Sheaf Saint

They are already going into meltdown on the GOT forum. My only worry is that we all know how other managers seem to be able to make some tweaks at HT and find a way back in, with Ralph unable to counter it. If that happens today, they still won't give Benitez credit for it. He's on a hiding to nothing with their fans.

That's only if Chelsea exercise their right to buy him back. They might not.

Insanely good, you could say.

Was that the 7-1 game?

The omens really aren't good are they.

On their forum they are feeling exactly the same about JWP being fit for us, and just praying they don't give away any stupid FKs near their box. I'll be very surprised if they both play the full 90 though.

The only one I remember is this one... I miss that team

6 wins in 40!? I knew our record was bad, but I didn't realise it was that bad 😬

Plenty of good suggestions for streaming sites, thanks everyone. However, what about VPNs? Anybody know of any decent free ones?

https://www.grandoldteam.com/2021/08/10/everton-v-southampton-preview-3/ "There’s a large element of Southampton’s travelling fans which resemble a rugby crowd, complete with Wranglers, official merchandise, footwear that even St John’s would reject in 1991 and just a general air of thick, mundane, SUV on finance driving suburban flotsam, which is alright as that’s the general default for most of the country now – but I don’t want Southampton’s head kicked in the dust for them. No it’s the other element of their fanbase, which is made up entirely of twenty something Stone Island tattooed hideous try hard banter teds. They’re as convincing as Harry Potter playing a football hooligan, which incidentally seems to be their bible for how to attend a football game. The trouble is that it fools no one and it causes a level of cringe so intense that it makes you even want a Rafa Benitez team to enrage them for your viewing pleasure. Make no mistake these Soccer AM adoring bad bad texans can’t wait to tell anyone about their “cheeky acca” that’s just been let down for a false amount by a shitter team in the lower leagues, nor can they return from the bogs in Wetherspoons with a shit eating grin on them and hocking to clean their throat so everyone in the vicinity is aware of baby’s first line of cocaine. Want to know who’s heading the UFC tonight? Fear not, they cant wait to tell you along with an encyclopaedic knowledge of how Brazilian Jujitsu matches up against orthodox kick boxing, and how they all paid for a brass that one time in Vegas when they went to see some goth boxer you’ve never heard of. Compelled to know more about these charismatic young fellows? Simply take a look at their right arm where you’ve got a fully documented life story (22 years and counting) expressed into their sleeve tattoo like some well marketed but terribly executed totem poll, with a little bicep creeping out after 100 curls a day with a can of Campbell’s Soup. What’s the significance of the clock face on your tattoo there, mate? Never seen that before. Well apart from that time John Stones’ bird caught him having some strange and he needed to show how sorry he was."

The difference is they are only signing him as a backup. As soon as Fofana is fit again he will drop to the bench and stay there. They aren't signing him to improve their starting 11.

It seems on the low side, but a combined £40-45m (depending on who you believe) for two ageing players each with only a year left on their contracts? Can't sniff at that. If all that allows us to sign a player or three that are more suited to Ralph's system then it could turn out to be good business.

I very much doubt we'll see them both bombing forward at the same time. It'll be a case of if KWP goes forward then Perraud stays back, and vice versa. I could be wrong, of course, because Ralph has surprised me many times in the past, but I really don't think he's that stupid.

They're really not a happy bunch over on GOT... https://www.grandoldteam.com/forum/threads/the-absolute-state-of-this-club.113204/page-7 They are in a similar situation to us - disillusioned with the owner (who is worth a LOT more than Gao), and pissed off that they have a squad full of overpaid, under-performing players who they can't shift. At least we have nearly cleared all our deadwood now, but they haven't managed to sell any if theirs this window (yet). Never been a better time to play them at their place, especially as Richarlison and possibly DCL will still be out. Pretty sure we'll still find a way to not take all 3 points though, like we always do at Goodison.

Defensively, yes he still did pretty much everything expected of him. But as an attacking threat he was a non-entity. He ceased to be the player who would link up and overlap with the left winger and ping in crosses or drive into the box multiple times per game about 2 years ago.

Assuming you bothered to read Supersonic's previous post where he made it clear he is himself a member of an ethnic minority, and that even his children have experienced racism for having brown skin, for you to say "People like you are the absolute scourge of this country" is extremely crass and makes you look like a bit of a c*nt.

Can you point us to some studies which support this please? Genuine question - I'm not just being antagonistic here. Everything I have read and learned about unconscious bias points towards it being a very real, well-studied phenomenon. So if you are aware of some credible studies which dispute that I would be genuinely interested to read them.

Assuming you're not being sarcastic (it's hard to tell): None of those were ever our best players, with the possible exception of Fonte in his prime. The other three weren't even regular starters for us when we sold them.

Fair enough. I should have said before the board would be allowed to sanction it.

I can guarantee you we will not be spending £35m on Tammy Abraham this window. Even if we sell Vest and JWP on top of the Ings money. Hell would freeze over before our board would sanction that kind of transfer fee.

You do realise their owners have a combined worth of about £10bn don't you? Of course we can't compete with that.

Well that's disappointing, as it contradicts the rumours that he would only leave to join a CL club, but their owners are minted and can offer him much more money, so we've obviously decided to cash in.

What the...? 3 youth players and Shane Long. That's the worst subs bench I've ever seen, and it's a friendly where you can make as many subs as you like. Very odd.

From what is already known about him, I have no doubt that he would be an infinitely better deputy to KWP than Valery could ever hope to be. And he will only get better with games and experience. That's enough for me.

Actually, I think a fit and on-form Romeu does make all the difference to us. He gives us something that none of our other midfielders do. He adds some bite and gives an extra layer of protection to the back 4 that neither JWP or Diallo are capable of. It's no coincidence that our collapse in form correlated to him being out. Also bear in mind the fatigue levels towards the end of last season. The intensity of the schedule, combined with the injuries we had to endure and the lack of access to the recovery facilities at Staplewood, meant we couldn't rest players when we clearly needed to, and it took its toll. The players returning from injury were thrown straight back into the team and playing twice a week, instead of being eased back in as they ideally would be otherwise. By the end of the season the whole squad was obviously exhausted.