Returning to the fold

This is the season and all Evertonians know, this time we must deliver results.

We need significant signings this close season.

Is Richarlison coming back from Brazil?

Is Davies suffering jet lag after the journey on the 78 bus from West Derby to Halewood?

Has Ramirez suddenly remembered he steals £125,000 a week from us and the shock is too much for him?

Extensions my arse, typical of the whole half-arsed way the Club is run.

Being realistic, we will bring in one or two signings before the season kicks off with the majority of the deadwood still here another season. I don't see anyone buying these players on the wages they are on.

I expect results to improve, but marginally, finishing up a couple of places higher than last season. We all need to be realistic with expectations here.

The cup of anticipation runneth over.

Despite the pandemic, aren't players still permitted a regulation 3-week break between seasons, if they so wish? It may also make sense if you have overseas players despite a 14-day isolation period on return – and especially if you want their mothers to know that you have looked after them properly.

Starting Lossl as number one may give Pickford a jolt he needs. Besic would give the midfield a bite it simply doesn’t have, and Bolasie may offer genuine wing play to help get crosses into the two front lads.

Not saying they are anywhere near a preferred answer, but if the market stays as shit as it is, at least they are options.

Also, didn't the Spanish season finish later than ours?

Goalkeepers: Pickford, Lössl, Virginia
Right-backs: Coleman, Kenny
Left-backs: Digne, Nkounkou
Centre-backs: Keane, Holgate, Mina, Branthwaite, Gibson
Wingers: Bernard, Gordon, Bolasie, Walcott, Iwobi
Midfielders: Gomes, Sigurdsson, Davies, Delph, Besic, (Gbamin)
Forwards: Richarlison, Calvert-Lewin, Kean, Sandro, (Tosun)

What would your choice of first XI and subs be for the season kick-off?

My choice would be a 4-2-3-1 formation:

Pickford
Kenny Keane Holgate Digne
Gomes Delph
Richarlison Iwobi Gordon
Calvert-Lewin

Subs: Lössl, Coleman, Mina, Davies, Sigurdsson, Walcott, Kean.

If Carlo can work on this squad and up their motivation levels and composure with the ball, we could still have a decent season.

I'm sure he was not hired just to oversee the signing of expensive new players but also to 'get the best' out of those we have. Whilst he has so far effected little or no improvement in technique and motivation, top eight ought to be the minimum requirement in return for he and his family's ridiculously high remuneration.

I just hope we can stay in the Premier League long enough for 2 seasons of complete squad clear out.

Hart could have pushed Pickford a little more, maybe helped him with his own experiences, or maybe even rediscovered his own form and ousted Pickford.

I haven't been excited watching Everton since Roberto Martinez's first season... sad as it is to say, but that's the truth.

On the other hand, I noted that Jack Butland is available for a cut-price. Now, he might not be a bad option.

Same old, same old. Is there any point to all this.

Hard to believe they have so much dross still on the books.

We have become a club that only rates a player if he is foreign and costs £40 million. We need to get back to the way Everton used to pick up players under Kendall and Moyes.

One of the main problems with this team is lack of fitness. Nearly every team run them off the park. Ferguson injected some pace into them but it didn't last as they were all fucked after 2 games.

I heard Leeds have been in training for a couple of weeks already. I would get them out of the cushy confines of Finch Farm also and run the bollocks off them in the sandhills at Ainsdale.

For many of the posters on here today, who is our next manager going to be? I only ask because if our fortunes are as set in stone as so many seem to think they are, we may as well cut our losses right now, today, and forget about anything but a relegation battle.

Can we at least wait until the season begins before writing off any hopes for the new campaign?

Despite being linked with any player that’s apparently available (media hype), I am concerned that any quality players don’t want to sign for us!

I understand the silence from within, but that silence is becoming deafening.

I suspect that BK still has his fingers in the pie when it comes to negotiating transfers, that seemed to be at an advanced stage, only to come to nothing.

My biggest concern is that Carlo might use the lack of recruitment to walk away. I sincerely hope I’m wrong!

Something has clearly gone very wrong there and sounds like one to swerve.

Sure, Spurs and the Dark Side have added 1 or 2 players too, but they are hardly breaking the bank, and – as last years Champions League finalists – they'll find it a little easier for the player to push for it too.

Selling clubs are being tentative too. They have assets who they previously thought they would get £60-70M for, who may only be worth a fraction of that once Covid-19 impact is felt fully. Do they sell now just in case, or do they hold on and hope someone desperate comes in?

Personally, I think the best hope is we can get a decent midfielder in from somewhere quickly and then we'll need to step back and see what the market does. I think as the window draws towards a close, we'll see a very different market as clubs across europe panic about balancing books.

