Ron B

I can’t get excited by Amorim - the case for him seems to rely on getting really excited about what his CV looked like 18 months ago. Maybe it’s going to be a second league title this season (and, to be fair, they are just about still top of the table), otherwise it’ll be just one title in four years which is hardly world-shaking. Then again, I look at everyone else on the list and I’m not surprised that he’s emerging as the consensus candidate. I’ve gone for Ancelotti, who has a habit of winning trophies and not upending what already works.

As I’ve said already, 777 may* have simply handed them a high-interest loan with the intention of never buying the Bloos. It’s generally accepted that the loan is all dependent on the takeover going through. If it doesn’t, 777 get their money back - with a big wad of interest. They’ve got Everton over a barrel, as the club doesn’t have enough cash to keep going. And 777 have it in their own power to present themselves as failing the Premier League’s takeover rules - they control their own fate. 777 get their pay day, then Everton suffer a complete meltdown, or an alternative buyer steps in and 777 get their payday. It’s like a leveraged buy-out without needing the hassle of actually buying anything! *All conjecture, but worth a thought!

Haha, Josemi made it about himself; Moron made it about some twat who had nothing to do with LFC and who had died as a result of driving like a prick. I see pictures of Moron celebrating and it pisses me off. I see pictures of Josemi celebrating and can’t remember who he is until I laugh while recalling that he was so bad we swapped him for Jan Kromkamp.

Whereas Moshiri has been succeeding with his goal to FUTT.

Because Souness was so bad at transfers that Paul Stewart - the worst piece of transfer business in our history - barely sticks out. We’d had decades of quality goalkeepers… and then a protracted period of being unable to decide between an ageing Grobelaar, Calamity James and Mike Hooper. He also tried to buy Tim Flowers and was very publicly rejected - a recurring theme. Selling Steve Staunton because of the three-foreigner rule might have made sense, if he didn’t then buy some absolute garbage foreigners like Torben Pieknik and Istvan Kozma. Mike Marsh and David Burrows weren’t greats, but he binned them both in exchange for Julian fucking Dicks. He sold Peter Beardsley, faffed about with Dean Saunders, and ended up with Nigel Clough. Neil Ruddock was a fat pig, while Mark Walters was so-so and he tried to replace him with Andy Sinton who also blew us off. His only transfer successes were Rob Jones, Stig Bjornebye (eventually) and arguably Mark Wright and Michael Thomas. Dreadful. If I lived through that, I can probably cope with Naby Keita being underwhelming and Thiago being a crock.

So it’s Get Fucked Now versus Get Fucked Later? If so, I can see the appeal of a delay.

There is a case for Southgate. He develops young players. He’s capable of improving good players and (the Ben White Mystery aside) those players seem to be loyal to him. England had been dreadful for years (and got worse with each tournament) under The Owl, before he transformed the team into perpetual challengers. He’s been the most successful England manager bar Sir Alf. Everyone likes to pretend he’s too loyal - particularly to Maguire - but England simply don’t have many good central defenders. Southgate dropped Rooney and Hart immediately, binned Dele Ali long before he became so bad his name was prefixed with the words “Everton flop”, and had no hesitation about binning former regulars like Eric Dier or Sterling. Southgate wouldn’t be my first pick as manager, but with every passing day I become more convinced that Xavi is the man, and fear more that we won’t get him. Southgate’s England record is more enticing to me than one Portuguese title in three seasons, or “Was better in than Graham Potter was at Brighton”.

Paul Stewart outstrips Aquilani, Benteke and Carroll. We got rid of Beardsley, who still had the better part of a decade left in him as a First Division/Premier League player. Souness broke the transfer record to replace him with Dean Saunders, who scored 23 goals - but most of them were against some Finnish side in the UEFA Cup. Souness then decided to get rid of Saunders at a loss (when he had even longer left in him in as a Premier League player than Beardsley did) and spent every penny of his fee on Paul Stewart, who was so bad he was sent out on loan four times before leaving on a fee. I know the guy had terrible off-field issues that none of us knew about at the time. But, pound for pound and going by the going rate in 1992, he was the biggest waste of money in the club’s history. Even Diouf was binned more quickly.

There’s been a few instances where Klopp has maybe seemed a bit too loyal to certain players (allowing Albert Moron to act the prick with his t-shirt tribute to that wanker Reyes, holding onto Degsy and Ox when they weren’t doing it anymore, not making any appreciable effort to bin Naby when he clearly wasn’t going to come good and Lallana when he was evidently made of matchsticks). But the pay-off to that has been the players being incredibly loyal to him, and he’s never persevered with anyone to the point where it’s affected us on the pitch. I love Rafa, but I’m not sure any players had boundless personal loyalty to him. I’ve also got personal reasons to rate Rodgers as a man, but I suspect one or two players thought he was a bit of a wally by the end.

One middle-aged warrior-poet who ended up at the negotiating table at the Versailles Conference

Igor Biscan looking like a middle-aged warrior-poet who ended up at the negotiating table at the Versailles Conference…

Aye, Rosenthal was like an Exocet when he arrived on loan - 7 goals in 8 games. And then he was rubbish, with only 14 goals in three-and-a-half years. In hindsight it was a mistake to make his loan signing permanent. As for the youngsters? There were some real gems there, but Harkness, Hutchison and Redknapp hadn’t played a competitive game before Kenny left; Bugsy Burrows had a couple of years fighting it out for the left-back spot but his so-so subsequent career suggests he was carried along by the high tide of how good the rest of the team was; and Jones and Cousins just show how easy it is for a promising youngster to disappear between the cracks. That leaves Speedie, Carter and Hysen, who all started well and then dropped off. Either Kenny was too loyal to that amazing 87-88 team, or he’d lost his eye for a player and just bought tripe ‘n’ kids. I lean towards the first explanation.

