Furey1878
Player Valuation: £70m
Oh, Everton...
The quest for the fabled away win continues this Sunday as Everton travel down to Southampton, and presumably with a side objectives of getting back some of our Koeman-compensation and ideally leaving Cuco Martina there and hoping no one notices. Before we talk about how terrible we are at football, let us instead have a quick word on Sunday afternoon's hosts:
The Saints have had quite the decade so far, beginning the decade playing in League One. Good youth development, good recruitment and some decent managerial appointments saw them make an almost meteoric rise back to the Premier League by 2012. While no stranger to relegation, Southampton are one of the more established teams in the top flight so I think there is much to be proud of for your average Southampton fan. However, and this is where the fun begins, there's also a large element your modern day ferret of a football fan among their ranks. It's a fan-base proud of the young English/British talent they produce, but other than Bale, I am really struggling to think of any true quality players to have originated at Southampton. Furthermore, it's one of those utterly beige teams that periodically look down there noses at Everton and can't understand why a manger or a player would want to leave the almighty one time FA Cup winners and top flight runners up for a sub-atomic club like Everton... It really does baffle the mind, I mean even if we were to spend a decade out of the top flight (as many of our players are trying to make happen), it still wouldn't make sense. Anyway, kudos to them for not bending over for their Liverpool masters with VVD as they usually do every transfer window.
Granted they sure as hell bent over to them last weekend in a woeful 3-0 defeat. Perhaps we're caught in a wave of good fortune that this fixture, much like the previous two and next, are coming against teams who are struggling. Pellegrino could well be the next manager to be metaphorically jettisoned directly into the sun, with them only being one-point above ourselves and struggling to score goals just as they have been for a while now. I think it could be an opportunity for Everton's great community work to continue this weekend to help the Saints bag a few goals this weekend.
*sighs
Okay let's do this, once more Everton sank to new depths once again with our 5-1 defeat at home to Atalanta. I really think for everyone's mental and emotional well-being it's best that we don't dwell on this too much. Ultimately, the game meant nothing, Goodison was less than half-full (see positive mindset) and Cuco Martina was playing as a left-back despite not even being a footballer. There's no question that there is a certain standard to expect, especially at Goodison and in front of fans who paid actual money for it but the league is paramount now, focus on that.
In the wake of the defeat, Farhad Moshiri took to the airwaves to reassure us that a managerial appointment is coming soon. Instinct is telling me that we'll probably limp closer to January and depending on results, namely West Ham at Goodison, will dictate whether or not Unsworth sees out this season. Statically the reality is 6 games, 4 losses for Rhino, but as I stressed earlier the league is what matters now and from that the story is 4 points from 2 games, despite being next level turbo-ultra-hyper garbage in them. Did we get good luck? Yes. But there is some semblance of Unsworth getting maximum effort from the players which in times like this is all you can ask.
Team news reads that Jagielka and Schneiderlin are doubts, the former being a blow and an unwelcome return for Williams the latter I suspect out of sheer crapness against Palace as opposed to injury. Tom Davies and our lord and savior Niasse both miss out through suspension. No word on our long-term absentees in Barkley, Bolassie and Coleman.
This will be a tough one, honestly can't remember us having much joy at St. Mary's over the years save for 3-0 against, you guessed it, Koeman's side and a last minute Marcus Bent equaliser that probably still haunts Harry Redknapp to this day. 0-0 or 1-1 are the most likely outcomes here but our defense never ceases to amaze so who knows? This is a side that's there for the taking though, and I sincerely hope we do.
Up the Toffees!
The quest for the fabled away win continues this Sunday as Everton travel down to Southampton, and presumably with a side objectives of getting back some of our Koeman-compensation and ideally leaving Cuco Martina there and hoping no one notices. Before we talk about how terrible we are at football, let us instead have a quick word on Sunday afternoon's hosts:
The Saints have had quite the decade so far, beginning the decade playing in League One. Good youth development, good recruitment and some decent managerial appointments saw them make an almost meteoric rise back to the Premier League by 2012. While no stranger to relegation, Southampton are one of the more established teams in the top flight so I think there is much to be proud of for your average Southampton fan. However, and this is where the fun begins, there's also a large element your modern day ferret of a football fan among their ranks. It's a fan-base proud of the young English/British talent they produce, but other than Bale, I am really struggling to think of any true quality players to have originated at Southampton. Furthermore, it's one of those utterly beige teams that periodically look down there noses at Everton and can't understand why a manger or a player would want to leave the almighty one time FA Cup winners and top flight runners up for a sub-atomic club like Everton... It really does baffle the mind, I mean even if we were to spend a decade out of the top flight (as many of our players are trying to make happen), it still wouldn't make sense. Anyway, kudos to them for not bending over for their Liverpool masters with VVD as they usually do every transfer window.
Granted they sure as hell bent over to them last weekend in a woeful 3-0 defeat. Perhaps we're caught in a wave of good fortune that this fixture, much like the previous two and next, are coming against teams who are struggling. Pellegrino could well be the next manager to be metaphorically jettisoned directly into the sun, with them only being one-point above ourselves and struggling to score goals just as they have been for a while now. I think it could be an opportunity for Everton's great community work to continue this weekend to help the Saints bag a few goals this weekend.
*sighs
Okay let's do this, once more Everton sank to new depths once again with our 5-1 defeat at home to Atalanta. I really think for everyone's mental and emotional well-being it's best that we don't dwell on this too much. Ultimately, the game meant nothing, Goodison was less than half-full (see positive mindset) and Cuco Martina was playing as a left-back despite not even being a footballer. There's no question that there is a certain standard to expect, especially at Goodison and in front of fans who paid actual money for it but the league is paramount now, focus on that.
In the wake of the defeat, Farhad Moshiri took to the airwaves to reassure us that a managerial appointment is coming soon. Instinct is telling me that we'll probably limp closer to January and depending on results, namely West Ham at Goodison, will dictate whether or not Unsworth sees out this season. Statically the reality is 6 games, 4 losses for Rhino, but as I stressed earlier the league is what matters now and from that the story is 4 points from 2 games, despite being next level turbo-ultra-hyper garbage in them. Did we get good luck? Yes. But there is some semblance of Unsworth getting maximum effort from the players which in times like this is all you can ask.
Team news reads that Jagielka and Schneiderlin are doubts, the former being a blow and an unwelcome return for Williams the latter I suspect out of sheer crapness against Palace as opposed to injury. Tom Davies and our lord and savior Niasse both miss out through suspension. No word on our long-term absentees in Barkley, Bolassie and Coleman.
This will be a tough one, honestly can't remember us having much joy at St. Mary's over the years save for 3-0 against, you guessed it, Koeman's side and a last minute Marcus Bent equaliser that probably still haunts Harry Redknapp to this day. 0-0 or 1-1 are the most likely outcomes here but our defense never ceases to amaze so who knows? This is a side that's there for the taking though, and I sincerely hope we do.
Up the Toffees!
