Boss bullish on Everton's prospects

That's the attitude Robby son. Fear no one. Bring them all on.

I just wish he had the freedom to roam forward a little more. If he could add 8 or 9 goals a season to his game then he would be the "complete" centre mid. (Possibly the best pound for pound in the league.)

The lad doesn’t want to leave as all his close mates are scousers and blues and have been since his Wigan days. But Spurs have offered to treble his wages so it’s only natural his head will be turned. Make him one of our top earners he’s future captain material!

I would have preferred Roberto to have said 'We are quietly confident of improving considerably on last season's disappointing position and we have players of the right quality to do just that. But we have much work to do.'

Instead, he favours a style which seems to assume that we have only to turn up to get the job done. I'm sure I'm not alone in finding his statements unsettling.

The idea of building a team around Macca is encouraging (the rags will be furious) and the interviews with Seamus and Stonesy were music to my ears.

So, we have a manager who's recovered his mojo, a happy, tight knit squad, and a few additions who've settled in brilliantly. It's all shaping up well isn't it?

An intact squad plus exciting new ones (Evans also coming in) is simply great, great news! Bobby will surely prove his worth this season.

COYB! Go for the big one. Its reachable.

I was seriously impressed first season and at times bemused and horrified last season. I think the quality of Roberto’s reflection on mistakes made may be the biggest factor going forward.

The logic he applies to players learning from mistakes and this being integral to their growth and development seems to me to the biggie for Bobby also. I fear he is stubborn but hope for humility and pragmatism.

Some tenuous reports suggest that Remy is going to Crystal Palace.
They are a team full of pace, with Cabaye and possibly Remy joining, they could be a team to watch this season.

I'm slowly feeling more optimistic about this season though i'm also anticipating alot of frustration based mainly around Lukaku and Barkley. If these two players can reach the heights of their potential then it will be a stellar year but I fear that consistency is something that will continue to elude them both...

Hopefully lessons have been learnt. I'm not expecting us go beat Arsenal tomorrow necessarily (I think conditions out there will suit their game) but I do want to see us go toe to toe with them and continue that mentality into our testing opening set of games.

Martinez is sounding more bullish instead of bullshit and the players sound focused and happy to be here and kick on and hopefully it all bodes well for a better season!

We’ve got a nice mix in the squad at the minute but we do still need to add here and there but if we can get the right players in of the right kind of quality, who knows what we can achieve next season?

I’d like to see us challenge for top 5 or 6 and seriously look to win the League Cup and be the first team in our history to do so, I think we’re more than capable of that!

Last season, we seemed to be frozen with fear on many occasions. As though the way we played the season before was just some sort of lucky formula, that we then lost.

We've got some really good young lads and I agree with Sam, that it is a defining season for Ross and Rom. But If Miralles stays and is up for it, and if Gerry plays anything like his first season, what contribution they both can make.

Tom Cleverley looks a really good player and if Pienaar is fit and can stay so, then we have the makings of a good attacking side again.

In the search for that elusive #10, I would love to see Ledson get a chance to win the job but I feel RM will hold his age and experience against him.

This game of ours is all about preventing goals at our end and scoring goals at the other end. We badly need a youngish player who has the ability to create and lift the fans and the rest of the team. We had Collins in the early 60’s and Ball later to score a few and have the nous to pass accurately. That is the type of player our team is absolutely crying out for.All the best teams have these players and until we unearth or buy a player of this ilk we will continue to struggle. Defenders are important but scoring goals is the priority.

"[Loaning him out] is a possibility, but the final decision must be made by coach Luis Enrique and it must be a purely technical decision. It must be a team not playing in the Champions League."

Surely this is worth an enquiry?

All-in-all, I am feeling unusually optimistic. By the way is our new catch phrase "I don’t mean to be negative but..."

I wonder if he might end up sitting on his thumbs till January. However, given our apparent recent relationship with Barca (in view of Deulofeu and other links), it is not an impossible idea.

Also - we should be hopeful going into the season if 1) we buy a CB and creative mid 2) keep Stones and McCarthy. Last season was an anomaly, not the rule - we’ve been a consistent top seven side for a decade. Martinez needs to have us play more quickly and more directly, and we need fit players starting the season (pre-season already looks healthier than last year). If we do, then we should be aiming for top 6 and a trophy. We have a great first eleven - Howard may be weak, but I don’t think last season was representative of his ability either. Coleman is the second best right back in the country, and Baines is an incredible footballer. Stones and Jags are very good defenders, McCarthy is a superb DM, and Mirallas, Deulofeu and Lukaku are brilliant if frustrating attacking players. A lot of our squad is young and can kick on. We need to find a tactic to get them playing well together, and find a creative player to help knit the attacking players together. Several of those players could be at Champions League clubs, and we need to prove them that we can meet their ambitions, and they need to prove to themselves and the fans that they can help us meet theirs.

I hope we take the Capital One Cup (is it still called that?) seriously this season as well. I know it’s important to give our squad players playing time, but I hope we don’t make eleven changes and go out to a poorer side.

mmm.....someone maybe needs a mirror?

'James McCarthy is a phenomenal prospect and we're going to build a team around him'

Not even close to the start of the season and already the 'P' word has come out. Another thing, James McCarthy cost us 13m, is approaching 25 and has 6 years experience in the top league, two of which with us......I really don't expect a player like this to still be classed as a 'prospect'.

I know we shouldnt take everything said seriously, especially from Martinez but I find it hard not to get annoyed with the constand upbeat bollocks when there's been little to show on the pitch to back it up.

The squad has added cleverly and deleufeo so in my eyes has improved a bit from last season. Hardly anything to get 'excited' about.

When you look at our team on paper it looks pretty strong does it not, more so if we could get a class playmaker in midfield. The acid test though is how many of our team would be 1st choice in a top 4 side, not many I would suggest! Coleman, Baines, McCarthy, maybe’s.

I think we’ll probably finish 7th to 10th but play much better than we did last season, if we can miss serious injuries for a change we might creep into the top 6.

Maybe I could use some of Roberto’s optimism!

Tbh, we've had a decent first XI for the last few years, stenghthened a bit by Martinez' signings. However, whatever players we have come August will be irrelevant if the style and tactics remain the same as last season. I hope that the youth and lack of fear will get the likes of delboy tearing at the oppo at every opportunity and not turning back and passing the ball sideways/backwards. I also expect/hope Cleverly will bring more foward passing into the side than that from McCarthy and Barry last year.

First few games of the season will tell, until then I'll remain hopeful. Newly promoted they may be but I fully expect 3 points against Watford plus a decent performance. GP will be packed and rocking in anticipation and expectation - up to the manager and players to deliver.

Until then it really is all just cheap talk (which we've heard many times...)

Change of tactics, couple of quality additions and then I might get more positive about the future under this manager.

Until we start to see the walk instead of the talk the jury is still out IMO.

It's the biggest factor that separates us from the top 4 sides, and for me the midfield playmaker is the most important position in any side. I’d like us to sign one maybe a little better than Cleverley though if we can find the cash!

It is always difficult to be as fluent as native speakers in a second language, no matter how long you have lived in a country. I think this may go some way to explain his over-use of certain adjectives.

I think it is time people cut him some slack on the issue.

The worry is that, last season, Lukaku’s goals dried up after November. Not signing a striker and/or goalscoring midfielder may cost RM his job.

Fair comment Tony, though I did think that perhaps you were about to go on to say that these people are displaying tiresome hypocrisy.

After all, if they find RM’s repetition irritating (or worse), then surely continually polluting TW’s threads with the same criticism following each and every press release is also bloody irritating?

How many blows of a hammer does it take these "cunning linguists" to drive a nail home?

If the big lad doesn’t score then we are in the shit, we need a quality second striker fast. This time Monday morning, the RS will have 8 main strikers

Call me old-fashioned but our back up strikers are Naismith and Kone.

The squad doesn’t look balanced at all to me, and I don’t think the current signings have helped that much. When the season is under way, we may well find that Deulofeu is not ready, and Cleverley is not the goal scoring attacking mid we all wanted.

Cleverley will probably have to replace Barry who looks to have completely gone, as has Hibbert. Other players who were ageing last season are a year older and will not perform to the same level.

RM has not addressed those areas in this window as yet. IMO the current squad may well struggle badly.

The 'P' word is not the only thing we've heard over the years, there have also been entire sentences stating such things like;

- Ross Barkley will be the best ever player in an Everton shirt
- John Stones is the best ball playing CB in Europe

Just a couple off the top of my head....now both of the above may be true one day but I'm pretty sure they're far from it now.

Yes we may go on about his over hyped bollocks but it's nothing to do with him not supposedly being fluent in English. The guy would make a great salesman.

(I'm also still waiting for Atsu to 'explode' btw...)

RM, always goes for experience, the sure thing, the no risk taker.

As for how he talks, I couldn’t give a shit. He can talk double dutch every week, so long as he puts a winning, entertaining team out.

p.s. Roberto agrees with me. How phenomenal is that?

Anyone reading your post would think this has been a negative thread, Fact is, it has been overwhelming positive.

Lyndon recently opened the floor for everyone to have their say and you had yours. I think everyone got his point about repetition grating. You'll notice he was smart enough not to labour it.

Time to move on. Let's concentrate on Arsenal today.

For the record, the above is the first time that I have ever posted in response to somebody wittering on about RM's repetitive vocabulary. Hopefully you will be magnanimous enough to concede that.

And as for today’s game? I’ll be concentrating on Everton, but thanks for the reminder.

I’d think we would all have to accept that out star pupil Wayne Rooney was very much an anomaly, given his prodigious talent at such a young age, but we now have a situation where we have lads like Conor McAleny at, what 23, still hardly seen in a blue shirt, having done the rounds of loans in the lower divisions.

I also agree with Mike on the issue of our team set up. The biggest problems last season, apart from players being out of form, unfit and out of position, were our tendency to give away cheap goals and our inability to counter-attack at pace and use Lukaku’s strengths.

Very worrying.

No bullshit, thank the Lord. Perhaps someone has had a word!

There is no way that Spurs or any other club would offer McCarthy 90 grand.