Half-Term Report: So Far, So Good

Merry Christmas to all.

I feel as delirious like Jimmy Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life this Xmas with the "Ginge Grinch" gone.

Half term report – top of the class!

Now we have an innovator in charge, a proper motivator, a man with belief and vision.

Happy Christmas.

Despite our lofty position, Roberto will still need time and several windows to get us to the strength he has in mind. He came with a long-term plan and it's still a long-term plan. The present run of success brings added pressure from fans expectations but it won't alter his strategy. He's far too level headed to allow it to effect things.

So, at almost half-way I'm pretty happy. Watching Jags control the ball, beat a man, run forward and slot a perfect pass was quite surreal. What's happening here? Maybe it's a dream.

"If the people running this club don't find money to invest in the squad now, I think we'll all miss out on an excellent opportunity."

For all their faults, our Board has a track record in exactly what you describe!

Martinez may need to do some wheeling and dealing but there is always some cash to keep things going. I am hopeful that we will be able to have a core of players to keep progressing.

Yes, we still have a number of over-thirties but the future is there for all to see with Ross, Seamus, James, Oviedo Baby, Stones and Superkev with RM showing his liking of youth with the young loan players.

We are still a work in progress but with a few million still to spend and possible sales of Heitinga, Jelavic and Baines (£18M or more for a player of his age and I would take the money as Bryan is playing too well to drop anyway), RM can continue his rebuilding starting with the permanent signing of the excellent Gareth Barry.

The appointment of RM was inspired and credit should go to BK – however much his detractors will deny it.

I understood to some degree those youngsters who had never seen a great Everton team but others...cowardly myopics who "know their place"

Us old-school arl arses, steeped in our history and experiencing the wonderful, occasional ups of post-50s Everton knew that the right manager could take decent players and create a team far better than the sum of its individuals

Moyes was a steady hand on the tiller, keeping us off the rocks but Martinez...it's like escaping from a bad marriage and finding there is life (and love) after all

Have a great day, fellow Twebbers and let's hope our team come out of the festivities even stronger - we could even be "safe" by New Year's Eve

I'd had my fill of dm's "justification football" and was not in the least sorry to see him go. I'd been very pro dm for a long time and genuinely believed that he had a "Blue Vision" and would be with us having created something immense, I even called him "The Blue Shankly" by way of description
I was wrong, he didn't and he wasn't

Roberto has not just papered over a few cracks and given us "a lick o'paint" and said "We'll that's a bit better, it's not ideal but, it'll have to do !"

He makes NO apologies at all
Instead he's made progress

Most importantly he's made Evertonians smile and look forward to the next match again with bloody relish

Half-Term Report:
Roberto is a very affable, genuine young man who's sunny outlook and disposition is genuinely infectious. His positive approach is matched with considerable leadership and intelligence, I suspect that we have not seen the very best of him yet and I hope not

Love the near unified optimism on these boards these days without the silliness of you know who. It's a great time to be blue. Drinking red wine, only fools and horses on, crimbo dinner brewing, boozer later, The Old Lady tomorrow 4-0.

Priceless.

Happy Xmas to one and all including the griping scrooges and esp. to our hosts MK and LL.

We will now be far more attractive to a quality type of player that we would have been under Moyes. We are not only playing great football, we are getting all sorts of genuine plaudits and credit for how we are doing.

It is now up to the Board to stump up some proper cash to really help us to push on even further. If we do not strengthen properly while we are having this season, then it really will be criminal.

But the whole atmosphere has changed around the club, which is of governed by what's happening on the field.

I love the comments by Pienaar the other day about Martinez, who said he's the most positive person he's met and his team talk before the Arsenal game: get over your fears and go out and enjoy yourself! Let's keep the momentum going and who knows where we can end up.

I remember someone suggesting that there were cheers when it was announced he was going - something shot down by others, but it wouldn't be a stretch to think that even office staff far removed from the football side would be affected by the general culture / demeanor put around.

Spot on Harold, I just hope the usual suspects see it as you do.

BK and the board's half term report however is pending. The January window contains their examination. So far their report card should read, a steady job well done in appointing the new manager, however their true examination starts next week. Do they or do they not support the manager in January? Will it be a case of they showed early promise but failed to capitalise on the early good work, they could have done better and let themselves down! Let's hope not but I am not going to hold my breath.

I pray therefore that from next week BK will support our new manager in the manner which he has just proved that he deserves. That means actual money that he can buy additional players with if he feels that he needs to add to and improve the squad. The key words being "add to and improve" Bill.

One game at a time so, here's to a comfortable and card-free win over Sunderland tomorrow. Can't wait.

COYB

Now that money may or may not be still available but I suspect it's not. It's gone towards paying down debt. Laudable this would be, but I further suspect it's to make the eventual sale of the club more lucrative to the major shareholders, so that they may get the returns on their (small) investment they crave.

Sorry to be cynical. I'd like to be all happy clappy on this holy of commercial days, but where Everton, and our Board are concerned, bah humbug! (We don't even have Tiny Tim anymore!)

The stand-out performance is the defence, not only conceding the fewest goals but also scoring the most of all defences in the league too - truly excellent. The signing of a striker who has delivered goals is also noteworthy too, whilst Howard has looked solid.

In the transfer market Barry, Lukaku and McCarthy have all been better than could have reasonably hoped for. Deulofeu looks a good arrangement, whilst Robles will probably be an okay bit of business. On the negative side, Kone and Alcaraz have been unfortunate - it will be interesting to see what Alcaraz contributes in the second half of the season and whether Kone will have a role next season or not.

