Reports: Fears that Mangala' season is over

I hope you mean for the worse. Otherwise that's a cheap shot. Offensive.

Here's wishing Mangala all the best and a speedy recovery.

Good luck to him and the guy who brought him in, elsewhere.

Coleman
McCarthy
Bolasie
Funes Mori
Barkley
Baines
Mangala (if true)
Onyekuru

Whilst Baines and Jagielka have missed a chunk of games too.

Seriously, I hope this isn't as bad as suspected. The guy has jumped at the chance to reboot his career and, despite looking wobbly, you wouldn't wish this on any player.

To set the record straight, I would never wish an injury on any player. That would be crass. However, my opinion of him as a footballer is that he is a waste of space. Big Sam clearly has no idea what he is doing and would've continued playing him regardless because of 'he cost Citeh a few quid so he must be good' mentality.

If you're offended, Brent et al, then deal with it as I'm offended that Allardyce is even allowed to ply his trade after the England debacle and spend our money on second-rate cast-offs.

I prefer my previous post as it implied the same but was more succinct.

A veritable crowd of disappointments one way or the other now. There is also a logic that we are only going to the match to watch Wallcot?

Roll on September.

Meanwhile, we still have no left-back.

Feel sorry for Mangala; again been asked to jump straight in at Arsenal when he's hardly had a look in at City.

Unless your head is stuck in the sand or you see the positives in everything and anything, then our Everton is, in my opinion, so fucked from top to bottom and yet some fans have a pop at others over a fact that Mangala is shite and some of us feel lucky that we have swerved his lack of ability by hook or by crook.

Fat face would've played him every game because he is devoid of talent also, so be thankful for small mercies and get over it. Everton is more important than some talentless multi-millionaire who doesn't give a fuck about us.

Doesn't say much for our scouting and medical teams – and those sacred fitness stats that determines whether you play or not. (Supposedly!)

The lad played half a game for us, gets a serious injury and the "no class" brigade wishing him ill.

Funes Mori is returning to fitness so should be competing for a start now.

Pair either Jagielka, Williams or Funes Mori with Holgate for the rest of the season. First choice centre-back.

My preferred centre-back pairing is two from Funes Mori, Keane and Holgate. Mangala would have made a good 4th choice but it's not to be; hopefully he recovers and gets his career up and running either at City or elsewhere.

Opens the path for Funes Mori who has much to still prove at Everton and with a World Cup this summer that should add the extra impitus to do well.

The physio got him to his feet and Mangala was limping gingerly around the touchline then – to the disbelief of myself and the guys around me – got back onto the field of play. It was abundantly obvious he was barely able to walk let alone run but on he went. Cue some staggering, the game passing him by and fortunately Palace didn't attack for a couple of minutes and then he was down again with his hand up.

Surely the misguided decision to continue can only have worsened the injury? It seemed madness at the time. Perhaps the player wanted to try but I was watching closely as Mangala and the physio were just below us and Mangala's body language looked like he was resigned to coming off. He looked disappointed and hence our surprise when he was staggering on shortly afterwards.

Good luck to the player, I hope he returns fit and healthy.

But I have to say that was the worst debut of any player I've seen in a blue shirt, and I can go back to Bernie the Bolt and Brett Angell, it even eclipsed Per Krøldrup.

But once again we come back to the role of the DoF; what do they do? Surely they must have meetings to discuss what's needed and evaluate players. It follows that surely someone noticed that we needed a left-back and a left-footed centre-back. And yet we ended up with Mangala at the last minute.

I've said this before but the January transfer window is a bit like the TV series Bargain Hunt in that the contestants start out carefully considering what they'll buy and in the final minutes they'll buy any shite.

So how did it come to this? Surely the DoF team (and I'm presuming our Steve "I discovered Mahrez y'know" Walsh isn't a one-man band) are working 365 24/7 highlighting potential transfers etc. Not rushing round like headless chickens in the final hours of the window.

Maybe they've got a poker school going on and in-between games they Google ‘left-sided defenders' and see what comes up.

We shell out more money and in many cases pay better wages than Spurs... Think about that.

