Robles signs off with classy farewell

Good luck, Joel.

Once a Blue, always a Blue. 💙👍

He is still young enough to prove himself in his home country and I wouldn't be surprised if he is selected for Spain. Good luck and best wishes, Joel.

I wish him well and I think Betis have got themselves a top keeper and a top bloke by his parting comments.

Adios!

A wonderful touch of class. I think he could have been an excellent keeper for us if given a bit more trust and belief.

Sad to see him go but he was never going to take Mr Pickford's place.

I wish him well for the future, and thank him for his time with us.

I can only assume that the "President" he is referring to is Bill Kenwright, unless I've missed some other personnel changes at the club?

Even when the lamentable Tim Howard was out, Martinez made it very clear to Joel that he would be straight back in regardless of how things went. Quite possibly the worst bit of man management I've come across

Best of luck; you deserve it.

I would love him to make the international scene, but unfortunately life doesn't always reward the worthy, and football can be cruel, to players and supporters alike.

Class.

That's how to say goodbye, Mr Rooney, if you're reading this...

Good luck to him, though, because, although he was only a kid when he joined us, he definitely leaves us as a man.

So glad to learn we still have one or two 'decent guys' in the game.

Good luck, Joel!

Wish him all of the very best.

Don't tell me Granny Clampett is now calling himself “president”?

Perhaps he was too patient. Good luck, Joel.

Wishing Joel nothing but the best - hope to see you play in Spain. Class act.

But it's interesting to see all the rewriting of history here... I'm talking to you, Dennis (#12) and Darren (#19).

Joel did have an extended run in the team. From December 2016 to April 2017, the position was all his, and that was under Koeman, not Martinez. He was an excellent shot-stopper but prone to mistakes. Most he got away with. But when the back-to-back blunders against Leicester and Burnley last April cost us goals – the penalty against Burnley was a teenager's howler – Koeman parked him for good.

He wasn't good enough, gentlemen. He had the chance to prove otherwise. He didn't.

When he came, he was only ever going to be a back-up to the genuine first choice, there was never any intent to shove Tim Howard out the door as quick as possible. Pickford is now our first choice for as long as we can keep him; the benchwarmer will either be an old head on the wane or a "wet behind the ears" 22- or 23-year-old, like Joel was 5 years ago.

Thank you.

The nearly man of Everton FC in recent years. He looked extremely dodgy in his early (infrequent) outings for us, but then showed promise when he did get a couple of long runs in the side.

Koeman in particular didn't seem to like him, drafting in Steklenberg and playing him in preference to Joel. As soon as he made a gaff, Koeman relegated him back to the bench, even though Joel had been instrumental in a number of clean sheets in his run in the first team.

More patience and tolerance by the different managers he played under at Everton may have seen him blossom into a fine goalkeeper. But once Pickford arrived, the door to a career at Everton was slammed shut on Joel.

A decent back-up keeper, unless you are one of the mega-rich monied clubs, is possibly the most difficult position to fill in a squad. They won't be quite 'top notch' that they expect to play every week, so they will be an emerging youngster or an ageing vetran who is in his twilight years.

Add it to the shopping list of what needs bringing in this summer.

No history re-written by me, it's just that you clearly didn't know that Martinez did tell Joel (in fact, he told the world) that he was Number Two.

Now let's go to this "extended run" you speak about. You really shouldn't have to rely on quoting Wilki pages almost word for word as I believe you were actually over here for the victories against Southampton (3-0), Man City (4-0), and Palace (1-0), whilst building up his lists of clean sheets he also played in the cup win at Champions, Leicester City.

He conceded one at Stoke and three against Bournemouth in a nine-goal shoot-out... but then there were still more shut-outs at Middleborough (0-0), Sunderland (2-0) , West Brom (3-0), and Hull (4-0). Sandwiched between all those impressive clean sheets we took our obligatory beatings at Mordor and Whte Hart Lane, but that was more down to Koeman's cowardly tactics than anything Joel did.

