🎙ToffeeWeb Podcast: “The Concern Level is High”

Players out of contract come summer 2023, according to Transfer Market web site - who just might be hungry enough to make a go of it at EFC. Also who won't cost a lot.

Antonine Semenyo CF / W Bristol City ( Age 22 ).

Last season 28 appearances - 8 goals / 12 assists. This season 4 goals / 1 assist.

Ben Brereton Diaz CF / W Blackburn Rovers (age 23).

Last season 39 appearances - 22 goals / 3 assists. This season 23 appearances - 10 goals / 1 assist.

Not so young are -

Oliver McBurnie CF Sheffield United (age 26 ).

Last Season oh dear. This season 17 appearances - 9 goals / 1 assist.

Chuba Akpom CFMiddlesbough (age 27).

Last season played in Greece. This season 15 appearances - 8 goals / 1 assist. Former Arsenal U21. A late bloomer ? At least he may be on the same wave length as Iwobi !!! and better than Rondon.

Pukki Norwich City ( age 32 ).

Last season in the EPL, played 37 - goals 11 / 4 assists, in a struggling Norwich. This season 21 appearances - goals 6 / assists 5. Pukki has played 73 EPL games, scoring 22 goals / 6 assists.

Loan in - A real wild card for those searhing in the bargain basement - Eldor Shomurodov AS Roma. Captain of Uzbekistan. 32 goals in 53 games for them. Not getting a look in, under Mourinho. Roma spent £18m on him.

If we don't want to shop at Lidl, in January, for a forward and a creative player, then we would have to sell Gordon, Keane and not so Kean, which should raise about £85m, minimum, believe it or not. Obviously that depends on Spurs / Chelsea forking out £50m plus on Gordon.

I wish Thelwell and Lampard good luck if they are here in January.

PS : There is of course, Ellis Simms, Lewis Dobbin and Tom Cannon.

We didn't replace Delph (I know he didn't play much but we all knew we needed a viable no.6). Gana ain't a 6: he's a seek & destroy.

We perhaps have a 6 in Garner but don't start him. So we play 3 centre midfielders together that don't play as a (mini) team. 2 of which don't offer goals or creativity (Gana & Onana).

Onana may turn into an excellent player but it's becoming clearer that he's not what we needed at this moment in time.

I'd back Fat Sam to keep us up even with this group. Not saying that we should rehire him (not that he would come after the way we treated him) but there is enough there with the right tactics to keep us up.

Problem is Frank sometimes plays a high press (i say ‘press' as a joke but that's what it's supposed to be). Sometimes 1 pivot. Sometimes double pivot. Sometimes 5 at the back.

The players don't play as a team and that's on him.

I really REALLY wanted him to succeed but I just don't see it.

Happy to eat humble pie if it comes to it.

I have it from a very reliable (almost) source that there was never any bid whatsoever from Chelsea in the summer for Anthony Gordon. I honestly can't see either them or Spurs coming in for him in January.

He really needs to get his head down and buck his ideas up, because at the moment I don't think he deserves a wage of £10k PW, let alone £100k.

When you only create one or two per game, I believe the likelihood of players failing to take them increases owing to the amount of pressure.

It's truly amazing to me when you consider the sheer number of clickbait stories there were (still are!) coming through the Everton NewsNow feed with "Gordon bid" as the underlying or (more often) overt theme.

If what your source said is true, then all of these are downright lies.

Now I know we live (for our many accumulated sins) in the era of unremitting Fake News but doesn't that degree of blind acceptance and incompetent parroting, without any attempt at checking the facts, seem altogether incomprehensible? It was literally everywhere!

Yes, transfer speculation is a unique area in which truth is as rare as hen's teeth, but a decent number of stories do end in the reported bids actually coming off, thus rendering the 'lies' as truth in those cases.

I mean someone somewhere obviously knew this was a pack of lies but the closest we got was mostly fans (perhaps a few Journos) questioning the claimed fee.

Was it all a scam by Gordon's people as part of his campaign to elevate his perceived value in ongoing contract negotiations?

Now the club never ever, ever comments on transfer speculation, but very often transfer stories have been nipped in the bud by a strategically placed article in the Echo that begins with the words: "The ECHO understands that Everton have not received any bid for..." And we never hear anything more about it. I may be wrong but I don't believe we got any such thing in Gordon's case.

If it was all a pack of lies, then where did it come from? Who kept pushing it? And why wasn't there more skeptical analysis from Journos in the know? I mean, even the highly respected Athletic was in on the act:

"Everton have already turned down bids from Chelsea, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur for Gordon this summer."

Now I don't know how much backroom staff get to hear about such transfer bids from other clubs, but I would imagine they get to hear a fair bit, especially if they are true.

So who knows if any bids were offered or not?

I know we crave off wanting to know and 24/7 reporting fuels that, not just in football or sport. It's creating an environment of wanting everything sorted out today, tomorrow or next week.

Good luck with that, whichever walk of life you're in.

I personally prefer it when the club doesn't comment as much as we are desperate for information. Tell us when there is something to be told.

But then, there is a trust issue. We are totally behind the team, but it's currently a volatile relationship that the club isn't managing particularly well in my view.

The sound of silence can be equally as deafening as shouting loud from the rooftops.

Thank god the club didn't buckle and give a 5-year £50k-£100k pw contract out on the back of this nonsense. An excellent decision (by Thelwell?) to sit tight and not get sucked in.

In my view, Anthony is nowhere near reaching the standard Ross reached in 2013-14 or in the following three seasons. I am not saying Ross was the finished article but he made a greater contribution than Anthony has done or very likely will ever do.

Lampard is very forthcoming when asked specific questions. Non-playing squad members demanding game time and given a start or game time at Bournemouth showed exactly why the don't play regularly: "Below the standard of Everton Football Club".

Lampard is referring to all those displaced by the new arrivals, and others who have not featured despite multiple manager changes. I hear too often from fans, "Oh he will do a job for us, playing out of position". "Holgate at right back can do a job," you say as an example.

This is the Premier League – not a kick about down the park. Players who are not quick enough and strong enough for this league will cost points. Lampard knows this and is trying with virtually no money to compete with the elite.

The lack of fit Premier League level strikers in this squad means no goals – it's that simple. Lampard said in Australia, Strikers into the club in January. If that's just "hang on, Frank" talk from the board or done deals, we shall see.

The Premier League loss to Bournemouth, I think, was tactical tweaks that were unnecessary and the World Cup bound switching-off to avoid injuries.

Listen to Lampard; most of the questions are answered.

12 comments is hardly a reaction. I can't listen to it in full, and neither can the vast majority. More in-depth reasoned analysis please and less like a mates moaning session or over optimising after one win.

I would like to listen and empathize but not possible in this format.

Many others invoke, "What the hell? Are you watching the same game?"

Then there are the serial moaners, no matter what.

These podcasts have none of the above, just mates agreeing with each other. If that's the purpose, then continue to broadcast to empty space.