Who had a nice weekend?

Good post Andy#OP
Unfortunately I think the modern day "professional" footballer has become way too professional. Hurt at losing...only the fans

Other than that I was I Belfast seeing my daughter who I haven't seen in a while due to the COVID shit...so didn't see the match. Small mercy's..eh?

Good post, Andy. You only have to look at the likes of Besic to see what footballers are like in the main. Rich young men being paid ridiculous sums on a long contract just because they had a few decent games a long time ago. They have no affiliation with the club but trot out the usual banal statements to try to please the fans.

They are not that bothered about performance because they can sit on the fat contract and never have to work again. Why should they give that up for less money elsewhere? There are some decent ones around – Calvert-Lewin, Holgate and Godfrey for example – and this was where Carlo went wrong by putting two of them on the bench.

Money has ruined the game as it was and we have a far different one these days. If we can get a few more in the team with some attitude and will to win, we will then be truly in the mix.

Great post, Andy, and spot on with the attitude of most players these days and as Dave (2) points out. Absolutely no affinity to the club, while one player who definitely loves the club has been pushed out on loan. Pity you didn't work for EitC – you would have been looked after better.

Well I had a shit weekend and always do when we lose, but especially when we lose in the manner we did, when there was absolutely no reason to lose because Newcastle weren't that good.

I have to say, though, the days of having a team, or even the majority of a team, of players with a true affinity for the club have long gone if you want to be at the top table of football. The game's global and, to compete, the club has to look globally and not just locally.

The best you can hope for is to have a couple, maybe, of local or semi local players who "get" us. With regard to the rest, you hope to have players with pride and an aggressive, winning mentality, ones who just hate losing and get pissed off even when a minor decision goes against them.

We don't have enough of those... if any.

I realised many years ago that I'm only interested in winning trophies and regaining our throne as kings of Merseyside consequently the league is a meaningless event a few weeks into every season.

Add in perennial failures against the shite and cup debacles by the shedload and I have no expectation and therefore no angst.

What a far cry from that young fella who had this on his school report "if only he could get Everton out of his head"

Thanks Everton

I have a good Brazilian mate here who plays pro for the biggest team in Japan. He isn’t professional with his diet etc and really only cares for the cash. He’s now agitated for a bigger pay check in China. I guess that’s the kind of player we have at Everton these days.

It was painful to watch at times on Saturday, Andy, because we're not as good as we think we are, and it's obvious we need some better players.

If football is about skill, then it's even more about having the will, and when we open up, we lack the first, and also lose part of the second.

Break open a packet of fig rolls and make up a strong brew, Andy.

You'll feel better for it.

They're just gunslingers for hire Andy - They have forgotten the face of their Fathers.

Brian (4), nice to see you posting again, haven’t noticed you lately, glad you’re okay, apart from Everton putting you,and most of us, down in the dumps!!

Cheers Dave, thanks for that mate.
I've been having a deliberate break to be honest.

There can be no doubt that the filthy lucre has all but killed off all the integrity of the game from its roots, the money involved since the birth of the premier league is an accepted obscenity. But when you see a performance as abject as Saturday and the many, many others, too numerous to list, it seems obvious to me that there is a big problem with attitude, and that is, ultimately, a failing in recruitment. In recent years we have seen the likes of Schneiderlin saunter around for megabucks, seeming to accept defeats with extreme good grace; inexplicably keeping local kids, with passion and hunger, out the team. Sigurdson will never be a holding defensive midfielder as long as he has a hole in his arse, a luxury player, a mercurial number 10, always the same at Spurs then stood out in a shit Swansea team that played to his strength: he is a trapezium squeezed into a round hole.
I can only draw the conclusion that attitude and temperament have been overlooked or underestimated qualities by those responsible for recruitment. I have some sympathy for Carlo if the scale of his task is to motivate Sigurdson beyond anything more than sedated apathy into a frenzied determined destructive midfielder: sigurdson has a snooze button his fire alarm.
Everton’s identity is lost, we have money but only very recent star quality, so unable to compete effectively against most above us: top four is still some distance away.
Our teams used be a reflection of us to an extent with a lot of local lads making the grade; the game very different now with hired guns the norm. Brands policy sounds like common sense at last; just hope the deal for Josh King wasn’t another desperate throw of the dice.

Spot on Andy. Saturday evening is always soured if we've been poor. Hardly lifting a glove at home to a very moderate side. Gut wrenching. The least we can expect is energy / commitment.There was no sign of that.

Took your advice, Jay. Quite frankly the fig roll is a vastly underrated biscuit, if indeed it can be described as a biscuit.
Two fig rolls, a strong cup of tea and all looks better with the world.
I hope my new pack will remain unopened this evening. Have some Jammy Dodgers set aside, though, to celebrate the victory I expect. Unlike the fig roll, the Dodger compliments a nice glass of Merlot

Ginger biscuits Andy, or Chocolate Hobnobs!

The very thing and great dunking!

Andy "the Dodger compliments a nice glass of Merlot".

But do you dunk, Andy? We have a right to know!

I haven't had a fig roll in years, I must get some. Jammy Dodgers are a very under-rated biscuit in my opinion.

Totally off-subject, but I was just wasting my time googling general shite, and I came across an old interview with Ian Astbury, singer with The Cult. Didn't realise he was an Everton fan, although he puts it a bit stronger:

Interviewer: I believe you're quite a keen fan of Everton?

Ian Astbury: Yes, although the word "fan" to me implies casual interest. I regard myself as a devotee of Everton Football Club rather than just a fan.

She Sells Sanctuary indeed.

Brent, dunk a Jammy Dodger in Merlot? Really, Brent? Thought you had a bit more class.
The only biscuit to dunk in a nice Merlot, or indeed any nice red, is a Cadburys chocolate finger.
Here's tip for the connoisseur, find a layered chocolate bar, a galaxy ripple, if they still exist, is a good example. Bite the end off and suck the wine through it. Do use a decent wine, though.

Would a flake work? I reckon doing that to suck up Guinness would work

A flake does work, Chris. To be honest, though sucking Guinness through a flake is a bit working class. I mean would you take a girl who did it home to meet your parents?

I often feel after a poor result, thats what their attitude actually is.