LFCMike

19 hours ago, Stan said:

Bebe's goal for Cape Verde is ridiculous. 

Ridiculous as in the goalkeeping?

From Saudi to Amsterdam, where getting stoned means completely different things

45 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

That post claims that Everton's PSR problems are because of their overspending on the squad but given that Everton have the 3rd lowest net spend in the league over this period of time, how does this claim even get off the ground?

I don't know how people have the energy to dig into all these numbers to be honest. Nobody can "prove" anything at this point because it's going to come down to the interpretation of the rules by the appeal panel.

Personally, I'm not going to pretend to understand the stadium loan and interest issue. I think the club are making valid points but my social feeds are obviously going to be skewed. The people who ran the club are twats and it's a case of "don't give the referee a decision to make" isn't it.

If the club is guilty and the first breach was indeed by £20m then fine. This stadium discourse is dominating the debate right now. It'll be something else in a couple of days when someone uncovers some other minor rule change or some loophole that another club has been allowed to exploit when we haven't, but I think the overriding issues I and most Everton fans are pointing out are:

1) 10 points is still excessive for a breach of £20m with all the mitigating factors that they couldn't have planned for (e.g. loss of sponsorship and stadium funding due to Usmanov sanctions) and have done their best to compensate for. Especially when it's been plucked out of thin air with no sanctions policy in place beforehand.

2) If we're getting done for 2019-2022 (with such a harsh penalty) then it just seems incredibly harsh and unfair for us to get done for 2020-2023. It's double jeopardy.

3) This emerging media narrative that fans aren't allowed to be angry at the Premier League because it's the club's own fault. The fans have been protesting the ownership for about 3 years and the media didn't exactly give us much coverage. They actually gave our board (Kenwright specifically) more positive coverage than negative while they were systematically crippling the football club. The fans kept going until Moshiri had no chance but to sack the old board and he's agreed to sell up so concentrating on him at this point is about as useful as protesting against Margaret Thatcher outside Downing Street. We're well within our rights to direct our ire at the Premier League. 

Presumably because the club were still spending money on players that took them over the threshold for the three year period. 

I don't disagree that the points deduction seems excessive but it does seem that Everton have falsified their statement to the Premier League about what that loan was for. I'm not sure how they win an appeal based on that, maybe they'll get a slight reduction at best.

On the stadium thing, which I think a lot of this hangs on, if I'm not mistaken, the PL's case is that a loan Everton received was not for stadium costs. Everton are now insisting it was but at the time there's no evidence of that. The below does a much better job of explaining it than I ever could

16 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Yes & Robertson should be back around the time AFCON is over. Kostas should be back by the end of the month. So as a signing to address our depth at LB, he wouldn’t even be available while the LBs are out.

I suppose the worry is at the moment Gomez is playing LB & is also the number one understudy to Trent, and is our first choice CB to fill in if we get any CB injuries. And he’s got a bad history of bad injuries himself.

The only way I see this happening is if he’s been identified as the long time successor to Robertson and the club’s decided it needs to move earlier than expected because of Arsenal’s interest. I think that’s how we got Diaz while Mane was still here.

He’s a good player and if the club feels Robertson’s time at the top might be coming to an end soon, I wouldn’t mind the transfer at all. But I doubt they feel that’s the case. And we’ve had Kostas and Gomez both look strong at LB this year - so I doubt it’s a serious consideration.

I imagine our next big money signing will be a CB, I dunno why.

Yeah I can imagine that the club would be looking ahead to a time when a Robertson replacement is needed but I don't think it's a pressing issue yet. 

I agree on a CB, although the noise from Klopp after Matip's injury suggested he might get a new deal, so who knows. People have mentioned a 6 too but I think they'll look at how well Endo has done and also not want to block the pathway for Bajcetic as he's potentially a long term solution there

11 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Doubt we’re interested

Didn't Tsimikas only recently sign a new deal?

He's managed to grow the game in Saudi in just 6 months, fair play 

I don't see Newcastle going for him if they were to get rid of Howe. They seem to have been quite sensible in their recruitment in that they haven't gone for big names who wouldn't be the right fit. 

In fact, would any of the current PL top 10 go anywhere near him now? 

The 3 year cycle thing shouldn't have come as a surprise should it? PL clubs would have voted on that rule when it was introduced

Smith was never beating Beterbiev even at his best but I feel he'd have given a better showing of himself had he not been so inactive. His career seems to have stalled a little since the Groves win 

7 minutes ago, Bluebird Hewitt said:

Salah currently struggling against the might of Mozambique. 

A group stage exit would be ideal

I've not watched much boxing recently, still follow any news/results etc but I think I'll get up for the Beterbiev v Smith fight later. Should be a good. 

3 hours ago, Storts said:

This is nonsense. Don’t you dare include us in this. We get ridiculed but we’ve done everything well in terms of growing the club organically. We built a new stadium at a huge cost to increase revenue and thus increase our spending power. Our growth financially has been over two decades and we are an example for any of the clubs mentioned previously of how to do things properly. Arsenal are the same. 
 

