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A lot of fallout from Sunday's defeat it seems. Yesterday there were screenshots going round of Delph replying to multiple Everton fans on Instagram, insulting them and saying he never gives anything less than 100% on the pitch. First of all, I don't agree with dealing with the disappointment of a result like that by going on social media and sending messages to players but if the messages are genuine then it's extremely unprofessional from Delph to entertain replying to the fans because it just makes the whole thing into a bigger issue about whether the players have any respect for the support at all. I mean this is a guy we brought in with a reputation for being a great leader and a voice within the dressing room. All signings will get some time to bed in but all we've seen from Delph so far has been injury and mediocrity and twice swearing at his team-mates on the pitch. Not exactly a good foundation to be giving it back to fans who are upset with how the team are performing.

Everton's tragic second half performance didn't go unnoticed by people outside the Everton bubble, but what hasn't been mentioned much outside of our fanbase was the fact that Djibril Sidibe was the only player (who ironically isn't even our's) who came over to the fans at the end. Holgate apparently turned and applauded from the sidelines, the rest of the spineless shithouses were straight down the tunnel. I get that we have had a lot of criticism about the atmosphere at Goodison over the past few years. People say that if the fans get behind the team then maybe our fortunes will improve. It's just first-rate lazy commentary from people who watch us play once every two months and have no idea of the wider context. Well I say it's time for the players and the club to get behind our fans. Everton fans have given everything to this club for the last 20 years and been paid back with nothing. The highlight of my Everton-supporting career is an FA Cup semi-final win on penalties against a weakened Man Utd side that were going for the "quadruple". Even as a part-time Cambridge United fan I've seen them win the FA Trophy and a play-off final. I can't imagine that apart from possibly Leeds, any other club in the country has been promised more and under-delivered more significantly for their fans over the last couple of decades than Everton.

Is there really anything worse you can deliver to your 8,000 travelling fans in the space of 90 minutes than defeat against what was essentially the under 23 team of your most bitter rivals? Liverpool under 23s have been beaten by Everton under 23s this season (or maybe late last season, I forget), the point being that these youngsters that turned up for Liverpool have suffered defeat to Everton youth squads recently, yet managed to defeat the first team. It simply isn't acceptable and the fact that none of our senior players can come over to the fans and face what they've just inflicted against all of the Blues who have to go to work and school the next day getting pelters from their Red mates and colleagues simply isn't acceptable. We're talking a whole new level compared to just performing badly.

It gets worse though, today I've read an article that really boiled my piss. Apparently before Ancelotti got back to the dressing room Ferguson had them in there reading the riot act for their second half performance for 25 minutes and "senior players" had the gall to stand up to him and claim they'd given 100% in the second half. If this is true it's further evidence that these players simply have no understanding what's required to achieve a modicum of success in top-level football. Honestly, if that's the attitude of some of our senior players, I'd bin them off immediately. They can train with the youth team from now on until they do one. Schneiderlin, Sigurdsson, Walcott, Coleman, Delph aren't going to be part of any Everton side that can be taken seriously in 3-5 years time (because that's the minimum amount of time that it'll take) and we're out of both competitions this season, I honestly don't see the point anymore in putting them out on the pitch. Usually this is a lazy, knee-jerk shout from angry fans "the kids can't do any worse than the senior squad" but in this case, for those positions, I think it's justified.

It's never been more clear that the club's "gone rotten" than it is now. More recruitment isn't the answer anymore. This group of players needs absolutely gutting. We've got part of the way there by phasing out the likes of Ashley Williams, Kevin Mirallas, Yannick Bolasie, it looks like Cenk Tosun is about to follow, but I can't actually look at any of the senior players inherited by Silva and Brands, aside from Pickford and Michael Keane (as a squad player), that have any hope of being a part of what we want to achieve going forwards. Anyone in the backroom staff that has in any way enabled the development of this attitude within the squad need clearing out as well. Apparently Ancelotti and the staff that have come with him were absolutely shocked at the players daring to bite back against the criticism Ferguson dished out after the game, so hopefully they have learned enough about what they're working with to make the big decisions that the previous four managers have failed to make.

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6 hours ago, RandoEFC said:

A lot of fallout from Sunday's defeat it seems. Yesterday there were screenshots going round of Delph replying to multiple Everton fans on Instagram, insulting them and saying he never gives anything less than 100% on the pitch. First of all, I don't agree with dealing with the disappointment of a result like that by going on social media and sending messages to players but if the messages are genuine then it's extremely unprofessional from Delph to entertain replying to the fans because it just makes the whole thing into a bigger issue about whether the players have any respect for the support at all. I mean this is a guy we brought in with a reputation for being a great leader and a voice within the dressing room. All signings will get some time to bed in but all we've seen from Delph so far has been injury and mediocrity and twice swearing at his team-mates on the pitch. Not exactly a good foundation to be giving it back to fans who are upset with how the team are performing.

Everton's tragic second half performance didn't go unnoticed by people outside the Everton bubble, but what hasn't been mentioned much outside of our fanbase was the fact that Djibril Sidibe was the only player (who ironically isn't even our's) who came over to the fans at the end. Holgate apparently turned and applauded from the sidelines, the rest of the spineless shithouses were straight down the tunnel. I get that we have had a lot of criticism about the atmosphere at Goodison over the past few years. People say that if the fans get behind the team then maybe our fortunes will improve. It's just first-rate lazy commentary from people who watch us play once every two months and have no idea of the wider context. Well I say it's time for the players and the club to get behind our fans. Everton fans have given everything to this club for the last 20 years and been paid back with nothing. The highlight of my Everton-supporting career is an FA Cup semi-final win on penalties against a weakened Man Utd side that were going for the "quadruple". Even as a part-time Cambridge United fan I've seen them win the FA Trophy and a play-off final. I can't imagine that apart from possibly Leeds, any other club in the country has been promised more and under-delivered more significantly for their fans over the last couple of decades than Everton.

Is there really anything worse you can deliver to your 8,000 travelling fans in the space of 90 minutes than defeat against what was essentially the under 23 team of your most bitter rivals? Liverpool under 23s have been beaten by Everton under 23s this season (or maybe late last season, I forget), the point being that these youngsters that turned up for Liverpool have suffered defeat to Everton youth squads recently, yet managed to defeat the first team. It simply isn't acceptable and the fact that none of our senior players can come over to the fans and face what they've just inflicted against all of the Blues who have to go to work and school the next day getting pelters from their Red mates and colleagues simply isn't acceptable. We're talking a whole new level compared to just performing badly.

It gets worse though, today I've read an article that really boiled my piss. Apparently before Ancelotti got back to the dressing room Ferguson had them in there reading the riot act for their second half performance for 25 minutes and "senior players" had the gall to stand up to him and claim they'd given 100% in the second half. If this is true it's further evidence that these players simply have no understanding what's required to achieve a modicum of success in top-level football. Honestly, if that's the attitude of some of our senior players, I'd bin them off immediately. They can train with the youth team from now on until they do one. Schneiderlin, Sigurdsson, Walcott, Coleman, Delph aren't going to be part of any Everton side that can be taken seriously in 3-5 years time (because that's the minimum amount of time that it'll take) and we're out of both competitions this season, I honestly don't see the point anymore in putting them out on the pitch. Usually this is a lazy, knee-jerk shout from angry fans "the kids can't do any worse than the senior squad" but in this case, for those positions, I think it's justified.

It's never been more clear that the club's "gone rotten" than it is now. More recruitment isn't the answer anymore. This group of players needs absolutely gutting. We've got part of the way there by phasing out the likes of Ashley Williams, Kevin Mirallas, Yannick Bolasie, it looks like Cenk Tosun is about to follow, but I can't actually look at any of the senior players inherited by Silva and Brands, aside from Pickford and Michael Keane (as a squad player), that have any hope of being a part of what we want to achieve going forwards. Anyone in the backroom staff that has in any way enabled the development of this attitude within the squad need clearing out as well. Apparently Ancelotti and the staff that have come with him were absolutely shocked at the players daring to bite back against the criticism Ferguson dished out after the game, so hopefully they have learned enough about what they're working with to make the big decisions that the previous four managers have failed to make.

Apparently Ancelotti doesn't like to discuss matches in the dressing room right after the match - because he believes emotions run to high and it's not so useful for the players to break down what happened in a match, and what went right/wrong until the next training session where he breaks down the players performances (which I actually thought was strange, but apparently it's very common in top level football).

But even Ice Cold Carlo Ancelotti couldn't keep his cool after that second half and apparently had some pretty harsh words for his new players. There's clearly something wrong with the culture of the club if you've got senior players saying they gave 100% in that second half. It's a culture of self-defeat when it comes to Everton at Anfield (granted, in that first half you could have had 3 goals if not for Adrian making saves... but the first half wasn't really the problem, as much as it was the second half performance where senior players gave up to our kids). You see it when Curtis Jones scores and Everton heads just drop.

I think you've got the right sort of manager to try to change the culture of the squad - a proven winner with a lot of titles to his name. And as a player, he knew what kind of attitude players need to have success: he won 3 Serie A titles, a lot of Copa Italias, and won 2 European Cups.

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33 minutes ago, The Artful Dodger said:

So it's pretty clear that the Council won't be giving out any loans for the stadium now, which is something of a relief in these austere times. Usmanov has paid 30mill just for first dibs on naming rights, pretty likely he's going to be funding this I'd say.

While I obviously want things with the stadium to go well, the Usmanov deal seems to be dodgy as fuck. This isn't my area of expertise so I'll happily stand corrected but surely there isn't many other cases where someone's paid £30m up front just to get the first option on later paying more money for the naming rights of the stadium. Stinks of us trying to work around FFP moves by getting the money, or parts of it, in at a certain time.

I've also learned more about Usmanov's background in recent weeks and it doesn't make for a pretty picture. It would be hypocritical of me to slate City for their ownership and the human rights issues in the background there, and then feel perfectly comfortable with a dodgy Eastern European businessman who has clearly been involved with some dodgy people in the past bankrolling my club which I still believe stands for something more genuine. I'm not comfortable with it really. His involvement seems inevitable but I'd rather it was a background involvement.

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50 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

While I obviously want things with the stadium to go well, the Usmanov deal seems to be dodgy as fuck. This isn't my area of expertise so I'll happily stand corrected but surely there isn't many other cases where someone's paid £30m up front just to get the first option on later paying more money for the naming rights of the stadium. Stinks of us trying to work around FFP moves by getting the money, or parts of it, in at a certain time.

I've also learned more about Usmanov's background in recent weeks and it doesn't make for a pretty picture. It would be hypocritical of me to slate City for their ownership and the human rights issues in the background there, and then feel perfectly comfortable with a dodgy Eastern European businessman who has clearly been involved with some dodgy people in the past bankrolling my club which I still believe stands for something more genuine. I'm not comfortable with it really. His involvement seems inevitable but I'd rather it was a background involvement.

You're right on both counts. Usmanov is dodgy (and so is Moshiri by proxy of having close business ties with someone so dodgy - regardless of how well his wife is regarded in the UK Persian community - dodgy is dodgy). And yeah, his investment is pretty clearly you trying to work around FFP in the same way that City do, just on a smaller scale.

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I can't remember the exact injury but it was some combination of a break and a dislocation. I think the dislocation made it look like one of those proper snapped in two leg injuries but actually dislocation looks horrible without being too long to fix.

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@RandoEFC I have to hold my hands up and say I was wrong over the summer about Calvert-Lewis. He’s improved a lot this season, I think he’s been better than Richarlison this season and if he does get called up to England soon, I wouldn’t think it’s as lol-able as I did in the summer.

Tbf to me though, he has improved a lot this season and I don’t think many would have predicted that.

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1 hour ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

@RandoEFC I have to hold my hands up and say I was wrong over the summer about Calvert-Lewis. He’s improved a lot this season, I think he’s been better than Richarlison this season and if he does get called up to England soon, I wouldn’t think it’s as lol-able as I did in the summer.

Tbf to me though, he has improved a lot this season and I don’t think many would have predicted that.

Calvert-Lewin has stepped up but Richarlison is the key man. After Silva left, Calvert-Lewin has been told to stop running the channel so much and play as an out and out poacher which has worked a treat.

Richarlison though still has almost as many goals but also contributes to assists and, while I haven't seen the stats this season, is always leading the way amongst attackers for things like ball recoveries and tackles in his own half. He always comes up with the important goals as well.

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33 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

Calvert-Lewin has stepped up but Richarlison is the key man. After Silva left, Calvert-Lewin has been told to stop running the channel so much and play as an out and out poacher which has worked a treat.

Richarlison though still has almost as many goals but also contributes to assists and, while I haven't seen the stats this season, is always leading the way amongst attackers for things like ball recoveries and tackles in his own half. He always comes up with the important goals as well.

Yeah I was probably being a bit hyperbolic in saying DCL is better just based on his improvement over the season. Pretty clear Richarlison’s really the main man with you, just got a bit carried away there xD

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