YouTube - milkshake & honey

YouTube - milkshake & honey

Love this song :

Mourinho : Come and get me

"I cannot say what I think until they say they are interested. Tell the FA to come and get me.

We will have to wait and see, but I rule nothing out."

It seems the FA have not even approached The Special One yet. It'd be pretty criminal of them not to even discuss it with him. It show an appalling lack of ambition and lack of guts.

Jose for England...

...Jose for England!

Moyes hit by FA charge over Clattenburg-gate

BBC Report

That is ridiculous...I'd have thought the authorities would want that one forgotten about. When Mark Clattenburg, A Premiership referee, is going away on a pre-season tour with a team and then only weeks later is seen happily taking abuse from them and dishing out red cards when instructed to you REALLY have to ask questions.

How come when Beneathus bemoans a penalty decision he gets an official apology whereas Moyes gets fined.

The game in this country is corrupt...it's owned by the top-4.

Dave Hickson on the mend (hopefully)

Echo the sentiments here in Greg O'Keefe's blog.

Davey Hickson is not only an real Everton institution he's a true Merseyside legend. Hoping for a full recovery. Get well soon Dave. God bless.

dear oh dear

Rafa Benitez’s transfer history

Nov 23 2007 Liverpool Echo

IN

Cisse £15m
Josemi £2m
Antonio Nunez £2m
Xabi Alonso £10.7m
Luis Garcia £6m
Mauricio Pellegrino Free
Fernando Morientes £6.5m
Scott Carson £750,000
Antonio Baragan Compensation fee
Jose Reina £6m
Mohammed Sissoko £5.6m
Boudewijn Zenden Free
Peter Crouch £7m
Jack Hobbs £750,000
Godwin Anti Free
Miquel Roque Free
Jan Kromkamp Swop for Josemi
Paul Anderson Swop for John Welsh
Daniel Agger £5.8m
Craig Bellamy £6m
Gabriel Paletta £2m
Mark Gonzalez £4.5m
Fabio Aurelio Free
Jermaine Pennant £6.7m
Dirk Kuyt £9m
Alvaro Arbeloa £2.64m
Andriy Voronin Free
Lucas Leiva £6m
Sebastien Leto £1.5m
Fernando Torres £27m
Yossi Benayoun £5m
Ryan Babel £11m
Charles Itandje Free

---------

£149.44m

OUT

Danny Murphy £2.5m
Michael Owen £8m
Vladimir Smicer Free
El Hadji Diouf Undisclosed fee
Mauricio Pellegrino Free
Alou Diarra £2m
Gregory Vignal Free
Jon Otsemobor Free
Milan Baros £6.5m
Josemi Swop for Jan Kromkamp
John Welsh Swop for Paul Anderson
Fernando Morientes £3m
Dietmar Hamann Free
Bruno Cheyrou Free
Djimi Traore £2m
Neil Mellor Free
Jan Kromkamp £1.5m
Darren Potter £200,000
Steve Warnock £2.5m
Salif Diao Free
Luis Garcia £4m
Mark Gonzalez £3.5m
Djibril Cisse £8m
Craig Bellamy £7.5m
Jerzy Dudek Free

---------

£51.2m

Still moaning about a lack of backing...when Arsenal's kids tonked them last season it was all because of the Youth Academy. It's actually quite funny they was all their kopites try and pretend they agree with him.

There was a time when you expected better from an lfc manager not now, here is his pre-match interview :

How much will you have to spend in January?
"As always I am focused on training and coaching my team."

Are there assurances you'll have what you want?
"As always I am focused on training and coaching my team."

So what is the long-term plan?
"My plan is training and coaching the team."

Is there anything upsetting you?
"As always I am focused on training and coaching my team."

Do you have anything to say?
"As always I am focused on training and coaching my team."

Even off the record?
"No."

It's clear something is up.
"You have my answer."

You're very different from normal.
"You have my answer."

