Wind of Change

The wind of change has come with a new ambition owner and a lot of money spent, and yet we are not the finished article yet.

The current transfer window could define our final league position, some studios signings up front and in midfield would see the owners and managers ambition of European football sorted.

Take no notice of the press they have their own agenda.

Beyond beating a Rooney bereft Utd on pens in the semis nothing has happened here for decades Journos must yawn at the mere mention of our name

Nice article Santosh, don't let media neglect cause you discomfort. Stuffed shirts for the most part. And on the Scorpions thing, never my cup of tea if you will, nor the NWOBHM stuff. That Lucifer's Friend initial LP does it for me though. Oh and maybe some System demo when the situation calls for it.

I am not really for this media conspiracy stuff as every team seems to like to use it. I think Everton get some reasonable coverage but I am totally used to the Big Clubs dominating the limelight and I don't really care that much.

I also like to see teams like Southampton taking the plaudits because I do think they have been exceptional during Ralph Hasenhüttl's tenure and he also seems like a good guy to me.

As for Carlo, I think we are benefiting from calmness, experience, and a shrewd tactical brain. We are not the finished article by any stretch but I do think he is really getting as much out of this team as he can, making us hard to beat (we have been a soft touch for years ever since Moyes left) and setting a good foundation. The difference between Ancelotti and Moyes is the former has the will and ambition to take us to the next level whereas I never felt Moyes could.

We will have setbacks and poor games but I don't doubt Ancelotti can take us somewhere we haven't been since Howard Kendall was the boss.

Watch when we play most anyone, we go in hard but fair, opposition players almost always roll around screaming and ultimately get our guy a card. Everyone knows how unfancied or is it unfashionable we are.

You see it more with unfancied teams – biased VAR is run by the same villains that decide who they want in Europe etc. – I'm still fuming about Collina!

I realise it could seem like victimised behaviour, however, just because your paranoid, doesn't mean it isn't happening, right?

In one of those seasons Moyes submitted 20 penalty appeals to the head of the refs only to be told that 12 of them SHOULD have been penalties.

VAR was supposed to correct this but it seems to have gone the other way with the same institutional bias.

That does not mean we are a lucky side, that means that the officials had to be overruled for decisions against us more times than any other club. Similarly Liverpool had the most incorrect calls in their favour overruled by VAR.

However, with Everton, it's not quite the same as we are traditionally one of the big clubs, at least pre-Sky era anyway. Consequently, there's an underlying concern that a good spell for the club could become sustained and eventually allow Everton to elbow their way back amongst the top echelon of clubs and, who knows, maybe even consolidate there! That cannot be allowed, as we all know.

See, now that's proper paranoia! ;-)

I grew up when the media admired us. I suppose the years of mediocrity we've endured have made us unfashionable to them - a club with a great past but who offer little for the present and nothing for the future.

With the average reader or viewer now having the attention span of a gnat then the media feel compelled to sell them success and glamour – not historic heritage which holds no currency with the Twitter generation.

But now the media have a quandary. We have a manager with pedigree who they all like and admire and an owner who has the financial clout to be reckoned with. The two combined – who knows where we could go?

This is going to be an era defining period for the club, as, if we can inch ourselves up there with the 'big boys' and start to challenge and actually win things our presence could no longer be sidelined as 'wannabees' or 'yesterday's men'.

When you look at the table and the topsy turvy nature of this weird season, you see the chance we now have to make a claim.

Liverpool are defensively vulnerable and lacking the goals of the last two campaigns; United are flattered by their position and could easily go on a losing run; Tottenham are flaky; Chelsea lack confidence and Arsenal are as unpredictable as a Trump speech.

Man City and Leicester City are the form teams who stand out to me. But again, would a run of defeats for either of them shock me? No. This season is open to anyone who has to will and desire to grab what's available.

So, although the January window is one Brands seems to dislike, it should be (to me) a time to double up and get some class in that could make the difference between 'a plucky effort' and a Champions League place, or an FA Cup win (following favourable draws thus far).

Another striker is a must for me. If Calvert-Lewin is out, what are the real options? Cenk? Is now the time to get Max Aarons?

The next 18 months will define how real our ambition and desire really is. I hope we seize the opportunity or we could be destined to another long spell in the wilderness.

