Recent Reader Comments

• John #4-7, you pose great questions. My feeling is that it's going to take 5 or 6 players, not 2 or 3, to strengthen the squad up to the point where we can compete in Europe while not risking our PL position. Nobody wants to fall back into the yearly relegation struggles. Conference League rewards are paltry. Win the whole thing and you collect maybe €20 million in prize money total, including €7m for the final. That buys one decent player. So it's not about investing in players and making the money back. Purely guessing here, but I think the new owners will look at this season, compare it to where we were a year ago, and consider it a successful season as is. And then look to build us into a European contender gradually. Roma is currently 4th in Serie A and 10th of 36 in the Europa League, seemingly headed back to the Champions League next season, after five years under Friedkin ownership. ...
  Mike Gaynes in January could be a sliding doors moment, Everton need to act
• There's no sense at all in not using our remaining loan allocation and there are players across Europe sitting benches that they would rather not be on. So I'm 100% certain we will fill that allocation and Moyes will already have those players in his mind. I would like to see some haste here though because we are in a fairly unnatural position currently, where a few good results on the run puts us vying for Champions League qualification. Its a long way off but we need to add quality now and not slip during our weakest point to make the dream a reality. ...
  Mick Springstein in January could be a sliding doors moment, Everton need to act
• If theyre looking for an increase in capital value, and most are, then European football is a must. Whether that immediately translates into an up tick in P&L is partially missing the point. Tfg motive will be to increase the capital value of the club. ...
  Ian Bennett in January could be a sliding doors moment, Everton need to act
• Harry Exactly, risk verses reward. If I was a multi-billionaire, I wouldn't care if the team I loved lost a bit of money, if it meant competing for the top silverware, but we are not owned by supporters. Is Conference League football worth TFG dipping into the coffers to get the 2 or 3 quality players we would need, or will they be happy with an 8-13 place finish for no more outlay and mark it up as a successful season? Is there a worthwhile financial reward to them?...
  John Pickles in January could be a sliding doors moment, Everton need to act
• I said on another thread, I don't quite get all the secrecy from Moyes regarding our injured players. It would be nice to get some kind of timescale for when we should expect KDH, Coleman, Alcaraz etc back from injury... Maybe some details about what Alcaraz's injury actually is. To be fair, the journalist's don't put a enough pressure on Moyes in the press conferences. ...
  Mark Frere in Michael Keane could make the team for Brentford, Dewsbury-Hall and Alcaraz ruled out
• Hi John, I'll see if I can delve into the numbers and make some sort of estimate. Difficult to know without the ins and outs of contracts etc (I'd imagine there are wage increases for European qualification for some), but I think the higher placing/extra revenue can be worked out to some extent. For me, it's worth a gamble even if it's pushing for loans to fill out the squad this month. You'd imagine plenty of the regular European sides will be back better next season. Say, for example, it's Conference League football. The cons are surely the Thursday-Sunday schedule with a (currently) small squad. But the pros are more revenue, a winnable competition that leads to further European football at a higher standard, and minutes for fringe/academy players against certain teams. ...
  Harry Diamond in January could be a sliding doors moment, Everton need to act