You said after the Bayern story you were happy to stay here a long time. Is that still the case?
"As always I am focused on training and coaching my team."

You're not normally late. You were obviously preoccupied by something.
"Because as always I was focusing on the training session."

Is there anything you'd like to say?
"As always I am focused on training and coaching my team."

You always say you're focused on that but usually give off-the-record answers to enquiries. How come it's suddenly changed?
"No off-the-record stuff. Nothing. I'm just focused on training and coaching as always."

You suggested you were open to the possibility of the England job. Is that something we should treat seriously?
"It's your decision. You never know what will happen in the future."

Were you serious when you answered it?
"I was serious."

One day you're looking to stay here a long time, the next who knows about the England job. That's a contradiction.
"The future is the future. Now, as always, I am focused on training and coaching my team, so I cannot say anything else. Just to keep preparing for the next game."

So what you're saying suggests perhaps the future here is in question?
"I am focused on training and coaching my team."

So who knows?
"As always I am focused on training and coaching my team."

Are you being allowed to do that as you wish?
"I am focused on training and coaching my team."

Does everyone at the club share that opinion?
"As always I am focused on training and coaching my team."

and Here is Moyes :

WALKS into the press conference this afternoon at Finch Farm, grinning from ear to ear, sits down and says....

"As always I am focused on training and coaching my team."

Assembled hacks all crack up. True story.

Anyway good on the Yanks for telling him to shut up

Everton 7 (seven)

BBC Report

Telegraph Report











How good was that? You have to acknowledge that Sunderland were shockingly poor defensively but Everton really turned it on. Every time we got the ball we looked like scoring. The pressing & tackling was great and going forward we just look so purposeful. Movement off the ball was amazing. Carsley and Pienaar were everywhere. It was just awesome. It'd be tough to do a decent match report, there was just so much too much to comment on. Yakubu is really impressing us now...he's now fully fit and putting a great shift week after week. The only problem is that we will lose 4 players to the African Nations in a month's time.

Over in Blundelsands our double was completed by Waterloo beating another north-east side Blaydon. Good work.

Echo Report

Balls!

Call me childish but if this isn't funny I don't know what is. I defy you to look at that picture and not laugh :



Mr Testicles at Goodison

Hats off blues. Great stuff.

Two best jokes so far :

"I thought you weren't allowed to play if there was two balls on the pitch"

and

"It'll make a vas deferens to the atmosphere at Goodison"

Gutted

I am not one of these people who gets cynical as soon as things go wrong for the England team, some people seem delighted when our boys screw up...it allows them to fire up their smugness afterburners. Bollocks to that, I am gutted about last night. You know that weary head shake thing you do when you can feel it's all going wrong? Very much in evidence last night.

That first half was just unforgivable. Carson's howler was truly, truly shocking...my mum would have saved that.



Bridge ballsed up for the second and it had turned into a nightmare. The rain was constant and the pitch was heavy (half a billion for a ploughed field!!!!!!!) it was always going to be awkward chasing a game.



The formation was terrible though. 4-5-1 in those conditions meant Crouch, how played well, was totally isolated, the middle three didn't look like they really knew their roles. Why is that England's midfield has to be fitted round Lampard whenever he's fit. Gerrard & Barry happened purely out of serendipety but we had balance for the first time in ages...as soon as Lampard is fit everything is changed to accomadate him and we are left with a bloated awkward system with only one player in front of them. That McClaren left it 'til half-time to change it round was little short of dereliction of duty.

Anyway a determined comeback was capped with Beckham playing an utterly perfect ball over to Crouch who's technique was excellent for a chest then volley. We'd been gifted a stupid penalty minutes before. Even then though we didn't look secure and sure enough they scored a 25 yarder after no-one had closed down. Thank you & good night. Desperately, desperately depressing.



I really do think McClaren has to go....Barwick too.

:( :( :( :(

Next summer just got that little bit more empty.

