Makis

So, you come up with a ridiculous idea and based on that figment of your imagination you call Koeman an idiot?

Williams clearly needs a more mobile partner. Baines has struggled since his last injury, let's hope he gets over it. Problem is, players at that age often find that hard. He's still one of my all-time favourite Everton players so I'd hate to write him off just yet. Baines doesn't necessarily need competition because he has played well in the past without it (i.e. he doesn't really need a kick in the back to play well) but simply because he might have lost that yard of pace it would be a good idea to start thinking of phasing him out eventually.

With these fans around Kendall would have been sacked halfway through first season.

Yeah yeah. For you it doesn't matter how the players actually play, you just see them doing something exciting once in a while and they are great. You obviously don't see how players play when they are not in possession and you only care about the highlight reels. If Deulofeu played 90 minutes you'd get a really great Youtube video at the end of season but it would completely lack context - for instance how badly Coleman would be exposed in every game because either Deulofeu walks hands on hips 30 yards too high up with Coleman facing two attackers or just being run past because he has no clue on how to defend or mark (at least in the latter he tries, but you can't usually even say that). Nor does it show the nine out of ten situations where he picks the wrong choice. As for his crossing, yes, it's technically great but he doesn't look where players are. Contrast Baines, for instance yesterday's cross to Barkley, he very clearly looks where players are and put a beautiful cross in the danger area. Deulofeu probably would have crossed somewhere else (assuming he didn't loose the ball by trying to beat the same man three times first) and the sulked hands on hips because no-one could read his mind. Mirallas is completely anonymous for most matches. Funes Mori is another for the highlight reels because it doesn't show his poor positioning or how he forgets his man in box all too often. Or his lack of pace. But he does have a few great headers, runs and tackles every season so you can make a reel that makes him look like a world-beater.

Soton under Koeman had a poor run at the same time as we had this season. Don't know why that is. But if you look at the forms of teams only WHU has been in better form over the last five games from teams below us. Top six has been clearly in better form, but apart from that we are pretty much where we should based on the form table. https://www.premierleague.com/tables We are not playing well and results could be better that's for sure. But unlike Martinez, Koeman inherited a team in crisis with gaping holes in it and he didn't even have a full summer. This despite loosing our big summer signing and a dramatic decline in form for both Jagielka and Baines (Barry I thought had the same issues already last season).

Gary Neville on the rebuilding required: http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11671/10712554/hull-2-2-everton-ronald-koeman-must-rebuild-this-ageing-squad

I'm not 1982 but a couple of points: The team is much more resilient. We have managed to win points by either scoring late or keeping the shop shut at the end. Something Martinez's Everton was horrible at. Defense is also much, much better. In fact without that crash against Chelsea we'd have one of the most efficient in the PL. Only Chelsea and Spurs have had clearly better defenses this season.

There's a certain difference between someone who was here for three seasons and how many transfer windows, six? and a team that finished sixth and someone who haven't had one decent transfer window and was left with a team of overrated or overage players. People still think someone like Mirallas is a good player. He's now had three managers to prove that. How many good games has he had out of the 130 games he has played? Deulofeu was a Martinez type player, looks great on Youtube, spends most of the game doing jack all. Flatters to deceive is putting it mildly. Barry, Jagielka and Baines all need replacing (and I do wonder why Barry and Baines were offered extensions, Baines I could just about but Barry is just so past it). Niasse was a joke. Funes Mori is good enough to sit on the bench, not start every game. Cleverley, another Martinez player, ultimately produces very little.

Evertonians: Being Tossers Since 1878. Manager has been here for half a season and some are already crying about not going to matches anymore if he's not sacked. FFS!

Deulofeu is apparently close to a loan deal to AC Milan.

Very questionable link but here goes anyways. http://www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/man-utd/transfer-talk/news/julian-brandt-attracting-pl-interest_288233.html

Truth be told he doesn't sound like a Koeman type of player so I doubt this rumour has any legs. More like a Martinez rumour rehashed.

You don't think that flattening out had anything to do with the injury? It tends to take players a while to get back from them mentally, as well.

Linked again in The S*n.

http://readeverton.com/2016/12/22/everton-enquire-inter-milan-midfielder-geoffrey-kondogbia/

Keane could be a brilliant signing. One of the best defenders in PL this season. And he's not *that* young (born -93). Difference between him and the youngsters already at Everton is Keane has played well over 100 league matches.

I don't think age is relevant until the performances drop. Some players are effectively finished around 30-32 while others are top players well beyond 35. Before that it's more about experience. Someone who gets regular first team games at 18-19 is a totally different player to one who has to wait until he's 22-23. So I'd rather put players in different brackets based on experience rather than just age. Barkley and Lukaku are established, experienced first team players. Our problem is simply that we have too many players who are seemingly past it or close to being who are still important to the team. Plus there's just too much dross that needs replacing.

Martinez tried that and it ended 4-0.

I think part of why Koeman was selected was because he is prepared to work with a DoF. @Bailey, when McCarthy went off which of these players would you have picked to replace him? Robles, Holgate, Kenny, Calvert-Lewin, Barry, Cleverley, Mirallas? I don't think any of those would have made a difference. Barkley was so shit that moving him back and putting Mirallas CAM would have been disastrous. And putting Cleverley in.. well, I bet you wouldn't have liked the outcome of that either.

Let's wait and see.

I'm not so sure that style would work over an entire season in England. It's very demanding and taxing and the pace in England is much higher. Plus weather is worse so I'd guess there would be more injuries.

Alright! That was well hidden but now that filter is removed. Went through profile settings a few times before figuring out it must be somewhere else.. And it actually defaulted to 30 days.

No, I used Chrome's search (ctrl+f) since there's only two pages of transfer rumours.

Da fk? I searched this and the next page and didn't find this thread. I thought I had seen this rumour before.

Looks like a no-goer: http://talksport.com/football/everton-told-pay-over-ps42m-top-january-target-fiorentina-forward-nikola-kalinic Fiorentina want £42 million.