Polarboy

Well I don't know if he didn't show up because he's about to be sold and the club have allowed him the time off, or whether he's huffing with the club in order to get a move. There's also the third option that the information that he didn't show up isn't entirely accurate.

Apparently Onana didn't show up to training for Everton today either. Onana would be perfect for our midfield in that defensive role, but I haven't seen any rumours of our interest in him. Chelsea will probably spunk another 100m on him and stick him on the bench.

According to Romano Spurs have hijacked Everton's move for Danjuma who's ostensibly their replacement for Gordon. Whether that will stall the deal who knows. Maybe we could offer them Fraser.

Hope's article states that we're in talks with several overseas clubs, but it's not clear if the players of those clubs are back ups in case the Gordon deal falls apart or we're after more than Gordon in terms of attacking reinforcement. It would be nice to say the least if we could get two or three players who can compete for a first team spot straight away this window. Ziyech would be a very nice pick up as a loan as well. Both he and Gordon can play wide and as a 10, so they'd give us a lot of flexibility and options as I was saying the other day.

We're team Goss in our house. Logan can get te fuck the Judas.

Is he one half of a Bros tribute act?

The West Ham game has just become even more important. Spurs play Citeh so a draw is probably the best they can hope for. A win for us and we'll likely be six ahead, with far superior goal difference and a game in hand.

On a side note, if an assumed unwillingness to sell wasn't an issue then I'd love us to go for the 18 year old off Brighton Evan Ferguson. The header he scored the other night was vintage Shearer. He has 3 goals and 2 assists in 189 minutes of football. And from a personal point of view it would be nice to see an Irish lad at the club again.

So you think the club have suddenly went from shrewd to buying shit cloggers? And you're talking about Gordon as if he's in his mid to late twenties. He's only been on the PL scene properly for a season and a half. Any transfer can go wrong and the club won't get every one right, and buying young players you think have potential is probably even more fraught with the possibility of it going tits up, but if we haven't come to trust Howe and Ashworth's judgement yet then I don't know what they have to do. Personally the only problem I have with Gordon is that he seems like a twat and is a diver, but if we manage to buy him and he starts scoring and assisting that will quickly fade.

You're buying potential mostly, plus Gordon is nearly 6 years younger than Maddison. Hopefully Maddison will be at the club come the end of the summer. In fairness to Gordon his pace and first touch is top class when he's on it. Edit. Before wykikitoon posts a meme I'd like to say that I didn't see his post before I changed the page. Great minds and all that 😂

The Chronicle are reporting that the change in managers won't stop the transfer from happening if the price is right, and that Everton are continuing their transfer business regardless of their current manager situation. It's almost as if they haven't learnt anything given all the money they've spunked up a wall, and will continue to buy players that managers have had no say or consultation in at all.

Any other team and I'd say they were down, but Everton always seem to jam it from somewhere. It would be funny if they went down for nothing else than the period of mourning from blue scousers and the pundits who think certain teams are owed success because the were quite good in the 80's etc.

Can't see Gordon being flogged now. Then again selling one of their best young players before appointing a new manager isn't out of the question for the Everton hierarchy. As long as we have someone else lined up I can't say I'd be devastated; assuming of course that the rumours around our renewed interest in Gordon are true.

The thing about Gordon is that it's probably unfair to judge him on this season at least in terms of his form. His diving and general demeanour are a separate issue. He's still very young at 21 and he's been playing in a shit team that can barely string a few passes together in forward areas. He has Lampard as a manager and seems to have had a falling out with him. I can't see Lampard benching him like he has if something personal wasn't going on. It's not as if Lampard's squad is overflowing with options. If Ashworth and Howe think there's potential in Gordon who are we to judge.

Everton are supposedly close to brining in Danjuma on loan from Villarreal. He can play Gordon's position so it will be interesting to see if there's any movement on him early next week once Danjuma is fully singed off.

I very much doubt Moyes will be adventurous in his tactics against us. And look you may be right about how teams line up against us, but again it seems odd that it's seemingly taken them this long to cop on.

I'm talking about our league position. What we've achieved in the league cup, which is great, wasn't relevant. And I hope you're correct that we'll copy the first half of the season and go on a winning run after a run of draws.

Nobody is saying it's an accident or not by merit that we're third. A hell of a lot of hard work by Howe and the players has led to our current position, but hard work sometimes isn't enough when you are lacking that bit of inspiration and ruthlessness in front of goal to turn those draws into wins. As another poster was saying teams are playing a low block against us, but I think it's a combination of that added to a general lack of elite quality in front of goal that's led to so many draws.

He's "looked" dangerous all season but he only has two goals and two assists to his name which is pretty poor for a player who's our attacking mid pretty much.

I agree and I disagree. This team without Howe getting every drop out of players like Almiron, Longstaff, Joelinton, Willock etc aren't top four. We'd be doing well to be top 8.

I think that's plausible, but surely teams would have cottoned on to the way we play and our form sooner than the last four games. And we obviously drew a fair amount of games in the first half of the season.

Firstly I do believe we are where we are on merit, but at the end of the day the amount of draws we're collecting could do for us come the end of the season. If we continue drawing a lot of games and some of the teams below us go on a winning run they could soon overtake us. Chelsea are unlikely to over take us, but Liverpool have a game in hand and then seven point becomes more doable. It would be a mistake to assume that Spurs and Liverpool can't string together a run before the end of the season given the quality of their squads, or at least the quality of their big players in Spurs' case. I'd say one goal is four and three draws to along with our general propensity to draw this season compared to our rivals is a worry. The problem is the missed chances. The missed chances are a sign that we don't have enough players who are clinical when in good positions. Longstaff is the prime example. He's a good player with many laudable qualities but he's not quite good enough to be a top four level player, and he won't be unless he turns around his conversion rate. I hope it's the case that players like Wilson, ASM and Almiron get their shooting boots back on soon and this mini drought in front of goal is just a blip, and or Howe and Ashworth make some clever signings or loans to bring us up a level in front of goal.

All mackem noncery aside, the draws, Wilson's form since the world cup, Almiron's downturn in form, ASM hasn't really looked at the races although maybe he needs to start a run of games, and just our general total lack of being clinical in front of goal is a major worry. At least two of those three could start scoring and Isak could chip in as well, but I can't help thinking that how successful our transfer is will dictate whether we finish in the top four or slide down to fifth or six. We need a defensive mid, we also need somebody who can match Bruno in terms of threading a pass but also more consistently chip in with goals, that's obviously Maddison ideally, we need cover at full back, we need wingers/forwards who will at the very least compete with ASM, Joelinton and Almiron although I think ASM will leave sooner than later, and we need to replace Wood with someone who can contribute straight away as Eddie has said. We won't do all that before the end of this month and probably not even by the end of the summer. I think we can cope without almost everything except the replacement for Wood and the goalscorer from midfield. Ziyech could be a very interesting loan to the end of the season given that he largely played in an attacking mid role for Ajax where he had a lot of success. Willock has given us a lot of energy from midfield but not a lot of end product lately. Talent wise at least Ziyech should be able to steal his place in the lineup. A replacement for Wood is difficult, but if rumours are to be believed Gordon is high on the list. The two aforementioned would give us a lot of flexibility given they can play in multiple positions.

Seeing some people compare Gordon to Bellamy in terms of the type of player he is, as in annoying little twat but absolutely rapid and potentially a very good player with a decent coach behind him. If we actually sign him and he's as good as Bellamy was for us I may learn to live with his rat features.

Yeah, him and hairy hands bleating on about the Russian co-owner actually being the real person in charge, which maybe he is.