I don’t know if I’d agree with that narrative about Dalglish not being supported towards the end. McMahon was being chased by Sampdoria, and Dalglish offered him a new five-year deal. We also pinned Barnesy down to a new contract when various big foreign sides were said to be circling (albeit I don’t know that any of them made a bid). It made sense to let Big Jan go if we had a replacement, as he was only starting to rot on the bench - but not if we couldn’t nail a replacement first, which we didn’t so he stayed put. That only leaves Beardsley, with a deal agreed with Marseille for a bonkers sum; he didn’t fancy it though, and that’s one of the more believable reasons why he and Kenny are said to have fallen out. We weren’t a particularly commercial operation off the pitch back in the day (I’m sure plenty of folks here have memories of the ramshackle club shop). United were Megatore FC and we laughed at them for doing so whilst never getting close to the title. Then they converted their cash into trophies and we were left chasing shadows. That maybe left Kenny short of Ferguson-levels of cash, but I suspect a bigger issue is that he became a shade too loyal to the team, partly because he’d been with many of them for so long, and partly because they’d all been through Hillsborough together. Rushie was probably the last good signing, but fundamentally we spent a lot of money after the summer of 1987 and very little of it improved the first team for more than a few months (or, in the case of some decent youngsters, didn’t improve the team for several years). Here’s a list of Kenny’s final 12 signings from his last two-and-half years - how many made us better? Tanner, Rush, Burrows, Barry Jones, Hysen, Harkness, Rosenthal, Cousins, Hutchison, Carter, Redknapp and Speedie.

My understanding has always been this (it contradicts some but not all of the above): Rush’s return was a surprise to the media at the time - when the press conference was called, most of the journos were expecting it to be to announce Pallister had signed. Gazza was asked to wait a year in 1988. However, it wouldn’t have been a shock if he had gone to Old Trafford as they were absolutely huge spenders at that point - it’s not just that they gave Ferguson seven years to win his for at title but he outspent everyone by miles most summers. Hysen was considered to be a massive coup in 1989 as the Mancs had been after him too. Mabbutt himself has said he turned us down. It was 1987 I think, possibly 88; he’d come to the end of his deal at Spurs, and to choose between signing a new contract or joining us and letting a tribunal set the fee. We can’t blame the board for McAllister - Dalglish agreed a fee but he joined Leeds instead because (by his own admission) he didn’t think he could supplant McMahon and Whelan. As a result the deal to sell Big Jan to Barcelona was pulled too.

Hypothesis*: 1/777 know they can’t afford to buy Everton. 2/777 know they can’t afford to own Everton, who are haemorrhaging money and won’t stop doing so any time soon. 3/777 know that Morishi is desperate to sell, and that the club can barely survive from one month to the next. So… 777 decided to begin takeover talks, loan money at a ludicrous rate of interest so that the club can keep going whilst talks continue, with the intention of the deal never actually going ahead, before 777 get all their loans back plus a massive wad of interest. If that’s their play then it’s brilliant - all the benefits of owning a football club (rinsing it for cash, a degree of credibility for an iffy company) but none of the hassle of actually owning a football club. And of course, all the Bloos fans will blame the FA/the Premier League/Morishi/Rafa Benitez for the deal being called off, and their team’s subsequent financial meltdown, long before they get angry at 777. *Translation: Obviously I can’t prove a word of this. But hear me out anyway.

From that same Everton team there’s Dave Watson; probably wouldn’t have quite squeezed into our 80s side if he’d stuck around, but had a good career at Norwich before heading to Goodison and winning the league. Had four years in and out of the England squad too. Same era, different profile - Frank McGarvey scored for fun with Celtic after flipping horribly with us. Barry Venison enjoyed his time with Newcastle, Southampton and in Turkey than he would have done if he’d stayed under Souness, and somehow became an international footballer for a bit. Nigel Spackman won loads in Scotland, and was still kicking around at Chelsea as they started to threaten to become good.

A better analogy would be “It’s like fining ordinary people for visiting relatives during lockdown, whilst the Prime Minister held a fucking party in Downing Street”.

Not wanting to tempt fate, but if Coventry lose the final to anyone else who qualifies for Europe via another route (preferably us!) would they be in Europe next season?

Lee Clark has a gob on him? Surely not… https://www.wsc.co.uk/stories/focus-on-lee-clark-newcastles-fan-favourite-who-became-a-sunderland-villain/

Delighted to read that the wanker out of Boyzone got ripped off too; he’s just been in the news pretending that Taylor Swift is a devil-worshipper. Absolute tool.

A quick check on Wikipedia (so correct me if I’m wrong…) suggests this is the longest they’ve ever gone without a trophy.

Lovely stuff there, @Bourbon

Given the boot by Celta Vigo. If this is the end of the line for him then it’s a sad note to end on. Istanbul doesn’t feel that long ago in some ways; in others it feels like a million years ago - it’s just coming up to 20 years since he was appointed, which is roughly the equivalent of the time between Bob being appointed and Souness getting the elbow. Good luck with whatever the future holds, Rafa.

And after all these years, you’ve finally let the cat out of the bag…

Bit harsh. The Championship is one of the wealthiest and most competitive leagues in Europe.