Everton 1-0 Newcastle: One to forget as NUFC run out of steam against an uninspiring Everton

Well, that is 90 minutes of our life we aren’t getting back.

An awful game in truth and the definition of a game of few chances (there was just three shots on target in the entire game). That being said, there was several moments where we could and really should have done better (cough cough Ayoze Perez).

Our defensive solidarity and ability to dig in, out-graft the opposition and nick a goal or two at the other end has been outstanding of late and the reason why we’ve climbed into the top half, but tonight was a reminder to Rafa just how a lack of composure in the final third can go on to cost you.

A draw would’ve been about fair, but, shock horror, an arrogant Allardyce reckons it was a game they ‘dominated’ and one where there only looked like being one winner (you had one shot on target Sam).

You can see why Everton fans desperately want rid of him. Yes they’ve done the double on us, but they really have looked awful (which doesn’t say much about our performance in each!).

It’s a frustrating one to take, as they’ve looked one of the poorest sides we’ve played this season both home and away, but that’s him –  ugly ugly points.

Back to ourselves and it was a below par performance all round really. Aside from Diame (who was everywhere once again, sharp on the ball and quick into the tackle), Lejeune (who won plenty in the air and was measured on the ground) and Kenedy (who won the ball back several times and was one of few to keep a calm head in the final third), we didn’t play well at all and never really got going.

With Southgate said to be present, Lascelles and Shelvey picked an awful time to put in one of their poorest displays since the turn of the year. Lascelles looked shaky on the ball and made more errors than he usually does, whilst Shelvey was unusually sloppy after several more measured performances of late.

Slimani showed glimpses of what he’ll offer, being surprisingly mobile, a clear handful and a player happy to come short of make runs in behind, but you could see it was his first start for over 3 months. He had his moment but he looked rusty (as you’d expect).

One to forget for NUFC tonight, but context is vital after such a brilliant 2018.

On we go to West Brom on Saturday!

(Fancy writing for us? Send any articles/ideas over to us at [email protected] & we’ll get back to you!)

About Olly Hawkins

As a Junior Magpie since birth and season ticket holder, I eat, sleep and breathe all things NUFC! Here at the blog, I aim to bring you news, views, match reports and transfer exclusives as and when I get them.

68 thoughts on “Everton 1-0 Newcastle: One to forget as NUFC run out of steam against an uninspiring Everton

  1. You missed the handball and clear second yellow for Keane. Scrappy match but we probably had enough chances to at least draw. Don’t know what the hell BFS is talking about. It shows how delusional he is if he thinks that was a good performance. Its another one of those times where if he repeats it often enough, it must be true – Trump does it all of the time.

    Jordan Pickford was their man of the match and I am not sure if he made a save. You just can’t put a through ball in because he is so fast off his line. There were a couple of times that with a different goalie our player would have been in.

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  2. BFS will probably remain at Everton next season and thats a plus if you ask me. He can waist millions and put them back by 10 years.

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  3. I still think we deserved a draw but I was worried about overconfidence, mostly amongst supporters. I said it on the last thread but having been a NUFC supporter for more than 40 years I get worried having been kicked in the balls so often. Sure enough, I looked on Ed’s after the game and he had 5,000 predictions on his little poll and only 10% thought we would lose.

    There has to be a word for this but I can’t think of it. Fatalism comes close. It is not destiny. There is probably some far east philosophy word?

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  4. What did some of these internet fans expect from Slimani? What has he played for us – 18 minutes? He arrived injured on January 31 and not sure how much time he had for Leicester as he was injured there as well and was Vardy’s backup.

    We have a cheap way of having a close-up look at striker so we should do it. He has had his bedding in time at Leicester, so maybe we could take advantage. Not all players from foreign leagues hit the ground running and some never adapt. We are having a free look. We are buying a coat on Amazon, trying it on for a few days and can send it back if we decide it doesn’t suit us for the $5 price of return postage. I am sure we have an idea of what Leicester would accept, this is not like Kenedy.

