Idrissa Gana Gueye to sign a new contract with Everton imminently

Good news this. Best player last season and like a fine wine, ageing really well. Keane as well, apparently.

Obviously the travel expenses for the scouts will be minimal so far - Alcaraz, Coleman, Gueye, Keane and a couple of the kids, plus a rumour Jack Harrison is wanted by the Moyesiah, who must have sent them to Yorkshire to see if he's still working hard. The guy asked to checkout Barry, most probaly worked from home, watching the U21 competition, which is why the James McAtee rumour started.

Jack (2) I’d welcome a good glass of Gana’s wine Jack I wouldn’t even taste Michael’s !

Great news to hear-a man with a real professional attitude and playing better than ever in my opinion.

Great news about Gana.

Delighted about Gana. And Barry. And Jarrad. And Alcaraz.

…and we are only just into the window. Lots more to come.

How nice is it to have a club management that actually takes assertive action!

Si, isn’t that the way football commentary used to be years ago? I distantly remember games where the commentator would just recite the names of the players on the ball one after the other, and then exclaim “goal“!

Not that I remember Mike. I thought it used to be more detailed and descriptive about what was going on.
Now they seem to fancy themselves more as analysts (which they already have in the studio) or giving ‘background’.
They don’t even say whether a corner has gone near post, central or far post.
If you have good eyesight they are basically redundant, but it must be terrible for partially sighted or blind who don’t have another commentary source. It’s bad enough when you are doing something else and are relying on them to alert you to some skilful play / well timed tackle or such.
They give it their all on replays so they are are basically fixated on ‘chances’ and ignore the rest of the play. You don’t count as a proper football fan in my opinion if you don’t appreciate all that goes into it.

“the commentator would just recite the names of the players on the ball one after the other, and then exclaim “goal“!”
Even that would be a massive improvement on ‘dead-air’.

It is starting to look like a First XI and Second XI is taking shape like this:

Beto
Ndiaye
?
Alcaraz [good business]
Garner
Gueye [good business]
Mykolenko
?
Branthwaite [good business]
Tarkowksi
Pickford

Barry [promising]
McNeil
?
Armstrong [unless loaned]
Iroegbunam
?
?
Coleman
Keane
O'Brien
?

Still a lot of work to do, but the gaps are filling up.

The right side now Robert and it will be looking positive.

On commentators, I'm glad I don't have to listen to them most weeks as I'm at the match.

I don't even watch Match of the Day on the night, often because I'm still travelling back. I'll switch it on the next morning to catch up on other matches.

I think what Mike is saying is previously, the commentators would comment on what was happening on the pitch in a simple way.

A bit like me talking to the person next to me in the ground.

Without sounding like a fossil, I just think the modern-day pundits over-analyse the game and there is a tendency to zoom in on mistakes and be overly critical. Well, considering most of them have been, or still are, professional footballers and made many themselves, they surely know football is a game of mistakes?

Robert, you’ve seriously put Jake O’Brien on the bench behind Seamus and Michael Keane?

Are you ‘channeling’ Sean Dyche?

Robert, don't forget that for the first couple months of the season there's likely to be a "gap" where Tarkowski's name is.

I thought the back half of last season there weren't many teams with a better record, and while as yet we haven't signed anyone who wasnt playing for us last season, the extension contracts of Branthwaite and Gana are as good as any new signings. I have no doubt that there will be additions to our squad and we will be a lot stronger than last season.
Also with many clubs playing in Europe for the first time we may have an advantage over these clubs, as many wont be used to playing 2 games a week plus all the extra travelling. We looked fitter under Moyes than we did under our previous manager, and the results and style of football were a joy to watch at times. I think getting the best young CB in England to sign a long term contract is a massive plus for Moyes who Branthwaite cited as one of the main reasons he signed a new contract.

Si # 15, it is just an account of players we have against the various positions to highlight certain glaring gaps.

Mike # 16, no I haven't forgotten. But any of them could get injured at any point.

Looks like we're keeping faith with the excellent team that finished last season. Can't be bad with a few new faces.