Dr. Gonzo

Yeah that letter is on the fucking money. You blueshite have been sold so many promises over the decades about ambition from your board, but never really kicked on. Granted, in recent history the best time you've had to do that on the pitch was in the Moyes era, but Kenwright would never give Everton the financial backing to challenge because the club didn't have the resources. And Leeds is a good example of why you don't go into financial ruin in the chase of glory... of it fails it could be a disaster. But now you've got investment and can splash more cash, Everton fans absolutely have a right to demand better. Especially better than this season. I've enjoyed it, because I support Liverpool, but there's absolutely no reason for Everton to have had the season they're having. And everyone but the board (who did give good financial backing) and the fans (who are just fans, once again disappointed due to their club underperforming). Walsh made huge errors over the summer and has built a very unbalanced squad, Koeman it appears signed off on it then couldn't get a cohesive looking team out and had them looking like contenders for the drop, and Fat Sam's general cowardice is just not what a club with ambition turns to (granted, they were seeking safety at that point). It's another rebuild for Everton this summer. They need a new manager and the new DoF needs to work with him to identify a long term system he wants to implement on the pitch, and they need to identify players in the short term they can work towards building to that. It's not as though Everton aren't patient. A manager that can at least get fans excited about the football on the pitch can and will be afforded setbacks in terms of results if the mentality and play on the pitch is improved. With the shit Kenwright has put you blueshite through, and the fact you've now actually got financial weight + the ridiculous prem TV money, it's definitely justifiable to demand more ambition than you've seen from your club in the last 3 decades.

I agree with you. But I don't think they'll all be massive signings or anything, I think we'll get 2-3 big money signings and then a couple of squad players with room to grow into first team players (like we did with Andy Robertson). It's also pretty important for us to get rid of Sturridge, I think. That's a lot of wages for a player that I think at the top level, is most likely done. I think it's time for a less physical league if he wants to keep playing. But assuming everybody else at the club stays, other than Sturridge and Can, here's how I'd like our summer to go. I think a CM and CB are the two biggest priorities. The rumours of Jorginho are, imo, the best possible fit for what we need in a replacement for Emre Can that I really hope they are true. He'd be a signing that fits in with the way we play perfectly and his strengths are many of our current midfielders weaknesses. And with him, Naby Keita and then 1 of our current crop of midfielders... and that's a markedly improved midfield's to this seasons on paper. De Vrij as a CB I already stated my preference for. He's just a very solid defender, who's already familiar with playing alongside Van Dijk. And if we get him, then I think whoever we sign as a GK should ultimately be signed as a competent backup (i.e., not someone totally shite as a backup, someone we wouldn't feel horrified to have to play would be nice) to Karius (who I think has looked like a totally different keeper with Van Dijk in front of him, and one that's suited for the way Klopp likes us to defend - I'd rather try to develop him further than waste money, if possible). And then for me, the biggest thing would then be improving on a backup to Bobby. Because I like Ings a lot, but I don't think we'd want to be relying on him for an extended period of time if Firmino gets injured. I'd like someone like Ben Yedder... but that's not gonna happen lol. "Excuse me, Mr. Good striker who'll probably be highly sought after.... would you like to sit on the bench for us most of the time?" It's kind of hard to predict who'd be a good striker to essentially be second choice most of the time (although I imagine they'd be thrown on more than Ings if they're substantially better). Players that are more proven generally won't want that kind of role, younger players that are on the cusp of being established can have their development through lack of time on the pitch, bringing in a veteran who'd be willing to shoulder responsibility also comes with the risk of that player being totally passed it. I actually don't think right back is a major priority though. TAA is raw, but he's still got a hell of a lot of potential. Same with Gomez. They make mistakes, but there's plenty of promise to the way they've performed this season - they've not shown themselves to be totally shite, so they deserve to still have their chances. But if Clyne looks a shadow of himself on his return, then right back might jump up the list of priorities. But if he's back to being Mr. Reliable for us, then I'm okay with the fact he's not the best going forward. He still makes the right runs and creates width, even if his crossing is dogshit - he was an underrated player for us before his injury. I hope he's the same player after the long layoff. But if nobody leaves us and we make some improvements, particularly at CM and CB... and considering that Keita is still on the way... we should be looking a lot better on paper. How a team looks on paper doesn't mean a thing, especially when it comes to guessing about new signings - but it's nice to see us actually be in a position to sign our top players and actually make tangible progress after years of stagnating/going backwards.

I agree 100%. Lovren's I think had a (marginally) better season than Matip... but he's still had some HUGE blunders that have been costly. Matip's fitness problems are pretty poor too, and I think while he had a good start to his Liverpool career each time he comes back from a spell out on the physio table... he's a bit worse each time. Maybe that's a match fitness issue or a confidence issue - but it is something I've noticed. I'd like Van Dijk to be paired with another Dutchman... Stefan de Vrij from Lazio.