    It’s really funny that after 18 minutes against Arsenal some are immediately saying sign him up. Now after another 60 minutes he is not good enough. That will have been 70 mins of football in 3 plus months. How can he possibly be match fit and the only way we will know if he would be a fit is to play him.

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  5. Well, I said to my mate before it kicked off that it would be a boring game and boy was I right.
    BFS teams suck the life out of football and Rafa also likes to defend and hit on the counter, it was never gonna be a thriller. A draw would of been a fair result, considering what’s been spent by Everton on players they should of swept our ‘ championship’ team aside. That Colman defensive header at the end of the game saved BFS blushes .
    Cannot understand why both teams didn’t go for it tbh, we are both safe so why be so defensive , or am I missing something.

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  6. kimtoon:
    Well, I said to my mate before it kicked off that it would be a boring game and boy was I right.
    BFS teams suck the life out of football and Rafa also likes to defend and hit on the counter, it was never gonna be a thriller. A draw would of been a fair result, considering what’s been spent by Everton on players they should of swept our ‘ championship’ team aside. That Colman defensive header at the end of the game saved BFS blushes .
    Cannot understand why both teams didn’t go for it tbh, we are both safe so why be so defensive , or am I missing something.

    Everton had one shot on target,had to laugh at ref who was screaming at toon players ime sorry i missed it i didnt see it over the pen Perez lost us the game with a very poor game,talk about spending big money on strikers??what did Tosun do??,no the game was there for the taking but we didnt for lack of quailty

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  7. It was just a poor performance from us. The ball was constantly bouncing off us, passes going astray. We couldn’t put a foot right all night. Having said that they were very ordinary too. Midtable no nothing game. Kenedy, Diame, Lejeune did ok, the rest were well below par.

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  8. georgio:
    It was just a poor performance from us. The ball was constantly bouncing off us, passes going astray. We couldn’t put a foot right all night. Having said that they were very ordinary too. Midtable no nothing game. Kenedy, Diame, Lejeune did ok, the rest were well below par.

    Thought Merino made some good passes during his brief appearance. Gayle who has been much criticised of late livened up our performance. We need a new right back and I would be tempted to give Mbemba a run there. Lascelles is a good defender but needs to work on his distribution and speed it up too. Often dwells too long on the ball before making up his mind. Still thought we deserved a draw and possibly a win. Ref seemed happy to let Everton use their hands all the time.

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  9. Outrun, outplayed, and we made Everton look a decent team.
    Lascelles and Shelvey showed Southgate why they should not be in the England squad.
    A bad day at the office , but all teams have an off day and this was ours.
    Time to move on and get a good result against West Brom.

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  10. Aye and that won’t be as easy as a few weeks ago Sidekick. Under Darren they have looked much more hungrier and beaten the mancs and give Pool a bloody good game. If they’d shown that hunger and desire before they may not be bottom now.
    Not a foregone conclusion we win that by any means imo.

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  11. sidekick:
    Outrun, outplayed, and we made Everton look a decent team.
    Lascelles and Shelvey showed Southgate why they should not be in the England squad.
    A bad day at the office , but all teams have an off day and this was ours.
    Time to move on and get a good result against West Brom.

    We made Everton look a decent team?

    Christ, I thought they were awful..

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  12. Olly: I still think Moreno is in Rafa’s plans whatever the Basque interest. Up until a couple of matches ago we were in deep trouble and he had found a midfield duo ho were playing well together. I don’t think he wanted to disrupt the midfield of Shelvey and Diame, especially with the latter suddenly becoming Patrick Viera’s younger brother after looking shyte for 18 months.

    Mitro is gone and unless we see MBemba start I think he is too. Anybody else will depend on if Rafa thinks we can get an upgrade. That will include Gayle because he is a valuable commodity in The Championship.

    I am not even sure if Shelvey is safe as you sort of have to build the team around his particular skill set. If he is off, like he was last night, then the team doesn’t look good. We looked better when he went off.

