Schneiderlin excited by Everton's 'big ambitions'

Can't wait to see his debut this weekend.

Let's do that!

I'm looking forward to the midfield combo of him, Gana and Barkley, not forgetting the contribution Barry can make. I also like the positivity, not 'false positivity', but real positivity like saying winning four or five games in a row can make a difference.

I know some posts on TW have said, after the cup exit, that the season is over, but it isn't over, and Schneiderlin's comments underline this.

Well, Morgan, you are in for a bit of a shock if you are expecting high tempo and attractive football!

I'd much rather a trio of Gueye, Schneiderlin and Davies with Ross playing a freer, forward, role.

Time for some proper classes over and above the media briefing given before the press conference.

If the project delivers I'm sure that we will all be delighted!

Morgan already took his media classes. The professor was Dr Ronald.

Various reports indicate he wanted to play in the Champions League. Here's hoping we can help him achieve this.

Kenny Samson, Kevin Campbell, Anders Limpar and Kevin Richardson (won league with AFC and EFC as did Ball and Mercer) played for both clubs but don't think captained both.

Let's hope it continues as good old plucky little Everton just along for the ride was pissing me off.

On Kevin Richardson, bearing in mind Peter Reids age and injury record, and the trouble Bracewell was having in the 85/-86 season as well, it was a big mistake by Kendall to let Kevin Richardson go.

However, I say that with hindsight and with the knowledge that there was no squad game culture like today, and it was one sub on the bench. So if you weren't playing, you weren't playing full stop. That's why he left, he wanted to play regular football. The thing was, at Everton he very soon would have been.

Kevin Richardson was a very, very good player. He had a cracking career and would have filled one of the massive Reid and Bracewell shaped holes that existed in our centre mid for years. We wasted millions of pounds trying to replace them. McCall and Milligan spring to mind. Both sub-standard. They were, for me, two of Colin Harvey's worst buys, although Beagrie was up there was well All, for the time, very expensive, and just not up to standard. You can throw Nevin in there for the money he cost as well. Anyway...

Strange one Kevin Richardson. You never hear him mentioned, but as well as being an important squad member in very successful Everton sides he was instrumental in excellent Arsenal and Villa sides, both trophy winning I think. But its almost as if he never existed.

Snowy wasn't up to scratch, in mid anyway, until he was looking like a serious right back before hamstring trouble finished him as a top flight player. So there's 3 centre mids who cost a lot, around 㿅-30 million by today's standards, and came nowhere near being up to scratch.

Meanwhile Richardson did one year at Watford before Arsenal took him. Gah!!!!

Then add more in the summer... 3 more maybe; then onto preseason ready for the new season ahead, when we can have a go at top 4.

This year we got a young lad from Charlton and a third string bench warmer reject from Man Utd. Oh yes, and unloaded a couple of crocks.

I hope none of this mild activity interrupted the manager's golf practice.

I am coming to the conclusion that the manager has decided that £6 million a year for doing next to nothing is a good deal and that, since the board has negotiated another brain dead contract, he is safe for a couple of years aiming for a position of 7th to 13th with a bog standard bunch of players and that, given the amount of money he can spend, he's pretty safe for this unambitious target.

I am also starting to regard Martinez' first season as the best thing since Howard Kendall, and regretting that he didn't have a fitness and defensive tactics coach to make sure the team had a proper balance.

I stopped reading at that point.

However, I have said on these threads that I will hold my council until the January transfer window to see what calibre of player and what positions he is trying to fill.

So far so good but ever like Moyes, Martinez both have failed to reinforce an aging Central Defence pairing. Jagielka, Distin, Williams. Unless Koeman invest in a commanding (leader) centre-half I would have very grave doubts about him.

After all Schneiderlin has been telegraphed for months so this is what I would call convenient low hanging fruit for all parties. Let's see some real ambition.

In my opinion, Martinez's first season was a result of the tight good organised (but unadventurous) Moyes squad being given the freedom to play. It worked for the first season like a dog being left off a leash.

However he forgot that, as the team discipline instilled by Moyes began to fade, it was not replaced by any attention to details such as defending corners, who should take penalties.

