Football 2007-08

[Paul Clement]

Van Der Meyde, can be a pretty good right winger when his heads screwed on, but he seems to be a player with a lot of problems. His career has really nnosedived since leaving Ajax, and he's lost his place in the Dutch national squad because of it. The trouble for him at Everton, is that he plays in the same position Arteta normally does, and it would take one hell of a player to dislodge him from the side.

Yakubu's a good powerful striker, he can muscle his way to goal when he needs to but has a bit of flair and ability too. He'd probably make a good partnership with the smaller Johnson. He's scored goals for both Boro and Pompey, so he's definitely not a one season wonder a la Beattie.

[Dave Tudor]

Oh, that's good, as we could do with another good, strong forward, especially after today, with, it seems normal service being resumed!!!

Why is it, that whenever Everton get themselves in a really good league position, and have an opportunity to consolidate that position, they go and blow it, usually in a game which looks easy on paper? OK, so it's early days, but it just would have been nice to see them strengthen their lead.

By the way, it's good to see Shrewsbury Town make a good start to the season, and also claiming a victory in their first league game at the New Meadow.

[Jonno]

Hope you enjoyed your stay at the top, Dave!

Me, I'm just relieved we're off the bottom after our awful start - in fact, tonight we're above Arsenal!

[Captain Tancredi]

Gillingham 0 Tranmere 2 - that's more like it. Greenacre's on 2 from 2 as well, which is good, and Steve Davies seems to be maturing nicely. Nice to see that being kicked around the pitch for 80 minutes last Saturday hasn't had too much of a lasting effect on our key players.

[Jonno]

I'm a tad surprised to see you on here, Ian - I thought you were giving up on footie this season?!

[Captain Tancredi]

Well...things changed slightly when the fixtures came out and Tranmere were at home to Leeds first game. In spite of the result, it was a fantastic opportunity to get rid of a lot of the negative feelings I have about Leeds, which is after all a place where I've been fairly unhappy over the last decade or so. The trouble is, going back last week just reinforced that I'm not "from" Birkenhead any more- I'm not really from anywhere nowadays- so I've lost a level of identification there. And in any case, I work in a rugby league office so I have to follow that too (and may well be a rugby person who just never had the opportunity to find that out).

[Paul Clement]

well over all i have 56 pts in 694,653rd place

I had 68 points after gameweek 2, I'm on 104 now that gameweek 3 has been concluded.

[Larry]

I had 68 points after gameweek 2, I'm on 104 now that gameweek 3 has been concluded.

just never seem to have much success on these things - any way West Ham got their first points of the season beatin Birmingham 1-0 should of been a lot more but some poor finishing let us down.

[Pip Madeley]

The big Manc derby has begun... with United hovering above the relegation zone, and City in second, it's a real reversal in roles...

[Jonno]

On Football Focus yesterday they were interviewing Man City fans about the derby, and two of them reckoned they were concerned because they usually do poorly against teams in the lower half of the table. It took me a moment to realise what they were referring to, then I ed.

Talking of funny things, here's a big groan at Dave L for this pun :

Toulouse a game against the third best team in France would be unthinkable for the Reds...

[Captain Tancredi]

Toulouse is to win, and he who wins shall lose, surely?

[Pip Madeley]

Manchester City beat United and reach the top of the league. It's a funny old world.

[Dirk Gently]

Well done City.


I've watched my first game of the season, Liverpool against Chelsea & all I can say is that I hope that the Ref has some serious protection to get out of Livepool alive.
That penalty was a disgusting decision.

[Captain Tancredi]

Chelsea coming away from Anfield with a dubious goal? Surely not.

[Lord President]

Norwich came from a goal down to beat Southampton at the weekend! Wow, Norwich winning a game, I never thought I'd see the day!

[Dirk Gently]

I bet Delia was swinging her pants!

[Larry]

Chelsea coming away from Anfield with a dubious goal? Surely not.

dubious - it was a bloody shocking decision by styiles, for which he has been rightly punished and dropped from this weekends fixture list.

[Paul Clement]

Dave must be delighted that Everton have finally signed Yakubu. He should make an excellent partner for Andy Johnson up front, and I can see Everton doing better than there usual 1-0 wins that they've got a lot of in recent seasons.

Middlesborough look a hell of a lot weaker now though, and haven't got much time to find an adequate replacement.

[Larry]

Dave must be delighted that Everton have finally signed Yakubu. .

just not sure he's worth 11m ..

[Captain Tancredi]

He isn't worth eleven million pins if he doesn't work...not sure where that came from!

Anyway, looks like I'll be hitting the AS Roma shop the week after next...

[Dave Lewis]

It's heartening to know that not only are UEFA incapable of running European football to anything like a decent standard, but also they can't put on a television programme to draw the Champions League group stages without it turning into a horrific amalgamation of the Sam Fox/Mick Fleetwood Brit Awards and an episode of Going For Gold.

Not a bad group for Liverpool - Porto, Marseille, and Beshiktas... but as Rick Parry's saying on the television as I type this, the groups are quite evenly spread - and anyway, if you're a top seed, you should always qualify.

[Dave Tudor]

Dave must be delighted that Everton have finally signed Yakubu. He should make an excellent partner for Andy Johnson up front, and I can see Everton doing better than there usual 1-0 wins that they've got a lot of in recent seasons.

Absolutely! I was beginning to worry that Everton were going back to their old ways of not being able to push a transfer through without some trouble or other, what with the delay concerning Yakubu's work permit, and the farce surrounding Manuel Fernandes deciding to go to Valencia instead. But, thankfully, everything was sorted regarding The Yak, and, considering his scoring record over the past few seasons, he will be a great signing, and should, in theory, guarantee us at least fifteen goals this season.

More good news tonight, too, as Tommy Gravesen has returned to Everton! We've signed him on-loan for the rest of the season, and even though he's possibly not as good as he used to be, he's a cult hero at Goodison, and should provide plenty of power (and possibly goals) from midfield, alongside the flair and elegance of Mikel Arteta. And, of course, the baldy twins are now reunited!

Whisper it quietly, but we may even now have a team capable of going some way in Europe this term, and it'll be interesting to see tomorrow who we're drawn against in the UEFA Cup.

[michael]

hi all just got my first ticket to a football game at Wembley today.I like football but not a big fan of any one team it the same with rugby but have to say I like rugby more very friendly at matches
but not a football game yet so this is new to me ?

England v Russia game any one else going to this one ?

[Larry]

It's heartening to know that not only are UEFA incapable of running European football to anything like a decent standard, but also they can't put on a television programme to draw the Champions League group stages without it turning into a horrific amalgamation of the Sam Fox/Mick Fleetwood Brit Awards and an episode of Going For Gold.
.

have to say I don't know why we subject our selves to any draw wheather it's for the Champions League or Uefa cup as it's an hour of brain numbing bordom but if you think the champions league draw was bad enough there are 80 odd teams in the Uefa cup draw.

[Dave Tudor]

On paper, all five British clubs have pretty easy draws in the first round of the UEFA Cup: Everton face the wonderfully-named Mentalist* Kharkiv from Ukraine, while Aberdeen's opponents, Dnipro, also hail from the former Soviet state.

Tottenham, Bolton and Blackburn, on the other hand, all have trips to sunny south-east Europe to look forward to, with Spurs playing Cypriot side Anorthosis Famagusta, Bolton taking on Rabotnicki from Macedonia, and Rovers meeting Greek team Larissa.

I've heard of just one of those clubs!



* Yes, I know it's actually 'Metalist', but, for me, they will henceforth be known as 'Mentalist'. Oh yes.