Pre-match press conference

Cue 200 "He's shite!" "He's boss!" posts (and probably one 'he's a coward').

Link

Anyway it's Delofeu.

It's April and we're still not safe from relegation, you moron.

Interesting, some managers got slated and called useless for the same thing.

It's not wrong for any Premier League manager to begin the season seeking 40 points as a bare minimum target for their team but it is very different if that is the Manager's sole ambition. Roberto should have said this far earlier in the campaign and made sure that the target was reached sooner rather than later.

Everton have eight games to achieve that 40-points mark and hopefully they will get many more than the six points required from those games. A team with Champions League or Europa League ambitions should be looking to enter the New Year with around 40 points on the board – the fact that we are still seeking that points haul with only eight games to go tells the sorry story of a sorry season.

He was asked about Dyke's proposal about getting younger players into first teams, he said as a club it's one of our main aims. I bet that had Garbutt and Browning and McAlney smiling.

I found the 40 points comments interesting as when OFM said this, usually in November, he was accused of being negative... mind, even the charlatan would have difficulty putting a positive spin on still being well short of 40 points in April.

A lot of excuses and lame optimism that hasn’t helped the team improve.

There really hasn’t been one game where one can say they played excellently and won which in itself is disheartening given some of last season’s games with basically the same squad.

Most of us know that some of the games won, even in the Europa League, were iffy;a general lack of cohesion and confidence has been evident throughout the campaign which suggests RM has been helpless in dealing with it.

No matter what happens against Soton (and it will be a tough game), I suspect staying clear of the bottom section is pretty much a certainty, based on the fixtures other teams have left, which may be just as well.

There will be lots of changes come the end of the season and I am not sure I want to risk having RM start next season at the helm but BK stuck with the last manager for so long he probably won’t bat an eyelid regarding RM.

Martinez said: "It's not just a motivation for players, it's the reality. We are in the results business, and always we need to be assessed in terms of being part of a winning team.

"The mentality of the football club is to win things and to be consistent in terms of the level that we showed last season.

"So for the next eight games, we are all fighting to be part of the future of the football club."

If the Premier League is a circus, then Roberto has deffo been the clown, and these next 8 games could well decide how many people are going to renew their season tickets for next season as well!

Lennon and McGeady out wide.
Barkley and Lukaku up top.
Barry/Osman and McCarthy.
Baines Jagielka Stones Coleman
Bag o' shite Howard in goal.

If there was a slowdown in season ticket sale, we can expect our very own impresario to open talks with a potential buyer. As with so many times before, it will be under the cloak of a confidentiality clause.

I am not too confident over that proposed new stadium either. In a statement about it, a club spokesman said we intend to investigate, followed by, it could be part of a regeneration scheme that could potentially house a new stadium. It is in the early stages of developing a plan etc.

What I take from those weasily words is similar to Kings Dock with more than another pinch of salt.

If the club had any real intention to build a new stadium it would've swooped on the Stanley Park site as soon as the other lot said they would not use it. All necessary permits had been cleared and it was ready to go.

An old luvvie like Blue Bill could still be Chairman at 90! I wonder which league we will be in by then?

Reminds me of a line from a Who song: "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

All staggeringly pointless and obvious space and/or time filler shite.

(After 5-0 defeat: "I imagine that must have been very disappointing?" "Well, yes, we never really got into..." etc.)

For me, virtually all available opinion on football is puerile garbage.

When Saturday Comes has a few challenging articles that offer insight and intelligence and the magazine Back Pass is very entertaining, but everything else on the game seems to go out of it's way say fuck-all.

"Liverpool will bid for Barcelona starlet Gerard Deulofeu when the season draws to a close, according to Metro.

"The 21-year-old Spaniard is currently on a season-long loan at Sevilla and will reportedly be sold by Barca at the end of the season after failing to impress.

"Brendan Rodgers is keen on the winger who shone in the Premier League during his loan spell with Everton last season.

"Deulofeu became something of a fans' favourite during his time at Goodison Park – a status which would surely be lost should he move to Anfield."

"Roberto, why are we playing such shite football under your management?"

"Do you know the meaning of phenomenal?"

"Why don't you just....?"

"Oh, and take the bellend defensive coach with you!"

I think we were spellbound by glimpses of genius. He offered nothing defensively and had very little end product, but he did frighten defenders and bring excitement. He's a final 25 mins impact player.

Your assessment of Deulofeu may be right but I would rather have 25 minutes of Deulofeu than 90 minutes of Pienaar, Mirallas, McGeady, Atsu or Lennon.

All very talented players and the same age. I’d be gutted if we signed Lennon. Just add Cleverly to that and next season will begin with even more negativity than now.

I do not agree with all of Dunphy's criticism of McCarthy but he does raise a few issues that James would be wise to take note of. The one I would emphasise is the lad's lack of ability to make a penetrative forward pass of more than 30 yards.I sometimes wonder if he has a problem with his long sightedness.

I remember a keeper that I coached many years ago with that problem. He was great when dealing with anything in the box yet long-range shots would leave him flat-footed and easily beaten.

On another topic, I have read every book on or about the game I could lay my hands on. One of the more memorable was one by Dunphy titled A Diary Of A Professional Footballer. One I certainly recommend