RandoEFC

Yeah the Labour Party don't understand economics when it's the Tories who have had 9 years to serve us up stagnant economic growth, increased poverty, worse inequality, a downgraded credit rating, a weakening of the pound, the list goes on. They're both as bad as each other. I pray that we get a hung parliament on Thursday and that something mental happens like the Queen coming in and saying no more fucking elections for the next 5 years, you can sit in the House of Commons and find a way to run the country together like grown ups. Labour ministers gobbing off about Corbyn in private, Tory (probably Russian) bots spreading fake news on social media and the prime minister hiding in a fridge, what a sensational election campaign this has been on all sides. Literally every party looks worse by the day. Farage can't make his mind up on who to support, the SNP think now is the time to push for independence again, Labour could probably have won this election if they'd changed their leader, the Lib Dems had an open goal with campaigning as the party of Remain and have somehow managed to make no ground, and the Tories have resorted to Trumpian gutter tactics and hiding from scrutiny. I don't want any of these parties to win a majority so Thursday is about supporting everything Red, Yellow, Orange, Green and any other colour but Blue to stop the only majority that can happen. Have your second referendum, get Brexit done by chucking the cunt in the bin and try and restore some normality. Too bad all of this is a complete pipe dream but it would be lovely to see both of the major parties rip up their current blueprint. I used to groan during the days of thinking Labour and Conservative were two fairly similar shades of grey but this extremism on both sides is an awful lot worse.

Oh yeah, and Pereira has ruled himself out now.

Sounds like Emery might not actually be out of the frame. I saw too many similarities between Arsenal and Everton over the last 18 months to be enthused about that to be honest.

Kovac has been sacked though. You'd say Moyes going to Sociedad from Man Utd was weird but it happened because he stepped up, failed and stepped back down. Everton as a project are in a pretty similar place to what Frankfurt were before he had his success there. I imagine the finances are a bit different though. We are very "dross"like as a club over the past few years but I still maintain there's a huge amount of potential to work with. A manager who fancies himself as getting the best out of young, exciting players who still need a decent amount more guidance and confidence has to be laughing if they come and get to work with Holgate, Davies, Richarlison, Calvert-Lewin, Iwobi, Kean, potentially Jonjoe Kenny, who are all aged under 23, and then the likes of Digne, Mina, Gomes, Pickford, Bernard, who are all a bit older but you'd still say have their best years ahead of them. There are a lot of ingredients for a very exciting team there even if some of those mentioned will inevitably fail to reach their potential or be anything more than squad players in the long term.

Smacks of us trying to be too clever by going for a less obvious appointment. We were seriously linked with him after Moyes which would have been a Kenwright appointment so maybe he reckons it's still a goer. Back then though, Pereira was a Porto manager held in higher regard. He seems to have been involved in a series of calamities including 1860 Munich since then so yeah, it's a weird one. I don't know enough about him to be really annoyed about it either though.

Moyes has been unofficially ruled out by club sources, I suppose it's not impossible we go back there but Moshiri is aware that the fans would be appalled by his reappointment. Ferguson has essentially ruled himself out, Kovac, Emery and Benitez too. Sounds like it will be Pereira. Gallardo is the most popular choice in the Everton Twitter region and there have been reports that he has refused to commit to a new contract at River Plate, but there also hasn't been a serious approach from us as far as I have heard. Ancelotti's odds will probably shorten if he leaves Napoli which could be imminent, but I doubt he'd want to be jumping back into management in a different country within a matter of days, even if he was interested in giving it a bash which isn't guaranteed and arguably isn't particularly likely. More likely to enjoy his payoff for a few weeks if he does get the boot. Not sold on Howe, think he ends up going the same way as Martinez, an exciting young manager making the step up and not being able to emulate their success at a bigger club where they're less of a dominant cog. I like Wilder but let's see how he does over a full season in the Premier League before putting our eggs in that basket.

Yeah Bournemouth and Watford are the ones that I subconsciously associate the most with their rolling over and getting battered in the past 2 or 3 years. Then again, to be fair to Bournemouth, they beat Spurs and Man Utd over the past few months, and they seem to have beaten Chelsea once or twice as well off the top of my head. Then again again, both Spurs and United were inconsistent at best when they came up against them, so you're probably right, they are capable of beating the top teams when they aren't playing like top teams, but when they get beaten they really get beaten badly.

Not keen. Apparently he said something about improving his English before taking another job in the Premier League but I don't know if that's true or whether it was someone following on the Good Ebening wind up joke thing.

Also BBC hosted an Under 30s special of Question Time last night. You'd have to assume the point of this was for Under 30s to have their views represented on national television. Under 30s voted 73% to Remain in the referendum, but the BBC decided it would be more 'representative' to ensure that the crowd reflected the result of the referendum instead so just over half of the audience were Leave voters. What a great shame, as having an Under 30 Question Time was an opportunity for older viewers to hear about the under-represented views of younger people (my age group, incidentally) and to be exposed to the thoughts of the people who overwhelmingly want to stay in the European Union, and will also have to deal with the consequences to their lives and careers of Brexit and the next government more than anyone else. Those who have established careers, have already financially supported their offspring through the early stages of their lives and are probably home owners will probably be able to survive the economic shocks caused by Brexit without too many problems (until they need the health service anyway). Those of us still earning less than £30,000, renting or even living with parents with very little prospect for many of us to even think about being home-owners in the near future (thankfully I'm probably not quite in this boat but I'm in the minority), could probably do without the economic shocks and increased cost of living that pretty much every forecast of Brexit predicts. You like to think that a Question Time for Under 30s only would reflect some of the issues facing Under 30s and older viewers could get a greater insight into what their vote is inflicting upon their kids and grandkids. Instead you get just another Question Time but with Under 30s asking the same questions as the usual audience, with the same reactions, to create the illusion that this demographic is being fairly represented.