If this abysmal recruitment continues, look at the shocking recruitment right through the centre of the side and wide – Funes Mori, Keane, Williams, Schneiderlin, Klaassen, Bolasie (if did we had to take him, overpaid by 㾶 million), Sigurdsson (overpaid by 㾻 million at least), Niasse – we will be moving to a new stadium with a nailed-on bottom-half-of-the-table outfit on our hands.

This summer is key. We have to get some long-term pace and strength in at centre-back, some legs and physicality in midfield, and some pure pace up top. And these players really do need to be in the 21- to 25-years-old bracket.

Based on his track record in England so far it is unlikely Mangala, unfortunate as he had been, would have provided the answer to our problems at centre-back.

Just watching their game v Swansea.
Question: How many do we have?

We don't play to his strengths and he's not had much of a pre-season. We'll see next season I guess if a more balanced side can be found.

Who, exactly, is wishing him ill? Who are the 'no class' brigade?

Careful getting down from that high horse fella. My comment may not have been to your taste but don't start getting all elitist. Whilst I wish the lad well, I happen to think that as a club we have dodged a bullet. My opinion, whether you like it or not.

I'm sure he'll get excellent medical treatment and will return to full fitness with his parent club where he belongs.

By branding anyone who views his injury as good for the club as having 'no class', you seem to be displaying a certain amount of arrogance, which I don't deem as very classy.

He needs to play with a pacy partner with positional sense who covers behind him when he goes for a header, tackle or presses his attacker out of the box.

And under Moyes there was a South American/Brazilian who only managed a couple of friendlies. We certainly get some luck with knee injuries on loan.

People like you are making out we have a plethora of better options and someone like Mangala would automatically stop somebody better getting a game. Actual fact is that our extremely inconsistent defence really lacks pace and athleticism which is something this lad has going for him. None of the others are perfect, they all have the capacity to make pretty alarming errors.

Last time out he made total of two poor errors that I could see when I watched the whole game on Sky (a loose back pass and being knocked off the ball too easily); everything else was pretty much par and I thought he was starting to settle in. He distributed the ball pretty well, didn't hide from it, and got injured by putting himself in the thick of it when trying to convert a chance. His first game was a shocker for all of them, and I don't think he was particularly worse than anyone else.

I remember Oumar Niasse's debut when most said he should never play for us again and I posted about his movement off the ball and willing running which is what now makes him a fan favourite. More significantly, I also remember the level of criticism Seamus Coleman attracted for ages.

I really don't understand why people think you are better off making snap judgements and writing players off before you have had a chance to really evaluate them.

To insist that Mangala could only have made us worse on the back of mainly circumstantial evidence is simply assuming your guesswork has merit.

I think it's been an ongoing issue for Peel Holding. One report I read earlier was from 2010. However, it appears there is a deadline for the City to keep its World Heritage status which is the end of this month. How all of this impacts on Everton's proposed stadium is difficult to say but perhaps it is one of the reasons why it had 12 months added to its likely opening date?

U-Turn Heritage

https://richardkemp.wordpress.com/2018/02/15/mayor-and-peel-holdings-do-u-turns-on-north-docks-threat-to-world-heritage-status/

However, the fight to save our heritage is not yet over. As the report acknowledges .there are huge implications for the development of the Bramley-Moore Dock as a stadium for Everton FC.

The consensus is he's not a Premier League standard player and that's why he lost his place at City and fell way down their pecking order. My Man City season ticket friend also says he's complete crap and is an accident waiting to happen. We have enough of those already!

Why we signed him in the first place is a complete mystery with Funes Mori on the way back.

I think you answered your own questions there fella!!!!

Si (#48): Spot on!

You're a very naughty boy!

Seriously though guys, if you are offended at this then I really do despair. It used to be called "having a laugh" (Yeah Yeah a serious injury is no laughing matter). Since when did we all become so bloody sensitive?

I get offended at people who get offended at offensive remarks that were not really that offensive but people take offence as they are offended by everything potentially offensive which has not really offended anyone until they take offence at it! Phew – follow?

Tempting not to write anything having been berated because, after initial excitement of him signing, I thought I'd do the tiniest amount of digging, only to see him slated by Man City fans and pundits... pointing this out on here seemed to anger some that I wasn't being super positive.