'Mythical Roman cave' unearthed

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | 'Mythical Roman cave' unearthed

Presenting the discovery, Italian Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli said archaeologists were "reasonably certain" that the newly unearthed cave could be the Lupercal.

"This could reasonably be the place bearing witness to the myth of Rome, one of the most well-known cities in the world - the legendary cave where the she-wolf suckled Romulus and Remus, saving them from death," he said.

"Italy and Rome never cease to astonish the world with continual archaeological and artistic discoveries, and it is incredible to think that we have finally found a mythical site which, by our doing so, has become a real place."

The ancient cave was found 16m (52ft) underground in a previously unexplored area during restoration work on the palace of Augustus, the first Roman emperor.

Wow, that's a big discovery...not a sniff about it on the news. It seems that is dominated by People trying to make political capital 'cause some dullard junior civil-servant (Not Gordon Brown or Alistair Darling as far as I can tell) dumped everyone's records in the outgoing mail. I really wish people wouldn't screw-up like this, if nothing else it makes the BBC 5live unlistenable. They really are wearing their heart on their sleeves over their political leanings. A minister was on interview and said things like "The civil servant broke the rules, terrible mistake, things happen when you are in Government...we are dealing with it, don't think the disc fell into the wrong hands, no-one will lose money over this etc etc" and 20 minutes later it was reported as "A government minsister said 'things happen when you are in goverment'".

Anyway this morning's reports say England will start with Scott Carson in goal tonight (Carson is at Villa whilst on loan from our lovable neighbours, his British passport means he can't get a visa to play for liverpool). Giving a keeper his England debut in such a critical game is a bold decision, could backfire horribly. Apparently Robinson has had a nightmare in training so what else can McClaren do? Beckham is on the bench too....might need him for some late free-kick drama.

Rednoses have, for some reason, been smugly cackling over Everton advertising half-season tickets...It makes a change from their increasingly bitter internal witch-hunt against the "glory-hunting jest hat wearing day trippers" who apparently occupy most of the seats at Anfield these days. Is that a paradox or merely irony? No-one does a double standard like those Kopites.

Hope springs eternal

Sounds positive :

Liverpool Echo

HOPES rose today for the campaign to keep Everton in the city of Liverpool.

The Northwest Development Agency will conduct a study into the benefits of keeping Everton FC in the city boundary.

The agency, which hands out government cash to boost regeneration in the region, was asked to examine the economic benefits of Everton FC building its new stadium in Liverpool, rather than neighbouring borough Knowsley.

Today council leader Warren Bradley described it as a positive step and said he wants the study to examine a number of sites for keeping Everton in the city boundary.

Hava Nigalla

Phew!

Thank God for Israel...they went at Russia hammer and tongs on Saturday and appeared to have ran themselves into the ground by half-time...the second half was all Russia but they held out. At the very end Russia hit the post and the Israelis went up the other end and scored. English fans all over the country rejoiced as the final whistle went! It means England have their fate in their own hands on Wednesday, by no means a foregone conclusion...remember England/Greece a few years back when David Beckham single handedly dragged us to the world cup.



Anyway, in honour of the Israeli national team :

Hava nagila, hava nagila
Hava nagila venis'mecha

Hava nagila, hava nagila
Hava nagila venis'mecha

Hava neranena, hava neranena
Hava neranena venis'mecha

Uru, uru achim
Uru achim belev same'ach



Up in Scotland is was all different as they came painfully close to taking the lead in their make or break game against Italy (after going behind inside two minutes)....to be so well placed for so many months and still not qualify must be sickening but given their position going into the qualifying they have made so much progress that the positives really do need to be focussed on. They will be second out of the hat next time round whereas for this group they were the 4th team drawn.

oooooh

Oooooh doesn't this look FANTASTIC!



I for one can't wait to bulldoze over 100 years of history and heritage and move to this.......average, soulless modern arena.......on a retail park........next to a motorway.......in a grim satellite town.



