Tomo

This isn't a comment based on today, it's more a gut instinct, I don't think there as compatible together as people think.

Matic and Cesc in the CM together screams better on paper than in practice.

pre season means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Rules have been changed, I think you only need 120 minutes now, something along them lines, I remember reading Jack Rodwell got a medal last season.

This is why Jose is simply the best manager around, he saw issues in the squad and immediately went out and fixed them. Remember between Jose's tenures we knew we needed a creative player for years but done nothing about it? By the time it got to 2011 the situation got so desperate some of us would have even took N Zogbia or any one with even the slightest bit of width or creativity.

Torres was an Ancelotti player , Wilkins said as much, we were going to sign him in the summer before but he changed his mind and penned a new deal at Liverpool.

Fair enough, even so mind he could still end up at Heskey level which all the same would make 28m a big rip off.

So if Fernando and Drogba are going to be the back up's then 2 thing's need to happen. 1. Costa needs to hit the ground running stay fit and get 20-25 goals minimum. Considering Torres's haul when we gave him such minutes i have every faith Costa will hit them figures at worse if he gets the bulk of the play time. 2. Cesc, Hazard, Oscar and Andre chip in with their fair share. Roughly 40-50 between them, doable. If that happens then Drogba and Torres will probably only be required to muster up about ten between the pair off them. Which isn't not doable, id rather Torres fucks off but if he don't his minutes are seriously going south, so every cloud.

Bottom line is, Everton are paying for potential, and a huge financial commitment (for them) on what they hope he will be, for perspective we payed only 4m more on one of the best forwards in Europe. Now im guessing ill get the "well what about in 5 years when Costa is declining and Lukaku is in his prime" well i say not as straight forward as that, look at Bojan, back in 2008 he was the best teenager in world football, now how many 23 and under players would you list before Bojan in how good they are? Lukaku being one of the best under 21 forwards right now won't automatically make him one off the best at 26, there's every chance players we currently don't know will overtake him and not look back. Everton have payed for his potential, if it comes off fair enough, but if he does a Bojan (which is very possible) then this would be one off the heist's off the century.

If he scores vs us some of the most cringeworthy things will be said in this thread I can see it now.

So we ruined them, nothing to with the fact that those players listed didn't do enough? It's our fault Van Aanholt can't defend for shit? It's our fault Kakuta is a lazy clown who couldn't be bothered to realise his potential? Works both ways, or do you believe it's our fault Conor Clifford plays in league 2? Why do you have to be negative all the time? Your making lionsden look like special juan.

The thing is defending must come first when building a team, yes a fair part of last season wasn't great on the eye but with it we built a solid foundation to kick on from now. The perception of good football is teams like Brendans liverpool, but really is good football watching defenders make mistake after mistake? I squirmed seeing there goals conceded last year, it's bad enough seeing basic defensive cock ups in league 2, never mind a title chasing team of one of the top leagues in Europe, would players like Mingolet, Agger and Johnson with a league medal be 'good for football' given they were at fault for so many goals? I think it would have been a travesty. The same way I hate big scoring games littered with defensive error's, if the attack outsmart the defence fair enough but games like United 8 2 Arsenal was cringeworthy, school boy defending from both sides and the game could have been 10 6. I have been involved in free for all 6 all draws and tight tactical 1 0s were we had to be smart to win, and I got much more enjoyment in the latter games, that's were im in my element playing football, the whole idea of the game is how hard it is to score, hench the mad celebrations when we do, there's a reason celebrations in Rugby are more withdrawn unless its a winner. There has to be some sort of balance it pissed me off last season when people said Liverpool were doing things the right way, they were defending like school boys but got away with it due to a world class and very good striker both in the form of their lives, defending is part of football to What I want to see from Jose is to keep the solid defensive base because as he shown in his first coming, do that and the attack and good football looks after itself, imagine the pressure off attacking shoulders if they know one goal will do eight times out of ten? We will benefit from building a solid base next season, while Liverpool will still have a rubbish error prone defence with the reason they got away with it as much as they did at Barcelona. oh well, as long as Coutinho and Sterling play a neat one two in the 50th minute, hey.........................................................

DP

Jesus can anyone still have any form if critque of Juan without facing a firing squad, it was tedious enough when he was here.

Problem is Southampton are the only club who tend to promote youngsters at the first avalible opportunity, and look at what's happening now, they are going to have to see Shaw, Lallana, Chambers, Chamberlain, Walcott, Rodriguez return to the St Marys in opposition colours for the next decade, Bale is another one but he went abroad. If we adopted the same philosophy we would be a mid table club and lose the best one's to. I would much rather take the patient approach and see Baker for example come fully in at 21 22 and spend his whole career here. Realistically we are unlikely to make teenagers a trusted member of the squad unless they are a freak of nature.

Let me guess, Conor Clifford would be as good as Gerrard by now if he went to Arsenal? Youth development works both ways, you can't expect every half decent prospect to play at 18,

While I don't nessaserialy agree with Sherrys point, using a couple of clips doesn't mean that's what he always does.There's s 30 second clip of Mata going on a mazy run vs City and nutmegging Kompany but we all know as Chelsea fans that Juan was anonymous vs City every single time.

He should not be named in the squad next season, if he doesn't want to leave then never play him. Ultimately even as a squad player he will cost us points that Lukaku, Drogba or even Bamford would get us in the same squad role.

What's happening with Madrid's and Barca policy is for me another reminder on why Jose is the best.Both teams have mouthwatering attacking players but no balance whatsoever, both will get fuked big time on the counter attack. Jose would never have let Reals side become ad unbalanced as it appears it is about to.

What do you expect from them, such a bitter, twisted group of individuals, should have seen what the liverpool around me were saying about Oscar because he had the sheer cheek to score in front of the kop. With most fans is just banter, most of those lot are genuine cunts who need a straight jacket.

Im not sure about a Matic, Fabregas pivot, I fear the partnership falls into the better on paper than in practice category.

I seem to be alone but I never really took to him, don't get me wrong I appreciated snd admired (still do) the work he did at the club but I didn't take to him like I did Vialli or Hoddle when I was a kid.

The ultimate heart vs head signing. Hopefully Jose shoves my thoughts down my throat like he has done many times before.

I don't

This is what helps us compete with the Bayerns and Madrids financially in the FFP era. I mean this year alone KDB transfer helped pay for Matic while in Courtois by all intents and purposes we are signing a £25m plus keeper for free (if he was owned by Leti, god knows what he would have cost).That alone makes this loan system worthwhile, ones not quite good enough effectively pay to improve our team (like I said KDB being the main example dus far) and when some one does make the grade like Thiabut we effectively get a player who would have cost a bomb otherwise for free. If say Liverpool adopted this system and got players like Courtois from it, there would be a thread in football banter with us all green with envy.