Ron B

When the system suited him and the team were doing well, he was a good player. When Everton were struggling and needed a talisman, not so much. His last three seasons tell it well enough - he should have been at his peak (age 27-30), but managed 16 goals over 86 games. He was still a handful, but that sort of return is why Everton stopped winning things.

Graeme Sharp - 10 years as a first team player for Everton. Didn’t even get into double figures for league goals for half of those seasons. Mediocre clubs stand by mediocre players who haven’t been up to standard in years.

Outdated thinking. It’s a squad game nowadays. Reckon we’ll struggle to get a player in a combined 23 now

This says a great deal about Ten Haag, considering how many of these signings played under him at Ajax…

I don’t think he’s a bad player. But it’s not easy for any newbie to shine when they’re surrounded by a dozen other new arrivals or whatever the figure was at Chelsea this summer. They seem to be in a state of perpetual revolution so if Klopp really rates him he’ll probably be available for £40million in a couple of summers’ time.

Great find, cheers. Pretty bleak to be behind Leicester (only one good season in 20-plus years of the Premier League, even if it was an absolute blinder, and frequently in the second tier or lower). Leeds, Villa and Blackburn have only been fitfully decent too.

Not that I can be arsed to research, but how many days have Everton spent, top of the league, since the Prem began? Surely they must have been top at some point, even if only for a few days after an opening day win.

Shocking news about 777. Please ensure that you’re not halfway up a ladder or performing surgery when you read this, as you may go lightheaded. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/oct/02/evertons-prospective-new-owners-have-fifa-sanction-over-unpaid-transfer-fees Fresh concerns have been raised over 777 Partners, Everton’s prospective new owners, after another of their clubs failed to meet payments on three transfers costing a total of around €5.2m (£4.5m). Brazilian side Vasco da Gama were hit with a transfer ban by Fifa on Friday after three clubs – Lille, Nacional of Uruguay and Atlético Tucumán of Argentina – notified world football’s governing body that they had not received fees for Léo Jardim, José Luis Rodríguez and Manuel Capasso respectively. Capasso joined Vasco for €1.4m in February, Rodríguez signed for €1.8m in January and, although the fee for Jardim was undisclosed, Lille were due to receive a reported €2m for their goalkeeper in January. Vasco, who are 70% owned by 777, missed a deadline to complete payments on all three deals before being sanctioned by Fifa. In a statement, the governing body said: “The club Vasco de Gama is currently prevented from registering new players due to an outstanding debt. The relevant ban will be lifted immediately upon the settlement of the debt being confirmed by the creditor concerned.”While the Brazilian transfer window is closed until January, giving Vasco time to make the overdue payments and get the ban lifted, their predicament raises more questions over 777’s resources as it attempts to buy Everton from Farhad Moshiri. The Miami-based company, which was late with a £900,000 payment to the British Basketball League this year, prompting an ongoing investigation by the BBL into its co-owners, needs approval from the Premier League, Football Association and the Financial Conduct Authority to complete its takeover of Everton. The deal for Moshiri’s 94.1% shareholding is understood to be performance-based, with the British-Iranian billionaire unlikely to get the £500m he was seeking for the club, but 777 still need to provide proof of funding to the Premier League, repay a £140m loan to MSP Sports Capital and secure the approximate £200m required to complete work on Everton’s new stadium at Bramley Moore dock. The club has outstanding loans in excess of £350m in total, including a recent £20m loan from 777 for short-term working capital, and faces a serious financial crisis unless a takeover proceeds. Moshiri has stopped propping up the struggling Premier League club having invested over £750m for little reward since 2016. Josh Wander and Steven Pasko, the co-founders of 777, and its CEO, Don Dransfield, were at Goodison Park on Saturday to see Everton lose 2-1 to Luton, their fourth consecutive home league defeat, the club’s worst run from the start of a season at home since 1958. The investment firm currently has seven football clubs in its portfolio – Vasco, Genoa, Sevilla, Hertha Berlin, Standard Liege, Red Star in France and Melbourne Victory.

Some lovely stuff about the FFP investigation in GOT. The main motifs seem to be “There’s no way we should be punished, even if we are guilty” and “It’s everyone else’s fault, not ours.” But here’s some highlights. “It shouldn’t be a points deduction. Financial naughtiness should only result in a points deduction if it’s… the sort of financial naughtiness we haven’t been found guilty of.” “No, it shouldn’t be a financial penalty either. Whilst we’ve cheated financially, we’re so inept that we’re massively in debt and haemorrhaging money. So fining us wouldn’t be fair either.” “Well I blame the Premier League. We should have been stopped. You know - in the same way that burglars get to argue in court that you can only prosecute them for their first break-in, as it’s the police’s fault for not catching them immediately afterwards and stopping them committing more crimes.” “I agree. We’ve broken the rules for years now. There’s no way you can punish someone if they’ve broken the rules for that long. After a certain amount of time you just have to let them get away with it in perpetuity.” “If we get punished it won’t be because we broke the rules. It will be because we’re such a sad sack of a club that they feel that they can make an example of us. Our only hope is that we’re so bad at football they won’t bother.” “I agree with your conclusion. But maybe our best hope is that if they punish us they’ll also have to punish a team who are good at football - like Manchester City.” “Yeah. There no way they can punish us. That would mean punishing so many teams that are more successful and better supported than us. Teams like Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth.” “I can’t find a way of blaming the Red Scum for this. So let’s turn it back to Kenwright.” “You know what? Our new owners mean we’ll be fine. We’ve never put all our hopes in a rich new owner before, only for them to make things much worse. 777 taking over means everything will be fine.”