It looks like some soft dummies got spat out almost immediately here too because of a pretty innocuous comment.

I personally think he has bulked-up too much. When he was younger, he looked lean and quick, perhaps he has been in the gym too much due to a lack of game time at Man City?

ps: He does look pretty shite.

Bainsey is bloody marvellous. Loads of assists, a tremendous partnership with Pienaar. Never misses a pen. Scores some blistering free kicks.

"Let's sell Pienaar!" Leighton is getting older, let's send all our left-back cover away! Why don't We win trophies? Well Cos We fail to do the right thing!

Pantomime Billy, thanks. Deluding an entire generation of Evertonians. Some record that.

Now you've appointed the worst ever manager in Everton history. So unpopular he deflects our dislike of our "Barren Chairman", worst record since 1878.

A shame to lose him as an option but I hope we see Keane and Holgate who are surely the future (if good enough) in that position.

On the other hand, I spotted no Wayne – is that and injury or paternity leave?

It would be far better to finish 8th, say bye to Sam, get in a new boss, and have a proper pre-season.

On the injury front, does anybody know how serious Seamus's injury is? And any news on how long he's going to be out. Haven't read anything, myself. I believe he was supposed to be having a scan on the Monday after the Palace game.

At the time I had a season ticket, but the game chosen was Spurs; a load of Spurs supporters were in the main stand and were surprisingly friendly we collected probably a dozen stubs. The bad news was that most of our mates were RS, so we gave them the best seats in the house and we spent the afternoon getting the piss taken out of us!

But to give our Glenn his due, he was up against one of the best attacking pair the world has seen (and I'm chocking on me bacon butty as I type), whereas Mangala (oh and the rest of the deadbeats) faced the worst Arsenal side in living memory, who'd been beaten by the mighty Swansea and was subsequently well beaten in the North London derby – but in-between these defeats we made them look like Barca in their pomp.

Sam (#62) – “Despite some dodgy moments I thought Mangala looked like he might have some qualities we lack” & Bob (#64) –“Completely bad back pass and one time easily knocked off the ball but otherwise composed”.

This is like saying "apart from the iceberg, the Titanic had quite a successful maiden voyage".

Sam keeps chopping and changing the centre halves. I don't know why he dropped Holgate, as he looked very promising. It's good to see Funes Mori and Baines (who I think is past his best) back, they will give us better balance, as we are totally lacking left-sided defenders. I hope Seamus is back for the Watford game also.

“Sam (#62) – “Despite some dodgy moments, I thought Mangala looked like he might have some qualities we lack” & Bob (#64) –“Completely bad back pass and one time easily knocked off the ball but otherwise composed”.

This is like saying, "apart from the iceberg, the Titanic has quite a successful maiden voyage”.

Erm... no it isn't, there is a quite staggering difference, and that is the point some of us are trying to make.

Firstly, on the back-pass, it was actually hit just strongly enough that Pickford was always favourite to get to it first (but it did make him rush the clearance) and whilst the too easy loss of possession was embarrassing it didn't actually cost us anything.

Secondly, there are very few error-free players to be found anywhere and certainly none in our current squad. Our defenders have been so bad this season, you could practically fill a what-not-to-do coaching manual.

Mangala has certainly struggled since his move to Man City but he was obviously highly regarded at some stage to get that move in the first place. We apparently couldn't land the primary targets we were after to improve our defence but that doesn't mean we couldn't have got lucky with Plan B.

It is very easy to write off players on the basis of a couple of less-than earth-shattering starts; it is not (as some people seem to think) big or clever.

Look up the word 'irony'.

I personally don't think humour is required (or even particularly welcome) for everything that is being discussed. Basically you have attempted to discount some people's legitimate points of view with (allegedly) a very poor attempt at brevity.

Perhaps you come from the ‘it's only banter' generation, the last-resort response of those whose sly digs at others' expense get exposed for the demeaning criticism they really are?

1) The Arsenal game was his first full game as an Everton player;

2) He was absolute shite for probably various reasons, but IMHO it was the worst debut I've seen, and I've been watching football for over 50 years (and BTW what is the age range of the 'banter generation'?