We’ve been massively fucked over because of Chelsea initially and then City coming in with their unlimited funds and struggling to compete with our sensible financial and growth model. The state run model should not exist and FFP is doing its job properly not allowing them to instantly buy their way to the top because they have unlimited resources, and from a very dodgy source at that.

 

The Blues mention the 'big 6' clubs so they can make it about Liverpool. That's all.

Are any of the other 14 backing Everton over their charge? I'd be surprised.

10 minutes ago, Stan said:

Happy that Luton equalised but Burnley's keeper has clearly been blocked there by the other Luton player. 

Most other games that's called a foul so it's the lack of consistency rearing it's head again. 

You're never going to get consistentcy over what are subjective decisions. I thought it was probably a foul but don't think it was enough of one to over turn the original decision. 

44 minutes ago, Michael said:

This is exactly the point that I wanted to make. The reason that Keegan is pretty much forgotten by a lot of people, is much less to do with the fact he didn't play in the 1990s or play in the Premier League. Because Bobby Charlton was much older than Keegan, but he was always regarded as an English footballing legend, arguably our best ever player. It's more to do with the fact that Keegan played at a time when the England national team of the 1970's were quite frankly a bit shit. We failed to qualify for both the 1974 and 1978 World Cups, as well as the 1976 Euros. Keegan only ever played in 2 international tournaments for England, namely the 1980 Euros and the 1982 World Cup. In the former tournament, England failed to even qualify from their group. Although Keegan played in both of these tournaments for England, he failed to score a single goal. I think shining for England and playing well at a major international tournament for England, goes a long way in helping a player gain that legend status. 

Keegan was no doubt an excellent player at club level, where he achieved a heck of a lot of accolades. But it's clear to me, that his lack of success with England is one of the major reasons people tend to forget him when thinking of the great England players through the generations. Although I am too young to have watched him live, I know many of the older people in my family who rave about how good Keegan was as a player. Some of the Youtube clips I've watched of him also seem to confirm how talented he was. He should definitely be classed as one of England's best ever players. 

Keegan only made one substitute appearance in that World Cup due to injury

1 hour ago, Lucas said:

Got to say, I generslly try to think the first two players thst come to mind. Not always the best, but generslly good, probably more iconic.

When I think of Brazil, it's 100% Fat Ronaldo. Absolute phenominan. And that's even over Rivaldo and Ronaldinho. Pure magic. He'd always be my pick over Garrincha.

Chile for me has to contain one of either Marcelo Salas or Ivan Zamorano, maybe even both?

Germany would contain Jurgen Klinsmann or Lother Matthaus over Kroos, easy.

England would contain either Gary Lineker or Alan Shearer instead of Keegan for me.

France would be Zinedine Zidane over Mbappe, easily.

Italy I'd swap Baggio for Dino Zoff or Buffon I think, as much as I love Baggio. The other two are just more iconic, especially for the position they play too. 

 

A few I've not seen mentioned that spring to mind for me...

Belgium

Enzo Scifo and Kevin De Bruyne.

Czech Republic

Karel Poborsky and Paolo Nedved

Romania

Georghi Hagi and Gheorghe Popescu

Bulgaria

Hristo Stoichkov and Dimitar Berbatov

Denmark

Michael Laudrup and Peter Schmeichel

Sweden

Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrick Larsson

Switzerland

Xerdhan Shaqiri and Stephane Chapuisat

Cameroon

Roger Milla and Samuel Eto'o

Senegal

El-Hadji Diouf and Papa Bouba Diop

Ghana

Tony Yeboah and Sammy Kuffour

 

Chile for me would be Salas and Zamorano too. Maybe because the 98 World Cup is the first tournament I remember properly and remember Salas scoring that brilliant volley against England at Wembley before that tournament. 

8 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Really? I think from the outside looking in, I've got more confidence in your squad to get results than I've got in Chelsea's squad. And a part of that is while I think some United players look like they're checked out at times... while I've not watched a lot of Chelsea this season, when I see them I just think they look so carefree and unmotivated. I think the long contracts they've given to some of their newer, younger, and more expensive signings have kind of had the opposite effect those at Chelsea thought it might give them. I think they've inadvertently loaded up on players who now think they've got it made and can just sit back for the next 7 years or so.

I was thinking this too. Putting so many players on 7, 8 year contracts can't help with motivation and must take some sort of edge off. Could end up with a few Winston Bogarde's there

Someone forgot they weren't logged into their other account 

Get Gakpo and Jones doing the post match interview after every game

13 minutes ago, Rick said:

I’ve been incredibly impressed with Bradley. 

Yeah played really well. 

Nunez was excellent when he came on as well. 

I think I'd get Nunez or Gakpo for Gravenberch and move Elliott back into midfield. That right hand side just hasn't worked. 

David Coote is diabolical 

That's embarrassing that. Just as embarrassing that the referee fell for the act to think it deserved a booking