Relegation Battle

[LFCMike]

1 hour ago, Cannabis said:

 

Gone two steps further than them in Europe and won the thing for a start . But it doesn't fit the agenda so I guess we'll all pretend Leicester's history dwarfs Everton.

Everton won the Cup Winners Cup, not the European Cup. Of course their whole history doesn't but the last 25 years or so does because they've actually won stuff

[RandoEFC+]

@HK85 @Cannabis just accept it boys. Everton were briefly near the relegation zone in the first half of the season so now we're no different to Stoke or West Brom.

[Honey Honey]

I think 2 from Stoke, Southampton, Huddersfield and Swansea will go. Palace will be ok, 37 points should be enough to stay up.

[Stan]

On 08/02/2018 at 10:58, Stan said:

ridiculously tight relegation battle as expected.

Somehow have Everton finishing that high  

 

nearly 2 months since this was done.

An update with the remaining games...

[Rafa Beneathus]

I'm not going to jinx it but surely we are safe now?

Would require 7 defeats to see us in trouble and the way we are playing at the moment surely that won't happen. Only Man City and Liverpool have beaten us since Christmas. In saying that I can't see us getting anything on Saturday.

Southampton look fucked with their run in.

[Dan+]

West Brom for me are gone.

Stoke aren't far off, but still have chances to recover it.

Southampton just aren't pulling away. I really am starting to think it might be them after all.

[Stan]

29 minutes ago, Any O'Brien said:

I'm not going to jinx it but surely we are safe now?

Would require 7 defeats to see us in trouble and the way we are playing at the moment surely that won't happen. Only Man City and Liverpool have beaten us since Christmas. In saying that I can't see us getting anything on Saturday.

Southampton look fucked with their run in.

welcome to TF365 @Any O'Brien 

Think next Saturday will go the way of the game a couple of seasons ago - very tight game settled by one goal. 

[Dave]

21 minutes ago, Dan said:

West Brom for me are gone.

Stoke aren't far off, but still have chances to recover it.

Southampton just aren't pulling away. I really am starting to think it might be them after all.

I agree with this. Southampton have difficult fixtures and The FA Cup to contest with.

[Dave]

4 minutes ago, Cannabis said:

The FA Cup will be treated as a bit of a dead rubber though, no?

That attitude is why Wigan have more success in the Cup than Everton 

[Dave]

Football is about memories, not finishing seventh.

[Stan]

4 minutes ago, Cannabis said:

We have memories and have been the longest serving club in the Premier League. The objective is to be the best and we've consistently played in the top flight of English football amongst the best. Much better than yo-yoing around like some clubs do, it's a pointless existence being stuck in the lower leagues.

sadly no medals for that.

 

[Stan]

Was talking about Premier League only, as was the topic . 

It's all well and good being in the Premier League since its existence. Congratulations. But what does that actually mean in the grand scheme of things  ? 

[Lucas]

Entertaining read back lads.

Have to hand it to @Smiley Culture, he has rattled the Toffee's a little here. They won't like it but he has.

[Dan+]

2 hours ago, Any O'Brien said:

I'm not going to jinx it but surely we are safe now?

Would require 7 defeats to see us in trouble and the way we are playing at the moment surely that won't happen. Only Man City and Liverpool have beaten us since Christmas. In saying that I can't see us getting anything on Saturday.

Southampton look fucked with their run in.

I could totally see you coming here and getting a draw. I think the way teams set up actually helps us away from home rather than at home. We'll play right into your hands. You'll sit back and we'll struggle to pick you off, is what I can see happening. We've not won at home in a while.

Will be amazed if you drop.

[Smiley Culture]

28 minutes ago, Cannabis said:

Oh definitely. 

Wish I supported Orient instead, now that's a proper club.

Done as much in the Premier League as you, soft lad. 

[Dan+]

If Everton's objective is to be the best then something's gone horribly wrong for pretty much my lifetime.

[Smiley Culture]

41 minutes ago, Cannabis said:

We have memories and have been the longest serving club in the Premier League. The objective is to be the best and we've consistently played in the top flight of English football amongst the best. Much better than yo-yoing around like some clubs do, it's a pointless existence being stuck in the lower leagues.

Exactly my point. Add another year on the banners round Goodison, Everton have stayed in the Premier League again. 

[Dan+]

Just now, Cannabis said:

Other than the cup win what have you done? 

Erm, let me wonder...

[Smiley Culture]

3 minutes ago, Cannabis said:

Hahahahaha .

Not even in the 72.

Good at Maths, you. 

 

[Dan+]

Everton haven't won a trophy in 23 years. You can't go too overboard about clubs doing 'nothing' in this league, and certainly not us.

Better history than us? Yep. Better average league finish than us? Yep. Better last 20 years in terms of trophies? Not a prayer.

[Smiley Culture]

Just now, Cannabis said:

Whereas you don't seem to be the best at, English.

Ha. 

But hey, besides personal insults, which lets be honest, I’ve heard before and weren’t original back in the 90’s, you’ve presented the same argument as me as to why Everton are an example of a ‘nothing Premier League club’. 

If having a banner that says you’ve been in the Premier League since before Tony Blair was murdering Iraqi children and winning as many trophies as Swansea, Middlesbrough, Portsmouth and Wigan Athletic in the past 25 years is good enough for you, great. But you calling out sides for offering little to the Premier League when your club offers just as little is rich. 