A group of meerkats riding crows is called a mob of murderers.

A group of meerkats is called a mob.

His movement is just very poor for a striker at the top level. He is lazy and he doesn't make runs, or doesn't make too many useful runs that either get him open in the box or have a defender tracking him and opening up space for someone else. And to make matters worse, he's definitely a confidence player - where when he's in form he'll look pretty great, but when he's out of form you can expect things like missing simple tap ins routinely or just silly unforced errors. He's just not well rounded enough to be asked to play as a more mobile target man, he's just not got the right work ethic and/or football intelligence. He needs to be leading the line as a simple, old-school target man who's not asked or expected to move around too much. And when he's in form, he's above average at that. But he's not a top striker because of his obvious limitations and the fact that he needs to be in a more limited system to succeed. It is hindsight... but yeah, he should have stayed at Villa. They needed his goals to stay up and their attack was focused around him and making him successful - without him they looked like total dogshit. And he never fit in with us at all... it was actually a very strange signing for a Rodgers side, as the good season we had under Rodgers involved our strikers providing constant dangerous movement. Benteke offered a much more static attack from us. And looking at how Klopp has us play and how he likes hard working strikers that move around a shitload and aren't shy to drop deep or wide to let our wingers run play off the last defender... it's no surprise he didn't have much time for Benteke. And I think you're right about his struggles this season, compared to his form last season, where if you ask him to do too much... you'll see these kind of performances from him. But if you change the system too much to fit the more old school approach that he's proven he can succeed in... you run the risk of just getting left behind with your old tactics as modern football progresses.

When one billion isn't enough, better spend a billion more... Mourinho's a real tactician: park the bus and empty the bank

makes me like it more knowing that he doesn't like it.

@Cannabis

Yeah absolutely. It's still very early days, but I'd say it's about 50-50 whether any given random you'll come across will actually communicate. The game playing solo or playing with randoms that aren't doing anything is a really shallow experience and nowhere near as fun as when you've got a group of mates or people who'll actually coordinate with you. The highlights of this game are the varied human interactions you can possibly have with the other people in other ships. Whether it's stealing from them, helping them with a raid, or just jumping on their ship and drawing a dick on their map. So if the community has too many people that aren't grouping up and coordinating... the game won't thrive. I'm enjoying the fuck out of it though.

Yeah, I've had a mixed experience with playing with some randoms. Some are really good, some are dogshit. I mostly play with people I hang out with all the time, and we're usually in a group of 4 so for us it's been excellent. And when we've had to bring in a random, it's been 50-50 if we're going to get someone who communicates or if we're going to get someone useless (that we then vote to the brig and tell to fuck off lol). I agree, I was disappointed to learn that stealing a ship was something we couldn't really do. I also feel like the absence of merchants/fishing vessels means we can't do some vintage piracy on the high seas - when you see a ship, you'll know it's another pirate ship. NPC ships would have been very cool. But I do steal loot from ships all the time, the method my friends and I do is keeping 2 people on the ship to fire cannons and keep the other pirates from hopping on board, then 2 people going on board the other ship, one to grab chests and one to drop the anchor and generally fuck with the other team. If anyone dies off the ship, when they respawn they'll rotate to the ship duties and someone on the ship will jump onto the ship (usually with a powder keg if we've got one) and try to swap a chest for a powder keg and sink the ship. By the time it goes down, you should have lifted a few of their chests. And if they've got a lot of them, they'll be in the water after it's sunk too - so if you kill them off quickly and have them sunk, you've got a bit before they'll come back for you. Last night we went on one of those raids, with 2 other pirate crews. And while the raid was short, the aftermath of us grabbing the key and high tailing it the fuck out of there to come back to get the loot later took us 4 fucking hours. 2 ships chasing after us, countless naval battles, lying over the voice chat to strangers that we don't have they key, and some good use of having someone hide on an island with a key at the very end... made for a pretty fun night last night.

I'd agree with all of that. I think he's a good player, but I think some of the praise is just over the top a bit. But I don't get annoyed when people compare him to Messi or Ronaldo because that's just funny. This season he's definitely played like he wants out.

I guess I must have missed that.

"If every American carried a bomb, we could protect ourselves against bombings." - The NRA.

I was following my own advice with the anchor on the sloop and I ended up marooning myself on an island because I didn't realize my ship would keep sailing - then when I took the mermaid back to my ship it was sinking and there was a crew of 4 on my ship who immediately killed me. Lesson learned.

