Louis

The more Wirral folk, the better!

On the bright side.. if you fail, you will have learned from the experience.

He was offered a 60,000 a week contract in the summer, I presumed he signed it.

http://www.bluekipper.com/supporters_clubs/index.html Try ringing the closest one to you to book yourself a seat.

Up until last year or the year before, the ladies had to buy their own kit from the club shop.. it shows you how far they've come in a short time.

It looks that way James.. JJB chose Umbro as the manufacturer because they own a 10% share in the company, I don't think they'd be allowed to tie a manufacturer down past their own contract with the club.

Also Mike.. the new kit manufacturer rhymes with your name.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/popup?id=2339802 It's bizarre what some people will do to their bodies, it looks good though!

I read that Kitbag.com have outbid JJB to become the official merchandise partners as of the 2009/2010 season. I asked Kitbag to confirm it but I was told "I have no further news on this." so it looks to be true.

Welcome to ToffeeTalk, it's always nice when a funk legend pledges his support to the Blue cause

You'll be eligible for a student season ticket if you show your acceptance letter from the Uni at the box office. It makes you think really, so many students in Liverpool.. they should send a rep and a player to the Freshers fayre to encourage people to sign up If Everton is too expensive, there is always Tranmere across the Mersey, season ticket is less than £200.

I've heard this too, he's the left back isn't he? We were linked with him before but we signed Baines, wouldn't object to him signing he's meant to be good.

Sorry... forgot to add that.. Peter Kilfoyle Walton and Anfield MP.. The above is his column in a local paper the Anfield/Walton Star It's strange to see someone saying that when seemingly everybody else in the council is keen to keep Everton in the city boundaries.

