"So many injuries, such a small squad, we sold Gallas and Huth, Shevchenko is useless, only Drogba is any good..." wahhhhh etc...

Shut up, you moaning twat. Your club has spent 350 million on players since July 2003 and whose fault is it exactly, that you sold two central defenders in the summer and only brought in a Dutchman who seems utterly inept (another 7m)?

Every club has injuries. Not every club has bottomless sums of cash to bail themselves out.

Everyone else's sides still got aching from this?




Tags: mourinho | chelsea

and what have we done?

Well, I've eaten an absurd amount of food. Drunk a lot of wine and for the most part been rather merry - I understand that to be protocol. Here are a couple of shots from the day:







More at my Flickr page.

I hope you had a Christmas as pleasant as mine. Sounds like Mr Angry did:

"So how would you mime the third syllable in 'Casablanca'? You'd think i'd done it nude the way some of them reacted..."

He liveblogged the whole charade (literally) from his mobile. Makes for an amusing read.

Tags: christmas | xmas | photos

So, there it is.

'The special one' has seen fit to apologise. A good day for Everton, a good day for the reputation of Andy Johnson and a good day for football.

Reading through the opinions of fellow Evertonians these last few days has made interesting reading, quite a range of feeling from the apathetic 'leave it, nothing will come out of it' corner, via the 'makes us look small time' brigade to the 'sue the ass off him' tribe.

The best read though, was this fruity invective from Morky:

"There is nothing worse as an Evertonian than people like Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho coming out and saying nice things about us. I used to cringe when Walter was here and after United's reserves would beat us in 2nd gear, Ferguson would speak warmly of us as if we were a handicapped nephew of his or something. I don't like them and I don't want them to like us. I don't want condescending bastards like Mourinho handing us false compliments, because that means we are shit.

I want them to punch the air when they score against us and I want them to talk shit about us, and I want Moyes to stand there, toe to toe with the c#nts and fight our corner.

F#ck them. We need to start getting in their faces.

You know what I hated about Sunday's game? Johnson running after their players like a little f#cking dog, explaining that he didn't dive and trying to reason with them.

Do you think Duncan would have done that. Or Sharpie? Would Bill Deane have cared what they thought?

I want our players to score at Anfield and bow three times to the Kop, or twat a free kick in the top corner and run past giving them the fingers, or even smash one in at Leicester and then go and offer their bench out.

F#ck being nice. Nice is for the weak."

Tags: everton | chelsea | mourinho

Neil Warnock, Arsene Wenger, Chris Coleman and now Jose Mourinho. What have they all got in common? They've deliberately accused Andy Johnson of being a diver, be it before or after meeting Everton. You can't watch an Everton match these days without hearing about Johnson's 'reputation' a reputation earned not through being a diver but by being labelled one by opposition manager's looking to influence referees and belittle a player's confidence.

We have now not been awarded blatant penalties at least thee times since the reputation media mind games started. This latest outburst from Mourinho was the most aggressive, he claimed that Johnson was not trustworthy and that the striker was so embarrassed by his diving he stopped doing it after the incident. Or maybe Jose, you twat, he just wasn't shoved over in the box again. The galling thing is that the referees clearly HAVE been influenced by the media talk and understandably Johnson's game has suffered for it, his goal drought now in to double figures of games.

Of course, the complete and utter hypocrisy from Mourinho in calling Johnson a diver is his own team's record of simulation and deviousness, was he not the manager of Porto when they cynically cheated their way to beat Celtic in the 2005 UEFA Cup Final? What about the much lauded theatrics between Drogba and Lehman just last weekend - what was that if not play acting? Wenger is hardly one to talk after Robert Pires perfected the art of the dive at Highbury for seasons on end.

Anyway, here is evidence if it were even necessary that cretin Mourinho and his team of mercenaries are about as white than white as our dear Prime Minister:







While I'm loathed to suggest that legal proceedings are brought about and believe me, many are all for it - you could certainly make a convincing case for defamation of character, that really shouldn't have a place in football. I just hope this total hypocrisy from Mourinho is so laughably narrow-minded and baseless that this cloud above Johnson lifts, I'm not banking on it though.

I'm not even going to raise the point about Johnson being careful to straddle the keeper rather than land on his head in the manner that, understandably infuriated Mourinho when both Cech and Cudicini were injured against Reading earlier in the season. Or the reluctance of the Chelsea manager to look at a replay on the monitor as Moyes gesticulated. I hope Mourinho realises what an absolute tit he's made of himself this weekend and that he is plain wrong about the incident, he just can't see it through his bulletproof, blue tinted glasses.