3) We got beat 5-1 and it was 4-0 after 25 minutes, so if that isn't a disaster in footballing terms, what is?

I played the game as an amateur for 50 years and hated just missing the next game, never mind the season. Her's hoping Mangala makes a full recovery and continues in the Premier League.

Most reasonable people aren't going to judge him solely on the Arsenal game when he was dumped into an untried formation with new team mates and where we were uniformly pathetic.

I think we should all post actual observations and not opinions, safe topics that are not going to upset the more sensitive amongst us... so comments like “my bus was five minutes early on Tuesday” are absolutely fine while “that fat fucker is an absolute disgrace to everything the club stands for and Mangala will join the ranks of Bret Angell, Bernie the Bolt and Glenn Keeley as sub-standard non-entities so who gives a fuck if he will miss a few games” is utterly unacceptable.

This will make a nice change and ToffeeWeb can be a place of peace and harmony and when we get fucked again in the derby we can all say “Oh well, never mind, I suppose sport is the real winner”.

Can people on here stop pretending they give a shit? If you're that concerned, contact the club and ask how he is coping – stop having a go at fellow Evertonians on here.

This might come as a shock but be prepared sit down, lads: Mangala does not give a fuck about me or you so stop bickering like kids in a playground and move on. Fucking embarrassing!

Wrong place, wrong time, poorly done it adds nothing useful and adds to the disharmony. I love the posts of the likes of John Daley and Eugene Ruane who have wit and a clever use of the language to make sure they don't stray from their intended targets.

I'm not for censoring anyone, just for people being aware that the nuance of what they post has to be understood. It seems to me that all-too-often the catch-all phrase after being called for singling out out-of-context remarks for a blast of sarcasm (sorry, ‘irony') is along the lines of "It's just a bit of a laugh".

I called out David Hallwood because his remark on the posts by Sam and Bob didn't make sense to me. Instead of having a good look at it again, he ducked the issue by making out it worked as an ironic statement. It doesn't.

He is an Everton player for now and has come here to play football, not sit on the bench with Man City. I don't watch him play live and I don't have Man City season ticket holder mates like others on here, so am willing to give him a chance if he can regain his fitness.

COYB.

I'm sick an tired of accepting second-, third- or fourth-best hand-me-downs... Mangala, Schniederlin, Martina etc – and it repeats itself every few years; this is why we are shit and, if it carries on, we will always be shit.

I'm sick and tired of giving players a chance at our club to see if they can turn into a good player. If Pep couldn't turn him into a half decent centre half how do you suppose huge head will???

Same with Schneiderlin, Jose couldn't but eh lets keep giving these players time and money at our club on whim that it might workout. If any people on here think giving Mangala game time was going to workout for the good of our team under our massive mouth of a manager, then answer me this: Why couldn't the best manager in the world IMO do it for City?

What has happened to Luke Garbutt, has he been written off? He's the only left back we have got and he doesn't get a sniff. Is the consensus that he has regressed? This left-back saga is worse than a dodgy Coronation Street plot.

Seriously though, it beggars belief the left-back saga – you couldn't write a more bizarre plot if you tried.

I nearly had a heart attack before, I was browsing the NewsNow Everton site, and the headline was "Everton midfielder signs a 5-year extension" how relieved I was, when I found out it was Idrissa Gana Gueye, and not Schneiderlin!

Check the club's videos – there's a nice goal of his on that. Hopefully, he can persuade Allardyce that having a player comfortable on the left side playing left-back might not be such a bad idea.

Also, Tosun looked good on the video, but then again, maybe the quality of the defending flattered him.

It must be really hard, this bonding in Dubai, when you have to visit 'Night Clubs' after training for most of the day. I really don't know how they do it!

At least they didn't try to pinch a taxi, or a camel. Well not that we have heard anything up to now...

The mystery is what happened in the development of Galloway and Garbutt? How could they be allowed to deteriorate from the fringe of the first team to relative obscurity in such a short space of time? And why has no rational explanation been given to the fans by the management?

Time and place for everything and the exercise of better judgment. Perhaps letting a message age before hitting the submit link might also have permitted a review and editing to make sure the message hit it's mark.