Assuming though that it was none before the season starts, my starting team would be (4-4-2):

Lössl
Kenny Keane Holgate Digne
Richarlison Gomes Delph Gordon
Kean Calvert-Lewin

Subs: Pickford, Coleman, Gibson, Iwobi, Bolasie, Bernard, Simms
(Send young Jarrad out on a loan, and let Gibson have a go.)

I definitely could have been a contender like Marlon Brando in “On the Waterfront”. Ah well, that”s life!!

His low price also reflects that he's in the last year of his contract, that Stoke can not afford to renew it, and that they are keen to get some money for him.

Note, I've not seen him play over the last two seasons and can only go off reports. There's clips of his errors on YouTube.

When is Delph not injured?? But I'd rather him be on the treatment table than the pitch!! As for him being a great leader & influence in the dressing room, coz he won so much at Man City?

As a player, I'd rather someone lead by example than shoot their mouth off on the pitch & not be able to do it themselves. He may have been on the books at ManCity when they won trophies but, let's face it, he was rarely on the pitch either through injury or, more likely, not being selected!!

What waste of money he was, at any price.

Another English goalkeeper going into decline before his time. All very odd.

Lössl
Kenny Holgate Mina Digne
Delph Gomes Iwobi
Richarlison Gordon
Calvert-Lewin

Subs: Pickford, Kean, Coleman, Walcott, Keane, Sigurdsson, Nkounkou (or Branthwaite).

If you cannot see that Joe Hart is completely gone at the game then I don't know what to say. In his final season with Burnley he was conceding an average of 2+ goals a game (across half a season).

His career was built on a few decent performances for a Man City team that was suddenly transformed by an influx of world-class players. I cannot believe Spurs have got him in, but I'd be very surprised to see Hart start any Premier League this season.

Ben Foster is a far superior goalkeeper, but unlike Hart he still wants to play regular first-team football. I suspect that Hart knows that he no longer has it in him to be first choice at a Premier League club, and would rather be on the bench at a big club by choice than suffer another demotion to the bench at a smaller club. If we'd brought him in I'd have been livid.

Before his injury, I actually considered him one of our better players. I know age is not on his side, but it would be nice to see him given a chance.

Everton are being tipped to make a club record bid for Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha this summer although they won't match last year's offer.

I too considered him a pretty good player before his injury (not the majority view here on TW), but he's been back from that injury for 32 months now, and he hasn't regained his previous form.

I assume Carlo will give him a chance in training. I don't expect anything to come of it. It would be nice to be proven wrong.

Transfers like this, the club have to be creative with swap deals or don't get involved.

I guess that's why he may do many things we'll notices as time goes on that's different from others who are not serial winners.

In a way, he's won so many top trophies – he's an outlier. So may have some outlier methods too. Good for us, hey?

However, we never do 'easy', 'simple' or 'quickly' – always 'last minute'.

But Barcelona have presidential elections next year and the favourite for the job, seems very keen on appointing Xavi as manager. But seems as though Koeman will accept the job, well it was what he has wanted all along, but he would have to do remarkably well for Xavi not to be appointed when the new president is elected.

Hopefully for Barca he will spend more time on the training ground and less on the golf course like he did when he was here.

Lukaku is exactly the type of striker we need, fast, powerful and knows where the onion bag is. Of course, though, some on here wouldn't dream of having him back (not that I think he'd come back) because he's a lazy bastard.

Then again, some on here would moan at getting a past-it mercenary who can't even win a World Cup and think Tom Davies would do just as good a job (mentioning no names).

I agree that we could really do with a player like Lukaku this season. However, I wonder how even he would do with the service provided by last season's apology for a midfield?

Frankly, a midfield quartet of you, Mike Gaynes and a couple of ‘conquests' from The Grafton would provide greater tenacity and a higher level of “service” to the strikers than we saw last season.

I wonder how long the likes of Delph would last on the dance floor on ‘grab a granny' night before limping off?

Fran #67, another Barcelona reject? Nah, he's 33, lazy, just strolls about, doesn't defend. And he's too small to stand up to the Premier League.

Mike #70, thanks for the endorsement, but my agent Mino won't let me sign. The guy really nurses a grudge, y'know?

Messi has a low tolerance for crap teammates. Can you imagine: “Forget about Arturo Vidal, we've got Andre Gomes, remember him? The one who was afraid to leave the dressing room.”

I thought that game summed up Lukaku.

He was dreadful for 60 or 70 minutes and then, as soon as Shakta folded, he bagged 2 and missed a sitter.

He has got what Calvert-Lewin needs – a striker's instinct. Calvert-Lewin runs his balls off but, when you need him there to stick one in the net....???

Pees me off when a company can't get rid of a useless employee without 'dire consequences'. Puts the rest of us in danger of business failure.

My starting 11 would be Digne, Gomes and Richarlison.

If anyone else leaves then my poker face remains unchanged.