@Cannabis with the sloop, I guess they've changed it so you cant raise the sails and straighten out to stop moving. Must be because it's lighter, so you'll have to drop anchor on that. Learned that last night.

to that last bit, that's hilarious. Yeah I'm also hopeful they'll add more stuff - the good thing is what little content there is right now is enjoyable. And what's kept things fresh is the interactions you have with the people playing the game that aren't in your crew. I got to grips with the game because I played the Alpha & the Betas, my friends and I have a brief bit more familiarity with bits of the game (like raising the sails & straightening out the wheel over using the anchor). If you ever want to have a bit of a laugh, get a powder keg and bring it to an outpost. Then leave the powder keg around one of the 3 people that give you voyages & the rewards for completing them. Then wait around for people to bring their shit back to turn in for gold and blow the powder keg up... & turn in their chests/animals/skulls and laugh. The explosion can kill the chickens and piggies though, unfortunately... so there's a chance you won't get any cash from doing that. But it's still a funny thing you can do.

There are 3 people you can buy voyages from. The Gold Hoarder guy in a tent, the Merchants Guilds on the docks, and the group I forget the name of buy I remember it's got something to do with Souls. I want to say Book of Souls, but that's Iron Maiden. The gold hoarder voyages are the ones that tell you to find a treasure chest, merchants want you to find pigs or chickens to bring back to them, and the souls quests are the ones where you go assassinate a dead pirate and bring his skull back. After you reach level 5 reputation for each of those groups, you'll be able to talk to the mysterious man at the taverns. I'm not level 5 in all groups, so I don't actually know what happens next. A little trick for viewing the map while you're on the boat, if you don't want to go under deck is to either, look down and behind the drivers wheel off the back of a sloop - that should give you a clear view of the map (particularly handy if you're on a sloop just by yourself) & on the galleon you can view the map from the deck through the grating above the map (it's a bit trickier). With a full galleon you might not need to use that little shortcut, but if you need 3 people manning the sails and someone steering for whatever reason When you're going to disembark onto an island, I recommend avoiding dropping your anchor whenever possible. When leave our ship behind as we go to an island, we generally only will drop the anchor if we've fucked up and are about to hit the island (or rocks around the island). Instead it's much easier to raise all of the sails (you can leave one down if you want to navigate to a particular part of the island, so you're still moving forward a bit but you get much more control over your turning radius) - when you've got all sails fully up and have the wheel dead centre (the controller should vibrate a bit on the right gold peg indicating your at dead center), the ship will stop. That means if you need to quickly get the fuck off an island, or escape a pirate ship that's scoped you out and coming straight for you there's no need to spend time raising the anchor. You can drop the sails, get people on the cannons, and get the fuck out of there. But that doesn't mean you'll never need the anchor. The anchor is really useful for doing some really sharp turns. You basically drop it and have to immediately raise it though - which isn't great with the sloops. I can't think of any other tips/stuff to help you get started off the top of my head right now - but if I discover more, I'll let you know

I've been playing Sea of Thieves with some friends from work - it's a blast with friends. There's not a whole lot of stuff to do in the world tbh, though they say they're going to add more - don't know if I would have been happy to pay full price for it, but I got the Xbox Game Pass because I could see myself buying 2 Microsoft Studios games this year so it's worth it imo. The most fun we've had in a game so far is fucking with a duo squad that attempted one of the raids. We rolled up on the raid island in our galleon and joined in the battle with the skeletons and in the final wave, the duo started attacking my crew (of 4). They killed 2 couple of us, and then I went back to our galleon with the other survivor and we grabbed the powder kegs we'd been hoarding & snuck onto their sloop. We filled the hull of their ship with the powder kegs, spaced out up to the stairs leading down to the hull so we could shoot it and make a chain reaction. We then jumped back onto the island to start killing the fuckers who killed our friends, while the other two respawned and sniped one of the powder kegs which created a pretty awesome explosion. We then ended up killing the skeleton that drops the key for the loot, killed those two fuckers, and got the entire treasure for ourselves to turn in at the nearest outpost. As we were leaving, the sloop came back for us to try to have their revenge. And we had a pretty cool sea battle and sunk the cunts again. And with game chat, you can chat shite to the people you're playing against. Fan-fucking-tastic experience, even with the limited content available right now. But it is very much dependent on 1.) having people to play, 2.) those people being fun to play video games with lol. There's a lot of people on the internet who are really hating on the game and Rare right now - and I think some of their complaints are valid. There really isn't a whole lot of content right now. Which doesn't mean it's not an enjoyable game, because I've had a lot of fun, but it's definitely a game that has the potential to disappoint solo players. The game has fantastic potential though. It's a great sandbox, it just doesn't have as many toys in the sandbox to play with. So right now the enjoyability of the game is pretty dependent on the community (as well as the crew you've got). Chances are, whenever I play, I'll be playing with the same crew of people I played with last night... so I think it'll be a great game for me. But I'm also hoping they add more to the game to help it unlock it's full potential.

I played Gears 4 multiplayer almost all weekend and I've gotten a lot better lol. It's a fun game online, I never played 2 or 3 online and I only played a bit of the original online. But I'm now enjoying Gears 4 now that I'm not routinely getting destroyed.

Being compared to Jeff Hanneman is definitely cool