Celery1989

Very interesting discussion there on MNF, Gary Neville and co. examining how Wenger's best teams were built on power and pace yet his teams post-Emirates have lacked the former in particular.

The source is the same guy who on Twitter called the Pedro deal before anyone. He also claims that Pogba is 90% done. Apparently this guy is the Oracle.

I think the most sensible solution to our CM issues would be to wait. Against the better sides we can still play Mikel or Ramires next to Matic, it's not ideal but this is still a serviceable setup. Against lesser opposition, especially at home, Matic and Fabregas should be fine. Then next summer I would make Koke our no.1 target, and look someone like Nainggolan at Roma as an alternative. Both are much better fits for our pivot than Pogba in terms of their defensive and tactical abilities.

What do you expect Jon Woods (The Everton Director in the link above) to say to that fan?

Agreed. He led the line well, held the ball up consistently and took his goal well. Not many seem to have realised that he actually sprinted from our own box to theirs (100 yards or so) uninterrupted to get into position to score. For someone that has problems with his hamstrings this was very encouraging to see. I also think we'd have won this 4/5-1 if JT had not got sent off. Also, Traore upfront? What an utterly silly thing to say.

Thought Stones was class today. So comfortable on the ball for someone of his age and fared pretty well against Aguero for the most part. He's clearly got immense potential, I'd pay the £40m to be quite honest and maybe chuck in Moses as well if that's what they want. I'd like an Englishman to replace JT and there is no one better to be that person than John Stones at the moment. FWIW, RE: Martinez - Saw his post-match interview. The guy from Sky asked him directly 'Has Stones put in a transfer request/Will he put one in?' and Martinez was quite evasive in his response. Whilst looking away from the interview and trying to find the right words for a few moments he said something like 'Nothing has changed, our objective is to put together as strong a squad as possible between now and the end of the month'. It didn't sound very convincing to me, I have to say. But perhaps I'm reading into it too much.

I don't see us having any chance of signing him at the moment. Perhaps in a few years' time once he's won La Liga and maybe the UCL too. But at the moment it would make no sense for him to leave.

To be quite honest I don't want us to sign Pogba. Yes, he is very talented and scores exceptional goals, but I don't think he's disciplined enough defensively to play in our pivot. We already suffer enough as it is from Fabregas' poor defensive ability, and so I don't see how Pogba would really improve us. The player I would ideally want next to Matic is Koke from Atletico Madrid. Not only does he have good creative abilities, but crucially is also an excellent tackler and has a solid tactical understanding of the game, drilled into him by Simeone over a number of years now. Overall I think Koke's defensive qualities would improve our midfield more than Pogba's goalscoring ability, and therefore would make us a better team as a result. We don't really need goalscorers in the DM positions, to be able to compete tat the highest level in Europe we need players that can pick out a pass, cover ground well and retain their defensive shape consistently.

Hmm fair point. But surely it could be argued that had JT been in the right position then Courtois wouldn't have been needed to deal with the situation?

So relieved to win that, pretty tough to watch at times. The team badly needed the 3 points today, hopefully this victory will restore some calm to proceedings. A few observations from me: 1) Pedro - I like how he's always looking to run in behind and stretch the oppostion's defence. None of our other AM's are willing to do this, they all want the ball to feet. Hopefully Pedro can provide a similar, pacey threat on the outside cutting in as Schurrle did. Great start Pedro, keep it going. 2) Costa - Back to the beast we know he can be. Thought his hold up play was excellent, led the line brilliantly. His hamstrings looked in pretty good shape as he sprinted from one box to another for his goal. 3) Hazard was excellent in wasting time at the end and menace throughout. Thought Zouma and Cahill were excellent too, the former in particular. Had to love Dave's passion when he celebrated his goal. Got him in my FF team too :) 4) Courtois - What a save for the pen, in general he was great too. Faultless. 5) Falcao looked bright but then his finishing was poor. I hate it how Remy is no.3 in the pecking order when he's clearly a better player. 6) JT - Sad to see the red, thought there wasn't much in it but there was enough contact. No point appealing it I don't think. Hopefully he will come back stronger for this in 3 games' time. 7) Fabregas - I know it's been pointed out before but he was utterly woeful defensively today. It's actually quite embarrassing at times, especially when you have the likes of Chris Brunt going past you as if you're not even there. I can't see us getting anywhere in Europe with Fabregas in the pivot next to Matic, better quality teams will be able to exploit his defensive incompetence. 8) Ivanovic - Sorry to say it but another weak performance. He needs to pick it up quickly, or we shift Dave to RB.

A loan is all we could get. Who in their right mind would currently pay anything near to £26m for him?? At least he's not in the squad wasting a spot on the bench any more.

City are clearly the best team at the moment. It seems as though many of their players are still hurting from last season and are therefore much hungrier this time round. Sterling has added much need pace on the left, whilst Mangala looks much more assured than last season. Kompany has also been faultless in these first 3 games and it seems like City may have developed greater defensive steel than they have ever really had in the last few years. If they can keep Kompany, Aguero and Toure consistently fit then I'd have to say that they are favourites for the title. Theirs seems to be a settled, peaceful camp whereas there just seems to be too much uncertainty/disquiet surrounding us at this point. Nevetheless, provided we can keep the gap to somewhere around the 5-7 point mark over the next few months and sort ourselves out then I'm sure we will at the very least least run them close.

