And, we’re off.......2018/2019

[Dan2501]

When he was good, he was fantastic. With a full break and pre-season he could be excellent for Everton. We're very happy with the fee, mind you

Is a good point actually - he never got a break last year, it's no wonder he burnt out. He went from being mid-way through the Brazilian season at Fluminese into a full Premier League campaign - one of the most physically demanding leagues in the world - with no break. Hopefully after a summer to reset he'll be back firing under Silva this season.

And yeah, I bet you are, tidy profit that after 1 season!

 

[Orikoru]

Richarlison:

"When I was younger I'd watch Everton, I followed them a lot."

Find it difficult to believe a 10 year-old Richarlison was sat at home in Brazil watching Tony Hibbert pumping long balls up to Victor Anichebe.


Why do they come out with this rubbish?

Haha, that's class. Much as I loved him at Spurs, Robbie Keane was the worst for this. When he joined Liverpool he said it was a boyhood ambition. Then when he went to Celtic on loan and said the same thing.

 

[Deleted member 16999]

Haha, that's class. Much as I loved him at Spurs, Robbie Keane was the worst for this. When he joined Liverpool he said it was a boyhood ambition. Then when he went to Celtic on loan and said the same thing.

I know it’s great, Harry Kane claiming to be a Spurs fan then the pictures of him as a kid in his Arsenal kit come out :rofl:

 

[pbrown7582]

I know it’s great, Harry Kane claiming to be a Spurs fan then the pictures of him as a kid in his Arsenal kit come out :rofl:

no mention of stevie G in blue?

 

[Liverbirdie]

Haha, that's class. Much as I loved him at Spurs, Robbie Keane was the worst for this. When he joined Liverpool he said it was a boyhood ambition. Then when he went to Celtic on loan and said the same thing.

Yep just as believable as a starry eyed boy from barnsley watching dave Beasant hoofing balls up to Colin Lee and being soooooo enamoured with it.....or did the conversion come later?:rofl:

 

[Orikoru]

I know it’s great, Harry Kane claiming to be a Spurs fan then the pictures of him as a kid in his Arsenal kit come out :rofl:

That's because he was in the Arsenal youth academy. Everyone knows about that.

Carragher is the one that confuses me! Everton through and through yet he played for Liverpool for 20 years. That must be a delicate balancing act? What do Everton fans think of him, I'm curious?

 

[Deleted member 16999]

That's because he was in the Arsenal youth academy. Everyone knows about that.

Carragher is the one that confuses me! Everton through and through yet he played for Liverpool for 20 years. That must be a delicate balancing act? What do Everton fans think of him, I'm curious?

Carragher explains it in his book and is very honest why he swapped, Gerrard just bluffs it and comes up with excuses. :thup:

 

[Deleted member 16999]

no mention of stevie G in blue?

No way! Any pictures?

 

[Orikoru]

Carragher explains it in his book and is very honest why he swapped, Gerrard just bluffs it and comes up with excuses. :thup:

So do I take it Everton fans like Carragher then? Or do they still hate him because he's a Liverpool legend?

 

[Deleted member 16999]

So do I take it Everton fans like Carragher then? Or do they still hate him because he's a Liverpool legend?

It’s not a love hate thing to be honest.
Local lad done good, wore his heart on his sleeve and reached the heights of his chosen career, far better career than he’d of had with us over the same time span.
Rooney and his “once a blue, always a blue” is more irritating or Barmby and his comments when he went to the Liv.

 

[Deleted member 16999]

Klaassen gone and we’ve moved a few rungs up the nett spend table.

 

[Dan2501]

Bit of a shame really. Was hoping Silva would be able to get the most out of him, he's so talented. Just worried where the creativity comes from in midfield if Gylfi gets injured or isn't playing well. Without Gylfi we've got Gueye, Schneiderlin, McCarthy, Besic all defensive midfielders and then two youth prospects who are good but not good enough to creatively run a midfield in the Premier League yet.