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  13. We will not have to see BFS again I think, at least for Everton. I hope and pray that he is picked up by one of the UK broadcasters as an analyst for the WC so I don’t have to see his ugly mug over here in the US. BEin Sports do a great job even though they don’t have the games over here and there was no Keys and Gray last time. Please do not get BFS or Pards, I beg you.

    I think the Everton fans are suffering BFS fatigue. It is not just the football but his pre and post match comments and then they do the pre-game pressers and you have Daily Briefings in the Liverpool Echo etc. We see a lot of Rafa so they must see the same amount of BFS. His smug bloviating must drive them mad, especially when has lost touch with reality.

    It wasn’t as bad 10 years ago when he was at NUFC because I don’t think you had the wall to wall coverage you do now. There has been an explosion of social media, discussion shows and podcasts and even new channels. Over here we have 4 channels showing football (soccer) now.

    4 years ago Murdochs Fox had the PL and I was lucky to see NUFC 10 times a year because it was basically the Sky schedule. Now I can watch any PL game live and record any others and they have hour long lead in and post match shows so Jose and BFS are on my TV all of the time.

    What I am saying is that you won’t be able to get away from the arrogant ***** if you are an Everton fan and you have to pray he gets the sack. I think he will show up next year though. Possibly Swansea or Cardiff if they get promoted.

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  14. Guess who we have got analyzing the Liverpool CL game on the Sky affiliated Fox Channel – Jamie Carragher. I thought he was suspended! There is no doubt you will be hearing that awful scouse squeal next year.

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  15. One last thing about BFS delusions. He said they dominated the game. I suppose he means the possession stats which I think were 57/43 in their favour. But, we know Rafa sets up for the counter attack away from home. More importantly, we were not playing the same scurry and press with Sliman (1st start in months)/Perez as we do with Gayle/Perez so a lot of the Everton passing was in their own half. Sometimes the possession stats do not tell the story and the BFS gameplan is usually pass it around the back four then hoof.

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  16. Anybody watching Liverpool/Roma? Not going as expected by the British Press and Bookies so far – 20 mins in.

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  17. I don’t know how this will go but I do know that Roma beat Napoli away who play a lot like Liverpool.

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  18. Icedog:
    Two great goals from Mo

    should probably be 3 up with Mane’s chances but I sure they will settle for 2 with Roma now not creating anything. I would like Liverpool to win the CL just to stuff it to Man U.

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  19. I read in the Chronic I think that in the last 10 years only 2 promoted teams have finished in the top half of the PL. That is sort of staggering. I know Rafa has said he will mix it up but I think we should have this as a goal so we can throw it in the face of the arsehole pundits who love to criticize NUFC.

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  20. I see our loanees return back to us before the end of the season. I think that can only be a good thing really coz it should hopefully allow Rafa to have another good look at the likes of Armstrong, Sterry and afew of the other youngsters to see if there has been enough improvement to see if they have any future. I think he’s already made his mind up about Colback and Mitrovic – but maybe one or two of the younger lads could fight for a squad place next season. There’s about 7-8 players coming back, and a good few fringe players still at the club now – which means there are still a lot of players to get rid of when the transfer work starts.

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  21. Rafa says wearside jack will have to go right back to the under 23s team even thats to good for him i would send him to Hartlepool for nowt

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  22. icedog:
    Rafa says wearside jack will have to go right back to the under 23s team even thats to good for him i would send him to Hartlepool for nowt

    Ice – I still think we’ll get 3-4m for him in the summer. If that be the case, he pays for the keeper – I’d take that business for sure.

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  23. Olly Hawkins:
    Hi folks,

    Not a new thread, but you might want to take a look at this..

    https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2018/04/25/mitrovic-lucky-to-escape-fa-ban-after-moment-of-madness-this-is-why-rafa-doesnt-trust-him/

    Mitro proving once again he just doesn’t learn. VERY lucky to have escaped a ban and red for this (something which could’ve cost Fulham BIG time).

    Olly – yeah, that side of his game is the very reason he has no future at NUFC. It’s a shame really coz the lad has bags of potential – I still say potential coz scoring freely in the championship doesn’t mean he’ll do it in the EPL.
    If we could get £15 plus million for him then I’d take that. If that funds the Kenedy purchase then I’d take that.

