*Shakes head* Everton again.

[Chip Butty]

They are obsessed

Continual  Decline's 

 

OBSESSION

 

For them

 

Newport, Powys, Llandudno

[an tha]

Under the Liverbird, forever in our shadow.

Stole this and used it on comments on article on echo site...

 

Bites galore.

 

If i was a fisherman the EU would be pulling me about quotas.

 

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/everton-given-go-ahead-royal-14291441#comments-section

[magicrat]

Should of called it Gary Mac.

 

Maybe Big Mac 

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Not quite. In Portugal, 3 teams have a chance of winning the league.

And those teams are regularly spotted in the knockout stages of the Champions League.

[manwiththestick]

 

Every once in a while when we're doing well it's nice to pop over to good old GOT to taste the latest in schadenfreude.

 

Today really delivers. Had no idea, but apparently we're in crisis!

 

 

 

Is this from the same beaut who rolled through all of Salah's goals last season and dismissed them all in an attempt to prove he was crap and a waste of money? Last night's wouldn't have counted as he was only two yards from goal.

 

It has to be the same guy as I refuse to believe there are two people on this level of bitterness and delusion.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

 

Every once in a while when we're doing well it's nice to pop over to good old GOT to taste the latest in schadenfreude.

 

Today really delivers. Had no idea, but apparently we're in crisis!

 

 

Even if you ignore last night, our league form over the last 10 games is matched only by Citeh.

 

We could do with more crises like this.

[Pidge]

Is this from the same beaut who rolled through all of Salah's goals last season and dismissed them all in an attempt to prove he was crap and a waste of money? Last night's wouldn't have counted as he was only two yards from goal.

 

It has to be the same guy as I refuse to believe there are two people on this level of bitterness and delusion.

 

Haha, the kind of critique that would call Suarez against Newcastle a tap in...

[Ranxerox]

Every once in a while when we're doing well it's nice to pop over to good old GOT to taste the latest in schadenfreude.

 

Today really delivers. Had no idea, but apparently we're in crisis!

 

Fuck me the bitter that wrote that could get a job in the Trump Admin.

[Harry Squatter]

Some Evertonian in work was going on about Duncan Ferguson today and how much of a legend he was. He only got into double figures twice in his Everton career and scored a total of 60 goals. So in just over half a season Salah has scored half of Big Duncs career total for both of his spells at Everton. Plus he's not even a striker.

 

This article sums up his mediocrity.

 

EVERTON PLAYERS » PROFILESDuncan Ferguson

 

When a desperate Mike Walker recruited two Rangers players for a month's loan in October 1994 in a bid to arrest an alarming run of games without a win that had sent Everton tumbling to the bottom of the Premiership, most Evertonians knew more about midfielder Ian Durrant than towering striker Duncan Ferguson.

 

However, a month later, after Walker had been sent packing and Joe Royle had assumed control of the Goodison hotseat, it was Ferguson to whom the new manager turned to form the bedrock of his fledgling tenure. The 6' 4" Scot was signed for £4m and Everton folklore was about to be augmented by the Duncan Ferguson saga.

 

Having started his career at Carse Thistle, Ferguson broke into the Dundee United team at the age of 18. A call up to the Scotland U-21s was followed in 1992 with a summons to the full national side for the game against the United States. Still relatively unproven at the higher levels, Dundee United received, and turned down, £3m bids from Bayern Munich, Leeds United and Chelsea before Walter Smith decided to break the then British transfer record and bring Ferguson to Ibrox Park for £4m.

 

A torrid spell of suspensions and injuries restricted Ferguson to just 14 appearances and 2 goals before he was loaned to Walker's struggling Everton in the autumn of 1994 along with team-mate Durrant. Neither player had much of an impact on the Toffeemen's fortunes and Walker was dismissed that November, but Royle had clearly seen something in him and decided that Ferguson was worth keeping and snapped him up for £4.4m.

 

Ferguson's impact was immediate; on his full debut he scored the first goal in a now-famous 2-0 home win over Liverpool that kick-started a three-game winning streak and set the Blues on their way to safety from relegation and an FA Cup the following May. 8 goals that season, scored in just 23 appearances, turned "Big Dunc" into a Goodison idol as he helped the Blues to the semi-finals of the FA Cup. The rest of the squad took over from there, setting up a substitute's appearance for an unfit Ferguson in the triumphant final against Manchester United, the team Ferguson had consigned to defeat earlier in the season with a fine headed goal that typified his style.

 

The 1995-96 season started full of promise for Everton with the arrival of Andrei Kanchelskissignalling the beginning of a mouth-watering partnership with Ferguson. However, a dislocated shoulder forced the flying Ukrainian onto the sidelines and when he returned Ferguson was either injured with a prolonged hernia problem or in prison and suspended for the head butting of Raith Rovers' John McStay in April 1994. Royle claimed that, had he had Ferguson and Kanchelskis playing together for the full season, Everton would definitely have achieved European qualification at least. As it was, a goal by Dennis Bergkamp 6 minutes from time against relegated Bolton meant that Arsenal took the final UEFA Cup place on the last day of that season.

