S-Clarke

Don't see the point to be honest. Grateful with what he gave us for the last 2 years, some great days, some frustrating days, but mainly some of our best days in the PL. He was very much a case of right man, right time. Exactly who we needed to steady the ship when all was seemingly sinking around us. Everton will be a struggle for him, expectations are higher, more money to spend etc etc. I don't think Everton fans are even that keen on him, as their ambitions are totally skewed - seeing as they thought they could get Pep or Jose in the summer. So if that's the way Everton fans are thinking, he's not got a chance of success there.

His most frustrating game was at home to Inter, he gave the ball away constantly. You could tell he was even getting ****ed off with himself. I think he struggles a bit physically at the moment, but that's not because he's a 'small' player - get him beefed up a bit and he'll be the next one in demand. He's destined for big things in the future, but we're seemingly the best place to nurture his talent.

Sparta are seemingly a totally different animal to the one we faced at SMS. New manager, their bigger players back in the side and they have real momentum. This will be tough.

Think we're close to a fully fit squad now aren't we? Only Targett seems to be dragging, the rest are all back or will be back within the next week. If you count Gardos as well, he's not injured now and is just building fitness.

To be fair, we're facing them at a very good time to be honest.

Interesting article, cheers SS. I wonder how much more Lille we trying to grab...?

At least he didn't specifically say he needed to leave to achieve his ambitions. I wonder which former manager said that about one of his current players? Oh, yeah. If we keep unearthing these players who turn out to be in such demand by ''bigger teams'', then we'll still be doing pretty well. Same was said about Lovren, Toby, etc etc. People will sure fly out the ''it's just luck'' line, but i think it's pretty clear that it's nothing to do with luck and it's all to do with excellent scouting and recruitment.

Let's play a weakened team in Europe so we can concentrate on finishing high in the league and qualifying for Europe next year. That's pretty much the logic.

If he stops 'tinkering' then every player will be knackered, and that will be another thing for a few to moan about.

It was a point many of us would have taken before the game, defensively we were superb - great return from the two full backs who were on the money most of the game. Fonte and Virgil both gave a masterclass in reading of the game and positional play. Our midfield didn't get into the game and lost two many 2nd balls in the middle. Romeu couldn't do it all on his own. That meant that we never really got out and into attacking situations, Austin was horribly isolated and struggled to make any telling impact. From an attacking point of view, it was a trash watch, but defensively superb - a proper backs to the wall display. This Liverpool side will score loads this season and I think Matip has also improved them defensively, so they're a decent shout for doing something.

Jay is a player who thrives on confidence, you can tell he's unsure as he seems to want to take an extra touch etc. I remember when he first joined us and it took him until the Spurs home game to notch his first goal, he grew from that and gained confidence. He's a streaky player, can go on runs of 6 games with a goal and then back that up with 6 without.

Why the hell do people keep quoting him for god sake. Some people have him on ignore because it's obvious he is on a total wind up.

Not quite sure why people remain unconvinced about Redmond. He's been excellent for us, and he is not, at any point, going to be included in a squad playing the checkatrade trophy. He's a key first team player.

You're one of these annoying modern day fans, snapshotting single results and coming to a conclusion on them. Change the manager, reinvent the club, sack the owners, sign 20 new players if we don't win for 3/4 games. If you're playing the argument ''if we're better than them, why didn't we beat them etc''. So why did Norwich beat us last year? Why did we only draw with Villa at home? Why did Burnley beat us a couple of seasons back? Why could we only draw with Newcastle away? The fact is that we were light years ahead of every single one of those teams last year. We are still light years ahead of Sunderland, Hull etc this year - but indvidual results such as the weekend can and do happen, as we have experienced every season.

These are exactly the sort of matches which don't go to form. Got a funny feeling about this, not sure why.

We were a couple of points off the bottom 3 last season. (december ish time). I think a few people were convinced it was a relegation battle at that point. We were never in a relegation battle last season though. At the end of the day, there is still 75% of the season to go and I'm reasonably confident we will finish quite a few points clear of relegation - a fair few in fact. A couple of sticky results and people get their knickers in a twist.

I think we should spend £15m on him + sending Jay Rod in part exchange. Deal.

Too slow and complacent after we took the lead, believed it was won. Totally switched off for both goals and we were then in a position where we had to chase the game we should have had wrapped up, we'd played with such a lack of urgency for so long that it was almost impossible to reverse that. The rest of the performance then became rushed, disjointed and lacking composure. We should have been ruthless after the first goal, that's what cost us this.

If the mods need any pointers as to who the WUM's and skates are on this forum, then just have a look on a pre-match thread for a game which our club has lost. They're pretty obvious.

Pass ,pass ,sideways ,backwards. Nice on the eye, but no punch what so ever. Didn't go for the kill.

Propaganda football and complacency cost us this game. Thought it was won, didn't go for the kill when we should have, they get a sniff and it's impossible to regain any sort of momentum again. Really, really rubbish result. The first game where EL Thursdays may have caught up with us a bit. We really lacked a genuine outlet on the right, hopefully Cedric will be back after the internationals.

Some of those Everton fans are an example of everything that is wrong with the modern football fan. Short-termised, short-sighed, reactionary ****e. Everything is fixed by spending ££$£$£$ and changing the manager until we start winning.

A Hazard masterclass. He's a joy to watch when he's on form, you'd pay to watch him.

Everton 2-0 down to Chelsea already, being ripped apart. Stek awful.

I must admit, given what I saw at St Mary's, I'm surprised to see Sparta sitting there with 9 points. They were diabolical. Was that their reserves we played or something?