There's actually three Conservative MPs standing who are currently under investigation over anti-semitism themselves but I bet you didn't read that on the BBC or in the Telegraph. If you have Twitter, go and look up anything related to the hospital photo story. There are hundreds of bots online posting the exact same story about how "my sister is a nurse working at Leeds General hospital and this photograph was staged by the mother". Literally word for word the same post by a series of completely unrelated accounts. I don't have the exact wording but once again, welcome to the disinformation age spear-headed by the Conservative party and probably Russia. There was also furore last night that when the BBC Newsnight woman was speaking to Barry Gardiner from Labour she spent more time criticising Corbyn for "not making the NHS a priority in his campaigning" and justifying it "because he hasn't visited 10 hospitals during the campaign like Johnson has". How she decided this was a more pressing matter than senior Conservatives spreading lies to prominent journalists, and said journalists sharing these lies to millions on social media without checking that it was true first. Laura Kuenssberg is coming in for a lot of criticism and rightly so, with #sackkuenssberg trending on Twitter yet again last night. Some people actually call the BBC 'typical lefty BBC' sometimes. I imagine these must be the people who think the Sun, Telegraph and Mail are fair and balanced 'central' sources. If the Conservatives win a majority on Thursday then it's time I start distancing myself from UK politics again, because everything that's worrying me now is only going to get worse over the next 5 years. The Tories and their supporters will continue to hold a disproportionate influence over the flow of information in this country, in fact they will probably try and make it worse and succeed. The majority of the horror stories you hear about the NHS, public services and the increase in hate crimes stemming from Brexit and general white English bitterness and intolerance will come true, and to be honest, a country that votes for austerity for a fourth time, A FOURTH TIME, after seeing the mess this country has been left in over the last decade, is going to get what it deserves for allowing this to happen. I haven't given up hope that an influx of young voters and some tactical voting can make a difference and prevent the majority on Thursday, but it looks unlikely, and I'm very glad I no longer live in England. I will still be affected by most things over here as we're heavily dependent on the UK, but to a lesser extent than actual UK residents as we have our own government and contingencies over here.

Had to go full Brazilian here. Sagnol may be unlucky that Alves has been around for the majority of my time being aware of football outside the Premier League. Zambrotta vs Cafu is so difficult, but I went for Cafu. I think it's because of how much of a renowned individual player he is. The individual stock of those great Italian defenders arguably has the shine taken off it a tiny little bit because of the fact they were part of such a strong unit defensively, whereas the likes of Cafu and Alves have that bit extra flair which makes them stand out as top class in their own right, if that makes sense. I'm probably being unfair on Zambrotta but I have to justify a choice somehow.

The semi finals are here, will we see an all Brazilian final?

Yep, I went Cafu, Alves, Sagnol, and Zambrotta in the only marginal tie this time. Looks like we have a consensus across the board here. Can't see Salgado bagging another 6 votes without response to tie with Zambrotta. Semi finals incoming.

Next week: Liverpool v Watford (home win last season) Burnley v Newcastle (away win) Chelsea v Bournemouth (home win) Leicester v Norwich (N/A) Sheff Utd v Aston Villa (N/A) Southampton v West Ham (away win) Man United v Everton (home win) Wolves v Tottenham (away win) Arsenal v Man City (away win) Crystal Palace v Brighton (away win) No good news for those languishing further down the table. Watford have to get a result at Anfield to make any improvement this week, while Man City, West Ham and Tottenham all have to repeat tricky away wins merely to breakeven. Newcastle will have to repeat their win at Burnley from last season if they hope to retain second place ahead of Liverpool, unless the league leaders fail to secure three points at home to Watford. Newcastle may also be under threat from Everton and Burnley, who both lost their next fixtures last season and therefore have the opportunity to improve upon their scores of +5. Arsenal could break even on 0 points if they can take all three points against Manchester City. Wolves also have the chance to improve on their score of -6 if they can get a result at home against Tottenham. Leicester will extend their stay at the top on +11 for at least another week, with another 'dead rubber' against a newly-promoted side on the agenda. Palace and Brighton, both sat on +2, face off in the weekend's last fixture, where Brighton have to repeat their Selhurst Park success from last season just to stay alongside their rivals.

New standings: Leicester +11 Newcastle +7 Liverpool +6 Everton / Burnley +5 Brighton / Bournemouth / Crystal Palace / Man Utd +2 Chelsea / Southampton -1 Arsenal -3 Wolves -6 West Ham -7 Man City -8 Watford -10 Tottenham -14 - Leicester are the only team to face newly-promoted opponents this week so chilled out in the knowledge that their +11 differential remains untouched. - Everton's timely win over Chelsea maintains their +5 differential, while Chelsea stay negative and rooted in mid-table. - Liverpool and Bournemouth also as you were as the league leaders repeated their win at The Cherries. - Spurs at least retained their 3 points over Burnley from last season, evading a slip even further below -14. Burnley miss the chance to improve on their impressive score of +5. - Watford drop yet more points as they are only able to muster a draw at home to Crystal Palace. - Man City plummet to the bottom three, suffering a home defeat in the Manchester derby that they won last season. Solskjaer's men move back to a positive differential after back to back three point swings. - Newcastle's late win over Southampton sees them retain the three points from the corresponding fixture last season and keeps them in second place here. - Brighton drop a couple of points after failing to win at home to Wolves. The visitors continue their slow recovery with the extra point from Sunday's game moving them up to -6. - Arsenal's win at West Ham is a full three point turnaround from last year, halving their negative differential and inflicting serious damage on their opponents who drop down to -7 overall.