It's fitting that you should point to Joel's "extended run" on the day he leaves, especially as it was the most impressive points return from an Everton side seen since Adam was a lad.

Stekelenburg was always Koeman's preferred keeper; let's not forget, Joel only got in when his fellow Dutchman was injured against Liverpool.

I haven't forgotten the fantastic performance at Old Trafford where he was only beaten by a last-gasp penalty and I also remember that the two matches from which you quote WIki (Leicester and Burnley) both ended up as comfortable two-goal margin victories.

Koeman couldn't wait to get his buddy back in and we paid for his stupid favouritism. The poxy 1-0 win at home to Watford was the only time we tasted victory for the remainder of the season.

Maybe he realises, despite frustrations, he was in a position that thousands of kids dream of.

Impressive and rare.

Good luck for future.

But you (and others) said he never had an extended run in the side, and I would say that 19 consecutive games qualifies as a very extended run indeed.

He did have some excellent performances, notably the one at Old Trafford, but even during his purple patch, his sensational saves were interspersed with mistakes – poor positioning, fumbled shots and misplayed crosses. He rode his luck on several of those, notably two I can recall in that glorious Man City game. The Mancs were, fortunately, not too accurate that day.

The loss at Mordor was a perfect example. Watch the highlights again. He was totally flatfooted on Mane's goal, and then on Origi's he was caught leaning and an easily reachable shot went right past him into the middle of the goal. I expected him to get those errors out of his game as time went on, but he never did.

The games I attended were Leicester and Burnley, and as you can imagine I remember every detail. Those two-goal victories were in spite of Joel, not because of him. After his Old Trafford performance, I expected a sure, confident keeper, but he looked like a rank amateur.

Against Leicester, Slimani scored through his wide-open legs and then the free kick just floated in over him. Against Burnley, he stranded himself on a corner but was saved by Barkley's header off the line, and then he swung comically at another corner and missed it completely. And the pen was an absolute howler – taking down a player who was chasing the ball away from the goal on the end line was ridiculous. Trust me, there was no-one in my section who thought Joel should keep his position after that performance, results be damned.

Also, your recollection of Koeman and Stekelenburg is far, far off target. Yes, Koeman did prefer Stek and only gave Joel a chance because of the injury. However, Stek was healthy and available by mid-January and Koeman kept Joel in the lineup for three more months. Gave him every fair chance to make the job his. In the end, he couldn't do it. And only then was Stek brought back in.

Finally, I don't recall any Stek being blameworthy for any of those late-season defeats. I blamed the loss of our best player from that February-March-April stretch – what was his name? Oh yeah. Schneiderlin. Funny how we never saw that player again, just some lazy-ass schmuck wearing his jersey. Hope the original comes back this season.

Interestingly though, Betis have also signed Paul Lopez, who is very highly thought of in Spain.

Is Joel going to be #2 there? If so, why couldn't we sign him up?

Good luck to him for the future.

You are now twisting what you said, you said he did get a run in the team but proved not good enough. You then make up some nonsense about games in which he was excellent and make the ridiculous claim we won games in spite of him. Robles was excellent when given a few months, that's why Stekelenburg could not get back in initially. "Koeman jumped at the first chance he had to get his friend back in" — Remind me, how did that work out?

If you understand the game, you will know teams don't keep that many clean sheets "in spite" of your goalkeeper. Goalkeepers don't just keep goal. They marshall, organized, communicate (at least the good ones do). Robles talked when Stek didn't. He organized while Howard kicked fuck out of his goalpost, did star jumps, and argued with fans.

Joel was not top draw, but you rather foolishly think he was dropped because he was more error-prone than the other two??? You are having a laugh.

If I did a list of errors Tim Howard made, my fingers would start to bleed. It was criminal the way that clown was allowed to continue while a very decent keeper sat on the bench.

No rose-tinted specs. Joel was always a decent Number 2 keeper, but at this stage of his career wasn't consistent enough to be Number 1. Jordan Pickford is also still learning and will make errors. The difference is that when he is good, he is VERY good.