 

The 1996-97 campaign started well for Ferguson who was raring to go. Three phenomenal performances in the opening games of the season, the 2-2 draw at Old Trafford in particular when Duncan blasted Everton into a 2-0 lead, were unfortunately followed by a troublesome knee injury that required keyhole surgery and restricted him to the sidelines. Nevertheless he returned to help the club avoid the spectre of relegation after Joe Royle resigned in March 1997.

 

After the farcical search for Royle's successor in the summer of 1997, it appeared as though Duncan had been struck by the disappointment the fans had been enduring in recent months. The form and maturity he showed for the first half of the season demonstrated a will to repay the adulation of the Everton faithful under the fresh start offered by Howard Kendall's return to the Goodison hotseat. By Christmas, Ferguson had been handed the captaincy and as the team slid back into relegation danger, his worth to the team was emphasised beyond doubt when he was suspended for three games in February and March 1998. A team stripped of his inspiration and talismanic leadership looked hopelessly bereft of direction.

 

International honours would be the natural progression for any other player but in 1997, Duncan Ferguson informed the Scottish FA that he would no longer be representing his country at international level, a gesture of defiance at his treatment by the SFA in 1996 when they upheld a 12-match ban on top of his prison sentence.

 

Having led Everton to the brink of relegation in 1997-98, Kendall was forced out by then chairman Peter Johnson and Ferguson's former boss Walter Smith was appointed as his successor. His arrival and Johnson's promise of cash for player reinforcements heralded the opportunity for a new start at Goodison. Scrapping for Premiership survival was no longer satisfactory but Ferguson's towering presence and effectiveness in the air meant the team still relied on him as the number one outlet from defence.

 

With the likes of midfield playmakers like Nick Barmby, John Collins and Don Hutchison being by-passed by the route-one tactics and opposition defences having learned how to deal with Ferguson, the Blues' results suffered; discontent set in. That disquiet intensified in a 3rd Round League Cup penalty shoot-out with First Division Sunderland when Captain Ferguson refused to take a spot-kick. Everton crashed out of the competition and a week later, Ferguson was gone.

 

In an effort to appease the bankers, Ferguson was sold by Johnson — right from under the feet of manager Walter Smith. Behind the scenes at an evening game with Newcastle United, negotiations were held with the same club to transfer Duncan to St James' Park for £8m. The shockwaves from the reaction from the supporters — they were furious, not so much with the fact that Ferguson that he had been sold but more with the manner of his sale — forced Johnson to finally see sense and step down as chairman, while the cash raised from the deal went straight into easing the club's overdraft. An era had ended.

 

Despite his imperfections, his horrendous injury record and the volatile streak that reared its ugly head all too often, his proud record against Liverpool and his commitment beyond the call of duty at times ensured that the man with the famous Everton tattoo would go down in Everton folklore. The supporters were probably content to close that chapter in Everton's history, but Ferguson was back at Goodison in August 2000.

 

After two injury-ravaged years at Newcastle and with Everton facing the prospect of being without goalscoring hero Kevin Campbell for the first few months of the 2000-01 season, Ferguson was re-signed by Everton, this time by new owner Bill Kenwright. While many understood the romantic sentiment of bringing the "talisman" home, it seemed as though only a minority of fans actually agreed that bringing Ferguson's injury problems back was a good idea, not least because of the effect it might have on Everton's style of play. Worse, it later transpired that the £3.75m Everton paid Newcastle for his services was gambled on the successful conclusion of a media deal with NTL that was never signed.

 

The irony of re-signing a player known for his injury problems to replace another injured player was seemingly lost on Messrs Kenwright and Smith. Ferguson was duly injured in only the second appearance of his return spell with the Blues. He was in and out of the team that season with recurrent injury problems that required surgery, but he still managed to weigh in with 6 goals in 13 appearances to help Everton stave off the the threat of relegation once more.

 

Ferguson, much like his pigeon-fancying off-the-field persona, remained a frustrating enigma. While he gradually curtailed the wilder side of his nature that attracted regular attention from referees, he seemed to have lost much of his motivation, mobility and hunger for the Everton cause. After more fitful attempts to regain full fitness, however, the cause of the "Big Yin's" chronic injury problems was finally identified: a compressed sciatic nerve, a condition that the Everton physio surmised he had probably struggled through for four years with pain manifesting itself in the leg, back, pelvis or groin and was, therefore, very hard to diagnose.

 

Ferguson eventually regained reasonable match fitness and began to score goals again in 2003-04, many from the penalty spot but his infamous red mist descended again in a niggly game at Leicesterwhen as he was sent off for two yellows, and, in an enduring image, he proceeded to strangle Steffen Freund in frustration.