    Personally I’d sell Gayle as well (and give Joselu away). Armstrong doesn’t look to have much of a future and Toney even less.
    So as is the case every transfer window – any money really needs to go on recruiting at least 2 forwards imo.

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  24. If Fulham buy Mitro and come up and he does stuff like that, they’ll soon fall out of love with him. He will not get away with that in the PL as we well know.

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  25. Mark Douglas Retweeted

    PriceOfFootball‏ @KieranMaguire · Apr 24

     More

    (2/2) by changing the company year end twice in succession in each of last few years, the Companies House website/system appears to treat the company differently and allows it 15 months to submit the accounts instead of the standard 9. Very strange indeed @bigchrisholt

    5 replies . 13 retweets 6 likes

     Reply
    5

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    Show this thread

     Mark Douglas Retweeted

    PriceOfFootball‏ @KieranMaguire · Apr 24

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    (1/2) More strange goings on in the world of Mike Ashley. As well as not submitting the #NUFC accounts to Companies House on time, and therefore being in breach of company law, he seems to have found a way around submitting those of his own company, Mash Holdings Ltd…

    Yep he’s a dodgy geezer alright .

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  26. Newsflash: England are not going to win the World Cup. So, why not take Alexander-Arnold who at 19 Klopp has made Liverpool’s top left back and allows to bomb up the wing and take a free kick from the edge of the box. He needs backup to Ashley Young who is a winger at heart anyway. On a similar note, how about Foden from Man City? I know he is only 17 and has only made a few cameo appearances but have you watched him? The way he glides past players is Beardsley-esque. No? We’ll stick with Jake Livermore.

    And finally people are asking why not take a begging bowl to Milner and ask him to un-retire. And writing articles about how deep in trouble Sunderland are. I would have been doing that months ago. Oh, I did. This is why I rail against the press because they would much rather write about footballer’s cars and WAGs than do actual journalism. I suppose the public gets what the public wants.

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  27. Did the FA say why Mitro wasn’t banned? It looks worse than when he WAS banned for NUFC except this time the Ref didn’t see it. I thought this was the point of a retrospective ban to punish things the Ref didn’t see. When Mitro was suspended by the FA the Ref was looking straight at the incident.

    It is not a conspiracy theory if it is true, and it is not a theory if it is factually correct. NUFC get no penalties and no opposition sendings off. The FA just made a totally different interpretation of a similar incident in favour of Fulham when they went against NUFC earlier this season.

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  28. And I bet Southgate doesn’t have the stones to drop Stones. He had previously said he wouldn’t pick players who weren’t playing for their teams. I would like Lascelles to get some recognition but it is probably better for us if Southgate ignores him.

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  29. Eric, we have months of the renewed ‘fakeover’ news to look forward to yet mate, but hey at least we won’t be distracted by transfer gossip/news .

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  30. The Chronic journalists are showing how little they know yet again with their picks for player of the season. Ryder goes for Diame and Douglass for Ritchie. Hey Guys, it is player of the season not player of a 3rd of the season. Fans were asking where the real Matt Ritchie was only a few games ago and Diame didn’t shine until he was switched to defensive midfielder. Not his fault, but thatwas only for about a 3rd of the season. He was booed off when he played as a number 10.

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  31. Maybe I can help Messrs Ryder and Douglas out:

    NUFC have played 7 PL games without Lascelles, lost 6 and drew 1. Conceded 20 goals in those 7 games.

    NUFC have kept 11 clean sheets in Lascelles’ last 32 PL starts. They have kept 1 clean sheet in the 20 games he has missed.

    Not only is he the Captain, but he is credited with giving Diame a much needed kick up the ****.

    Of course, now Lascelles and Diame will have a ‘mare against WBA.

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  32. I’d also consider LeJeune. From that horrific injury to start the season to come back and play as well as he has is excellent. Dummet has not been to shabby either. Funny how we are going with defenders though.