Joel was competent. But that isn't enough.He may become a top player in the future and I wish him well.

How about any game that Allardyce was in charge for?

On a positive note, I am very happy that Darren and Mike do not live in my street. Either one would be fine but imagine both! I would be reaching for the happy pills. :)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wdoGVgj1MtY

I always rated you highly and you didn't get the playing time your ability deserved, in my opinion.

Brilliant from him. All the best!

Now face it, mate, you just blew a bunch of hot air in your previous posts. You said Joel never got a run of games. Obviously he did. You said Koeman dropped him as soon as Stekelenburg was healthy. Obviously he didn't. He wasn't dropped for favoritism but for poor play, and Koeman publicly said so. You said the results showed he performed superbly, yet I watched him in those two games I attended, and he wasn't organizing squat. He was tentative and didn't assert himself at all, and gave up foolish goals. We did win those games in spite of those gaffes, and I don't need fecking Wikipedia to remember that clearly, because everyone I was sitting with said the same thing, only in much uglier language.

Joel simply wasn't good enough. We agree Martinez handled his situation poorly. We disagree on everything else. As per usual, right?

James (#53), no problem, we've done this for years. We're two good men who like each other but can't agree on what day of the week it is when the sun rises. I plan to take him to dinner on my next trip over, but I assume the food will get cold while we're debating, particularly if Tim Howard comes up. Darren's had a Hate Howard fixation since approximately 2007, and he's not over it yet.

If you understood the game, you would realise that Howard was a better keeper than he looked in his last couple of seasons. Being played when he was off form was not his choice. He was picked and gave his best. The fact that his best wasn't enough at the end was not his fault.

I do have fond memories of Jim Arnold being a good goalkeeper and only the greatest of them all finally pushed him out of the way.

Go home Yanks — we don't want you here. Over-paid, over-sexed, and over here!!

Yeh, cop for that, Gaynes! :-))

ps: Enjoy your McDonald's with Darren on County Road.

Ray, George Wood was my favourite even though by his own admission he was as blind as a bat.

Awww c'mon.

I didn't just bring Howard up, it was always about him stopping Robles from having a run in the team because he was Martinez's blue-eyed boy. I said so from the start.

I just find it amusing that you make all sorts of calamities up about Robles in your thinly disguised attempt to deflect criticism of your fellow American and idol, Tim Howard.

Fact is, Howard was gash. That's why Ferguson got rid of him for next to nothing. Even in his prime and by the time he was being selected ahead of Robles, he wasn't just a gash 'keeper, he was an over-the-hill gash 'keeper.

He gets no credit from me for that cup run, because he ultimately cost us the trophy. By cowardly staying on his line, he allowed Drogba to head in from a few yards as he pleased... and then he tried to stop Lampard's shot with a wrist so limp, I thought it was broken. My Mrs would have saved that!

I didn't/don't hate Howard – I just didn't rate him... something that seems to rankle with you. I can't help that; I'm just glad he is gone and we no longer have to suffer those embarrassing excuses after each and every howler.

James (#53),

I would be delighted if Mike moved around our way. I probably wouldn't agree with most of what he says but I would know that, when I met him in the street, he would always had something interesting to say.

Anyone care to post what Robles wrote? My phone won't open the bebo, and not just out of principle.

He wasn't as bad as Tim Howard though. (Sorry, Mike!!!!!!!)

There's a factor that you guys miss though. All the teammates of Tim describe him as a big personality. He's one of the main guys in the dressing room and was a big part of team morale. Could it not be if there was little (in the manager's eyes) between Robles and Howard, you'd go with a leader from the dressing room?

As for Pickford, well that's a difficult one. I'd like to answer that next summer when I expect I would say England's No 1 is better.

I was just giving Mike a nudge, but he's not rising to it!

The invitation is extended anyone who has a spare couple of hours to discuss all things Everton, prior to the World Cup Final.

Bolasie, Williams, Sandro, Klaassen, Besic, Galloway, Schneiderlin, and Mirallas shouldn't need a locker next season.