You know what? Fuck the Carling Cup.

Gosling & Fellaini looked worse for wear, even after equalising.

Author’s note: consider this a follow up to my earlier post, ‘Who wants to win the Carling Cup?‘

I was lucky enough to be inside the Westpac Stadium in Wellington to witness Wellington Phoenix’s 6-0 demolition of previous A-League pace-setters Gold Coast United yesterday evening, but unfortunately that only served as a brief – albeit very welcome – relief from a fairly desperate couple of days for me in terms of football as Everton’s unbeaten run was brought to an abrupt end as a severely depleted squad was hammered in Benfica before losing out to Bolton last yesterday.

In fact, it’s after a few days such as this that Everton, with an already small squad stretched seemingly beyond breaking point by a huge injury list and the stresses of European competition, need a good week’s rest to regroup, nurse some players back to fitness and bounce back for the test against Villa next weekend. Unfortunately though, before the players can put their feet up they must play their third match in six days when they face Tottenham in the Carling Cup on Tuesday. You have to ask then, who let that happen?

Cheer Up Davey: It’s not quite the end of the world.

Cheer up Davey, it's not the end of the world.

Firstly, apologies for my slightly slack posting recently – I’ve been compiling an application to a postgrad journalism course and it’s been a lot of work. Gone are the days of just filling in a form you know, but I’m nearly there with it now so will be returning to regular posts ASAP (don’t mention exams though, yeah?).

Secondly, today’s post is as much for my own benefit as for yours. There are few things that can make me thoroughly enjoy the prospect of getting out of bed before six o’clock on a Friday morning, but one of them is the prospect of watching Everton playing in Europe. As those of you who’ve seen the score (which, for reasons of self-preservation I won’t repeat) will know, it wasn’t really worth it. Such a defeat is always demoralising and makes you feel like the world has just ended.

BATE Borisov 1-2 Everton: Match Analysis

Tim Cahill helps Everton surpass adversity to defeat BATE.

It’s football’s ability to show that adversity can be conquered that makes it so enjoyable sometimes. When Everton travelled to Belarus for their Europa League match against BATE Borisov yesterday, they were missing nine players from their first team squad through injury, suspension or intelligibility and when they arrived, stand-in captain Joseph Yobo picked up an injury in training just for good measure.

That meant that Tony Hibbert had to fill in at centre back while young Dan Gosling was forced to drop into the right back slot. It also enforced a change of formation from 4-5-1 to 4-4-2 because the only senior player on the bench (except Carlo Nash) was Yakubu, who came in to partner Jo up front and left us with outfield substitutes aged 17, 17, 17, 17, 18 and 19. And this was against a side who have won three league titles in a row and drew with Juventus twice in the Champions League groups stages last season.

Sylvain Distin: Distinctly Average?

Distin: not very exciting.

Isn’t it exciting when your club makes a new signing? That’s pretty much what the summer transfer window is about – especially in a year like this one when there are no major tournaments. Unfortunately, as an Everton fan, I’ve become used to getting a bit frustrated as we struggle to compete financially with our Premier League rivals and don’t usually manage to bring in any players until late in the window.

However, last season we did eventually had cause to get a bit excited about the arrival of Marouane Fellaini at the very death of the transfer window and just the other day the arrival of Diniyar Bilyaletdinov was fantastic – an exciting player with a great deal of promise who will surely add a great deal to our side. Today we’ve snagged our third major signing of the summer though… and well, it’s Sylvain Distin. That’s not very exciting, and I need a bit of reassuring.

The Lescott Saga: An Evertonian Solution.

What's right for Lescott, but more to the point, what's right for Everton?

With just ten days to go in the Summer transfer window for British clubs, it’s fair to expect that quite soon more and more transfers will start to fly through, as managers rush to complete their squad for the first half of the season. One transfer that has dragged on and on all Summer though is Manchester City’s protracted pursuit of Joleon Lescott from my club, Everton. David Moyes has been hugely stubborn in upholding principles and has done what every non-City fan in the country wanted him to do, in standing up to their money.

However, given that Everton had a very poor start to the season with their abject display against Arsenal, and given that Lescott was subsequently omitted from the squad for the 4-0 Europa League victory over Sigma because of what Moyes described as ‘bad attitude’, I think it may well be time to allow him to leave. I’m Lescott’s biggest fan and have praised him many times on this site, but I think in terms of what’s best for Everton, we should take the money and use it wisely. I even have some suggestions as to how it should be used…

Decisions, Decisions: Where does Naughton’s future lie?