We all know that any dog still need to be kept fully trained and fit.

When Koeman arrived, I envisaged more discipline, as you say, particularly defensively. Under Martinez, we had great attacking flair, but we're rubbish defensively, like on set-pieces.

So, with Koeman, I thought, great, better defensively, whilst maintaining the attacking flair we had under Martinez. I thought, Koeman will bring the Dutch total football way, which would fit our attacking flair nicely, provided we gel more from defence to attack.

In this respect, we might have expected the signings in defence and defensive midfield. We've got that up to a point, Gana being great, and Schneiderlin being the latest. In principle, we should be fine up front (imo), so long as we have the right discipline and organisation, the right tactics.

But it's not, apparently, working out like this, and I can't see much of a system developing. Maybe Koeman has something clever up his sleeve, but if he has, there's no sign of much yet. In this respect, the jury is out on him, for me. But time will tell.

John, do you really think Stones was not a stylish player and a worthy one for a reborn School of Science? Yes, he has, and had, serious shortcomings, but a first class coach worthy of Stones' talents should have been able to correct the faults.

I remember Didier Drogba's first couple of seasons at Chelsea, he dived or fell over as soon as anyone looked at him, but latterly was, presumably, coached out of that style of play and became very much more effective for it.

Neil, your diagnosis of Martinez's faults seem to be much the same as mine, I just think it was a pity that no-one at the club was able to coach him
out of them. If I were to look for a manager who had taken what looked like a bunch of dross and transformed them into an effective attacking team which has enough fitness and discipline I would, sadly, be looking at Klopp.

I stick to my view (which I'd be delighted to be completely refuted by events) that Koeman is uninspired, buys mediocre players and is satisfied with 7th- 13th position and £6 million a year.

Here I thought he was excited to come because he has been found out and has been an abject failure at Man Utd.

Hope he will do well but if he was that excited about Everton, then why didn't he say so publicly while at Southampton? Apparently Koeman's Dutch honesty didn't rub off in their previous time together.

Giving the captaincy to a Man Utd reject would not, I suspect, get the already uncertain dressing room on Koeman's side. I also think I'd rather have had the older, but better and almost certainly cheaper and more fired up Bastien Schweinsteiger from Man Utd.

He obviously rates Schneiderlin highly and has worked with him before so it wouldn't surprise me.

The idea of Schneiderlin becoming captain is ridiculous until he shows the type of committment another ex Man Utd signing, e.g Neville and that will take a couple of years.

I'm also hoping at least one of our new signings is (also) capable of something other than the Pinball Wizard impression that seems so popular with most of our playing staff.

'MAN FUCKING ON!!!!'

I'm starting to have doubts, though, because Seamus's defensive game now seems to me to be poor (and, in truth, his attacking game is not much better). He gets caught out positionally, he is out-headed and usually lets the cross get in (I could say the same of Baines over the last couple of years).

The wisdom is that this is all because the players in front of them aren't up to it and/or they were damaged by Martinez, but I think any honest appraisal would say that our two full backs have lost form over a long period now. I accept with Baines that injury has been a factor.

Seamus for captain, yes indeed, but the Seamus of 3 years ago please.

I think he should just get on with his own game. I would give the captaincy to Williams. He is an organiser he Captains Wales, and is in a more central position, and therefore should be able to communicate with everyone.

I think Jags will remain club captain until the end of the season.

Seamus has always had some positional issues defensively. When he came back from his Blackpool loan spell, I wrote here that despite his terrific pace and tackling, he was probably hopeless at right-back – a ball-watcher with no positional sense, horrible man-marker, no ability to track opposition runners or use his body to win in the air.

I predicted he'd never make it.

Happily, he proved me wrong... Moyes worked with him tirelessly on his marking fundamentals and positional sense, and he grew into a competent Premier League defender. As you say, he still has issues marking tall forwards, and still doesn't track runners as well as Baines. But he is vastly improved, and his brilliance in other areas more than compensates.

I say he'd make a fine captain.

Get Hart, Bojan, and Snodgrass plus a centre halve. I know many will laugh at Snodgrass but he is a good player plus he takes good set-pieces.