Wasn’t even fishing here btw, I like Everton, my grandad was an Evertonian. 

[Dan+]

5 minutes ago, Cannabis said:

It wasn't me that brought it up . I just find it amusing how fans of Leicester, Crystal Palace and Leyton Orient can snigger at Everton whilst boasting next to fuck all themselves. Historically, Everton dwarf all three.

Any sniggering at Everton I did was brought upon yourself. You keep stressing this point about Everton dwarfing everyone else as if there's any reason to doubt it. Could that reason be, in-fact, that Everton have done fuck all for a long time?

[RandoEFC+]

It used to be mildly amusing seeing people trying to argue that Everton are somehow on a par with the likes of Stoke and West Brom but now I'm getting worried that some of them actually think that.

The highlight of those clubs recent histories is finishing in the top half which Everton do every year. Here we go, tell me there's no medals for finishing consistently in the top half. No there isn't but there's also no medals for being boring yoyo clubs aside from the off Playoff final medal but anyone who wants to pretend that that's worth more than just staying in the Premier League in the first place needs to go and give themselves a slap or two.

Love how people like to try and measure everything by trophies too. So what Wigan won an FA Cup. Congratulations on that and getting relegated to League 1 within three years. Swansea have also won a League Cup in recent memory. The question is, are either of those sides more likely to win another major trophy next season than Everton? No.

The same arguments could be made about Liverpool and Tottenham. Liverpool have won one League Cup in the second half of my life and Spurs have won something like two League Cups in twenty five years? Their fans could say yeah well we've finished top four in 7 of the last 10 seasons or whatever and people could go yeah well there's no medals for doing that, like they used to do to Arsenal until they won three FA Cups in four years.

Winning trophies is the most important thing in football but doing so doesn't automatically make you better than any team who hasn't won a trophy since you last did.

As for teams offering something to the league, I've gone on about this a lot because the amount of stale shite in the bottom 14 teams has gotten excruciating.

Trying to be neutral, Everton haven't offered that much to the league in terms of really upsetting the apple cart but to expect us to have done that is pretty unrealistic. We still finished 5th three seasons ago, we still have an academy churning out at least one England international every few years and I think most people agree we still have some character as a club even if right now it's at an all time low for my lifetime.

Leicester have recently won the league and remain capable of upsetting the big teams, they still have something about them in general and I'd say they've got plenty to offer.

Burnley have developed themselves well, offer a pretty unique challenge at the moment as one of the only reasonably well organised teams outside the top six and have earnt their place for the next couple of years.

Newcastle are a huge club who shouldn't be operating under the conditions that they are. I'm glad they look likely to stay up.

Huddersfield and Brighton are hard to distinguish from the rest of the bottom half right now but they're newcomers to the league and deserve a chance to show what they're about so I'd be disappointing to see either drop just yet.

West Ham I don't like at all and I'd laugh if they went down but at the same time I think they have potential to get back into the top half if they can sort out the huge issues they've got going on. They're not at the top of my list for teams who need to fuck off.

I may be biased in setting Palace apart from the others I'm about to lay into but I hope they stay up. They have entertainment value in the way they play, the talent of Zaha etc. and the atmosphere at Selhurst Park.

Bournemouth have gotten boring for me. They don't seem to do much besides be involved in a load of high scoring, disorganised matches that could go either way and get enough points on the board by the law of averages to finish 14th.

Watford have become one of my biggest pet hates. Aside from Troy Deeney that club is literally just an assortment of random obscure players and managers coming in and out of the revolving doors. Really don't get their direction, especially now that they've sacked Marco Silva.

Swansea I'd agree with what others have said this season, they've lost their identity as a club and have been in a downward spiral since Laudrup replaced Rodgers. They tried to get back to what they were with Monk but it didn't work. Looks like they've lucked out of it this season.

Southampton used to be impressive in that they'd have their manager poached but replace him well and no matter how many players they lost there always seemed to be enough to replace them from the transfer market and the academy. They obviously have potential as a club as evidenced by their recent top half finishes, but this season they got the appointment wrong and the talent well seems to look a bit sparse for the first time in a while. This is what will always eventually happen though if the model by which you run your club is to sell your first team players so often.

West Brom are the definition of stake, less said about them the better.

Stoke are West Brom but with slightly more quality in the form of Shaqiri.

Hopefully Stoke and West Brom get flushed with any one of Southampton, Bournemouth or Swansea joining them.

[Rafa Beneathus]

4 hours ago, Dan said:

I could totally see you coming here and getting a draw. I think the way teams set up actually helps us away from home rather than at home. We'll play right into your hands. You'll sit back and we'll struggle to pick you off, is what I can see happening. We've not won at home in a while.

Will be amazed if you drop.

We have a shocking record at your place and you tore us to shreds up here. Second most impressive side I've seen here this season.

We have been picking up points on the road this season (and last) that you wouldn't normally expect us to get so you never know.

I am excited for our future if Rafa stays and Ashley backs him/fucks off.

[Dave]

9 hours ago, Cannabis said:

Got plenty of those too. A club that dwarf Walkers Crisps FC.

They're not stories you can tell your Grandchildren about though, as they were so far back you weren't around to experience it. 

Everybody has a different perspective to what matters but to me personally I would rather have a cup final and yo yo between league's as it's more exciting than being consistently 6/10 for decades on end.