gjohnson

Honesty is fine in the right place. Think it's his over-inflated idea of how good he actually is that winds people up.

He'll hang on for grim death for whatever 'loyalty' bonus he's due, unless Arsenal/PSG/Misc champions league team forget that they like players who can pass a football more than 3 yards without loosing it, and it's the mid-level teams that come in for him. All about money and/or prestige nothing else. I'm sure his champions league talk would evaporate if we waved a £300,000 per week contract (not that we would or that he deserves anything like that) at him and he'd suddenly be very happy to 'help us get back where we belong'

Any team that actually wants him will have watched a lot of his performances over the season I'd imagine, and will have seen his relative lack of technique and effort in many games. If by some wild stretch of the imagination Arsenal are interested, it'll be similar to Cabaye when they supposedly made him listen to Arsenals response when they heard his asking price (more than 10 million is a lot for a reserve), as there's no way anyone could think he was a 20 million pound player based on last season. Must be forgetting that scouts watch matches that aren't on TV too, where he did at least attempt to make some effort. Send him to the mackems...just for a laugh

Could see him fitting in well at Leicester if they keep their style from this season

Pretty sure they were for a good while but think they'd already dropped back a fair bit by then. Think it was built up a bit more as they were one of the few teams to beat us that year.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/22/football/football-naismith-everton-homeless/ Apparently he doesn't spend much money either, takes a relatively modest allowance out of his wages and tries to live as grounded a life as possible Good attitude to have compared to a lot of footballers who end up bankrupt in their mid-40's as they didn't have the sense to realise that they can't live like millionaires without the 40K+ per week salary. I don't get the impression he's got commercial deals like Beckham (just an example) coming out of his ears, and there's a heck of a lot of footballers who retire without ending up on Sky/BBC wherever, or becoming successful enough managers to continue living as they did.

How do they pass off the other 18 teams that didn't win the league and athe least two that were relegated with Prozone?

So much this.... Having a gob that doesn't match effort and/or talent is a recipe for hatred. Colback may well be pretty rubbish (being kind) but he's not in the news every other month telling all that listen he wants to be in Champions league. I'd bet most players would too but the ones that are there more often than not can justify it with decent seasons, not the odd performance against a team that they'd give a left nut to play for

Got to be Sissoko. If he spent as much time applying himself as telling anyone who'd listen he wants to be at a Champions League club he probably would be at one.

First time a relegated team has got twelve points in their last six since West Ham in 88/89. It's never been done in the Prem era. We were relegated as bottom that season under Jim Smith. It's also the year Arsenal pipped Liverpool to the title with that Michael Thomas goal. That form over a season would have seen us a comfortable second this year :-( Even over extrapolating the whole form since Rafa arrived, we'd be sitting 11th. 2 or 3 games earlier and i think we'd have been safe. Nice one thumbhead

Krul- 3m - 1 year left on contract Janmaat- 4m Sissoko- 6m Wijnaldum- 8m Perez-7m (hopefully he stays) Townsend- 8m (hopefully he stays) Siem De Jong- 2.5m (hopefully he stays) Riviere- 0.5m Tiote- 2m Cisse- 4m Probably more realistic

I tried to make this point last week too. Lukaku/Barkley/Stones aside their team is nothing special. Maybe one or two places better but I really don't see what they think they have that puts them so much higher than they are. Not that it's wrong to dream but we were crucified for wanting better than 16th when Pardew was here Every single starter in Everton's strongest team bar keeper walks in to starting XI. Yes true...but they wouldn't be walking into a lot of the leagues starting 11.

