10 Dec 2014 11:51:06
I saw a few posts below where people were discussing fixtures and glass half empty comments were used. ie we would struggle up until Christmas at least. I have to say that it really depends on fitness levels, injuries and form of certain key players. I would like to add my own version of the glass half empty to the state of our squad in general. I will include some points that I have previously made and see if people now understand what I was previously saying.
We now have players "out of contract" at the end of this season or the one after. Others are coming to the end of their playing careers and will only at the best be bit part players. These include Osman, Distin, Alcaraz, Hibbert, Mirallas, Howard, Jagielka, Barry, Pienaar, Eto'o. The point I am making is that in the next two years the spine of our squad will need replacing. Even without replacing one or two of these players and keeping them going an extra season or two, we are going to need a lot of players coming in. We need to sign a crop of youngster who can contribute as soon as signed. I believe we need at least 8 players within 2 seasons who can come in and hit the ground running as the saying goes. So far RM has signed two players who contribute with goals. Lukaku and Eto'o. His other signings averaging 1 each a season. We therefore need to sign probably 4 players who will contribute with goals and a couple of quality center backs. My glass is half empty because I think this is going to be a really difficult task and I am not sure RM has the ability to do this. Now the bit to wind you all up. that was what Moyes was good at.

1.) 10 Dec 2014
10 Dec 2014 12:25:29
Yes moyes was really good when he had to do something quickly when under pressure, the liverpool semi final, the chelsea final, every game at utd, liverpool, arsenal and chelsea. The bottling one, but hey let's not get into it, its a lovely mixed day out there today so let's calm it down a bit. Look at the bright side, liverpool are in the europa league haha, which will probably mean they knock us out but again, be happy.

2.) 10 Dec 2014
10 Dec 2014 12:28:41
And again we are back to goals, moyes made barkley (according to you) and he does f all so are you in agreement we should sell him and he's awful?. Because he doesn't get 20 a season, is he not good enough, you know, like you did last season with EVERY SINGLE player

3.) 10 Dec 2014
10 Dec 2014 15:36:46
Considering this instance that Moyes was good in the transfer market, particularly at buying cheap players to hit the ground running and perform for us, the possibility that we could find a coach similar who heads up the transfer market with our scouting system to identify players to sign, leaving important matters like coaching, team selection, tactics etc to RM. We all know RM has signed the ex wigan players and other proven players from prem clubs such as romelu and barry, he also has aquired players from overseas such as etoo, but most of these are not unknown quantities when joining us like Moyes signings such as Arteta, Cahill, Jagielka, Lescott, Pienaar, oviedo, mirallas, stones the list is endless, Moyes did bring in players who were proven in the Prem during his era such as Baines and Yakubu to name a couple, but most were not signings were not in the top tier but made the grade for a number of years for us. The point I'm trying to make is we don't really know what RM is like in the transfer market at finding hidden gems as he has not aquired any yet, the next transfer windows in January and the summer are likely to prove whether he can perform in the market as he has purchased as I would believe all the ex wigan players who he believed would perform for us, and the proven perm players who were bought from tv money and the sale of fellaini. Now we need quite a few players replacing and don't have the financial backing to throw £100 mill at the squad in one fell swoop like the shower across the park, he will need to be shrewd in the transfer market to replace the aging squad over the summer, in particular distan, osman, barry, howard. granted we have players in the squad who could probably replace ageing players at present such as stones replacing distan, besic replacing barry and barkley replacing osman, consider if this was to happen we would need back up players for the squad for the eventuality that distan barry and osman either retire or are released.

4.) 10 Dec 2014
10 Dec 2014 17:16:08
Yep Moyes bought all those great players and we still won sod all. We are where we are because of what we can afford as a club. Cities training ground is worth more than Goodison for felks sake.

5.) 11 Dec 2014
Thanks Huytonbluecraig, I think you understood the jist of my post. Yes we have no dosh. Yes we are going to need to over haul our squad massively. Yes we had a manager who was good at identifying gems from unlikely places that could slip straight into the squad. And Swan, re your comments and questions, firstly we were pretty close with Moyes. Finals and semis spring to mind and considering he was working on a shoestring compared to Chelsea, Utd etc I thought he did pretty well. Especially when you think back to when he took over and we were in the bottom 3 with like 5 games to go. Thereafter we were top 6 regularly and into semis and finals. The strength of the squad was much better when he left. So far I see no signs of trophies under RM and the football we are playing now is dross compared to the team Moyes left. Don't get me wrong, I really want RM to succeed and I also lost patience with Moyes with the way he left and subsequent comments from him. Your comment about Barkley is totally irrelevant. My post is on about who we should bring in due to players retiring.not who we should get rid of. I don't want to get rid of anyone. This is a mistake a lot of people make. In professional football, you only "get rid" of someone if you have a better player already in. We need a 25 man squad who in theory can all get on the team sheet at some stage. Barkley is very much one of these players. All the others I listed in my first post will not be around in 2 seasons (and I forgot to mention Kone) So in total we will have 11 players who are currently very much part of the team retiring. Like I said in the original post. that is a hell of a lot of players to bring in and based on RM's success in the transfer market so far, I am not 100% sure he is up to the job. Swan, remember our little bet last season? We will judge how RM is doing 10 games in. That's what we agreed when I last posted my fears. Look at the table. Look at the quality of football. Look at our signings. Bloody hell, my glass is only a quarter full now!

6.) 11 Dec 2014
11 Dec 2014 12:28:33
I do remember our bet, and I remember scrapping it after the chelsea game because of how bad we were, I've stated above we will be lucky to finish top ten. I honestly think you have david moyes posters on your wall, you seem in love with him and his favourites like osman, i'm guessing you loved neville too. Its all done, he's gone, if you want him back, write to bill, forget what most everton fans think, you go for it son

7.) 12 Dec 2014
Glad you remember the bet. I think I scrapped it when we signed Lukaku. I thought our "lack of goalscorers" would be replaced by his and Mirallas's goals. As it happens, the reasons we are struggling are quite easy to identify. We are conceding too many goals. I don't understand why, but we are not defending well as a team. A couple of goals can be put down to individuals, but overall our usual well organised defence looks vulnerable quite often. Add to this injuries to key players who were scoring goals when injured. mainly Naismith and Mirallas. then that's why we are struggling. Together with a terrible re season onganisation. I think all these factors have accumulated to put us where we are. Re Osman and Moyes. as much as I love(d) them, you hate Howard, Osman and Pienaar with as much vengence I think. But we are both still Blues!