Phil Jones is available on a free. He’d fit in nicely.

Ha, came here to share the very same video. The new Ronnie Whelan - nobody’s favourite player, does important stuff whilst rarely catching the eye compared to others.

Agree. Early doors, it looks like we’ll at least have a 50% success rate from this summer’s transfer signings, and none of them look like clear misses (albeit it’s very, very early to say). Any other club in the world would be delighted to have such a success rate. But I do question whether we’re going to really pine for Michael Edwards if our handling of transfers doesn’t return to its previous state.

Maybe Big Jan and Craig Johnston in the late 80s, after Houghton and Barnesy came in and the midfield was overhauled.

Cheyrou was OK, he just never got out of second gear, with sone very mediocre performances that when we already had plenty of quality in centre mid. Diouf was the equivalent of going at fifth gear with the handbrake on, absolutely knackering everything else. Diao was the equivalent of something that looked like a fine vehicle but when you turned the ignition on it didn’t have any tyres on the wheels. I’ve clearly taken this metaphor far further than it withstand, but basically Cheyrou was only the third worst signing that (dreadful) summer so I’ll leave him out of my five worst of all time.

You could make a case for most teams being (subjectively) awful if you know enough about them, at whatever level. The worst bits about Luton are from 30-40 years ago, the days of the plastic pitch and a chairman who made Ken Bates look like Father Christmas (although I suppose if you squinted a bit when looking at Ken…). Luton were founder members of the Premier League but never got to play a game in it, quickly fell into the lower divisions, and never stopped falling until they fell out of the league. And their various chairmen were bonkers - the stories of some of the touted ideas for new stadia were sensationally bad. Or there was the chairman who sacked a manager, promised to appoint a new one via a phone vote from fans, but then appointed who he wanted anyway. They’ve been Hicks & Gilletted plenty of times. Making the Premier League after all of that, is pretty special. Doing it with a manager who had just been sacked by their biggest rivals - I strongly recommend reading the interviews where Watford’s management talked about giving him a sustained period to transform the club, they’re a riot - is even better. I’ve got no beef with Luton anymore. They were very annoying in the 1980s. Other sides have annoyed me far more since then.

If Fantasy Football had run for two years, never been resurrected, never even rerecorded Three Lions but instead got back to Number One because they rereleased it due to popular demand, it would be remembered more fondly.

Sometimes bad teams go up and need major changes - and a huge outlay - to have a shot at staying up. Luton were not that side. Luton needed to make 20 or so signings to even have a shot at staying up. And they don’t have the money to do that. It barely worked for Forest, who went up with a far better team 12 months earlier. Luton would just be wasting money on a fools errand. I remember reading, years ago, that it would be nice to see a team clinch promotion and say: “Nah. You’re alright. We’ll stay here in the Championship, thanks. Send us a cheque for our share of the money though. Cheers.” That’s basically what Luton have done. Their fans (I know a few) are loving every game. Kenilworth Road is packed every week. They’ll be in a much better position after a season in the Prem, even if their points tally never makes it to double figures.

Basically this. Their chances depend upon •How shit the other teams around them are •Can their two decent strikers stay both fit and in form? •Will they panic and fire Dyche when they inevitably go on a losing streak? •Possible points deduction(s?) for financial naughtiness. If I were a Blue the only one of those I’d be confident in is that they’ll keep Dyche - because they’re too broke to get rid.

https://www.joe.ie/uncategorized/robbie-fowler-accused-of-racism-after-twitter-blackface-photo-30832

Can confirm, the quality/quantity of your facial hair will have limited impact upon your enjoyment.

According to the Guardian, if he can’t find a top side where he’ll be number one then he’ll retire. Obviously we’ll all have our own thoughts - possibly identical thoughts - on whether he’s good enough to be a number one for a top side. But I’ve still gotta say fair enough. He’s turned down the Saudis, he’s not gonna do a Pepe and spend several years warming the bench of Europe’s elite - it’s trophies or retirement.

Greatness - unlike ‘best’ - surely means players who either took the whole team (club?) up a notch, or maintained standards for everyone else to aspire to. Genuinely transformative footballers, and with longevity too. Liddell Keegan Dalglish Gerrard Salah Barnes and Souness are probably the closest to deserving inclusion too.

Colon Rice appears to have changed his view on rich owners pumping money into football.

They can probably save a few quid by skipping the match and just watching Rooney shag a granny on pay-per-view…