 

[Deleted member 16999]

Bit of a shame really. Was hoping Silva would be able to get the most out of him, he's so talented. Just worried where the creativity comes from in midfield if Gylfi gets injured or isn't playing well. Without Gylfi we've got Gueye, Schneiderlin, McCarthy, Besic all defensive midfielders and then two youth prospects who are good but not good enough to creatively run a midfield in the Premier League yet.

Tbh, I don’t expect Silva to know himself just yet, I’m more worried we’ve still got Williams and Jags at the back!
Best hope the fans are patient!

 

[Dan2501]

I can see it already. There's going to be a massive gap between defence and midfield. We'll have a lot of attacking talent on the wings and up top but without someone pulling the strings in midfield and distributing the ball properly - something Davy could have done very well, we'll end up just playing hoof balls up to Tosun. Would have been far better off selling Schneiderlin and thinning out the number of defensive midfielders we have than sacking off one of our few talented creative midfielders.

Fee agreed with Barca for Mina apparently. We need him badly right now. Not feeling overly confident going into this season.

 

[Deleted member 16999]

I can see it already. There's going to be a massive gap between defence and midfield. We'll have a lot of attacking talent on the wings and up top but without someone pulling the strings in midfield and distributing the ball properly - something Davy could have done very well, we'll end up just playing hoof balls up to Tosun. Would have been far better off selling Schneiderlin and thinning out the number of defensive midfielders we have than sacking off one of our few talented creative midfielders.

Fee agreed with Barca for Mina apparently. We need him badly right now. Not feeling overly confident going into this season.

Don’t really believe our signings until they appear in the shirt.
Been linked with every man and his dog over the past few seasons.
I’ll take a rough season if we actually see an improvement on the field in terms of style of football and effort from players.
No doubt if we finish below 8th the nkobs will be on to tell us we should of kept allardyce.

 

[drewster]

I can see it already. There's going to be a massive gap between defence and midfield. We'll have a lot of attacking talent on the wings and up top but without someone pulling the strings in midfield and distributing the ball properly - something Davy could have done very well, we'll end up just playing hoof balls up to Tosun. Would have been far better off selling Schneiderlin and thinning out the number of defensive midfielders we have than sacking off one of our few talented creative midfielders.

Fee agreed with Barca for Mina apparently. We need him badly right now. Not feeling overly confident going into this season.

Get Ross Barkley back on loan !!!! Seriously, he could be the answer you're looking for.

 

[Dan2501]

Get Ross Barkley back on loan !!!! Seriously, he could be the answer you're looking for.

I'd take him. Won't be available though, reckon Sarri will end up using him quite a bit if they don't end up getting Golovin over the line. He's exactly the sort of player Sarri likes in his system, a creative midfielder with good work rate than will track back when needed.

Speaking of Chelsea - I think they're going to be the team to watch this season. Sarri plays some really exciting football - his Napoli team were about as good a team as you could wish to watch. They're going to go back to a more classic 4-3-3 and I see them lining up;

-------------------Courtois----------------
--Azpi-----Christensen-----Cahill----Alonso----
--------------------Jorginho-------------------
------------Kante-----------Golovin------------
---Willian----------------------------Hazard-----
-------------------Morata-------------------------

I see Azpilicueta playing at Right Back but in a more defensive wing-back type role where he tucks in and forms a defensive 3 when Alonso bombs forward. Jorginho is the key man in the system - he's the "Regista" - a role made famous by Pirlo and one that Sarri loves to play. All the play goes through Jorginho and he's the catalyst for every Chelsea attack. The key to getting the most out of a player like Jorginho is having someone who can get the ball back off the opposition for him. At Napoli he had Allan, at Chelsea he's getting an upgrade, the best in the world at that role - Kante.

If Chelsea can add a better ball-playing centre half to partner Christensen - someone like Rugani (who Sarri gave his first opportunity to at Empoli) or Koulibaly (one of the best BPD's in the world and again someone Sarri has worked closely with) they'll have an incredibly strong team. They're maybe a world-class striker short as well, but the system Sarri plays could really get the most out of Alvaro Morata. If I was a Chelsea fan I'd be very excited about the season ahead, they're going to get to watch some brilliant football and should be top contenders for the title.

