lloydie

I think more of a focus should be on how terrible we are at conceding when we ATTACK corners, i still have nightmares of us trying to chip the ball to Danny Fox(Danny fûckingggg Fox!) for a volley on the edge of the box at home to man city.... Why?!?

No we were pretty poor that game, from the chapel end(not my usual seat of choice but a freebie is a freebie) i could only hear norwich sing, heard a few renditions of "1(then 2 then 3) nil up and still dont sing" etc. assuming most of the posters that said we were in good voice weresat amongst the 200 odd people actually bothering.

West Ham released him today he would be free.... however can see he would be as popular as a fart in a lift here!

Kevin Nolan on a free - HCDAJFU? (As a rotation/back up option he may offer something to link between attack and midfield. he's old and a w--anker but could maybe see something working with Pelle.)

Bore off ***t

Add a 0 and that is actually man city's sponsorship in a nutshell. Etihad are owned by their clubs owners and have the naming rights to the stadium for £500m or something.

Is that a plane flying over your head? Nope?! Wonder what it could be then...

1. What is your opinion on your manager Ronald Koeman? What are his good points and what are his bad points? Koeman has been great since he joined the club, will be good to see how we do in his second season but i am still optimistic. His good points are his ability to motivate our players and seems to have made us relatively solid defensively whilst still allowing us to play some exciting football. Weak points: Does seem to have a tendancy to sign players from Holland typically and we have stopped signing as many English players like we had been doing prior (Clyne, Rodriguez, Forster, etc). But that may well be down to the market in general with regards English talent not just him. 2. You have made 8 signings so far this summer, who are the ones to look out for? I would say if we are looking at the transfers in Juanmi could turn out to be an exciting one to watch. He has a lot of pace, and has been called up to the Spain team so can't be that bad! Also Romeu looks like he could be a shrewd bit of business. 3. Who will be the key threats to Everton at the weekend? Mane. If he is on form, he can grab a couple at least from almost out of nothing. Bigger clubs may come for him next summer. 4. Where will be your weak points? Without wanting to be too harsh on the lad, Matt Targett is probably a weak point. Depending on who your wingers are that day, they could get by him every now and again - He is still young though and only filling in for Bertrand so can't fault him too much like some others. 5. What are your season ambitions? Ideally if we can sign another CB (Van Djik) at least 8th again and i'd be pretty happy. That may not sound too ambitious but given a lot of teams are looking smart so far with transfers (Stoke in particular) it would be good if we could cement this spot and if we can push on higher - which i think is possible - then great. On to Everton 6. After a great first season under Martinez and disappointing second, how do you think Everton will do this season? Not sure, I like Martinez but also can see that he benefited from the solid defensive organisation that Moyes left you behind in his 1st season. To then going back to a similar defensive shape and the issues that come with that from his time at Wigan - but at least you no longer have Alcaraz. Can see US and you lot fighting for similar spots within the top 10. 7. What do you make of our manager Roberto Martinez? As above, plays expansive football and a nice guy but perhaps defensively naive. 8. Who do you see as the biggest threat to the Saints in the Everton side? Lukaku. I remember when he played against us at St.Mary's for WBA and tore us a new one. I'm glad that player didnt turn up last season but there's always the chance he could destroy someone like Yoshida with their respective sizes. 9. Where do you see our weaknesses? Not sure I can say much about your weakness other than maybe being caught on the break by Mane-Long-Rodriguez-Juanmi, depends how you set up to play us. Plus without being disrespectful I don't think your CM's will have much fun against Wanyama at home especially now we have Romeu next to him

That's the thing, some players really don't suit certain leagues (Di maria is class but didn't like it here, same as many other great players - Forlan is another one off the top of my head) and maybe - I hope - that Cuco Martina may not be great in Dutch Football but actually OK here in England!

That is a decent window by all accounts on paper, just remains to be seen how our Schneiderlin-less team performs in the long term!

Yeah I twigged that but didn't want to think about it to be fair!

Fair play Harding. I know fox played more games than him in the championship - but Harding was better defensively. Love him turning down the skates and its hard to argue that the Adkins era wasn't a brilliant time for players and fans alike.

Bloody wish i had been there!!

Saw this on the Beeb this morning, some good(probably geeky) stats - a little bit of fun: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/my-premier-league-life Apparently according to the BBC we are due to win another trophy, given our track record in 2023!

I will blindly say no to this one.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

when was this brought in? I remember getting hospitality and Arsenal v Shaktar Donetsk a few years ago.... 2011 or 2012 i think and they were handing out free bottles of heineken??

Great photos!!

never can read into pre-season results. I'm sure it will be a tougher test on the opening day.

Will be giving the UEFA cup shirt a run out tonight, sure i wont be the only one... i'm just glad it still (just about) fits!!

Well, unless we sell one of them!

When did we sign van dijk?

Well, if you're saying new CB doesn't that really mean that in line with this game I should put a new player in each position? As I could always pick a better player to give us the "best team". Or you could have just picked Yoshida and I wouldn't have had to make this point.

Well, we did keep a clean sheet... it's not like we can concede less than 0.

Flamingo land? I actually would rather the foreign bookie - that's a dreadful sponsor to have on the front of your kit.