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  33. PremAndUp:
    I’d also consider LeJeune. From that horrific injury to start the season to come back and play as well as he has is excellent. Dummet has not been to shabby either. Funny how we are going with defenders though.

    Prem: I agree that they have been exceptional in the games they have played, I just think they have missed too many compared to Lascelles.

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  34. Ideally, you would want an attacking midfielder or striker to be your player of the season as it adds a feel good factor. I think De Gea has been Man Us POS for the last 3 years which actually says a lot. I think it is Lascelles for us but hopefully not next season. Not due to any drop off but because we might have someone in double figures for goals?

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  35. How times have changed. Do you see who Salah is looking to beat for record PL goals? Shearer and Andy Cole. I think Shearer’s 34 was when he was at Blackburn, but still.

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  36. Eric Sykes:
    Alexander Arnold is a right back, but I still think he should go.

    Eric – I know what you mean in what you’re saying mate. I think it’s a good point/idea.
    I really like young Foden and Arnold, and I’d take Lewis Cook from Bmth as well – he was the U21 captain and basically replaced Whilshire in their midfield when they sent him back to Arsenal – tidy little player. I like that Ryan Sessegnon at Fulham too. He’s only 17 so maybe still a bit young – but he’s massively gifted and won’t be at Fulham long imo. He’s destined for a bigger club and looks a certain future England forward to me.

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  37. I’d add to my last point by saying I wouldn’t take Sessegnon to this tournament, but he’d be in the thoughts for the Euros in 2yrs time.
    I think that wide left spot has always been a problem for England – probably as far back as Waddle.
    But I do think this young lad has a big future.

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  38. Olly: glad to see that Ashley will give Rafa cash in the summer and it is not out of the question as he did let Carr and Charnley spend everything that was in the bank to try to avoid relegation. The problem was that they spent it all so there was none left for Rafa until it was earned again by being in the PL. Now that has begun so I expect Rafa to have access to whatever is left of this years cash and the 1st tranche of next years. He could also get money from sales which could be significant. A big question is if Ashley would let Rafa borrow against a portion of future TV revenue. I doubt it, you just have to look down the road to see what might happen.

    My slight quibble with the story is Ryder says there will 80-120 mil from TV money. No, the last place team gets 100 mil. If we finish mid-table we will get 120 mil plus because there is extra for each place and you get paid extra for each live TV game and we are on all of the time. Minor quibble, but it is Ryder and even if the source said it Ryder should have made this point.

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  39. Mackem Watch: this is hilarious, but what else do you expect. Mackem Chairman says that Ellis Short will not put the club into administration. Bain also said he is willing to continue to work for the club. Yes, the Chairman who has overseen two relegations is still WILLING to work there. So too Chis Coleman, the Manager who just got them relegated to the third division. He is WILLING to work there if he gets certain assurances. They say the club needs 14 new players.

    The article also says that Short has been covering the clubs losses which means they have been in even more dire financial trouble than they let on even before relegation to the third tier.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5653561/Sunderland-owner-Ellis-Short-not-allow-club-enter-administration-despite-relegation.html

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  40. My guess is Short will wait for the parachute payment, use it to refund part of his loan and then walk. How could he not when the imbeciles who have helped put the club in this mess are demanding assurances. It is like the salesman with the worst sales going into his boss and demanding a raise and new territory (14+ new players are the new territory in this metaphor).

    Bain appointed Moyes, Grayson and Coleman and wants assurances 🙂 🙂 🙂 In the acronym of not so dearly departed Troysta YCMIU.

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  41. Short owns the club and can do what he wants with the parachute payment. Neither the players nor the bank have first dibs unless the club is in admin. Then the accountants get to say who gets anything of what is left. Player wages are first in the queue, so the gutless wonders who had them relegated twice get paid first. However, I doubt there will be any money for them given the state they are in so the Jack Rodwell gravy train will run into the mountainside.

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  42. I would also like some of the TV money to go into to paying off the debt owed to Ashley, which won’t go away.