It isn't a lack of humor, etc that is missing, but rather a lack of being "human" in several of the posts. The absence of apparent sympathy or empathy for the player is the point being commented upon. The subsequent claims by those posters of being funny or ironic in response to criticism, rings hollow is such cases.

TW is not a face to face conversation. There is no background of an ongoing discussion between friends at a pub, etc. Irony and humor are hard to discern when one is staring at a post of words. There is no context offered by the posters and while the author knows the point intended, the reader may assign a different meaning.

As for anyone who has called out the player's abilities, fine but that is a separate topic from persons on here ignoring the injury to a player on Everton's squad, or being mean spirited about it. From the first post to several others, I was disappointed as I thought Evertonians prided themselves on being a class above the normal football fans of other clubs.

Worse, for some, there is no excuse at all. Paul Welsby's post for example, to me, shows a complete lack of class. I would truly hate it if one of our loan players were injured while playing and that club's fans responded as some on here have. (no humor or irony intended).

It was all sun and smiles in the United Arab Emirates as Sam Allardyce took his Everton team to Dubai to enjoy some warm weather training. The Toffees have the weekend off with their next game coming next Saturday when they face Watford at Vicarage Road.

This allowed Allardyce to seize the opportunity of clear schedule to put the team through their paces in the gym and outside in the hot temperatures.

The squad trained without their captain Wayne Rooney on Friday following the birth of baby Cass Mac. Wife Coleen tweeted in the earlier hours of Thursday: 'So Happy to welcome our Baby Boy Cass Mac Rooney into the world weighing a healthy 8lb 10oz. He is beautiful'.

The official Everton account was quick to respond, writing: 'Huge congratulations, @WayneRooney, @ColeenRoo and family. Another Blue is born!'

Rooney is likely to be given more time off to enjoy with his newborn son with Everton not in action until February 24th.

This will have been a great opportunity for Cenk Tosun to shine after the club's new signing claimed he 'wasn't bothered' after being benched by Allardyce. The Turkish striker has failed to find the back of the net since joining the Merseyside club but maintains that he will continue to work for a place in the squad.

Leighton Baines and Ashley Williams were seen doing weight training inside the NAS Sports Complex while Mason Holgate completed some cardio work on the exercise bikes alongside Davy Klaassen.

The squad even spared some time at the end of their session to meet and greet fans who came to watch the session.

Everton are currently 9th in the Premier League and trail Burnley by two points who are in 7th.

Your opinion of me does not bother me in the least as you can gather I don't give a shit about a multi millionaire terrible footballer so I am over it pretty quickly.

As for us Evertonians priding themselves being a class above, you speak for yourself – not me; I am sick of this so-called Everton Way you and others profess to be the right way... who says it is? You, well sorry if I don't agree with you or my opinion is not to your liking, Mr Class.

Let's carry on this Everton way whilst other clubs are ruthless in everything they do – that is why they are winners and we will always be losers when people like you always jump on anyone who might not give their opinion to your class way.

Seems he must have done enough to get back into the reckoning and is on the verge of a comeback at senior level? His last appearance for the first team was almost three years ago, in March 2015.

No class and deluded, Not good enough for the best team in Europe at the moment, yet has been picked by Pep 11 times this season, has won and scored in a cup final, been in the French squad for the last two major tournaments. Yer right, must be shit then if you say so.

Maybe you think we should be taking all the best players from all the best teams in Europe!! Get real!!!

As some of you have said, it is true that many bigots up in Glasgow tend to identify Liverpool FC as the Catholic club.

And Ed #20, we had a Jewish Prime Minister in the 19th century and, fairly recently, two Jewish leaders of the Opposition, and so I tend to think that the fact that no Catholics get to be PMs is just a coincidence.

On the point of getting the best players, I don't recall saying that but eh people with class can also put words in mere classless and deluded people's mouths.

Read my post again, Geoffrey! I said I am sick of getting second, third and fourth choice rejects from other clubs but you make it what you want to suit you. Very classy, Geoffrey, indeed you must be positively glowing with pride.

I seem to remember Wigan winning a cup final and Ben Watson scoring the winner – does that make him a good player??? As for being in a national squad for major tournaments your messing aren't ye there have been some very dodgy players in squads over the years so your point is daft again Geoffrey.