Idiot.

Tags: chelsea | mourinho | everton | andy johnson

As with last weekend, Everton have been beaten by a fantastic goal, entirely unstoppable.

It all started so well, with Arteta, Osman and Neville all back in the side, we looked a much improved side to the one that capitulated so at Fratton Park last Saturday. Victor Anichebe made his first Premiership start at the expense of lacklustre Beattie who was substituted at half time last weekend. This surely signals the end of Beattie's Everton career now, if we can get four or five million pounds for him in January, we should sell. We wouldn't be short of numbers with Johnson, Anichebe, McFadden and Vaughan all waiting in the wings. Back to the match, it was Anichebe who seemed to be causing problems early on, with Chelsea missingthe injured Terry, a makeshift back line of Hilario, Bouhlarouz and Carvalho looked shaky.

Johnson was unlucky not be awarded a penalty after being shoved over by Bouhlarouz, the referee in an awful position could not give it. Only 10 minutes later, Everton did get their penalty as Bouhlarouz again was at fault, this time holding back the lively Anichebe with both arms. Arteta stepped up and duly converted. One-nil to the Toffees and so the score remained at half time with Mourinho disappearing down the tunnel before the whistle had even been blown.

Sky pulled out a quite phenomenal quote in the interval, Everton haven't been beaten at home when leading at half time for seven and a half years.

I think they jinxed it, for in the second half, a much improved Chelsea looked rampant early on. They profited from a bit of luck as Ballack's (otherwise anonymous) free kick from a needless Carsley handball was pushed on to the post by Howard, only for it to come back off and go in off his back. Now in the ascendency, Chelsea continued to push on. A quick Everton break saw them win a corner, which led to another and then a third - the practice seemed to be good for Arteta who placed a wonderful ball on to the head of Yobo to make it 2-1. It felt too good to be true and with nine minutes to play, Frank Lampard obviously agreed as he scored a well struck goal from distance finding himself in acres of space. Hopes of another Everton goal proved too optimistic as the lack of fitness began to show in Arteta and Osman, the former having had a marvellous game and a man of the match performance in the eyes of many. A draw was on the cards with three minutes to go and it would have been a just result for both teams, however Drogba chested down a flick-on, turned on a sixpence and volleyed home a stunning long-range effort to snatch the three points for Chelsea.

Beaten again by a goal of the season candidate, Everton were mightily unlucky. Especially considering the perfectly valid penalty shout early on.

Positives to take from the match:

• Performance of Anichebe, did more than Beattie has managed since March. Already showing signs of a partnership with Johnson.
• Lescott's performance, once again he looked top class.
• Arteta's return to fitness, the Spaniard makes us tick and we've missed him these last few games.

On a final note, I understand that Van Der Meyde didn't make the squad as his house has been burgled. Again.

Tags: everton | chelsea | drogba

The Spine have their say on the possible new Everton stadium deal with Tesco. With predictably hilarious consequences:



I really ought to post on the subject properly before too long.

Tags: everton | the spine

Well, if you're going to get beaten, it's better for it to be by the goal of the season (especially if it means that Xabi Alonso doesn't win it!)


Tags: everton | portsmouth | matthew taylor

Just a quick post to say how impressed I was with a certain enigmatic Dutchman on Sunday:



After countless injuries, rumours, unfavourable headlines and utterly absurd events, we finally got to see a glimpse of the Van Der Meyde who used to do this sort of thing week in week out for Ajax (I know he's playing for Inter in the link!).

A ridiculously depleted Everton squad (we ended the match with 5 central defenders and four strikers on the pitch!) saw a rare start for VDM and after taking 10 or so minutes to settle, he began to take hold of the match and whipped in cross after cross. Making Konchesky look a complete mug on more than one occasion, Beattie was so shocked by this uncharacteristic quality of delivery from an Everton wide man that he completely forgot what to do with them. It was great to see Van Der Meyde shining and he looked to be enjoying himself. Impressive though his crossing undoubtedly was, what really caught my eye was a moment where he tracked back and launched an inch perfect cruncher of a tackle to win back the ball and initiate another attack! Wonderful to see James Vaughan score as well, especially considering his 14 months out of the game with a serious knee injury.

Well in the Blues.

Something else I spotted - looking at the Premiership table, Arsenal in 3rd are closer to Sheffield United in 16th than they are Chelsea in 2nd... That can't be good for the competitiveness of the league. Or can it? I suppose in effect it means that barring the top two and the slowly drifting bottom two, there is very little between the sides.

Tags: premiership | everton | arsenal | andy van der meyde