Keep on aiming high Moyes, I want to see some quality players at my club. Nil satis and all that.
COYB!
First you say -
" I do not expect either side to bring a trophy to Merseyside this time. "
Then you said -
"To the misery mongers who have us doomed already before a ball is kicked in anger ... shame on you ? what are you thinking about? "
So shame on you misery guts, If you didnt notice we are still joint top of the league!
David Moyes? Everton are a team that can perform ?miracles? (or so says BK) when their heads are up and then the next minute play like an alehouse team for weeks because of a few injuries or because of one bad defeat.
We therefore need to go into each and every season with the best prepared side, both mentally as well as physically and rack as many points as possible before the fatigue kicks in for our limited numbers.
Last year, we had that and i for one was very confident pre season. This year, we have Arteta stating with 5 days to go that ?the players need to forget about new faces and concentrate on the job in hand?
What does that tell you? The PLAYERS FFS!!!
I really hope we get off to a good start on saturday because if we don?t we?ll be regretting this missed opportunity for what should have been ?an easy 15 point start? for the rest of the season...
This current board knows how passonate we blues fans are but still tests our loyality year after year. David Moyes can't keep producing miracles each year with no backing from the top. I hope I am wrong but I can see this being a long hard season.
And the problem is KENWRIGHT DOESN'T CARE LESS.
But one thing is absolutely certain:
Pre-season showings or results mean absolutely fuck all once the season starts in earnest.
Not surprised that we are divided on this but can I please repeat for anybody who missed the point in my original article that I was in no way, shape or form protecting Bill Kenwright from his critics and like the rest of you, I will be intrigued to see what kind of answers he gives the ?Goodison Inquisition?.
Team selection might come into that but I think BK?s hardest task will be to find any trace of an excuse for this second stadium farce that he has now presided over.... What was he thinking ?
Maybe he will tell us one day what really went on behind the scenes but will we believe his explanation after all the lies that were told about an almost free state-of-the-art stadium ?generously? offered by Tesco out there? Thank goodness for Phil Green who does appear to be trying to sort that mess out and keep the club running!
I still believe we have some soft options in the first five games of the season and recent form suggests that we will lose three of the next five.
Mostly we beat the bottom clubs so Stoke, Hull and West Brom should represent a great chance of 9 points from these matches.
Usually we beat our peer group at home so Blackburn and Portsmouth should be another 6 points.
We generally lose most of our games against the ?Four Money Clubs? so I won?t be holding my breath for anything out of Arsenal or Man U and frankly we looked scared in both derby matches last season so that is not one I look forward to either.
Home to Newcastle and away to Bolton, the right approach should give us a fair chance of another two wins so after 10 games we COULD have 21 points.Sure we have problems with the size of the squad but only a couple of posters highlighted the one thing that I do believe could screw our season big-time.
That would be an injury to Tim Howard and the introduction of Turner to the first team. I would love to see that lad sold , out on loan - anywhere really but not sat on our bench. I really hope David Moyes gets his experienced back up goalie and rids us of the ?Turner threat?!
I think Osman and young Rodwell might start on Saturday but will both be regarded as stand ins until we get our two central mids transferred in. I still believe that side would be good enough to beat Blackburn.
Sure we have been slow to sign the players we want but look around the league... Chelsea are still sniffing around Kaka, Man U want Berbetov, Liverpool want Villa?s best player but no signings of any of these guys yet. One poster on this thread liked the chances of Stoke, Wigan and Sunderland.... are these guys serious?
I?ve watched us gain promotion, I?ve seen us take four Championships and various Cups and I have to say honestly that I cannot see another title any time soon.
The fact remains that even without any players coming in this week, the team that takes the field on Saturday will be, for the third season in a row, the best to have represented Everton since the last Championship squad over twenty years ago.
There is even the possibility that Tim Cahill will be ready at some time later in the year and sure he has been a terrible loss over the last two injury ravaged seasons but a fit and ready Arteta will help balance that loss. I will be back at the end of September and let?s see how it all panned out.
Does anybody else hate these Thursday night football games that make the Champions League look even more glamorous - the only big game in town? Does anybody like the Sunday footy that follows these Thursday games against Europe?s ?less than elite clubs??
Does anybody else think it is daft to compare Jose Baxter to Rooney? Surely there was only one Wayne Rooney? We had him... Bill Kenwright sold him... and that killed our hopes of top four more effectively than all the ridiculous stadium nonsense that followed!
I never learned much Latin but I think I still remember what our club motto means! A week is a long time in football!!!! Just don?t bury EFC before we are dead !
I think you are undersetimating Spurs.
They may have lost Keane but they have signed 8 new players including Modric,Dos Santos and Bentley.
For once I think they are a real threat.
You can take Pienaar out the OS says he is out for six weeks,
Can it get any worse????
The cracks in our squad started to show when we lost players to the African nations for god's sake and we never recovered from that until the last day of the season.
No matter, we limped home in fifth with a whole summer to replenish the stocks and yes, if we couldn?t now afford the Arshavins of this world then what the hell happened to the likes of Michael Bradley, the freescoring midfielder that we had been watching all last year??
For me, the Piennar injury has blown wide open the total insanity of what has been going on behind the scenes this summer and exposed the house of cards that all those blues having been living in by naming our ?best eleven? as if they are all going to be available every week until next May.
Here?s to the next sixty games Steve.
Surely the money saved in wages of the players we released plus the money made on the sales of McFadden and AJ should have been directed to DM?s transfer budget. This does not include the money for finishing 5th etc etc. Like I said, Wigan, Stoke and Sunderland have provided more financial backing to their managers this season...check it out. I was very optimistic about this season especially with the talk of Arshavin, Moutinho, M?bia etc... but all appears to be falling apart... The only information we get is through the press so where you all get your optimism from beats me !!
However whilst I still back DM - i have to confess that I am more than a bit concerned at our lack of activity in the transfer market. I would have thought that by now we would have recruited at least one new face. DM has known for a while now that we lack real strength in depth. They say that identifying a problem is 50% of the way to solving it. That is possibly so in most cases - but clearly not with regard to Everton!!!
Glen can you explain the logic of on the one hand pointing out that we lack strength in depth as David Moyes has done several times - and then reducing the numbers by selling players and not replacing them? Yes we got good money for both Johnson and McFadden - but where are the replacements for those players?
Tottenham have sold several players - but they have brought in sveral players as well. Aston Villa have been active in the market in recent weeks after a slow start. At this moment in time it looks like we will be putting out a squad on Saturday that will have several players who have yet to make their league debut. This doesn?t look like good planning to me. One doesn?t need to be Einstein to know that we have needed to strenthen the squad. Why haven?t the people in charge done something about it?
I regard myself as being pro-Moyes - but it is very hard to find reasons to be optimistic given the pathetic efforts of the last few weeks. Not really in keeping with our motto is it?
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1 Posted 11/08/2008 at 07:02:37
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My concern is that we’re going to be chasing the season as Moyes won’t be able to mould the late influx of players (maybe I’m being optimistic now) into their roles until after New Years.
Our form during the preseason doesn’t warrant a confident call of 15 points from the first five games from me either.
Am I, like you say, a doom monger or a realist.