Adams hails “Little Magician” Green

Some settling-in trouble and neck injury has pegged him back but some are late bloomers... So can we still hope he has "it"? He does seem to be filling out a touch and had become more regular in the U21s.

My biggest worry is that he hasn't been chosen for England for some time and hardly at all. So few kids make it that even being in England youth is no guarantee... So if you can't crack that level then the signs aren't good.

As with Baxter I will keep holding thumbs!

However, at the start of last season, he got a sense of giving the game a good go, he picked up his game and had a good season. At the start of this season he had a bad injury and missed a lot of games. He came and back and has really started to show the potential he was always capable of and will hopefully make the breakthrough next season.

George can be a star in the game but has this maverick side to his nature so you can never be sure he will carry on doing the right things; it's all down to him.

I think its a lot to ask these players to be ready to make an impact at Premier League level till they are at least 21-22.

Osman wasn't playing regularly with us till he was 23 I believe (maybe even 24) and has gone on to be a far more effective player in my eyes than Jack Rodwell who was playing at 18 (though of course it's still relatively early days for him too).

My point is only that we shouldn't expect these player to be behind the curve because they are not pulling up trees by 19. Different players have different trajectories... though Dave is right and ultimately a lot of it will be down to how much work and dedication the players themselves apply.

Another youngster who I'm excited about is Long. He's free scoring in the second division Championship and is looking a fantastic prospect. Him and Lukaku could be an exciting future partnership. Or not, if Lukaku's agent has his way.

Not sure comparison with Osman is fair. He had some terrible injuries (leg break?) just as he was breaking through if I remember right.

It's nice to see George making a bit of an impact. Hopefully he comes back better for it.

The relationship with tranmere also seems an obvious one to develop, which seems to be happening to a certain extent with Pennington and Kennedy going there. Hopefully Tranmere stay up and they get a bit of management stability and we both benefit.

That sums up the unrealistic expectations a lot of young 'hotly tipped' players are unfairly burdened with. A 15 year old youth player signs, scores a cracker, and people are instantly 'excited' and already expecting, rather than simply holding out some faint hope, that he will go on to be a world beater. He doesn't meet some imaginary timetable for insta-success that people have arbitrarily placed upon his shoulders and then they're talking like he's battling to save his career before he's even got started. It's ridiculous. I don't know if it's the same with other teams but it's seemingly par for the course with young players here. Give him five sub appearances and if he fails to get people off their seats whenever the ball is at his feet he'll be the next to be tagged 'fucking overrated'.

I'm all for young players going on loan as a vital part of their leaning curve but I do think there has to be a balance. I suppose that the coaches' and now Joe Royle's job, to see when the players need a loan to move forward and where best will suit them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-87Glp8jGVQ

Three things I noticed from watching the clips of his goal and from reading Tranmere fans comments. Which tell me he will make it.

He oozes confidence, demanding the ball off his team mates even though he is at a new team and with new team mates.

He is not fazed when the opposition kick him and try to give him a bit of rough treatment.

He doesnt rely on just his talent, he is prepared to role his sleeves up and puts a shift in.

I noticed the way he gets the ball on the edge of the box feints to shoot then gets his shot away and puts it right in the top corner and I think of the amount of times I have watched Barkley get the ball on the edge of the box feints to shoot but never gets his shot away. That sums it up for me.

A good mate of mine was (with the best intentions) sort of guilty of it with his own son.

At the age of 9, 'scouts' had seen this kid play for a district side (in Netherley) and my mate was soon taking the lad to Blackburn for training a couple of times a week.

Then City showed an interest and he went there for a year.

He ended up at Liverpool and was also playing for two local sides at weekends.

I saw him play a few times and though it was clear he was often the best of a group of 12 year-olds, there was no guarantee of anything and I otten asked my mate "Isn't he a bit young for all this?" ("Naar 'ee loves it")

Long story short, the kid had packed it in by the age 14/15

Now just 16, he watches Everton games with his dad on telly, but doesn't play for anyone anymore and shows no desire to (possible he still could IF left to his own devices)

It was obvious to many of us that he was simply pushed far too hard and there was no fun in it for him at all (when I talked to him about his football, it all seemed rather joyless).

Although nothing special myself as a player, I was lucky as all the football I ever played (much of it with this kid's dad) was my choice and most importantly, there was never any pressure from adults - particularly snarling, shaven-headed adults screaming "GO LEFT GO LEFT!!! WATCH THE FUCKING RUNNER!!! GET TIGHTER!!"

I'm sure in the past I've been guilty of saying "They play too much!!? PFTT! Lazy bastards, we used to play every single day!"

And it's true, we did, but the difference is we went home when we wanted, sat down when we wanted, went to the sweet shop when we wanted and if we wanted to talk about Madeleine Smith's tits instead of playing, we did.

Lets not forget, these young players will have been at Everton from a very young age getting coached through different age levels (with England in some cases as well).

Surely you must see the benefit of few young players plying their trade together, local and in League 2 gaining vital experience?

Eric, if Roberto has read and applied Moneyball tactics then Garbutt would be playing instead of Baines as there was a time when the statistics of his successful crosses where far higher than Baines's.

