Martinez heading back this week

Have you ever wondered, if players like Barkley and Stones are so good, why don't continental clubs ever bid for them? The only clubs who ever show any interest in English players are other English clubs.

Maybe Barkley. Stones, Shaw, Lallana, etc aren't as good as we would like to think they are and their actual as opposed to imagined quality gets exposed every couple of years during the international tournaments in Europe and the World Cup. All of a sudden it's all eyes on the foreign players and take no notice of the English ones because they're really average.

Could Barkley or Stones play for Real Madrid or Barca? I seriously doubt it.

Can’t we also send along Stones, Oviedo and McCarthy? That way, after they’ve tapped Ross up in the stadium, they won’t have to come back for our other young talents.

Only a few players have made the grade abroad, eg, Keegan and Woodcock in Germany (both became fluent), Beckham in Spain (learnt a bit of Spanish), Gazza in Italy (never even learnt English but he loved it over there). There's probably a few more but these are the stand out ones.

Plus the fact that we are brainwashed into thinking we have the best league in the world, then there's not much incentive to move abroad, is there?

Very few foreign clubs can match the wages paid by Premier League clubs and tend to scout in South America and Africa where they can buy talented players for, historically, far less in both transfer fees and wages.

If a player is good enough for the first team in the Premier League, he's already going to command a large fee because his club will be relatively rich in global terms and won't need to sell; if he's playing in the Ivory Coast Premier League, you probably won't have to shell out so much.

Come on, chaps – let's be a bit more positive! I'm not disputing that you're making good points, but let's be a bit more optimistic!

This season will tell us a lot more about where Roberto will be capable of taking us; let's hope we have more luck with injuries.
Frank, I do agree that our English players still lag behind skill-wise the best European and South American players – nothing's changed in 50 years!

Now bobby is back, IÂ’d like him to get his arse in gear and start buying us some new players. Also good to see Big Rom has spoke about returning to us, so again, letÂ’s get cracking as we have ground to make up on some of the big clubs who have already started recruiting.

On the skill gap with Europeans, I actually think the skill gap is narrowing. Half of the England team looked like they could control the ball and string a pass together and the stats back that up. This has not often been the case in the past (1970 being an exception – probably the best ever England side). If Stones can learn to defend a bit more robustly, that will give England at least one more ball player.

If Barkley and Stones continue their progression into the players we believe they will become, then Barça and Madrid will come knocking. They will allow Everton to do the hard work and build them into the type of player they want – and then swoop.

There's a good interview with him on FIFA.com today and apart from the liberal sprinklings of his favourite word fantastic, some good observations are contained within.

Busy days and weeks ahead.

Either that or the thick pricks in the media found it too difficult to spell.

Whilst playing with the plethora of foreign players, they can look half decent... but, when they are all together, well........

Naturally, I exempt all Everton players from that assertion.

I see the U18s & U21s are out in Austria for a training camp and a couple of matches already. They've also been back training for over a week now. What I gather, the 1st team isn't due to report back till next week. Didn't they always come back at the start of July? Also last year they had their first friendly game on the 14th.

Only three pre-season games have been announced, Tranmere on the 22nd, then a long haul trip for one game in Thailand, and then Osman's testimonial on August 3rd. Also with the players involved in the World Cup will reconvene at later dates, is this enough preparation for the upcoming season?

The players these days don't let themselves get unfit like in bygone days and are probably monitored even whilst away from the club in some shape or form.

Last season it was important to have matches in pre-season in order to adapt to Roberto's preffered style but this season maybe not so much. I would have expected another couple of games though but maybe money has reared its ugly head and we are either pricing ourselves out of the friendly market or the potential opponents have.

We will see come August 16th what effect the summer has had on the team - not too long to wait now...

His jaunt may be a good little earner but it's not as if he's been scouting International stars. We're more likely to be signing players from Wigan than the World Cup!

It seems to me that because the previous manager was possibly given too much rope, Bobby is getting little or no benefit of the doubt in all aspects of his role. All this criticism of Roberto must have the Everton Board smiling smugly in their hammocks on some far-flung beach – where are the voices questioning what BK et al are doing at the moment or for that matter every pre-season for the last 15 Summers?

He wrote a good article in The Times today - there's another few hours wasted when he could have been watching videos of players or talking to agents, eh.

If you don't like Martinez, fair enough. He's done a few things that merit criticism. But this garbage is becoming embarrassing. Good arguments questioning his decisions are being swamped by this desperate rush to criticise him to prove yourselves 'right'.

Like I keep saying, if you're having a pop at him re transfers, what would you do instead, who would you buy, what would you be doing instead of watching players and talking to coaches/agents at the World Cup.

Come on, what would you do? Or is it easier to criticise the man you didn't want, you don't like, you can't praise, you won't appreciate under any circumstances.?

I also have a suspicion that he has a big ego that loves hearing the sound of his own voice across media frontiers.

Not a criticism just an observation.

I have never once mentioned Wigans defending.

I have never mentioned his "underhanded exploitation of the lone system" - because I believe he has used it well.

I tipped and backed Everton to finish top four - said so months ago, on these pages

So what is it you think I'm desperate to be right about ?

Argue against criticism by all means but please don't make up criticism to suit your argument.

You threw Arsne Wenger up as an example of "other managers " moonlighting. so I logged onto a couple of websites and sure enough you were right . . but despite the fact that he ousted Robbie from fourth last season, despite the fact that he gave them a trophy and despite the fact that it was reported that he had ditched a TV gigg to talk to agents, Many Arsenal fans are up in arms about it.

so as somebody who thinks Matinez " merits criticism" .Why do you suppose so many Arsenal fans find their manager working elswhere totally unacceptable . .yet you don't see any harm in Martinez slipping away from his post to earn a few bob on the side ?

Why are their demands greater than yours ?