 

In the summer of 2004, Everton tried to buy off the last year of his contract — about £2m in salary — for a paltry £½m. Big Dunc, as you'd expect, turned it down and adopted a new role as a substitute to sustain David Moyes's assault on the top of the Premiership. It was enough to earn him a contract extension the following summer but his final season was largely disappointing, soured by the controversial decision by Pierlugi Collini to disallow a goal at Villarreal that might have sent the Toffees into the Champions League. The now 34 year-old Ferguson avoided the unwanted destinction of becoming the first Everton No.9 not to score in a season when he netted a late penalty against West Bromwich Albion on his final appearance in May 2006.

 

Ferguson's legacy at Goodison Park is something that has occupied Evertonians for years and the debate over his status as an Everton Legend has never truly been settled. His occasionally costly ill-discipline, his recurrent injuries, patchy appearance record and that infamous rejection of responsibility in the League Cup against Sunderland in 1998 have all been used in the case against him as a true club legend worthy of Gwladys Street's Hall of Fame.

 

He unquestionably had an idol-like status at the club, though, during some of its darkest days. He was instrumental in the season under Royle in which Everton were transformed from relegation certainties to mid-table safety and also in the FA Cup run that took the Blues to the semi-finals against Leeds before injury prevented him from taking part in two of the club's more famous days since the formation of the Premier League.

 

As a symbol of the club's defiance in the face of its decline in the 1990s, Ferguson will always remain close to the hearts of Evertonians and his return from self-imposed exile from the game to take up a coaching role at Finch Farm cemented his credentials as a man for whom nothing was ever the same once Everton touched him. With ambitions to one day become a manager, the door remains open for "Big Dunc" to finally fit that title of Legend without any doubt.

[Strontium]

I read something like that and just feel incredibly sad. What a bunch.

[Trumo]

Still relatively unproven at the higher levels, Dundee United received, and turned down, £3m bids from Bayern Munich, Leeds United and Chelsea before Walter Smith decided to break the then British transfer record and bring Ferguson to Ibrox Park for £4m.

 

We did something equally stupid by spunking £35m (a record for a British player) on Andy Carroll. He has also spent most of the subsequent time on the sidelines with injury, and has a mediocre goal record for a player for who has fetched more than £50m in transfer fees. The difference is, we realised pretty quickly that we had a dud on our hands whereas Everton have revelled in the mediocrity of Big Dunk, signing him twice. Probably because he scored a few against der redshite.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

I never get tired of pointing out that Druncan's Everton record (games played and goals scored) is very similar to Heskey's Liverpool record; except Big Em did it in just a couple of years and picked up 4 major trophies, while the Barlinnie bellend took 12 years and has one medal to show for it.

[Bjornebye]

Maybe Big Mac

Rumours that kfc on county oadhas ran out of gravy and chicken. Surprised it took so long

[Trumo]

The thing is, outside of Everton, all anybody knows about Big Dunk is that he's assaulted a few people, headbutted a player on the pitch and done jail time for it, and put Steffen Freund in a choke hold.

[manwiththestick]

That article couldn't be more grasping for positives than if it was written about Hitler.

[Harry Squatter]

I know loads of them who believe he is a genuine legend and personifies their clubs spirit. He's mediocre, could never score more than 12 a season, refused to take a pen in a shootout, always fucking injured and took millions out of the club. It's only because he scored a few goals in a derby.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

I read something like that and just feel incredibly sad. What a bunch.

It reads like it was written by someone from here. It's a hagiography that still makes the subject come across as a cunt, highlights his unimpressive scoring record, hints that his "legend" status rests on their obsession with us and even includes a gratuitous mention of Collina.

[Captain Turdseye]

I know loads of them who believe he is a genuine legend and personifies their clubs spirit. He's mediocre, could never score more than 12 a season, refused to take a pen in a shootout, always fucking injured and took millions out of the club. It's only because he scored a few goals in a derby.

And most importantly, he's got an Everton tattoo.

[Paulie Dangerously]

Might ask work bloo how many goals he scored "wasn't it about a hundred?"

[Bamo]

 

Sums him and the club spirit nicely

[Lee909]

He scored 8 goals in just 23 games though

[Creator Supreme]

What the fuck is up with them? I mean they used to hate Kenny but at least they used to appreciate how good he was. Has the bitterness overwhelmed them now?

[Sputnik1]

 

 

What the fuck is up with them? I mean they used to hate Kenny but at least they used to appreciate how good he was. Has the bitterness overwhelmed them now?

 

You need to ask?

[Jockey]

If we had American style gun 'control' almost every mass shooting would be carried out by an Evertonian.

 

I am sure of that. 

[Sputnik1]

 

 

If we had American style gun 'control' almost every mass shooting would be carried out by an Evertonian.

 

I am sure of that. 

 

If they're anything like their team with shots on target then we're all pretty safe.