Congratulations Yes voters....you are the turkeys who voted for Christmas. I votes No purely because the Kirkby project looked rubbish, I can definitely see the need for a move but this just looked half-arsed from the beginning. Even so I always vowed to take the new stadium on it's merits but so far it couldn't look any more depressing if they tried. Add to all this the logistical ball-ache of 20,000 people and 2000 cars & buses all trying to get off that retail park at the same time plus the extra distance from the train station.

The fans seem to be the last thing the club is considering...very, very depressing. I know some proper, serious bluenoses who swear they'll never set foot in that new ground. These aren't just luddites, there just wasn't this opposition to the Kings Dock project. It has nothing to do with boundaries, the colour of the wheelie bins is a very minor consideration...it's just that everything we've seen of this DestinationKirkby looks small-time & uninspiring. Evertonians deserve better.

Wharfedale Rugby Club

"To be among a large crowd at a thrilling National League match at Wharfedale Rugby Club with the sun beating down from a crystal blue sky, the Yorkshire Dales rocking and rolling into the distance and lambs gambolling in the fields, with a decent pint of beer in hand (optional) was to have found sporting nirvana." John Inverdale - Telegraph

Went over to Yorkshire for an enjoyable afternoon in the dales. It's a wonderful club in a beautiful part of the world. We were really lucky with the weather too, it was cold but it didn't rain until the second we got back to the car. The fans at 'dale are good friendly rugby people but still totally behind their team....great to see so much travelling Waterloo support too.




Craven Herald Report

Echo Report

Waterloo edged nervilly past Wharfedale 24-18. Wharfedale had the lion's share of the possession but the game was notable for the amount of knock-ons and handling errors. If Wharfedale hadn't been so profligate I think they'd have won but Waterloo played well and defended excellently. Pablo Freijoo has just got back from international duty with Spain (not sure if he played but he may well be in line for some gold lettering on the clubhouse internationals board)...he sprinted the length of the pitch to for an interception try which was definitely one of the highlights of the season so far. We were down to 14 men for 20 minutes of the second half but survived the pressure. Loads of smiling, bouncing Scousers/Lancastrians in the clubhouse afterwards. Brilliant afternoon. Me and Anne had taken Penny & Jack (My in-laws) and we were joined by our mates Helen and Dan Wyrill who despite living in Yorkshire got behind Waterloo (being adopted Scousers since their time at university here) so we were a happy, happy bunch (to be honest it was such a nice setting it would have been difficult not to have a good afternoon). Dan, who has New Zealand DNA and so you'd assume knows rugby instinctively, had languidly been predicting a Waterloo win for most of the second half whilst I bit my nails back to the knuckle...shows how much I know.

Nice article about Vaughan and Anichebe

On Sunday morning Anne was confidently predicted a 1-1 draw between Chelsea and Everton with Cahill grabbing our goal...annoyingly enough I didn't put any money on it. D'oh!



Well done to Cahill for scoring a superb bicycle kick to equalise late on. The games are coming thick and fast for Everton and so far they've done really well. Our league position looks a bit paltry but ultimately we should be ecstatic with our recent record.

Nigerians are ace

Guardian Report

Daily Post Report

BBC Report

"As for fears of trouble among thousands of ticketless Evertonians, they proved unfounded. Officially there were 2500 travelling fans inside the stadium but double in reality. "I didn't need to provide a motivational speech," said Moyes. "We only had to see the thousands greeting us on the way to the stadium to know how much Europe means to Everton. We are desperate for success."

First and foremost great to see Evertonians acquitting themselves so well over there in what could have been a pretty dodgy situation. The mess was of UEFA's making but ultimately you are still responsible for your own behaviour. By the sounds of it a good time was had.