I've a funny feeling that crosses won't be high up on Roberto's wishlist.

You'd think goalkeeper errors leading to a goal might be considered though.

I would love to see the stats for our European Goals, my instinct says that we scored a high percentage after winning the ball back, moving forward and shooting at goal after 3 passes or less. Whereas in the PL we perhaps didn't have the same space and the ball went sideways /backwards after we won it back.

I think the Bournemouth owner is heavily into stats as a means of achieving success.

Madeleine Smith and her assets... hmmmmmmm!

Beale used stats to see what the kids were good at and played to those strengths rather than dismiss them when their perceived potential in a different position didn't materialise.

Some lads thrive on playing, all kids are different, I remember seeing Colin Harvey in a night game at Old Traffold really enjoying the game, tackled Dennis Law who didn't like it, had a go at Colin who was right back in Law's face with an attitude of "Do want some more?" I loved his attitude and it told me Colin was going to be a good 'un. He was about 19 at the time.

Looks like Green got fed up after being at Everton for a while and this wouldn't surprise me. Your mates are going out and you have got to go to bed ready for training or a game the next day.

It becomes a job and although it's great there will still be times these kids feel they are missing out on life!

I did a post on "tired legs" that was very well received. In fact someone suggested it be put up at Finch Farm!

If George gets too good we'll probably flog him anyway. Also depends if he gets a game re: Moyes - Barkley scenario.

Madeline Smith tits ! ...bloody hell, I'd forgotten about her ! ....Um? I wonder if the bathrooms free?

"Joyless football".

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About to post a sarcastic comment about her still being a 'striking sort', then remembers thinking when he was a kid that the bird out of the Indiana Jones rip off 'Romancing the Stone' looked a 'right goer'...

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....but the perfect role for her nowadays would involve her squawking the words 'Kirmie wormie' in between shovelling Nutella sarnies down her neck:

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I flat out refuse to have a look and find out what became of the blonde bird out of Buck Rogers though. 

Failing that, the following line is guaranteed to work wonders:

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In the early 1970s there were many large-breasted sorts on telly but many were of the intimidating, knowing, brassy (Diana Dors) sort.

Madeline had something different.

From the neck up it was complete innocence, from the neck down, basically a sexual adventure playground for young men.

A kind of living doodle - the kind of doodle produced by most healthy 14 year old boys, while sitting in miserable classrooms being taught pointless shite about the South Sea Bubble or The War Of Jenkins' ear.

Where this innocence came into it's own (no pun etc) was during one's nocturnal fumblings and fantasies (no typing 'Asian dwarfs' into a search engine back then, had to use our imaginations).

Basically, in fantasyland, Madeline's innocence made her SO easy to dupe into pervyness, that I still feel a little guilty about some of the stuff I tricked her into doing.

Two girls one cup?

PFFT!!

There was only one girl and she had two large cups and the face of an angel

"Nurse could you change me bedpan, that mince has gone right through me!"

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Question 1 – am I correct?
Question 2 – shouldn't you have posted this on talking points?

1) No.

2) No.

Eugene, the comment about nothing being crueller to a woman (and a man's memory) than the passage of time reminds me of when I went to see a touring Tamla Motown tribute show with Martha Reeves, one time foxy chick fronting the Vandellas.

Sadly, Martha has spent several decades surviving on a diet of chips with lard butty chasers. She could be used as the bus to park in front of Chelsea's goal. At least the photo of older Smithy is of a woman who could still attract, ahem, a man of a certain age. Martha could attract another Hippo.

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Now look at Jim Pearson's..

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Spooky or what!

Is it something you have always thought and now, many years later, uncannily, it just happened to come up? I know the eds like stuff to be loosely Everton related so, if I was to enquire say, if an actress like, for example Madeleine Smith was an Evertonian, it might take several links to prove or disprove it.

As for the links situation – if you find something on the internet that is of interest to TW's you copy and paste the address into your post and then click on the green URL button beneath the Your Comment box.

You're spot on, I did indeed wake at a party in the 1970s to find Jim and Madeleine in attendance, but that wasn't unusual for me, I attended many crazy parties in that era, with many footballers and celeb sorts in attendance (to quote the young Steve Martin, I was a 'wild and crazy guy').

I remember being at one party when Tiger McLauglin got bladdered and tried to throw a fashionable onyx lighter at me coz he thought I was looking at his bird. Fortunately, as it weighed 3 stone, he couldn't lift it off the coffee table. (FFS, I didn't even fancy Rita Webb!)

At another do, I saw Joe Harper drink THREE party sevens, eat three Vesta curries, then make a pass at Susan Stranks. Incredibly she left with him – seems (like Harry Catterick) she had a thing for fat, five-foot-two, completely unfit, red-faced, alcoholic Scottish tramps.

Yes, when I look back, it was one long round of orange-flavoured Matchmakers, Sobranie fags, cravats and cocktails made from Du Kuyper Cherry Brandy mixed with Warninks Advocaat and Davenports home brew mild ("Barman - two Van Der Meydes!")

As for the chance of me ever being pleasured by Jim Pearson?

Pffft! – that would have been a first.