James Tarkowski could also miss the initial stages of the 2025-26 season

Tarkowski has formed a great partnership with Branthwaite but, given his injury, we need a replacement before the start of the season.

We will expect to hit the new ground running after the crappy starts we've had in the past. Let's hope he's ready for the start of the season but definitely need a solid replacement.

We will likely need to sign two experienced centre-backs this summer to backstop the two young 'uns.

I think Moyes said he is hopeful of having him back for pre-season. 🤞

We need a right-back, maybe a left-back too (preferably fast wingbacks).

Absolutely need a striker, Premier League quality, aproven finisher.

At least one winger, and a younger Gana too.

We will need an enormous cash injection for this, Toyota or whoever with deep pockets and belief in our brand.

Anyone know, roughly, how much we can spend this summer? I can see another struggle in 2025-26, sadly.

And Tarkowski is not going to let slight injuries or knocks let him miss games. In other words, he would not let on he was carrying an injury.

Moyes offers new contracts to Keane and Holgate… Nooooo!😭

I don't know if you watched the recent West Brom v Derby County match. Holgate had an absolute shocker.

Alan, I'd be astonished if our new owners revealed their budget publicly.

Danny, the mere mention of Holgate's name caused me to halt my consumption of breakfast.

I guess I meant not so much how much our owners have to spend but how much we might be allowed to spend.

BTW, I was just reading that the new FFP includes different limits for clubs competing in Europe and clubs that aren't.

Yeah, I've heard all the nonsensical excuses about him playing 15 games "carrying an injury"; the fact is – he wasn't. He was simply shite and was showing form which had us languishing down the bottom. Form which would have seen Michael Keane hung, drawn and quartered.

He did settle down... eventually, but it's taking longer and longer for his engine to get warmed up with each passing season. We can't afford to wait until Chrimbo next season. Get Jake and Jarrad developing a partnership during whatever remains of this season and bring in someone younger and more reliable than the guy embarrassingly still labeled "Mr dependable".

An injury following a body-on-the-line type of career does not bode well for what will be a 33-year-old centre back.

Good servant in the past, but he ain't the future.

Obviously we will have the additional income (and costs) of the new stadium that can be factored into July 2025 to June 2026. I'm sure the accountants have done all sorts of modelling on the new match day revenues but there will still be a bunch of unknowns, eg, will there be a stadium naming rights deal?

Premier League spending rules set to stay next season

You are right about the potential for a difference between the Premier League and Europe. The level of squad cost to revenue for clubs in Europe is 70% from next season whilst the proposal for the Premier League was 85%.

Nothing new to learn, we need 10 new players this summer.

Colin, of course he's not the future, and of course he'd lost a step even before the injury. But he'll be staying through next season because he's under contract, Moyes is comfortable with him and we need experienced depth behind Jake and Jarrad.

The problem is that, if he's unavailable well into next season, we may need not only a replacement for Keane but one for Tarkowski as well. Gotta have four centre-backs.

Fortunately, O'Brien has now acclimatised and is doing great — but where is the centre-back cover from the bench?

Causes:

Sudden, powerful movements: Sprinting, lunging, or jumping can overstretch the hamstring.

Inadequate warm-up: Not preparing the muscles properly before exercise can increase the risk of injury.

Direct impact: A blow to the back of the thigh can also cause a hamstring strain.

The unnatural positioning of his leg when he went in for that tackle, I was surprised he wasn't injured himself. An accumulation of his gung ho attitude is what I was suggesting.

By the way, Danny, how did you sit In a pub with reds when the game was on? I would rather have sat in a field of shitting cows than sat with that herd.😀

Over the years, I broke both legs and both ankles with ligament damage fortunately not the knees. As I've mentioned, the quad tear was a difficult one to come back from.

I doubt he would have continued had he done it in that challenge.

I like to go out to watch the football, even when not drinking. No escaping them down here.

Once we get past end of June, the new accounts will kick into place, so, roughly speaking, Everton could sign 4 top quality players for say £30M to £40M each, but over a 5-year deal, it could work out as spending around £8M each season per player.

So Everton could go big if they really wanted to, and not worry if the total is even say £180M, that would get amortized over the 5-year term. I know wages would also have to be taken into account, but the £105M a season over the 3-year threshold could be tweaked, with smart thinking and 5-year contracts, to spread the costs.

I think you will see the signings coming in after the end of June cut-off.

That's the way I see it… but I could be wrong.

I tore a hamstring 30 years ago towards the end of a 5-mile race in Croxteth Park. It felt like I had been shot in the back of the leg. It was 3 months before I was back running properly.

Hamstring injuries are often associated with lower back, pelvic, gluteal or hip problems. At the start of the season, Tarkowski had a gluteal problem which he played through. I don't know, but it is possible that issue was contributory to this hamstring injury.

