James, Re the comments on Jo and that we don’t have that kind of money:

I think you read too much into it. Yes, I am afraid as well that we have very little to spend. But you can read those comments on Jo in many ways. One being "with the Yak returning to fitness next season it would be unwise to spend most/all of our transfer kitty on a striker", another being "I’m talking his price down, we want him but we hope City will sell on the cheap". And I can give a lot of other explanations as well. It doesn’t necessarily mean we do not have £10 mil next summer.

Erik,do you think it is Jo or Yakubu rather than both?Prior to his injury I’d have gone with the Yak,but how will he come back? Right now I’d take Jo.

Here we go again!

A summer of no signings, we will have put bids in for players that are nowhere near the valuation, then we will buy someone on the last day.

All Evertonians should be used it by now... Get rid of Billy bullshit, Kenwright OUT.

Just saw that mother Riley will be our ref on Sunday. Despite what you may think about him, he was the ref when we beat them in the '95 Cup Final.

It's an omen, I am sure!!

FFS Jim Reardon!

Ok we only drew against Villa but we saw some of the best blue football since we last lifted a trophy.

I'm not particularly a Kenwright supporter but you write as if we have just been hammered 8-0 and are on a downward spiral with each week worse than the last. This is blatantly not the situation.

We have been on a steady-ish upward trend for most of the Moyes reign. There have been dips but the trend is clearly up.

This season, despite our squad having no "strength in depth" we have shown we can score goals with the first 4 strikers injured and we have now shown we can play exciting passing football with no Arteta.

Far from there being a consistent trend of no signings every summer, there is a clear trend of Moyes making very good signings and everyone knows this.

Moyes's most contentious signing of the moment is the Big Fella. Jury is still out, I?ll agree to that, but while the jury is still out, I am perfectly happy to have a 21-year-old who has scored 7 goals in a little over 2000 minutes (about 22 games) in his first season in the Prem!

Looking at Moyes's record each summer, if, this summer, he only is as successful as his average, I will be perfectly happy going into the new season with that plus the players returning from injury.

Tom, lad, I am not on about the manager's ability, I am on about progression.

What has this board brought into the club financialy? Nothing. Moyes has the ability to take us further and as he says, you can only do so much with what you have got. Remeber the start of the season? Moyes frustrated to death by not being given any money for signings, until we sold AJ to Fulham.

That's the problem wth us Evertonians ? we are content with mediocrity and have been so for many years, whilst Kenwright has got away with his inability to get investment into the club.

God only knows what will happen next season in the Europa Cup, our league form will suffer because we won't have the squad to compete in all the competitions.

I agree with you Tom, I?d much rather watch a game like yesterday where we looked a threat going forward and played some good football. Obviously 3 points would have been better, but Villa probably played as well as they have all season at Villa Park and we still got something from the game.

As for Riley, what on earth are the FA thinking? Why change from Bennett to Riley with no explanation? Mind you, he was in charge the last time we beat Prem opposition away from Goodison.

Is it true that he has a Man U tattoo on his arm?

Ajay, the 1995 ref was Gerald Ashby.

Ajay, as Brian said, 1995 was Gerald Ashby (it was possibly also his last game as I don?t remember him hanging around that much afterwards).

And also, Riley is utterly terrible. Bottles big decisions against the Sky Four and constantly gets stuff wrong. Awful decision, even more that he?s replacing Bennett who in my mind isn?t that bad a referee (other than not particularly reading games well and being too by-the-book).

Jim, lad, ultimately the chairman is responsible for everything in the club ? including hiring the manager and deciding if the club will agree to his buying decisions.

Apparently you think Moyes is a good manager. Well BK signed him up. Apparently you think he makes good signings (because you think he would do even better with more money), well it is BK that decided to back those signings.

Look, I am no BK fan. On the face of it he appears to have done a good job but I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes (and neither do you) so I might be completely wrong.

I like to think the sexiness of the football has improved, but I guess the only objective measurement of the manager and the chairman is results.

Like I said, I am no particular BK fan... I thought I would get the league placing stats together to see if life with BK really has been the gradual improvement building from what went before, as I imagine it to be. Well... here they are... I include average placing over 3 seasons to iron out the lucky and the unlucky and give more of an idea of the trend:br />
Season, Chairman, league position, average league position over 3 seasons,
95?96, Johnson, 6, 13
96?97, Johnson, 15, 12
97?98, Johnson, 17, 13
98?99, Johnson, 14, 15
99?00, Johnson, 13, 15
00-01, Kenwright, 16, 14
01?02, Kenwright,15, 15
02-03, Kenwright,7, 13
03-04, Kenwright,17, 13
04-05, Kenwright, 4, 9
05-06, Kenwright, 11, 11
06-07, Kenwright, 6, 7
07-08, Kenwright, 5, 7
08-09, Kenwright, 6 (at least), 6 (at least)

This does seem to back the idea of a steady improvement under BK though it is not clear. It certainly shows that there has not been a decline under BK.