The last point I want to make is I prefer to watch players with my own eyes and try an make a fair judgement. So in the handful of games I watched through Sky at Man City, he was terrible – like Bambi on Ice; he is an accident waiting to happen.

But Geoffrey, in the first game for us, he turned his back on a shot that Arsenal scored from because he isn't brave enough or good enough for our club. If you accept players of his ilk at our club then that is your right but I would prefer players who put there bodies in the way of everything, especially a big unit of a centre-half.

So this is why I don't care if this multi millionaire got injured and had to go back to a club who doesn't want him. Mangala showed from that moment for me he was looking after himself and couldn't care less about Everton Football Club – or you and me, Geoffrey.

If this makes me classless, that is absolutely fine, but what does it make you, Geoffrey, to accept an individual who very cowardly turns his back on a shot only for it to nestle in the back of our net? Imo, it reflects on you the same way as being a coward who calls people names from behind a computer.

It's not the fans' fault our recruitment is diabolical but continuing this model of rejects is crazy. If Pep and Jose don't see anything in them and have tried to coach them to be good players with no joy, how on earth do we expect any of the last three managers we've had do a better job?

I am not deluded, like Geoffrey so ignorantly pointed out; I know we can't get the best players but scouring the the earth for hungry hard-working players who want to make it to the top level imo would be a much better model as the one we are doing now has failed massively.

Everything is relative, isn't it? In an ideal world we would have a squad chock full of brilliant players. In reality we clearly don't, so the realists amongst us have accepted that any player we can get that improves us overall is better than no player at all.

You can pick holes in the technique or mentality (or both) of practically every player we have. Mangala certainly isn't unique in the case of not making a good attempt at blocking a shot (it actually appears to be rife and not just at Everton), nor of making the occasional appalling decision / terrible pass.

Some of us haven't seen much of him before and his two games at Everton are our first real opportunities to scrutinise him. The Arsenal game was so bad and full of so many basic errors that it seems harsh to pick out anyone of the defenders as the worst. Until he got injured against Palace, Mangala was doing okay (not brilliant, but not bad either) apart from two very noticeable errors and, on balance, some of think it was a lot more good/ promising than bad. He did make himself available for passes and attempted to be positive and constructive with his own. He was actually showing quite a bit of bravery in attempting to score when he got injured.

I also have to disagree with you saying it doesn't matter if he is brave. I want all my players to be brave especially my centre-half who, more times than most other players not including the keeper, should be in position to prevent a goal. If other players turn their backs, does that make it right ours do? The answer is No, but that's what football is about and we both have different ideas of how we want Everton players to be and how they are recruited.

I respect your opinion, Si, even if I don't agree with it. David Currie also has a different opinion to you and this doesn't mean he is wrong either.

There are some really sensitive souls on here who, if anyone dares disagree or isn't PC, jump on their high horse and have a right pop and then their little posse jump on with them all congratulating each other after it. Then Geoffrey and the likes resort to schoolyard behaviour name-calling.

Give your heads a wobble and grow up seriously we don't all have to agree or be PC just to stroke your over sized egos of being always right.

Pep is among the top three coaches in the world and yet he can't coach him to be a regular in his team, granted an exceptional team. But he sanctions Mangala to leave and we think Sam Allardyce is somehow going to coach this untapped ability Pep couldn't get out of him? Then I'm definitely watching the wrong sport.

As for seeing more of him in our team, this is what I am tired of, Si. Many a pundit, journalist, commentator and just ordinary folk like you and me have stated Mangala doesn't seem to be that good of a footballer – so why should I pay my money and hope that somehow Sam Allardyce is going to make him so! Whilst watching him turn his back on a shot that nestled into our net???

Not for me thanks, Si, if that is alright with you. You're well within your right to see if he does and I accept it I'm not saying you are wrong as that is how you see it.

Anyway it's all irrelevant because the shithouse has gone back to Man City now.

Mangala is one of the most over-priced, over-rated defenders I've ever seen. His agent should be given best salesman award for making people believe that this pig's ear is in fact pure silk! I hope we send him back to Man City immediately and be done with crap defenders.

That in itself raises so many questions about our recruitment.