The fact he requires an operation, which is usually the last resort, suggests it is a really serious injury.

When your hamstring goes, it's like having a knife stuck into the back of your upper leg.

Talking lower back… Sciatica. Excruciating pain all the way down your leg to your ankle, causing enforced Tourettes when you stand up!

Yes, I have read we will have around £45M to spend in the summer, assuming the naming rights deal is not settled before the start of the new season, and that we don't make a big sale.

As you say, the extra money can be split among several big signings… but that calibre of player will inevitably come with significant wage demands.

I suspect we will end up bringing in a couple of experienced, proven players who can hit the ground running and a couple of young, hungry lads who have the potential to develop. Nothing will happen until after 30 June but I would hope we will sign the main targets before the start of pre-season so that the squad is better prepared than it has been for the last three seasons.

On top of that, we will plug some gaps with three or four loanees. Almost inevitably, they will not arrive until the latter stages of the transfer window.

Sciatica is a right pain in the arse!!

Wishing Tarkowski a good recovery.

Rob, amen. You know I've been through some stuff, but a sciatic injury 25 years ago was the worst pain ever.

Scored three and a big bastard twat when I went up for a header he was right under me, I must have been 10 feet in the air, came right down on my back on a semi frozen pitch.

Carried off, couldn't walk properly for months. Even remember the team we played St Mary's. Happy days. 😁😭😁

I played on with a slight hamstring injury but didn't know it until I went the doctor's because it got worse. He said it's the hamstring and I had it for 3 months. Nice big thighs I had though. 😁

Went up for a header, got undercut, and helicoptered. Came down flat on my back on a guy's foot and ruptured a disc that damaged the sciatic nerve. Had discectomy surgery and didn't play for 16 months.

Pull up the leg of your kex, lads!

Oh and post 16 - Agreed

Standard Army medical diagnosis came to the conclusion it was a sprain and the even more standard cure for everything; Tubigrip and Brufen. That one turned out to be a break, which healed itself. It was the ligaments that took a while.

Anyone remember singing on the Gwladdy, "When you're smiling" and after "The whole world smiles with you", "without your kex on"?

Happy days… the singing I mean.

I did my lower back in the lower reaches of the Manchester Sunday League about 50 years ago. I foolishly allowed a team mate to sit on my shoulders whilst he tied the net to the crossbar. Elite sport eh!

If you're right and the net spend is £45M, that will probably be in the Bottom 5 net spend amounts this summer.

As we are seeing after the new manager bounce, our true position in the league is somewhere in the bottom half.

We then have the challenge of losing players who play a lot of games to frees and loan expiry.

Really difficult rebuild for only £45M.

My poor wife used to call me and my relationship with football childish. I don't know if she was talking about me playing or following Everton.

I think I know the answer. She did used to come and watch me play and told me I was going to get myself injured due to my style of play.

She only came to Goodison on 3 occasions. My son's first match on the opening day of the season, fittingly against Aston Villa. A 0 - 0 draw, which maintained the truce. Then another Everton v Villa fixture when they beat us 1 - 0. Sat in the Main Stand and she jumped up cheering when they scored. The other one was when we took my youngest brother to his first match. A 6 - 2 win against Swindon, sat in the lower Gwladys Street.

If the memory serves, an unlikely screamer from Stuart Barlow sticks in the mind. My poor brother fell asleep half way through the second half, so missed it and I had to carry him out of the stadium.

Goodison memories.

Was it the start of "disappointed" Walter Smith tenure? I recall the teams coming out to a Scots Piper... took months to uncurl my toes!

I was made up when we signed John Collins, I'd followed him for Celtic and when he went to Monaco. A very cultured footballer. That day, I remember the reception he was getting when he went over to take corners.

We had other good players at that time, but it didn't work out. A favourite of mine was Olivier Dacourt and Marco Materazzi, who obviously went on to bigger and better things. Not forgetting Nick Barmby, before he saw red and took the Satanic oath.

I was delighted that we signed him at the time but it never quite worked out. As with so many things Everton-related.

I carried on playing until the game finished then went in The Goblin and onto a bender and got home late the next day.

The pain was really bad when I woke up. I went to the Royal for an X-ray — I'd broken the wrist.

Luckily, I was between jobs at the time so the plaster cast didn't interrupt my working career.

With twenty minutes left it was fuckn killing me especially because my throws kept getting headed out for another throw to us. We scored and I went to the dugout to ask the physio to strap my wrist up and was met with a big “fuckin get back on the pitch and stop fuckn moaning” from Brian Clough.