Now onto the match....GET IN!!!!!!!!! Great performance from the blues, Nuremberg are in a lowly position but still looked fairly solid. I don't think you can argue with the result. The first half saw us hold our own whilst for a twenty minute period early in the second half we were all over them. Ironically they were just coming into it when Yakubu who'd really played well & worked his knackers off all night was swapped for our Euro talisman, Victor Anichebe, and they just couldn't handle his strength and verve. First he muscled his way clear and required a rugby tackle to prevent him scoring, Arteta put the pen away and then 5 minutes later he broke clear and knocked away a defender before slotting it through the keepers legs for 2-0. Brilliant. Aparently there were Evertonians all over the ground having the time of their lives. Fantastic stuff.

Lovely quotes from Vic about Yakubu :

"Yak was excellent," said Anichebe. "It's tough playing up front on your own and the pitch was absolutely enormous. He covered so much ground to wear the defenders down.

"He's done that a few times for me now and I've just managed to come on and picked up the pieces. He's set everything up for me. I'm learning so much from him. His game is all about strength but he has scored a lot of goals and I'm doing my best to take his advice.

"He is a great player and is going to be excellent for us. He gives me so many great pointers. I feel my game has got better this season and he has definitely played a part in that. He's been there, scored a lot of goals and his record speaks for itself."

icLiverpool - Injury woe continues for coach O’Callaghan

Tough times at Waterloo, they got battered last week after the heroics against Blackheath

icLiverpool - Injury woe continues for coach O’Callaghan

Last week the Merseysiders were without backs and they were forced to play a back row forward, Matt Bradley, on the wing.

Neil Kerfoot has not set foot on a field at all this season after suffering a groin injury at the end of last term. The good news is that he is in light training and is hoping to be back before Christmas.

Dan Loader, who suffered a broken arm, is expected to be out for at least four weeks but for Chris Parrott, who dislocated a shoulder playing for Sale Jets, the prognosis is at least two months after undergoing surgery.

Steven Dodd has had a scan on a spinal injury with the club waiting for the results which are expected later this week.

Scrum half Luke Stringer had an operation on a groin injury on Monday but can expect to be sidelined for at least a month.

On the positive side Pablo Freijoo has returned from duty with the Spanish international squad unscathed and will be in line for selection for the visit to Wharfedale on Saturday.

Club captain Martin O’Keefe, who was out earlier in the campaign with a leg injury which became infected, has now fully recovered after making his comeback from the bench and hooker Chris Tyms, after two dislocated shoulders both of which required surgery, has had a run-out with the seconds with no ill effects.

Waterloo have also signed former Llanelli hooker and back row forward Aled Gravell, who after a short period out of the game, has moved to live in Southport and is eager to start playing again.

It'd be nice if they could turn round their away form otherwise every home game will become a pressure match...we are off to Wharfedale at the weekend so hopefully it'll start there.

Below are the tables for Everton's UEFA opponents. Nurnberg are struggling but we all saw what an out of sorts Schalke did to Chelsea the other night. AZ seem to be having a middling time of it whilst Zenit look like being a real challenge.

German League

Russian League

Dutch League

Quotes from Moyes on the ticket debacle

uefa are lying

UEFA are tell lies.

uefa.com

"During online ticket sales undertaken by Nürnberg for Thursday's game, a bug in the system enabled some English supporters to buy tickets allocated in the Nürnberg fans' sectors. Consequently, following consultation with the police, Nürnberg decided to withdraw those applications and inform those online buyers that their online reservations were no longer applicable."

"Bug in the system"? These are absolutely despicable lies. If this goes off tonight 'cause of their screw-up it is on record that Evertonians applied for those tickets in good faith. I know people who phoned up to purchase the tickets and specifically asked if it was okay to be in the home area and Nuremberg told them it would be no problem. UEFA re-classified the game as high risk and then the Germans have been ringing round apologising profusely for the mess up and saying it's out of their hands.

It is the responsibility of the blues to behave themselves but basically they've had the piss taken out of them. This mess is entirely of someone else's making. Those fans have been cheerfully sold tickets, went off and paid for flights and accommodation and at the 11th hour being told their tickets won't be honoured.

