Everton Banter Archive March 11 2014

11 Mar 2014 19:25:35
can not believe we could be wasting money on crap like rodwell, if we want a young blue who is dynamic, exciting, passionate and fit look at lewis holtby, if rodwell costs 5 for example (probably be 8 or 9) and holtby costs 15 just pay the extra, holtby is such a better player, cannot believe some evertonians want him back, to play centre half! oh yeah, it was bad enough him going backwards and sideways in midfield, imagine him in defence! plus he is the most injury prone player in the league other than maybe diaby, cannot believe anyone would want us to pay money, actual money for him, unbelievable

{Ed025's Note - to be fair swan, holtby has hardly pulled up any trees mate..

Thing is Mike it's fans having an opinion or preference. They are entitled to it and this is a banter site where as you have stated before, we are all entitled to air our opinions. I'm quite surprised this is something such disbelief.

For the record though I agree with you that he is not worth any sort of gamble.

I'd rather we sign ki from Swansea. Quality player which will command a similar fee but not likely to be a bench buddy for Gibbo.

We dodged a big time bullet not getting Holtby, may have once supported the blues, but let face will never be good enough to play for us. Really poor player.

I think the lad showed great potential at 17 or 18. However, like everyone knows, he has been injured more than fit. We already are filling a squad with permanently injured players who don't score goals (yes he is another). I really fear for us if we chase him. How many has he scored in recent seasons? 6 in 99. Yes have another go at me for pointing out another stupid statistic, but believe me, these things are important in football (goals that is).

{Ed025's Note - it really would depend on the money for me degsy, if he was free or very cheap then it may work, but there is a hell of a lot better out there, I think he would only be a squad player for us, we need game changers and for me he is not one..

Game changers are the key words you say Ed025. Games do change. with goals (he says sarcastically). Pienaar and Osman used to chip in with a few but as everyone seems to be saying. both seem to be losing a bit of pace. I think this is true, but we also miss their goals more. I know I am going on about it all the time, but we have only 4 players who score more than 6 and no more. Rodwell is not one who scores goals. We need attacking mids really. He did score a beaut against Utd, but then the injuries started. I would say no unless he was a bargain on low wages.

If he weren't so prone to injurys he would of developed a lot better, it's been almost impossible for the lad to get Arun of games together and that's hindered him greatly, shame because he could of been a decent player

11 Mar 2014 01:17:09
Been a disappointing weekend rounded off by the fact we would of been favourites to win the cup if we had a positive result, definitely not the freshness or cutting each of the encouNter earlier in the year against a poorer team, most of this down to a stumble in form lately and injurys building up.

It's clear to see we would prob need to spend a fair amount to have a better chance of playing week in week out at a top level yet the chances of us getting investment narrow each day, the ground aside and the fact were are not in London, there are more obvious problems, there are four champs league places with Chelsea and man city as almost certains, then the likes of arsenal and man united that can spend big when needed, leaving Tottenham and Liverpool who can both outspend us easily.

6 into 4 doesn't go and big investors know this so trying to push us on wouldn't even guarantee to the holy grail money of the champs league, this is prob the major sticking point to us not being a viable option currently and for the near future.

Listen mate just because we would of been favourites to win the cup had we gone through does not mean we would have actually won it. Personally i'm pleased we're out as I could have seen wigan beating us in the semi at wembley given our history of choking on such occasions and the mental scars from last years game and that would have been tens times as devastating as saturday which I don't think we could have recovered from.

In my opinion, the cup result - and our form & results since Christmas - have shown RM what our squad is lacking (in terms of poor finishing and the occasional defensive lapses) just as much as our form during the first half of the season showed him the good qualities of our squad (in terms of adapting to his passing & possession style, while being well organised).
If we have a strong finish to the season - and possibly qualify for Europe - then, I for one, will see RM's first season as a very good start to his work-in-progress at Everton.
What he does in the summer transfer window - not only incoming and outgoing moves and loans, but also which U-18 and U-21 players are retained or released - will be absolutely pivotal for us, as I see several clubs challenging for the positions just below the top three or four next season, especially as they all all have the bigger TV money to spend.

Too right. Let's now push on. We're better than Utd and Spurs after their humiliation on Saturday. We've got a game in hand against Utd and two against Spurs. 6th spot will get us Europa and we can certainly gain 5th given a little belief. So let's stop this in-fighting between certain fans on this site and get behind the team. We started well so let's finish well. Let's look to the highest possible finish to celebrate Roberto's first season and rub Moyes's nose in it.

11 Mar 2014 21:28:07
Lets not beat up the squad or martinez for our recent run of form. Of course the squad Is light and our last few run of games we were underdogs, did you really expect to go away to liverpool, chelsea, arsenal and to an extent spurs and win? C'mon let's be realistic, its robertos bedding in season to see where the squad is and identify targets to fill the voids to push us on next season. We all know where we are lacking because we have watched efc for the last 6/7 years while we have been building the team and know what each players qualities are. Obviously 2 strikers are a must spend in the summer, gibbo and oviedo coming back from injury will feel like 2 new signings, not to mention our youth squad stepping up into the 1st team to bolster our numbers. I think europe would be a good thing for our mix of youthful quality and experienced pros, not to mention nothing compares with the away trips champions league or europa league! Plenty of winnable games between now and the end of the season for us to catch the champions league holding places, particularly arsenal who like spurs have the difficult run of teams to play we have just come out of. April will be an important month with both arsenal and man u home games that we must win and further create a fortress at goodison again. The atmosphere could create a huge impression in these games and hope every other evertonian will be shouting their lungs out with me to spur our team to victory. Coyb let's push on and make an impression on this league in the last 10 games!

Well said Craig

It's funny how its Robertos bedding in season all of a sudden despite us playing some really good stuff earlier in the season, the Europa is no good to us, doesn't help the small squad, the bank balance or attract better players. I certainly wuddent want that competition to make us go out and buy a hatful of average joes to make up the numbers

14 Mar 2014 10:30:55
mike we don't need a hatful of average joes to make up the numbers. we will have 4 or 5 youth team who have developed over the past year who are ready to step up to the first team, so we can still sign the 2/3 class players who are going to spur on our 1st team to compete again next season for champions league places if not this year.