I tried to make this point last week too. Lukaku/Barkley/Stones aside their team is nothing special. Maybe one or two places better but I really don't see what they think they have that puts them so much higher than they are. Not that it's wrong to dream but we were crucified for wanting better than 16th when Pardew was here

Relatively speaking possibly, but Coloccini, Mbemba, Janmaat, Shelvey, Townsend, Thauvin, De Jong, Mitrovic, Wijnaldum...£90m there alone. I think the last one was about the same. Owen, Luque, Martins, Enrique, Viduka, Duff, Beye, Smith, Barton, Nolan, Coloccini. That was a lot more money at the time like, but yeah you're probably right in terms of the amount. Guess it depends on inflation and what the true fees actually were...think, Enrique was anything from 5.5 to 7, Nolan was a bit of an oddity because of the swap with Insomnia, so as far as Im aware no-one really knows what he actually cost...estimates around 4 million? Owen was pretty consistently reported as 16.5, Smith 7, Martins 13, Beye...can't remember; 2?, Barton 5.8, Coloccini 11ish...That's before getting into the fringe/reserve players like Xisco Was almost certain Luque had gone to Ajax at the end of 07 season but would have to look it up to be sure.

Relatively speaking possibly, but Coloccini, Mbemba, Janmaat, Shelvey, Townsend, Thauvin, De Jong, Mitrovic, Wijnaldum...£90m there alone. A few sums say that the 08-09 first 11 was way more than this years shower, but squad(!) wise this years tops it by a fair margin. Not sure on QPRs from that year, but i didn't think (could be wrong) they had a lot of players costing 10 million plus in fees. Plenty on wages and stupid amounts for past it ones though.

Is this the most expensive squad ever to be relegated from the premier league? How does it compare to the Leeds one that went down years back?

http://i64.tinypic.com/s2w5k4.gif Give over...that lot haven't got any shame

Anyone actually know the bet he's in bother for?

He was immense in that tournament and a lovely player to watch. Not disagreeing at all just stating that he could have been so much more at club level. Riquelme aside point I'm trying to make is that every club has young players who great things are expected of who end up having decent careers but not at the level expected. For every Michael Owen there's a Neil Mellor....for every Shearer there's a Chopra..every Rooney there's a Cadamateri... All very good young players, all had good careers, only half seen as great

Agree, they were just examples although probably not the best. Both were at various points suggested for becoming one of the worlds best (not that Ayoze will be), but for whatever reason never quite hit the heights that many suggested. I'm sure a lot of people were expecting Riquelme to become one of Argentinas greatest ever, rather than just a very good player albeit at a better level than at Newcastle could ever expect. Thinking out loud, Hugo Viana could be a decent comparison...great things expected, and did the odd bit of good here and there but never really worked out as a great player but could have been better if used/developed properly. I know there were other factors involved with that one, but I think the general point stands. Every club has a decent young player that could become a great but for some reason doesn't, whether it be jumping to a bigger club too soon or getting ideas above themselves or simply not being as good as everyone thought after a decent season. In fact I think N'Zogbia would be a decent call. Attitude aside, most on here could see he had some talent and could have easily become brilliant with the right guidance/desperation to leave

Just to mean, bags of talent and potential. Potential that people will talk about right up until 27/28 years old, and then wondered what happened to them a few years later to find out they've been tearing up some backwater league for fun having left the 'big' clubs wondering 'what the hell did we buy him for'... Appreciate not quite the same as the other two, but I'm sure everyone can think of a player touted for the top, but actually only ended up being 'decent' before sliding into relative obscurity.

reminds me a bit of Riquelme/Aimar

Seem to recall our injury record under him being pretty atrocious too. In fact we always seem to have one of the worst injury records pretty much every season, which suggests that its something else (Derek Wright?) and not really the manager

Think we'd have got the win on the break if they'd kept trying to attack. Remember when Allardyce used to press for a second when we were leading games?..... Hmmm, me neither. Either way, he was taking us down with his brand of organisation. The difference is that the players we had when he was in charge (Viduka, Owen, Smith, Cacapa etc) didn't have enough character or nastiness to work in a relegation threatened team. Sunderland now are full of helmets who are used to scrapping so perfectly suit how he likes to set up his teams.

Just to make everyone feel better, this gent is now training Sunderland.