Went home, never got an ounce of sleep and went for an X-Ray the next morning, and was told it was fractured. Got it put in plaster, and was told to leave it in a sling for the first few days, and went back to the ground, and into the club where everyone had food.

One of the first people to see me was Bri, and he flew right over and said, “young Abrahams, what the fuck do you think you’re doing with that sling on?”

No point answering, especially when he then added and “don’t be getting used to that fucking plaster, either, because your teammates fuckin need you”

That was about as big as a compliment that I was ever going to get off anyone at Forest, and I should have realised it was too good to be true, although by the end of the next week, he was true to his word, and I had already been fitted with a lighter cast, and was already back playing again.

They do anything for you when they need you but when they don’t….🤷‍♂️

Fuckin' kex? GTF. 😉

Fuckin' cecs? GTFA. 😁

Come on, Tony A, give us an insight as to what Clough was really like.

I liked his methods because he kept the game very simple, and I also found his bluntness very funny at times, but I always kept my distance and he knew it.

"Perhaps young Abrahams might even come to my house!" was what he was shouting after he changed his mind and decided to give me a 2-year professional contract instead of the proposed 1 year, but this was because he had seen me suddenly walk the other way, “to get out the fucking way” whenever he wanted a few apprentices to go round to his house and do a bit of gardening work.

All the lads used to love going, but I hated authority, although he was funny, especially when he had been drinking, just as long as it wasn't you that was in his firing line!

Even at 5 years of age, I was questioning the teacher's authority at infant's school. Got me a double ruler snack on my legs on the first day of attendance.

Errrr, more or less mate. 😁👍

Timms' inarguable main point, which is that new stadia almost never deliver much economic benefit to their host cities -- they frequently turn out to be more boondoggle than boon -- is true of publicly-funded projects in which local bonds and local taxpayers cover much of the nut.

That ain't Everton.

I only spoke to Clough once, outside Anfield when Forest Reserves were playing Liverpool.

I asked him if he had a couple minutes after I introduced myself, then asked what Tony's chances were of getting a professional contract? He told me they were very good but hadn't anyone at Forest already told me that?

I said "They hadn't, but that would do me what you had just said."

He then invited me to sit in the dug out to watch the game. I told him I was sitting with my other son in the Kop but thanks very much.

You told me later that Clough went into you and told you that I had shown more enthusiasm in 5 minutes talking to him than you had showed in the 18 months you had been at Forest!

Never had an actual break though.

Different sport, Paul. I always have the debate with rugby players.

Both sports are physical. But different. Rugby is upper body impact, but to me, the full force of a misplaced leg-on-leg challenging tackle can be career threatening. Ask Jim Beglin, David Busst and our own Adrian Heath.

The term "togger" is a slang term for playing football, particularly in Northern England, according to Collins Dictionary. It is not the standard or commonly used term for football, and it's not directly related to the sport's name or origins. The term "togger" is used specifically for the act of playing football, while the word "football" refers to the sport itself.

I prefer soccer myself.😀

A tough game? Only the fannies who play it claim that.

We will still need another good defender who can be a good back-up.

You may want to look into the witness protection programme after that one! 😀

Chris Sanderson died after a heavy tackle in 1977, choking on his own vomit.

I've known rugby players play on with broken jaws, fingers and other body parts. Hardly a game for fannies.

Awful to hear that 13 lads have lost their lives playing a sport they love.

The big softie went on the wing though.

Later that night he tweeted 'just coming out the hospital to go home… Seriously feel like I've left something?

Tony Smith (Warrington coach) did say in his pre-match team talk last night "Your balls are on the line here, guys!" I didn't think he meant literally!

By the way, I fecking hate rugby. I've been lucky enough to meet Paul Hewitt and he's a lovely bloke and a 6 foot / 8 inches gentle giant who puts down mouse-friendly mousetraps. He even went to partner birth preparation talks when his wife was pregnant.

On injuries, if you like a good film, watch "The Keeper", the story of Bert Traumann.

It's not all about football and is set against the background of him adapting to life in Lancashire as a recently freed German PoW after WW2. He opted to stay in the UK rather than return to Germany and had to live with the animosity and prejudice that came with that decision.

And then he infamously broke his neck in the cup final playing for Manchester City, with 20 minutes to go, and he played on. Respect.

I think O'Brien can step up and he has a bit of added speed and height which may prove beneficial for the start of his successful Everton career.

Branthwaite is the 'money' so I predict he'll be sold for a Moyes rebuild. Whilst sad and unwanted, I feel it's inevitable.

Cloughie, how would he manage the emotional baggage of the current era.

Another aspect that is over looked of all the greats is timing. Right place, right time. Is that luck or just irrelevant and they would always achieve greatness?

In this respect, he will be very difficult to replace.