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  43. It is quite funny reading the comments on Ryder’s in The Chronic. Everybody thinks he is a ******, with no contacts who writes the same old rehashed shyte all of the time. Here’s me thinking I was unique in that respect 🙂

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  44. Shamrock:
    I would also like some of the TV money to go into to paying off the debt owed to Ashley, which won’t go away.

    Sham – aye, I’d go with that too mate. Give Rafa £100m to spend and anything else can go towards the debt. That might only be £50m or less but it would be a start – and in terms of selling the club – it could only help.

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  45. Sharpy17: Sham – aye, I’d go with that too mate.Give Rafa £100m to spend and anything else can go towards the debt.That might only be £50m or less but it would be a start – and in terms of selling the club – it could only help.

    Exactly mate. That debt is a massive chain and ball and he could decide to start charging interest at any point.

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  46. We also have to pay wages so even if the club makes 160-170 million that still only leaves about 50 for transfers before sales.

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  47. To be honest it was a game of very little quality. Although I believe if we had some quality up front we’d have won it.

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  48. On the transfer kitty, we will not under this owner have enough money, urgency or ambition to satisfy Rafa. If we’re lucky Rafa might get £60m plus player sales. The club will always use the excuse that the likes of Palace, Swansea, Bournemouth, Burnley, West Ham and Watford have been in PL longer so have more money. BasicLly we will compete with Brighton, Huddersfield and two who come up with Wolves. What a future for us!

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  49. georgio:
    Give money to Ashley????? No way! Give it all to Rafa. Ashley has far too much already.

    Georgio – we aren’t giving him the money as a bonus. It’s money he has put into the club – it’s money any potential buyer would have to pay him. If we took a loan from a bank we couldn’t say don’t pay them, they’ve got enough – plus they would be charging us interest on that amount of money – so we’d be a lot worse off.
    I’m not saying use all of the money to clear the debt, or even most of it. But I would be in favour of using a potion of it to start chipping away – particularly if that brings Ashley’s asking price down to an amount that isn’t putting potential buyers off.

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  50. Stuart79:
    To be honest it was a game of very little quality. Although I believe if we had some quality up front we’d have won it.

    my thoughts as well Stu,they had one shot on goal we had three or four chances to score with a bit of quailty we would have walked it imo

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  51. I agree, the sooner that loan is paid off the better, then we will look a more promising prospect to buyers and we can start charging SD for the advertising .

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  52. With Tosun, Walcott and Rooney they should of done much better than they did, fact is we had the better chances , just poor finishers and Pickford had a good game .

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  53. kimtoon:
    With Tosun, Walcott and Rooney they should of done much better than they did, fact is we had the better chances , just poor finishers and Pickford had a good game .

    Kim – Everton have bought real quality individual players, but they haven’t built a team and that’s their problem. They will finish above us in the league, but the money they have spent, they should.

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  54. I dont believe a word that Lee Ryder says about Ashley backing Rafa in the transfer market. I’m still waiting for that transfer record striker that we were meant to sign this January.

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  55. I see we are being strongly linked with Abel Hernandez again. Could be lazy journalism coz we were linked with him before he joined Hull.
    Personally I think it could be a good bit of business. He’s still only 27, his contract is up this summer so he’ll be free and his wages would only be £35k a week. He’d be a squad player like, I’d still want a top quality forward in ahead of him – but I think he’d be better than Joselu and Gayle imo.

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  56. Sharpy17:
    I see we are being strongly linked with Abel Hernandez again.Could be lazy journalism coz we were linked with him before he joined Hull.
    Personally I think it could be a good bit of business.He’s still only 27, his contract is up this summer so he’ll be free and his wages would only be £35k a week.He’d be a squad player like, I’d still want a top quality forward in ahead of him – but I think he’d be better than Joselu and Gayle imo.

    Sharpy: I think that is a no-brainer although his wages would probably be higher since he is a free Agent. If you think he is an upgrade on Gayle you pay him what Gayle gets plus a 2 million signing bonus. Sell Gayle for 12 million and you pocket 10 million.

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