Yeah, the poor mouth began to grate on me a bit in the end, and it’s true, some of his ‘big’ money signings proved to be very poor or underwhelming - Richard Wright, Per Kroldrup, James Beattie, Simon Davies, Andy Van Der Meyde, John Heitenga, Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, etc. but overall I think he did some excellent business.
His record signing, Fellaini, at £15 million eventually proved to be an excellent investment when he was sold to Manchester United for £27 Million ( )His other big signing, Yakubu, at £9.5 million was also a decent investment and there could be no doubting his quality, but unfortunately he suffered that dreaded Achilles injury and he never returned to his former pomp…He also developed a rather insatiable appetite for McDonalds during his spell on the sidelines, which really put pay to any hopes of him returning to any sort of decent form. Andy Johnson too at £6.5 million more than paid his way for a season or two, but being labelled a diver by Arsene Wenger really seemed to affect him, particularly when he went through a whole season when refs turned down every single penalty claim for what were undoubted fouls on him, he suffered injury problems too before his Everton career petered out.
It’s true that his best signings were the ones made for relatively small money, Tim Cahill for £1.5 million…Fucking hell, what a signing he proved to be…Arteta, Yobo, Lescott, Howard, Gravesen, Baines, Pienaar are others he got bargain deals on and proved to be wonderful signings. Jagielka at £4 million was well worth the money while the £3 million spent on John Stones has already proved to be an excellent deal. The greatest signing of all will surely prove to be Seamus Coleman at £70,000…Seventy Fucking Thousand. All in all, you’d have to say his record was pretty darn good…
Hopefully the toffees can get out of this sticky situation as they need to keep the pressure on Arsenal against some of teams fighting for survival with us.
Everton being quite hard done by here. Shaw should have been sent off only for an offside to be wrongly called saving him and now Osman has a definite penalty turned down.
Didn’t catch any of the game today but that result has surely fatally wounded any hopes we had of finishing in the top four. Going from the reports I’ve read it was a very poor performance, but some downright bad luck and poor refereeing didn’t help. I’d still expect a big performance against Manchester City, we need a couple of more points to make fifth place certain, and I expect we’ll get at least a point out of that game.
Regarding Baines, I believe he played through injury for a portion of today’s game, but he hasn’t had his best season for us by a long shot, and he’s certainly been outshone by Coleman this season. As a defender, he can be really poor at times, he’s always at his most effective when he and Pienaar are paired up on the left wing; Some of their link up play is excellent and the South African gives him a big dig out defensively.
Great to see Seamus Coleman named in the PFA Team of the Season last night, he has been our most dynamic player all season and is the one who has most improved under Martinez. Others, like Barkley, Lukaku, and Deulofeu have looked world class at times, but have ultimately flattered to deceive, as explained in this home-truth-telling match report from Saturdays game
I can’t see city dropping points in their final two games so I don’t think the outcome of the Everton game will matter overly.
Everton have a lot of injs going into the game sat and even though they have a great record v city they will run them close but I can only see a city win.
I would imagine most Everton fans would want to see an Everton win…
This close season has got to be the best i’ve ever seen, ealry signings, barry, Besic and the mother of then all Big Rom back and a Toffee, couple more loans and I will be looking forward to the new season big style
)His other big signing, Yakubu, at £9.5 million was also a decent investment and there could be no doubting his quality, but unfortunately he suffered that dreaded Achilles injury and he never returned to his former pomp…He also developed a rather insatiable appetite for McDonalds during his spell on the sidelines, which really put pay to any hopes of him returning to any sort of decent form. Andy Johnson too at £6.5 million more than paid his way for a season or two, but being labelled a diver by Arsene Wenger really seemed to affect him, particularly when he went through a whole season when refs turned down every single penalty claim for what were undoubted fouls on him, he suffered injury problems too before his Everton career petered out.
