Ultimatt

Now that he's signed lets get behind him and give him a proper chance. From all accounts he seems a good lad that works hard so hopefully it comes off for him.

Sebastian Haller. Should've gone for him instead of Gabbi and half the price to boot Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

So have we signed the 5 pledges or any sponsorship deals in China yet? These are the signings I'm really looking forward to Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

Both Stephens and Hoedt would do well to learn from someone experienced beside them, as opposed to learning from each other.

More compensation from Everton. A lucky escape or a Les Reed wet dream?

The owner of Promes' club, Spartak in an interview with Reuters: I'd suggest we can pay a better salary than they are. Spartak are under some financial stress at the moment.

He's apparently only on 3m euros salary (~£50k/wk) so we can easily bump that up.

I think he can treat it like any business. Boards get sacked when profits or reputation drop. We're on track for a big drop in both and the buck stops at the top. From there he can appoint a caretaker while interviewing for replacements. Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

It's almost like they don't want to sack MoPe because he's taking blame off them (the idea that if we get relegated its his fault). Les and Ralph have 10 days to fix this mess or they have to go. Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

The allegation was that academy players were being pressured/persuaded to sign with his sons agency and were being offered better deals. That's all hearsay but certainly worth a journalist investigating if there's anything shady as it'd be a fairly big story.

It's a bit rich to heavily criticise both our last managers for over rotation when our squad is "ready for europe" aka massively bloated. Easy to say "Pick your best XI each week" without realising how negative/frustrated the dressing room will be with a half dozen players demanding starts. On top of that, do any of us as fans know our best XI? Some think Gabbi should be #1, some think he's rightly #3. Pick 1 out of Yoshida/Stephens. Pick 2 out of Romeu/Lemina/Hojbjerg. Pick 1 out of Cedric/Pied. Pick 1 out of Davis/JWP. Pick 1 out of Forster/McCarthy. The only clear standout in his position is Bertrand. We've sold those top quality "first name on the sheet" players and not a single other player is a clear guaranteed pick.

If it were a choice between Koeman's squads or a world class manager i'd take Koeman's squad hands down. Sadly we'd need to sign 5 or 6 players to get back to that level, much cheaper/easier to replace the manager.

What percentage of your director bonuses are based on club finances as opposed to on field performance from the U18/U23/First team?

It's easier to change 1 player than to change the whole system just to accommodate 1 player. For years we got along just fine playing 1 striker with Pelle/Lambert and quality around them. If we swap to 3-5-2 then we're starting the hardly prolific Long every game and that only leaves 1 place in team for either Tadic or Boufal who IMO are both better players than the 2 in front of them.

I don't think he failed with us. He played a role in 4 great years. I liken it to the Ranieri scenario where even if you miraculously win a title you can still be rightfully sacked a year later for underperforming.

In Australia the proper way to protest is to post social media photos of you microwaving your membership.

So Everton have signed a striker and pacy winger that we were both linked with. Times running out Les.

Wouldn't surprise me if we're waiting till the end of window to see the ladder so the club know how little they can get away with investing. Transfer windows should be seen as an opportunity to strengthen the team. Instead the club sees them as an opportunity to strengthen it's bank account.

Happy for him to go. In a different system he might be ok but he doesn't fit us at all and is anonymous most matches. We need to offload a striker to bring a good one in and he's bottom of the pecking order.

Romeu was quite good last year but we have to remember he too struggled for games here when he signed as he was in Wanyama's shadow.

No star players left. No standouts.

You know when you use quote marks you're meant to use the quote, not completely change it to suit your argument. "we almost exclusively target players performing badly" is not “We target players doing badly”. Was Gabbiadini perfoming well or badly at Napoli? What about Redmond? Lemina? Hoedt? McCarthy? If I recall, none of them were 1st choice, none of them were setting the world on fire. The general sentiment from fans of their clubs was that they didn't mind them going. Boufal is the only recent signing that came on the back of a good season. It's a huge contrast to the players we used to target. https://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?45712-Keeping-track-of-the-contracts#.Wl0giKiWaUk ?? I'm pretty sure literally every single 1st teamer got a new contract recently with the exception of Davis who's 34 when his current one ends, and Gardos who i'm not sure still exists in our dimension. Uhh.. i'm talking specifically about Forster, as you and someone else picked up. That contract extension was beyond words...

So we're stuck with a squad who've finished top half for years and all shown they can do it* *minus all the actually good players that moved on to greener pastures and haven't been adequately replaced.

Starting to buy players at Championship level wages 6 months early. Great planning as always Les

What got us those good seasons was a completely different strategy to what we do now. We used to target players that were performing well. Now we almost exclusively target players performing badly. We also gave the entire team new long contracts with payrises regardless of how good a player they are. "Have the worst season of your career to date? Here, have a contract extension on top of the still 4 years remaining." I get that we got burned on a few players running down their contracts to one year but surely we could just pursue long contracts on our top players. What kind of message is sent when you reward mediocrity? I'd much prefer a player fighting for a new deal or a transfer to a big club then a player content knowing he's earning millions the next 5 years and is at the highest level he'll ever reach. Whoever's responsible for the change in strategy needs to be held accountable. Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk