Expectations for the Coming Season ?

[4737carlin]

Even though we lost yesterday I'm more optimistic now then I was preach yesterday.
The team look up for working hard, and look more confident

 

[Cool_Blue]

I tend to agree with you. Poor Godfrey got injured yesterday and while I found myself feeling sorry for the lad going through that painful ordeal, I didn't really feel a sense of loss at all for the team. You know when you lose a big player to injury, you feel the effect in your gut for a week after? Not this time. Why? Probably because I don't rate the lad at all - and possibly because I don't think there is a single player in our squad who is anywhere near the standard of where we need to be. I see lots of millionaire mediocrities. Not the players' fault - they are earning what they can while they can - but it's a symptom of how obscene the professional game now is that bog standard second rate players are basically set for life after a few seasons at a club like Everton who make a speciality of winning nothing.

I think, actually, a lot of this feeling is down to age/experience. I am 50 now. I have see the great 80s team. Everything since has been a monumental let down. I look at the economics of the game - I have a degree in the subject - and shake my head that the average fan seems to talk as much about the club's finances as any of our players or matches. I see the likes of Godfrey - still considered "young" despite being 25 next January - and compare him with the 22-year-olds and 23-year-olds that festooned our 80s side - or the likes of Rooney or Lukaku who we saw since. I wish the lad well, but he is one of a whole collective of deeply underwhelming players on eye-watering contracts with little to nothing to show for it on the pitch.

I'm probably no longer the target audience for professional soccer any more. I find the Champions League tedious these days - though I appreciate the standard - and will watch the World Cup in winter despite my uneasiness at how even that has been utterly corrupted. I've been watching hurling this summer and absolutely marveling at the skill, conditioning, and mentality of amateur players. I get so much more out of that authentic endeavour than I do out of football now. And this from a man with 1,000 football DVDs in my collection! It's not just amateur sport that is showing up the Premier League in my world. Snooker, too, seems far more impressive to me these days. The rewards are very moderate by comparison with football, but nobody can tell me that Ronnie O'Sullivan, Mark Selby, John Higgings, Mark Williams, or Judd Trump are not comparable to Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, or De Bruyne in skill, mentality, and execution.

I suppose I've become my father. Happens to all of us eventually.

This, sadly, is the painful truth

 

[Cool_Blue]

There are reasons to feel optimistic post match, but jeez 3 starters down already??

It’s never ending isn’t it? First week of the new season, 3 new injuries already. Our treatment room must resemble A&E.

 

[Sassy Colombian]

@Sassy Colombian ...get a load of Colombian women to join up...be there for us when we lose...

We need to get more Colombian players for that to happen ?

 

[ricer10]

See McNulty and the BBC site putting the boots in already today …probably wrote it a month ago !
Guess the narrative of Frank first gone / relegation ahead is on !
( I get it … but the performance yesterday wasn’t THAT bad … )
Need to get something out of the Villa / Forest games to flip the story

 

[matty1878]

See McNulty and the BBC site putting the boots in already today …probably wrote it a month ago !
Guess the narrative of Frank first gone / relegation ahead is on !
( I get it … but the performance yesterday wasn’t THAT bad … )
Need to get something out of the Villa / Forest games to flip the story

3 players before then will do that

 

[SuperTimCahill]

Just ordered 'Spirit of the blues' on vinyl from Canada. We're gonna win the league

 

[4737carlin]

Expectations for this season are now a lot better with the excellent works Frank, Bill and Thewell have/are doing in the market

 

[Ferguson1878]

Expectations for this season are now a lot better with the excellent works Frank, Bill and Thewell have/are doing

Keep kenwright in the Dave hickson lounge where he can annoy everyone with his Cyril tales , and let lampard and thelwell carry on there good work then things could be looking up

 

[summerisle]

Bump.

 

[Tramps_mate]

We are going down. No doubt about it. Absolute garbage..

 

[nsno-chris]

Be lucky to stay up if we don’t get a striker

 

[john jako]

Even if we get a striker we will struggle. Starting to get concerned about the managers tactical approach and subs.

 

[summerisle]

As that appears that for transfers, thoughts now ?

 

[Davideeyore]

When does the transfer window open?