If only Usmanov would appear from behind the curtain. I'm weary of waiting. There were whispers that he played a part in Carlo taking the job. Now that would be a game-changer that the media couldn't ignore.

I know it's a business and easier said than done but that's what he's paid for. Tragedy if we are left high and dry with no proper help for Calvert-Lewin at least.

For example, Lawrensen's BBC preview of the RS. v. Burnley match tonight makes a spurious reference to VVD's injury. (I didn't know he was injured. Oh dear. What happened?)

We have little strength in depth but nobody can doubt the progress made under Carlo. Without our mid-season blip (losing to Newcastle FFS - and more recently West Ham) we'd all be suffering altitude sickness this season.

Long may we continue to progress. Yes we need to strengthen - but I'm sure Carlo Ancelotti will have the loudest say in the matter.

I think the general perception is, if you buy in January, you pay massively over-the-top prices for largely average squad players and, a season on, regret the signings you made in January. Yes, there are exceptions to that but that generally is how January signings have played out.

Now I am sure that Brands and Ancelotti would like cover for Calvert-Lewin but maybe the quality of player to do that isn't available in this window. I see that it looks like Danny Ings may leave Southampton in the summer, he might be a realistic target depending on the fee. Also we still have the problem of FFP and it is something we will have to address sooner rather than later, hence why Brands has said moving players out is his priority in this window.

Off the wall, I am just wondering if Brands is going to United at the end of the season is he jsut clearing the decks for now and saving his "diamonds" for his new club?

There is not a supporter amongst us that doesn't see the need for at least a goalscoring forward (whether Calvert-Lewin is injured or not) and hopefully a right-back if Jonjoe Kenny is deemed not good enough.

Possibly should look at scrapping the January window altogether and just allowing a couple of loans in and out.

If there was another club currently lying in sixth serving up the awful stuff on a regular basis, nobody on here would give them the time of day... That's how we are viewed by the neutral.

We never go up, we never go down, and we never play edge-of-the-seat football. Carlo is just the latest in a long line of managers who is more interested in spoiling a game than making it fun, consolidating our status in the Premier League rather than looking to win it.

We are the only people interested in us...

Atlanta, Bayern, Everton: Europe's 'Must-see Entertainers'

There is no conspiracy. We are not given media attention because we don't do anything to deserve it.

We either do something about it, or we drown in self-pity whining that nobody likes us…

There is of course a third option: We can take the Brazilian "snap shot" approach and throw up foolish nonsense published months ago after an uncharacteristic purple patch against some very poor teams.

That approach will of course go down well with the Brady Bunch (it has done for years). but it clearly isn't impressing anybody else.

You want to happy clap the spoiling tactics you are being served on a regular basis... fine. Just don't complain when the rest of football isn't quite so enamoured.

That article was written by Billy Connelly.
He knows what puts a smile on punters faces.

Click your fingers and they come running like an unquestioning faithful dog.

Ancelotti hasn't got that much control. He has got them eating out of his hand though. I will give you that.

Give it a rest, Darren. I get it – you're a better blue than I am. Good for you.

"Brady bunch"... "happy clap"... "unquestioning faithful dog"... condescending, unwarranted insults.

Yeah, the media-coverage complaining here does get pretty old... and yeah, that link was to an outdated article... but is it absolutely required that you be so snotty about it?

Geez.

About dog training.

Clicking fingers ffs You whistle lad whistle

The optimist hopes and dreams and calls for our football to improve. The happy clapper applauds and apologises for the spoiling tactics he is seeing now.

They are Two very different caps.

People will wear the one which fits them best, I suppose.

Would I like to see more elegant football? Of course, but we don't have the squad to put that out on a weekly basis and are getting by just fine thank you very much.

Calvert-Lewin has been getting great media coverage and Rodriguez did at the beginning.

However, if we play average football, we get average coverage. Long way to go and when we do start playing brilliant football – which I have faith in Ancelotti that we will – plaudits will follow.

They will whine and wallow when we lose and blame Ancelotti regardless then, when we win, they will whail and whinge and say the football isn't entertaining enough for them or we got lucky and the win was despite Ancelotti not because of him.

Everton Surprise Loan for England & Man City Midfielder

A club that hasn't won at their nearest and dearest trophy winning giants since 1999. It has to be earned, as Barry @ 3 says - We need to drop this martyr complex.