Ron B

Sure he took his foot off the gas at age 30. How many players get better past age 30? There are some, but they are the exception. He’s hardly a waster in the Pogba/Best mould.

Bale? He was sensational. Physically and technically phenomenal. Played brilliantly, won loads, and his last few years where an extended middle finger to Real for treating him like an arsehole.

I think the Mabbutt story isn’t quite how you remember it. My understanding is that he was coming to the end of his contract in either the summer of 87 or 88 (making him 26 or 27 years old, and Spurs had either just won nothing after chasing a treble or were in the middle of tearing it all up and starting from scratch yet again). In those pre-Bosman days we could have signed him and let it go to a tribunal, or else agree a cut-price deal with Spurs - but in the end it was all irrelevant as he agreed a new deal at White Hart Lane. I always liked Mabbutt, he was good on the ball, both clever and brave defensively, and despite being a bit short for a centre-back that wasn’t a problem with the way we played. Maybe it’s one for him to regret more than us, as by the time we were clearly on the wane so was he. Side note: Although we all remember Glenn Hysen as being terrible, initially the verdict was that we’d done Fergie up like a kipper by signing him for £2million less than he paid for Pallister. Hysen had a good first season, a dodgy second one, and was so bad in his third season that even Souness wouldn’t pick him. That same season, Pallister was player of the year.

They’re shit, but they’re not modern. They date back to the 80s at least, as I remember England’s light blue one under Bobby Robson. And at the beginning of the 90s Palace had a fourth choice kit - their striped main strip, a blue change kit, all-red for when they played teams in blue, and a yellow option for the various times they played against Barcelona I guess?

This assumes that the club is committed (in a legally-binding manner) to moving to the new stadium. Given how ineptly he’s run the Bitters, nothing would be more hilarious than him selling the club at a huge loss, and then owning a new stadium that they don’t move into…

He’s like an inverse version of the ravens at the Tower of London - he’s immortal until the day Everton actually do go bust. (Although, in all seriousness, I don’t like to think of anyone suffering)

He’s clearly tidy rather than someone who is going to have a spectacular highlights reel when he goes. Nonetheless, I’m already hoping the club produce a short Twitter video when he leaves which is captioned Endo An Era.

This thread prompted me to have a cheeky peek at RedCafe. Apologies if it’s already been mentioned here but they’ve been debating whether it’s worth picking McTominay as a centre-forward for 11 months. Not “There’s a McTominay thread and this got mentioned”. Not “Someone posted it, and it took 11 months before somebody replied”. They’ve been debating whether it’s worth picking McTominay as a centre-forward for 11 months.

He’s variable. This is one of his best, but sometimes he’ll do a 20-minute listicle and the first five minutes is just him talking about what he’s going to talk about. You could trim 3 or 4 minutes off the beginning part of most of his output.

I did feel sorry for Lingard. I suspect he’d get on my tits if I met him in real life - as opposed to some United players who would punch me in the face if I wouldn’t let them paw my tits - but he did seem to get treated very poorly and ultimately to nobody’s benefit.

I appreciate the guy’s vocal delivery isn’t for everyone but I came here to share the exact same video as @Em City. I’d call the video a hatchet job, only it’s a hatchet that the Saudis regularly use for executing homosexuals and which Hendo seems to have polished for them in consideration of £15million-plus per year.

A little harsh on their mid-80s run of success. In five seasons they won the title twice, the FA Cup and Cup Winners’ Cup once apiece, and reached another two FA Cup finals (as well as coming second, fourth and seventh in the other league campaigns). Only we did better than they did in that period. What they overlook, as you rightly say, is that it was an island of dazzling achievement amid decades of mediocrity both before and afterwards.

So… Bush I before your time?

“I don’t think we’re a million miles off…” This predates them running a million miles in the wrong direction then?

I’m just saying that it’s been an impeccable bit of business, from how little he cost, to how well he played, to how much profit they made. Getting rid is questionable, but all things considered he’s been their best signing in years.

Gray may have come out of this final episode looking like an arsehole, and he may have impressed nobody here by going to the Saudi league. But it remains a fact that he’s probably been the finest bit of business they’ve done over the last five years, maybe even the last decade. Cost buttons, was immediately and consistently one of their best players, and then sold a few years later for around five times what he cost. Maybe their fans would cite Richarlison? But beyond that I think you’d probably have to go back to Lukaku for a signing who has been such good value, so important on the pitch, and then got sold at a profit.

Really good post. I think that feeds into the cult of Ferguson which a decade later is still pushing them into some dreadful decisions, particularly with regards to managers (how the hell did Solksjaer last longer than Maureen or Van Gaal?) but players too (Ronaldo’s “homecoming”).

Doubtless for far less than they paid for him too. They got some decent sums for homegrown players this summer, but all the rest were sold at huge losses. Fred cost €59m, sold for less than €10m. Telles cost €15m, sold for less than a third of that. De Gea was €25m, Jones €20m, both left on frees. And Maguire was supposed to be going for less than half what they paid for him, only they wouldn’t subsidise his wages too. I know that it’s supposed to be about signings players to make your team better rather than to make a profit, but they rarely succeed on either count.

Can they afford to play Alli? If not then you’ll need to find a different player to fill that slot.

A glance at the league table suggests Everton aren’t any better. The game against Luton at the end of the month already looks like a six-pointer - which is incredibly bleak from a Bloo perspective but for us is hilarious. Still, they had three players on the scoresheet today, so their goalscoring woes seem like getting solved.

Alternative take: Rafa was an OK manager for Everton, but the fans hated him long before he took over and he was never going to be given a fair chance in a million years. They had spent freely for years, only to turn off the money tap as soon as he arrived. We all laugh about Rondon, but Rafa was given buttons to spend (despite their biggest earners being offloaded) and yet two out of his three summer signings were undoubtedly successful. He had a good spell, then a bad spell, and his win ratio was better than both Lampard and Dyche. He got the job because they needed a fall guy. The plan was always to stop spending; bin big earners like Hamez, Bernard and Kean; and bin him just before the end of the transfer window so that whichever mug took over wouldn’t be able to spend any real money either.

Agree in principle, but 12 months ago we were all saying work to rebuild the midfield needed to start ASAP. Instead nothing really changed, there were too many ageing legs last season, and there been too much turnover this summer (even if every transfer in and out proves to be spot on). As a result, the ceiling on this summer is probably B+.

Here’s hoping he’ll be a throwback to the Serie A strikers who came to England in that era. I’d be delighted for him to be the new Andrea Silenzi.

Alisson, tbf. A more pressing question is: How often to transfers to Everton work out these days?

Remembering that Chelsea, somehow, insanely, appointed Lampard for a second spell…