With Pedro signed now Willian can compete with Oscar for the no.10 role too as well as his usual RW slot. Good for the squad. One of Cuadrado or Moses are sure to go now. I would bet Cuadrado as Moses is homegrown and therefore might be necessary for the UCL quota.

Good points. Pedro gives us an 'out' ball that we currently don't have, someone who can use his blistering pace to get in behind and to stretch the defence. This in turn might see Willian play more as the no.10, where for me he is far more effective in an attacking sense. Also that will put more pressure on Oscar to perform, who currently is the no.10 by default because of the composition of our squad. I think Pedro will be a solid signing. At the age of 28 I don't see him exploding onto the scene but he could be a very valuable player nevertheless, someone that could conceivably 10 or so goals and provide a handful of assists too. It would be ideal, now, if Everton could take Moses off us as part of the Stones deal. That would clear the logjam that we have at RW and also facilitate the negotiations for John Stones.

I've seen an improvement in this side of his game, but Fabregas is still a liability IMO defensively and tactically. I would love to us to sign Koké and pair him with Matic in the pivot. He's a creative CM but one who is also very good defensively and has been well drilled tactically by Simeone for many years. I can't see this happening in this window but something worth keeping an eye on for next summer. Given our relationship with Atletico Madrid a deal could well be feasible.

To be honest if it was a straight duel between us and Bayern I think most players would pick them over us. But like others have said above Douglas Costa was quoted many times declaring how he'd have loved to play for us. It seems like we might well have been able to sign him in January, and if that's the case then it makes the Cuadrado transfer seem even worse then it already appears to be.

As Gary Neville said last night, 'they cock about with the offside rule every year'.

Saw the Bundesliga highlights last night. Douglas Costa looks fantastic. Left footed, quick, technical AM that can play on the right. Exactly what we could do with at the moment, and to think we were linked with this guy for months.

Saw the Bundesliga highlights last night. Douglas Costa looks fantastic. Left footed, quick, technical AM that can play on the right. Exactly what we could do with at the moment, and to think we were linked with this guy for months.

The Sun are claiming that Everton will do business at £35m. If that's the case then hurry up and get the deal done.

Just got back from the Etihad. Very poor performance. Devoid of ideas in attack, lethargic effort overall and defensively we look so shaky across the board. Even Azpilicueta got done a few times by Navas. So many players are really not pulling their weight at all at the moment. Ivanovic could do with getting dropped and I would draft in Zouma over Cahill who quite frankly is just a liability at this point. Jose - Please stop talking sh*t for one second and just admit that were crap and got exactly what we deserved. The only positive from today was Begovic, pulled off two outstanding saves and saved us from further embarrassment. This may seem somewhat apoplectic but if we don't win at WBA then we will really struggle to retain the Title. 7/8 points behind on City after 3 games would be enormous at this stage. I'd almost say that that game is a must win.

Whether it's the youth players or the club that are to blame for the lack of homegrown development, I think one thing that we can agree on is that this partnership with Vitesse Arnhem is not doing any favours for us. We haven't had a single player go there on loan and come back better IMO. We ought to dump Vitesse and look for a club in either Italy or Spain to form a strategic partnership. The Dutch League is poor in my opinion and to be quite honest I'd even take a Championship side over Vitesse. The players would certainly develop physically and mentally playing 3 attritional games a week up and down the country.

Sorry but I disagree. I think Hazard is very honest for a player in his position, he could do much, much more diving/writhing around in agony if he wanted.

I have to say this whole affair has been embarrassing and could have been dealt with in a much more discreet fashion behind close doors. Jose coming out and publically lambasting the doctors was really out of order, imo. Unfortunately, even though he signed a new 4 year deal the other day, Jose has clearly been growing frustrated with a lot of things. I'm sure he would have wanted 1 big signing earlier on this summer, and he's obviously p*ssed off that the Baba Rahman and John Stones deals are taking so long to complete, given how publically he has spoken about them. More to the point regarding Saturday's flashpoint, I wonder whether Jose has been growing increasingly frustrated regarding the Diego Costa situation. Surgery wasn't necessary before pre-season apparently but rather a thorough strengthening of the muscle. Having had a whole Summer (and the back end of last season) to devise a fitness programme for Costa I can understand Jose's frustrations with the medical team seeing as Diego is in exactly the same position as last season. But then if this had been simmering for all these months, why has Jose publically commended Eva and co on so many occasions in 2015? Whatever the case, I feel sorry for Jon Fearn and Eva Carneiro overall, they were simply doing their jobs as instructed last Saturday. But that said, Eva really ought not to have posted anything on Facebook, that certainly won't have helped her cause.

It just makes you realise how fragile things are in Football. Remember that side they had in late 90's? Crespo, Chiesa, Buffon, Thuram, Veron, Cannavaro…truly awesome side. And now look at them. Feel really sorry for their fans.