Binning the objectivity and going back to subjectivity ? I, personally, feel much more optimistic about the potential of our current players/management than I have for a long time. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I wish we could make Moyes the chairman... He would sort that shit out in no time.

Brian and Peter - You are correct: Ashby was the ref for the 95 final.

Not sure what I was thinking!!

We have no chance now.

Non-relevant point but I think Bennett was a linesman in the '95 final... wish he was in charge of this one.

There is no way Riley should be reffing our semi-final, if he is we have no fucking chance. He has previous against us (Van Nistleroy penalty at Goodison anyone?), it is simply not fair. I have e-mailed the FA and strongly urge everybody else to to the same.

There is absolutely no point in travelling if he is in charge, we all know that he?ll give a dodgy penalty to them and he?ll send off at least one of our players. The man is the worst ref in the history of football and when you take into account he is a friend of the "big four", it shows how the FA will do anything to pave the way for their favourites.

By the way, Steve Bennett, who was the original ref, has sent Ronaldo off twice... coincidence? I think not.

Get over the fact that Riley is reffing and cut all the bullshit about emailing the FA. Who cares who refs? It's the 11 in blue that we should be positive about. Let's get rid of this negatively about one man in black.

Haha... love this conspiracy of Riley having a tattoo, get on the skinny pale rat, he?s not the tattooing type. What he is is a bad referee with 'little man' syndrome.

Jim, do you honestly think Jo is good enough? Not wishing to dampen things further but surely you wrote this before you saw who Sunday's ref is.

Thanks, Andy Wait, for a little bit of reason.

Have just read the FA have changed the ref for Sunday. I have also just read that he (Riley) has a Manure tattoo on his arm, if that is true then this excuse for a man should declare a vested interest in that club and step down from this game. Of course it could be only a false alarm about the tattoo, therefore I apologise to the guy!

Here we are, a few days from our first appearance at Wembley for a long time, with a squad and manager who have achieved miracles in a season of constant adversity from start to finish.

I hit TW every day to read what people are saying and thinking and all we hear is bloody negativity. BK, Riley, DK etc. We?re getting more like the barcodes every day. If someone had offered me this situation a few months ago I?d have snatched their hand off.

FFS let?s give it a rest and just concentrate on being positive for the rest of this season. Keep your whingeing for the Summer. We have no control over what happens in the close season but we CAN have some effect on Sunday. We need to be saving it up for then.

When Those blue shirts are on the pitch at Wembley, we need to make sure that they know that every Evertonian is up for it with them. We need to out-shout, out-sing, and out-play the rich kids like never before. Show the world that we are Everton and this is what we do.

We really need to live up to the Brian Labone philosophy. Let?s make it a blue revolution to frighten the big boys shitless. I am taking a vow of silence and giving up the fags from Thursday to give my voice a chance to get to full power on Sunday.

Some amusing reading and my own slant on the responses:

Tom to compare Agent Johnson with Kenwright is a nonsense as it?s the manager and players who get the results and placings in the league ? Johnson shot his bolt and put us in hock for has-beens but Kenwright hasn?t invested a penny into the squad... it?s loans from his mate Green and future Sky money that has paid for it.

The tenure of David Moyes not Kenwright has earned the league placings and football has evolved since Johnson?s day too. And don?t be so hasty to claim Kenwright found David Moyes either ? it was a Walter Smith recommendation.

I?m going to put big money on Old Mother Riley sending Fellaini and/or Cahill off as it?s almost in the bag the shithouse will send one of them off. I?m still going as I?ve waited since 95 to be there again but not looking forward to an unbiased game of football, which is what both sets of fans deserve.

Going back to the original thread, I really thought that this would be a hell of a season for us, before the summer of nothing. Then, after the beating by an Ince(!!!)-inspired Blackburn, I really worried that we would go back to the dark days of worry, relegation etc. Then with all the other stuff, injuries etc, I became a doom merchant. But look at us now! 6th place (and relativley clear), a cup Semi-Final, and dissapointed we didn?t beat Villa away ? not bad!

As for this summer, no I don't expect massive signings. I do expect at least 10 or 11 other clubs to spend more than us; I do think we will probably sell the Yak to finance a move for the Portugeezer, which will probably not come off and we will get someone else.

We will not break into the top 4 on a regular basis until we get some money; Blue Bill hasn?t got any... although, as per a previous thread, he needs to sort out the marketing of the club, ie shirt sales etc. So, unless there's a sugar daddy out there or football changes the way it?s run, we strive to stay as we are.

Hello there. I have 6 x tickets avail. on Nat. Express leaving on Sat from town @ 9:30 am arriving at Victoria Coach station. Leaving Sun 9pm from Victoria, getting in to Norton St Coach Station (by London Road) around 01:55 am.
Loads of free time in London. I'm on coach too. Call 07929 904 906 tickets in hand £20.00 p/p. COYB. Adam. Be quick!

Just to set the record straight, re 1995 referee Gerald Ashby; unfortunatley Mr Ashby passed away not long after the final from a heart attack.

Norman, thanks for that. Sad to hear it as I think he had a decent game and let the football flow.