Naughton's decision could be very telling of his character.

In a statement on their official website, Everton Football Club have officially confirmed that they remain hopeful that Kyle Naughton will become the latest addition to their squad, confirming media reports that a fee for the young full back was agreed a week ago, but that he is yet to undergo a medical or to agree terms with the club. If you are to believe further media reports, this is because Tottenham Hotspur have made an attempt to hijack the bid and that the player now must decide which club he will join.

Naturally as an Everton fan who has heard only good things about Naughton and who recognises the need for more strength in depth in our squad, particularly in the right-back position, I hope that Naughton chooses to join Everton. Furthermore, while I will naturally be biased towards this conclusion, I genuinely feel that Naughton would be mistaken in joining Spurs ahead of Everton, and that a move to the Toffees would be far more beneficial for his long term development and career.

WDKF Wednesday: A Wily Scotsman

This week’s WDKF Wednesday sees me shift the focus of the Summer away from the transfer merry-go-round that is Real Madrid and instead focus on the activities of a more down to earth football club, and their hugely talented manager. As an Evertonian I worship David Moyes, but such loyalty aside I think it’s fair to say that he sets the perfect example for how to conduct the business of a football club in these tough financial times.

While the signings of Anton Peterlin, Femi Orenuga and Jo (on loan) perhaps may not compare to those of Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema I can honestly say that I’d rather Moyes be in control of my club than the flamboyant Florentino Perez. That may sound like a bold claim, but I reckon it’s justified, to see if you agree with me, click through and have a read.

Blatant Plug: 1970 & All That

Worth a read.

Hi everyone. Mike Berry got in touch with me over the weekend to let me know that he has recently written a book about the legendary Everton team of 1970 that won the First Division title at a canter, with the ‘Holy Trinity’ of Alan Ball, Colin Harvey and Howard Kendall running their midfield. However, Everton failed to capitalise on this success and weren’t to win any more silverware until Kendall returned as manager with FA Cup success in 1984.

1970 & All That: An Evertonian’s Story is a detailed look at what made that side so good, but also an investigation into why it didn’t achieve the sustained success that seemed it’s destiny. Looking at the 1970 season from the point of view of fans and players alike should prove an interesting read for every Evertonian and any football fan, and could be just the poolside read you’ve been looking for on your Summer holidays.

Mike asked me if any NZ Evertonians would be interested so I thought I’d give it a plug here, so if any one is interested… 

Visual Review: Everton Home Shirt 09/10 (LCS)

Everton's new home shirt, made by Le Coq Sportif.

Today I bring you my second review, after I last reviewed England’s new shirt a month or two ago. This time I bring you a visual review of Everton’s newly launched home kit for the ‘09/’10 season, made by le Coq Sportif. It is just a visual review, in that it analyses only the aesthetic design of the shirt and not the fit and quality of the production, seeing as the shirt isn’t actually for sale yet. If you are a shirt retailer though, and would like a full review, get in touch and upon release we could work something out.

I must say I was initially a little horrfied upon seeing some leaked pictures of the design, but it has steadily grown on me and I think that this could end up being a very popular and succesful shirt design for Everton. Indeed, Everton and Le Coq Sportif are clearly hoping to bring back the success that they experienced together in the eighties, and the shirt is very much paying homage to the classic ‘hafnia’ design of that era.

For plenty of pictures and the full visual review, click on through…

A Footballing Monopoly

Roman Abramovich's favourite board-game?

As I jumped madly around the living room 25 seconds into Saturday’s FA Cup Final, screaming incoherent words down my brothers ear and the phone line that connected me to my Dad who, in Nelson, was doing something equally inexplicable as a direct result of a ball thousands of miles away connecting with a net, I had the wonderful feeling that my joy was shared by almost everyone who feels passionately about English football.

Because unless you are a Chelsea or a Liverpool fan, you probably wanted Everton to win the Cup Final. That’s because Everton and Chelsea are in many ways, precise polar opposites. Yes, both play in a blue home strip, but otherwise, Chelsea are a corporate monster buying up footballing success like stocks on Wall St. while Everton are an old-fashioned, hard working and absolutely flat-out broke sports club.