Any comments? :|

Shared Stadium This article has been presented to KEIOC by Trevor Skempton. We feel that all options for keeping Everton within the city, specifically within the traditional north Liverpool environs, should be explored. Whilst it is true that Trevor personally favours a redeveloped Goodison or an iconic development on Scotland Rd due to his work on St James Park he has been approached as a professional architect of some renown in stadia matters, to solve just a few of the many problems a joint stadium would present. KEIOC’s position is that whilst we see and understand the logic behind a shared stadium proposition football is intrinsically illogical. Why do grown men become emotional at the sound of an old sea shanty and the emergence of eleven men in royal blue shirts? Why do you get a tingle down your spine when you walk into a collection of four buildings that surround a field? Why do you feel you're with your own kind when with a group of strangers in a stadium or a pub, when essentially the only common tie is supporting the same football club, a camaraderie that, thankfully, transcends all backgrounds including class, gender, education, colour and creed? Of course nobody can answer any of these questions with an ounce of logic and it's probably why a shared stadium will always require a phenomenal leap of faith from both sets of match going supporters whose culture, tradition and values differ manifestly possibly due to the magnitude and concentration of success over the lifespan of the respective clubs. Everton's success, great players and great teams being spread throughout its rich one hundred and thirty year history whilst Liverpool's unparalleled success being concentrated into a thirty year period which has included incomparable success, disaster and tragedy leading to a club with both national and international appeal and standing. The circumstances behind both clubs need for new stadia are different as are their requirements, KEIOC understand the thoughts and feelings of thousands of loyal match going Evertonian’s, it's like some Divine Comedy - hell - purgatory and paradise!!! Make your choice! Time to Share? Everton’s moves towards a medium-range stadium in Kirkby have attracted wide-spread opposition within a club that professes that ‘nothing but the best is good enough’. In the meantime, Liverpool’s more ambitious proposals for a ‘New Anfield’ are running into difficulties in the face of the club’s mounting debts. It has been suggested that it is now time for Everton and Liverpool to give serious consideration to sharing a new stadium, to ensure a fitting home for the two clubs and sufficient revenue to allow them to compete at the highest level of World Football. David Backhouse is an architect and a life-long Liverpool supporter, who believes that it is a dreadful waste of resources for the two clubs to be considering building two separate new stadia. He has challenged Trevor Skempton, a life-long Evertonian and also an architect, to help bring forward details that might make a shared stadium acceptable. Trouble Ahead The objections to sharing are understandable. Each club has a precious identity and fabulous history, forged through a deep rivalry. In business terms, each club relies on careful product differentiation and unique selling points. Elsewhere, successful ground-sharing is rarer than is often supposed. Internationale and AC Milan are often quoted. Munich also. But divorce is in the air in Turin and Rome, and closer to home, Charlton couldn’t wait to get back to their own ground. Nor Fulham. Sharing wouldn’t work in Glasgow or Manchester, but could we be a special case? In financial terms, the arguments for sharing are compelling. A truly world-class stadium, financed a third by each club and a third by outside bodies, need not eat into precious resources required for immediate team-building. But the challenge is to create a proposal that would not only safeguard, but actually strengthen, each club’s independent character. It could be a condition of the public-funding element that both clubs commit themselves long-term to playing all their home matches in the stadium, thus preventing any future franchising proposals that might take either club away from the City of Liverpool. Alternative Proposals These thumbnail sketch-plans show the two clubs as near neighbours in North Liverpool. On the left is the present arrangement, with the two grounds locked into their respective communities of tight streets, separated only by Stanley Park. The outline of the proposed New Anfield is superimposed on the east side of the park. The central sketch shows the possibility of expanding each ground to seat 60,000, each club developing two new stands and making modest changes to their stadium footprint. Shared underground parking is constructed beneath a new all-weather playing surface, containing four full-size football pitches, in the centre of Stanley Park. A reconstructed sports centre provides facilities for major events within the park. The right-hand sketch plan shows a single Stanley Park stadium, eventually seating 80,000. The present sites are used to expand the green space into Walton and Anfield, as well as providing for surrounding hotels, flats and commercial development. Separate Pavilions There would be separate pavilions in opposite corners. Each pavilion would contain both home and away dressing rooms and would be the freehold property of the club. The north corner would contain the Everton FC Pavilion, incorporating the David France Collection and ‘1878 Hotel’, with access from Priory Road. A landmark Conical Tower would also be visible inside the stadium, above a video screen, pavilion window and players’ tunnel. Over the outside door would be the words ‘Nil Satis Nisi Optimum’. The south corner would contain the Liverpool FC Pavilion, together with the Club Museum and the ‘Kop Hotel’, with access from Anfield Road. A landmark Liver Bird would also be visible from inside the stadium above a video screen, pavilion window and players’ tunnel. Over the outside door would be the words ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. Different Stands The two large L-shaped stands would be to contrasting designs, not specific to either club, but having echoes of the historic structures. Seats could multi-coloured to disguise any unoccupied areas, or they could be white to take on the colour of alternative blue and red lights. The west stand would seat 40,000 in a single sweeping tier, with a translucent roof to minimise overshadowing of the pitch. The east stand would also seat 40,000, but in three overlapping tiers. The top tier, of 14,000 seats, would be constructed as a later phase, space being left beneath the roof, giving an initial capacity of 66,000. A first impression of how the stadium might fit into the middle of Stanley Park, well away from residential areas and without disturbing the historic structures and lakes. A new open landscape would be created on the East side of the park. Car parking would be provided within the stadium structure, and new public transport arrangements would be to the benefit of both clubs. The existing grounds would become extensions to the park, new hotels and flats helping to form the enclosures. The historic pitches and the original Archibald Leitch stands at Goodison would be retained and adapted for community use. The objective would be to create, quite simply, the finest football stadium in the world, one that is unique to the City of Liverpool and its two famous clubs. By sharing, such an objective could be affordable. Although not necessary at the outset [at least, from a football point of view], the design could allow for the future fitting of a retractable roof and pitch to cater for a range of secondary events and activities. Final Comments David Backhouse says: “My mother was born in Skerries Road and her ashes are scattered in the park. Stanley Park played a major part in our upbringing. We have a wonderful opportunity to improve the park and make it even more relevant to future generations in both Anfield and Walton. Also, it seems an obscenity in this day and age to consider building two virtually identical new stadia in this city.” Trevor Skempton says: “Given the inadequacy of the Kirkby proposal, the financial questions over the ‘New Anfield’, and the future possibility that either club might take the ‘global-franchise’ hype seriously and move away, Cunard-like, from its roots in the City of Liverpool… locking us both into a shared world-class stadium could be an idea whose time has come.”