This could be the most exciting season of Premier League football we've seen. Chelsea, City, Liverpool, Spurs and Arsenal are all going to be playing free-flowing attacking football, then there are teams like Everton and West Ham who have new managers who look to play good football and West Ham have made some very good attacking signings. This season is going to be great, just a shame Mourinho's still around sticking up the league with his style of play.

 

[Orikoru]

You are favourites to sign Mina, it really seems like that one is going through. You may not have a vast amount of number 10s anymore, but at least you have wing options now. You started last season with three number 10s and no wingers. Now you have one number 10 and four wingers. That's probably an improvement, no? Could Vlasic cover Sigurdsson if need be?

 

[Orikoru]

I'd take him. Won't be available though, reckon Sarri will end up using him quite a bit if they don't end up getting Golovin over the line. He's exactly the sort of player Sarri likes in his system, a creative midfielder with good work rate than will track back when needed.

Speaking of Chelsea - I think they're going to be the team to watch this season. Sarri plays some really exciting football - his Napoli team were about as good a team as you could wish to watch. They're going to go back to a more classic 4-3-3 and I see them lining up;

-------------------Courtois----------------
--Azpi-----Christensen-----Cahill----Alonso----
--------------------Jorginho-------------------
------------Kante-----------Golovin------------
---Willian----------------------------Hazard-----
-------------------Morata-------------------------

I see Azpilicueta playing at Right Back but in a more defensive wing-back type role where he tucks in and forms a defensive 3 when Alonso bombs forward. Jorginho is the key man in the system - he's the "Regista" - a role made famous by Pirlo and one that Sarri loves to play. All the play goes through Jorginho and he's the catalyst for every Chelsea attack. The key to getting the most out of a player like Jorginho is having someone who can get the ball back off the opposition for him. At Napoli he had Allan, at Chelsea he's getting an upgrade, the best in the world at that role - Kante.

If Chelsea can add a better ball-playing centre half to partner Christensen - someone like Rugani (who Sarri gave his first opportunity to at Empoli) or Koulibaly (one of the best BPD's in the world and again someone Sarri has worked closely with) they'll have an incredibly strong team. They're maybe a world-class striker short as well, but the system Sarri plays could really get the most out of Alvaro Morata. If I was a Chelsea fan I'd be very excited about the season ahead, they're going to get to watch some brilliant football and should be top contenders for the title.

This could be the most exciting season of Premier League football we've seen. Chelsea, City, Liverpool, Spurs and Arsenal are all going to be playing free-flowing attacking football, then there are teams like Everton and West Ham who have new managers who look to play good football and West Ham have made some very good attacking signings. This season is going to be great, just a shame Mourinho's still around sticking up the league with his style of play.

I can see Chelsea struggling this season. First of all, Golovin is going to Monaco so I don't know why you've put him in there. A few of their key players want out (Hazard, Courtois, Willian) so holding onto them will be the first battle - I doubt they keep all three. Morata was pretty poor last season so surely they'll be looking to replace him. I'm predicting a comfortable 6th place for them this season. If I was a Chelsea fan I'd be worried about the direction they're going in.

 

[Dan2501]

Didn't see Golovin had signed for Monaco. Thought with Roman's connections he was definitely going to end up joining Chelsea - obviously not. Loftus-Cheek, Fabregas or Barkley will slot into that role instead then.

I think they'll keep all three and add to the squad before the deadline is up. I don't think they'll win the league but I'd put them in the Top 3. What do you think they have to be worried about? As long as they keep Hazard they're going to be right up there and they'll also be playing some awesome football, they'll be the best team to watch this year. My PL prediction at the minute would be:

City
Liverpool
Chelsea
Spurs
Arsenal
United

Those spots 3-6 are very close but think that'll be the top 3.