Bill Kenwright issued a fairly commendable statement but ultimately what can be done.

“Everyone at Goodison Park is unhappy at this situation on behalf of our supporters – from David and the team, to the Board of Directors and staff.

“We understand how much this football club means to Evertonians and consequently how important a European game is to them.

“We knew when our small allocation was sold out that demand for tickets would continue to be huge for the game in Nurnberg.

“We absolutely share and accept the frustrations that the fans feel having supposedly purchased tickets direct from the club in Germany but sadly there is nothing we can do about the decision made by the authorities.

“We can only ask our fans that wherever they watch the match, they continue to be the great ambassadors of this football club that they have always been.”

One side issue is whether Everton took the maximum allocation of tickets when they knew demand would be high. This would have negated the need for decent honest fans to try and get tickets in amongst the home fans. The club insist they did...It'd be interesting to see if this is confirmed by Nürnberg. Ultimately this will lead to an angry potentially inflammatory situation in Nuremburg and a few German touts making an absolutely fortune. Well done UEFA.

Late shows

Everton 3 - 1 Birmingham City

Wow, been busy this week so this match report is pretty darn late. Great, great ending at the weekend after Everton looked to have done an Everton once again.

We were head & shoulders above Birmingham City for the first half and were frustrated that it was only 1-0 at half-time. Yak nipping in to score a tap-in after 10 mins.



The second half was more even and Birmingham City stole an equaliser after never really putting us on the back foot. Very annoying. The crowd were just getting grumpy at 2 points blown when a Birmingham City player went down injured....the other Brum players attacked regardless and after their move had broke down Cahill put the ball out a bit too sportingly for the assembled Evertonians (if his own team-mates won't bother about him why should we). From the resulting throw in the snidey Birmingham player kicked it out down by our corner flag and proceeded to put us under pressure. We might be quick to get frustrated with our team but hell hath no fury like Goodison when someone is taking the piss out of our team. The roar went up and when, in the 91st minute, Lee 'Z-Cars' Carsley smashed the ball into the Gwladys St net the place went bananas. Real delirious bedlam that only a 91th minute winner can bring. Karma!

The boys were not done yet....James Vaughan, returning from injury, broke clear and put a brilliantly casual stab just inside the post for 3-1. No-one had left and everyone was bouncing...we sang all the way down Gwladys St and hot-footed it to The Black Horse for a pint. It's what Saturday's are all about.




Check out this blog for goal vids (Including a brilliant shot of the celebrations in the Gwladys St).

Great article by Nigel Martyn about James Vaughan.

"IT was wonderful to see my old mate Henrik lighting up Goodison Park again with his smile at the weekend.

That was my nickname for James Vaughan. Whenever he smiles he looks like Henrik Larsson – and if he was ever looking down in the dumps I’d say to him “What’s up Henrik?”

That big, beaming smile would instantly light up his face, and to be fair to James he’s had plenty of reason to feel down in recent years."

I predict a riot

Worried about Thursday. In the last few days UEFA have reclassified our UEFA Cup game against Nuremburg as a high risk fixture. This means that the enterprising Evertonians who rang up & got tickets direct from FC Nurmberg have, at the very last moment, had their tickets cancelled.

Apparently the Germans have been utterly apologetic about it all but rules are rules. The worry now is that 100 of ticketless blues will be over there desperate to get into the game (after all they'd have had their flights and hotels all booked).

Seems very badly handled. Can't understand why A: Nuremburg sold the tickets yo Brits in the first place. B: UEFA left it 'til the last moment before moving the goal-posts and C: The Germans don't shuffle everyone round and expand the away area (thus leaving a fair few people slightly inconvenienced but no-one disappointed).

Fingers crossed it won't be another Athens.

Everton facing UEFA ticket chaos

:(

Grim to see places you know marked out as disaster areas...we've had two this year :

Villahermosa and Pisco.

:( :( :(