Amongst the younger players, Barkley and Oviedo have come on very well. Stones is also being given some game time and looks promising. There seems to be a clear development strategy in place with Lundstram, McAleny, Junior, Garbutt, and Duffy all getting game time out on loan. Will be interesting to see how McAleny progresses when his leg heals, and what roles Vellios and Kennedy have to play. Does Gueye have any future at the club? There also looks to be promise amongst the slightly younger players, with another 7 or so players looking to have the potential to move on from the U21 squad and go out on loan next season/get a place on the subs bench.

If you look at our top 3 fit strikers - Lukaku, Jelavic and Vellios, it demonstrates the strength in depth the rival teams around us enjoy and will probably be a challenge to overcome at some point.

To be 2 points from the top of the league with two of our easier home games to go to complete the first half of games is remarkable. Whilst credit has to go to Moyes for assembling a lot of the players, everything is going a lot better than anyone could have hoped for at the start of the season.

I think BK will adhere to his promise to back the manager, as he has done in the past so am not worried about losing Roberto any time soon.

Don't forget he now has a daughter and his wife may not wish to uproot herself from North West.

I just hope the team does not assume they only need to turn up tomorrow which was the mistake Liverpool made against Hull

I thought the Bring Me Sunshine exhibition was a laugh and I just can not see Moyes being involved with anything like it, he was too serious although he seems to have lightened up a bit since the move.Ever upward for the boys.

Does anyone know why Barkley shaved his hair off, he looks worse than Howard did with that silly beard

Man of the season so far... it has to be Roberto Martinez. The confidence he has given the players and their improvement; and the positive changes off the bench. Fantastic.

We were saying exactly the same thing at this time last season when we were fourth, only for the board to let us down once again?

Will history repeat itself once more?

Over to you BK.

More and more cash was the mantra of OFM. He could never make do with what the club could provide and always wanted us to take on further debt. I'm quite happy that we now have a manager who will eventually get us into the champions league positions using his own ability and skill and actually justify his salary. This year may or may not happen, but I'm sure it will happen soon.

Kenwright may not put any money into the club, but he does give the manager space and time and control, which is more than can be said for most chairmen. Stability has always served us well and with Martinez at the helm with his progressive style of management, I think we're in a good position for the future whether we have £10M or £100M to spend next week.

My half season report would be:

Excellent loan signings have made the difference and McCarthy alone makes up for the other two if they don't come off, but still early in the day to judge them. A lot of luck involved with the Lukaku signing, but as they say, sometimes it's better to be a lucky manager than a good manager. However nobody remembers who was 4th on Christmas day after 17 games it's where the team is after 38 games. We have all seen many false dawns before and even when finishing 4th under Moyes the powers that be put an end to any optimism and hope we might have had.

Still, best to live in the moment and enjoy it while it lasts and it has been very enjoyable to see, but be careful not to get too carried away. In the short term, we are ready to compete against any in the league... but, if money is not invested and when the loan signings return to their mother clubs, Martinez had best have a back-up plan up his sleeve to maintain the momentum.

I now live a long way away and for the first time in a long time I'm tempted to spend a vast quantity of money to see Everton play like the Everton I used to go and watch in the '80s and early '90s.

Thank you, Roberto Martinez, for giving Everton her self-respect and self-esteem back.

Thanks also I suppose to OFM for steadying the ship and steering a safe course, but you stayed five years too long.

Ian, I was commenting on what has happened so far. Can you tell me why this successful loan signing is 'lucky?

I'll judge Martinez's season at the end of the season too, it's just that now is a good time for an assessment. Bear in mind some people made judgements last summer before he started, which look particularly odd right now.

I'd encourage everyone not to get carried away until we've won something, but you'd need a heart of stone not to be optimistic right now.

Getting £33.5m for 2 players who cost half that and were not good enough for EFC and replacing them with the best midfield in the PL was a master stroke; having the best defence while also having the most offensive defenders is incredible! And finding the perfect role for a young genius, who was stagnating in the rezzies or out on loan just tops the lot. What more can this man do?

A recent moronic article in the Daily Mail decried RM's good work and claimed all the credit was down to OFM!!! It stated that had DM had a striker like Lukaku he would have done last season what Roberto hopes to do this; all I can say to this crap is, why in 11 years couldn't he find one when Martinez managed it in 4 months? Anyhow, people scoffed when El Robbie said wed reach 70 pts, well we have 34 with 21 games left, so if we if we carry on at the rate of 2 per game that's 42. Take away the possibility of 6 less and we still get 70! God it's felt like Xmas for months now; Roberto is our Wizzard COYB

David Moyes took a sinking ship, stopped the rot and stabilised it in a decent position. Martinez has taken the ship, added wings and is now starting to fly.

Both men are partially responsible for where we are now. Moyes for gathering the talent, like Coleman and Oviedo, and RM for making them play,

NO, NO AND THRICE NO

(1) We have a different gaffer

(2) There is an optimism and atmosphere that is new

(3) Our new gaffer has yet to have a consistently bad run

(4) There is an unusual unity on these boards these days

(5) Stop stirring with rollercoaster ride stuff; its not relevant now

(6) Stop stirring with let-down stuff; its not relevant now

(7) These comments are relevant for a former era not today

(8) 'Hype and euphoria'. 'Hype"! How grudgingly gingerish

(9) It is no longer 'hype' if it ever was; hint, look at the table

(10) Euphoria? Okay! Merited after last 4 years and last 4 months

You manage to misrepresent the mood of the last four months pitch perfectly Ian. Hey, climb on board, enjoy yourself, stop being a ginger minge-bag! It's over mate, these are fresh times with fresh winds of opportunity. Bobby has proved himself beyond all expectation in defence, formation, style, and the window, and there is no reason at all on this basis to expect continuing success/improvement here apart from your jaundiced jinger (sorry) jowls.

Enjoy the sunshine Ian

Right, off to the match