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport...ticle850229.ece TOTTENHAM’S Carling Cup triumph against Chelsea was Juande Ramos’ SECOND success this season. The first was turning the lardies at the Lane into a lean, mean football machine. The Spaniard was left in a state of shock to find his struggling stars overweight, unfit and eating junk when he first took charge at the end of October. Now boss Ramos has fed the North Londoners with their first trophy in nine years — and they are hungry for more. Ramos could not believe the grub former Spurs manager Martin Jol allowed the players to wolf down — and how unfit they were. His assistant Marcos Alvarez made the sensational revelations in a conversation with Everton midfielder Mikel Arteta. Alvarez described how Tottenham’s new technical team had to totally transform the squad’s training and dietary habits. Arteta said: “Juande had already had success at Tottenham before Sunday’s final. He led Tottenham, a team that was in really bad shape only a couple of months ago, to recovery. “I remember the day we played against them. I spoke for a while with Marcos Alvarez, their fitness coach, who was telling me how they found the squad when they arrived. “Poor guy, he was recounting things that had left them stupefied — like how overweight the players were in general, or the dietary habits of some of the players there. “He said they were stunned when they arrived at the restaurant and saw it full of sweets, cakes, Tabasco, mayonnaise, Coca-Cola . . . “He told me they could not believe it — they had to do a pre-season in mid-December and change things radically.” SunSport exclusively revealed how Ramos had signed up Spanish nutritional guru Dr Antonio Escribano — dubbed Dr Baby Food. Escribano revolutionised Spurs’ diet and that, coupled with Alvarez’s intense fitness regime, resulted in players such as Paul Robinson and Jermaine Jenas looking leaner and fitter than ever. Ramos’ methods brought instant results. Spurs started climbing up the table and in the Carling Cup semi-final they thrashed Arsenal 5-1 — their first win over their hated rivals since 1999. And the icing on the cake came when they overcame Chelsea 2-1 at Wembley to win their first trophy since 1999. It is almost beyond belief to think that after more than a decade of constant talk of diet and proper nutrition for players which followed Arsene Wenger’s arrival at Arsenal there are still clubs that have the same bad old habits. But Arteta insists eating junk is something which is prevalent at his own club Everton, with players still stuffing themselves with sweets and all kinds of things that “footballers should not eat”. The Everton ace revealed he takes his own ingredients to the club’s cook and gives specific instructions how to cook the food because he cannot eat the fare served up at the club restaurant. Speaking to Spanish paper El Mundo, Arteta (right) added: “The truth is they were astounded by something that for me already was something normal. “In teams managed by foreigners this is something that is less and less frequent. “But in teams like mine, it’s still an English tradition — this kind of food is our ‘daily bread’. “When I arrived at Everton, the restaurant that we have in our training ground served fish and chips. “But there are team-mates who are used to it and it’s difficult to make them change. “So as a result when I arrived I started asking them to cook my pasta as I like it — and the rice . . . and the chicken breast, too! “The truth is, I don’t like food with spices and I prefer to keep away from those sweets and cakes they wolf down in this country. “So I bring my own rice and tomato sauce and tell Sue, our cook, how I want it done — with a little bit of garlic and some onion.” Both the Everton staff and Tottenham’s players found the changes to their diet a little eccentric. Yet along with the Carling Cup, Spurs also clinched a place in next season’s UEFA Cup. Arteta added: “After the investment that they have made, they desperately needed to achieve this European place.”

I was speaking to someone yesterday and they suggested that it could be time to introduce an artificial pitch. Artificial surfaces are now virtually indistinguishable from real grass. The advantages are that you can use the pitch for any variety of activities. It could also be used for youth, reserve and ladies games before the main game. In that way more people would watch the youngsters developing, spectator arrival would be staggered and more food would be purchased. Certainly something to think about, it'd mean we could stop borrowing the Halton stadium and Marine's saving us money in the long run. Thoughts?

Car Crash on frankby road. http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/display.var.2...after_crash.php http://images.newsquest.co.uk/image.php?id...6&type=full - pictures Nothing wrong with the road, they were obviously driving too fast. I've never ever come close to crashing there.

Did anyone else panic other than me? <_< My wardrobe almost fell on me and bed shook, it felt like a few people were shaking my bed. I thought what's going?

Apparently he's a good manager and there was a few people unhappy it went to Vogts last time.

Debate on Radio Merseyside earlier on Roger Philips show.. basically two architects have said that two stadiums is a waste and they said a 60,000 rising to 80,000 stadium could be on the agenda. I know what you're thinking and the answer is White seats but with blue and red lights depending on who is playing at home.

What is it you like about it?

http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/news/stadiumreport.pdf Fascinating!

There's always the option of doing what our rivals have done in the past, they offered shares at a lower price than their market value to the media (Granada) to gain media favouritism

Here's a copy of the complaint: