STM

8 and a bit is actually 9 if you round it up and if you round 9 up you get 10.

Absolutely this. Hopefully we can beat Burnley and Leeds go down, so we can poach their players.

Biggest compliment I can pay them is that I will be watching their game tommorow. Biggest insult is that I couldn't care less if they win or not. They are going nowhere fast, promotion or not.

Aye, I may have mis remembered. There was definitely one game where we were awful. Cisses chip in that game though.

Swansea away sticks out. We were awful but Papiss nicked it. It was sublime shithousery.

It would have helped Pardews legacy massively if he wasn't such a cunt. Roeder steered us to 7th and is subsequently viewed in higher regard because Roeder was a cracking fella. Ultimately both were shite managers.

Yeah but Pardew provided one season of excitement and some great moments, which some fans choose to remember. If you did a vote, I'd wager 60/70% of fans thought he was shite. Which would be about right. Thing is with Pardew though, just go and get the opinion of all the clubs he's managed. That will clear things up nicely.

I think the key is to take fans opinion into account on players. We've been wrong quite a few times. Sissoko and Wijnaldum were both given really bad reviews by us, but Wijnaldum in particular just needed the correct coaching. Milner was labelled as shite, wrongly. Scott Parker was seen as shite but was actually being played wrong. And so on and so on.

@neesy111 Is spot on about the Rafa stuff BTW. There is something heavily hypocritical about us getting outraged by ex Man Utd players, pundits and fans of other clubs telling us that Bruce did a comparable job to Rafa, whilst also telling Everton fans that Lampard did no better than Rafa. Let's be clear here. Rafa was a great manager for us and steared a very unsteady ship through some horrific times for us but that's not what was happening at Everton. Under Rafa they had an exceptional start but were hurtling towards relegation, performances were shocking. Whether it was Rafas fault, the boards fault for not backing him, the players fault for not buying into his football or whatever doesn't really matter. With Rafa they were going down. I don't rate Lampard whatsoever but what he has done is get the fans on board in the short term and that was the key to their survival, the Everton fans and goodison park saved their season. Let's not tell fans of other clubs what to think of their managers and players, we don't like it when it comes at us the other way.

You could also argue that 12m for Targett is better value than 20m+ for Lodi. If the club are trying to be cute with their money, until big sponsors arrive, a potential 10m difference in the transfer kitty might be useful later in the window. There is an element of certainty involved here too. Firstly, everything we know about Eddie is that he's not the sort to string Targett along if we aren't sure about him. Secondly, the club itself can tick left back off the list of priorities in the summer, where as a protracted pursuit of another left back might hold up other deals. Targett is about as sure a thing as you can have in a transfer. Has already played for the club. Understands the system. Manager trusts his character. Fans adore him. He's not injury prone.... and he's only 15m total, which is pocket money these days. Sign him.

Don't necessarily agree. I think the club has decided that it's willing to improve any position, provided its the right player and the numbers make sense. Its not a out whether its 20m or 40m, its about whether the player is worth what is being asked. Lille and Sevilla took it too far with their centre halves. Lyon allowed Bruno to go for a fair price, which turned out to be a bargain.

Tarkowski has been heavily linked with Villa and for whatever reason, him going to Villa makes way more sense.

Also, Viera is pretty likeable. Perhaps if Gerrard was on the pitch, I can see why people would turn on him but a Crystal Palace manager is fairly benign. Weird as fuck.

They have to investigate it, in fairness. If Viera was to get any sort of punishment, he could file a suit against the PL for not ensuring the safety of him and his players, therefore the PL won't dare do anything. Also bare in mind, a month ago we saw an Everton fan in the ground, with a knife on him. It's a matter of time, somewhere. Edit: Just realised it's the police that are investigating. Totally unnecessary.

Saka would cost at least 100m He's got more about him than Grealish for example. There's zero chance that we would attempt to sign Saka. Give it a year and he will be Sterling's replacement at City.

In fairness, there were plenty of Everton fans who saw what was happening and tried to get Viera off the pitch safely. @Neil I wondered what the forecast was for next year, in terms of ability to spend and improve? I suspect Everton will improve, even if they dont invest alot. Your squad needs a canny clear out. Presumably Everton are going to make one big sale, either Richarlison or DCL in order to make investments into the team.

We win this like. 100%. So Leeds can play for a draw. There's no way that their midfield can cope with ours. Coutinho ran them ragged when he came on and he's just a shit Bruno.

"Hi Jessie, yes it's Eddie here. Congratulations on the great job you have done at Leeds so far. Look, I was just wondering what the availability of Calvin Phillips was in the summer? What, he's going to cost 50m? Ah that's a shame because Bruno has a calf injury and wasn't going to make the Burnl.... What's that now? You can do us a special one off deal of 30m? How very kind, I was thinking of giving Richie and Gayle a run out anyway. OK, see you next season, chow!"

Man Utd cant even sign players. BTW, how mint is it that Wan-Bissaka is available to buy and not one of us thinks he would be a good signing. Can see him at Roma or the likes.

Although I'm certain Staveley and Co won't want to give the PL any excuses to give us trouble.

There are clearly defined FFP rules right? They aren't some big secret and can be tracked by anyone who has half a financial brain.

Noone knows what our budget looks like anyway. I'm just here for the ride. If we get him and he gets games, he probably goes to the World Cup as 3rd choice, as it stands. Henderson, Pope, Pickford and Ramsdale is actually a really solid group. Which is weird as 3/4 had absolute stinkers at SJP this year.

Even though I don't rate Mings, I will back any player who Howe rates.

Simple things like, if Dubravka is remaining our Number 1, we could get someone like Ben Forster (who is out of contract) as number 2. Or if we want Henderson as number 1, we could loan him for 12 months before paying 30m next summer, provided he plays X amount of games. There are ways of tarting up the books and spreading costs over various years. God I'm so looking forward to this summer. First signing prediction? I'm going Tarkowski or Targett.

Let's look at our potential 25 man squad again: GK: Gillespie, New GK, Dubravka RB: Trippier Krafth CB: Schar, Lascelles, Burn, New CB LB: Dummett, New LB CM: Bruno, Shelvey, Joelinton, Joe Willock, Longstaff, New CM RW: Fraser, New RW, Murphy (or Miggy) LW: ASM, Anderson ST: Wilson, Wood, New ST Outs: Richie, Gayle, Lewis (Loan), Almiron (or murphy), Hayden, Clark, Fernandez, Manquillo, Matty Longstaff, Hendrick, Darlow. This is as conservative as I can be: 6 signings required. Other scenarios to consider: Lascelles leaves. Miggy and Murphy both stay. Lewis stays as back up LB. Anderson goes away on loan. We sign a new number 1 and Dubravka also leaves. Manquillo stays as back up left back. So many things "could" happen this summer, its incredibly hard to predict but it's hard to see as situation where we don't need 6 New players. So Eddie is right when he says we need to get creative. Bosmans, loans, perhaps the odd over 30 player.