Kenny among those leaving as free agents

Surprised he's going, tbh. Thought he'd stay.

Kids shirts with sponsors name on will reel some of the money back in.

I guess he's got to make the right decision for his career and get more playing time. A shame but I guess it was never meant to be.

Either way, I hope this means we will try to make use of someone from the U23s. If the academy can't produce someone good enough to be third choice right-back, what's the point in having one?

I liked Kenny very much as an Evertonian, less so as a full-back. I just hope he's replaced with someone better - we can't start the season with only Patterson and Seamus at right back. The former is way too young, and the latter too old.

Well off the books and will enable us to get better in.

All the very best to him.

I've roughly worked out wage costs too:

Sigurdsson – £100k p/w – £26M
Tosun – £45k p/w – £9.36M
Delph – £80k p/w – £12.48M

Total:– £47.84M

Total cost:– £116,84M

Now that, is just absurd!!!

A poor-performing Doucouré is all what's left.

I wish Kenny good luck in the future, he seemed to grow up a bit last season and will be an asset to someone.

Delph remains a very useful player, when fit, but, along with the other two, his wages can be put to better use.

I keep seeing snippets suggesting we may get a fee for Gomes, Mina and even Keane (though I would keep him). I am just concerned that everyone knows we are broke so won't offer the true value.

If we can get the success and spend value we had with Townsend and Gray, I will be pleased to see some shrewd incoming replacements.

Including wages, the club basically spent around £100m on just Sigurdsson and Tosun over the last 4-5 years. £100m on just those two players, with little return.

Then add the likes of Walcott, Bolasie, Niasse, Schneiderlein, etc, and you begin to understand the basket case that Everton has been the last few years.

Any normal company would have sacked those in charge many many years ago. So much easy sky money sloshing around and it would appear the owners of Everton also got their money easily as they certainly don't seem to know the value of it.

Half a billion pounds wasted in such a short time - reminds me of Brewster Millions. How fast can spend it!

Yet Kenwright is still there… bonkers!!!

Fair play to Kenny, rather than sit on his wages for the next few years, he is looking to play first team football instead.

He will be one of the first of our free agents that will attract interest from other clubs.

We did sack those responsible.

Koeman, Allardyce and Walsh. Not sure Kenwright wandered into Finch Farm and said we needed to buy any of them. Or do you think he was responsible for not saying "No"?

Last time a chairman said No was when Kendall said he wanted Dublin and so he resigned… and then Royle wanted Flo and he resigned.

I know you do not like him but signing these cannot be laid at his door.

Kenny is obviously keen to play more regularly and I wish him well as he has always shown that he will try his very best for the team.

Lewis Gibson is a strange one as he clearly has talent and is naturally left footed but his injury record is appalling. Let's hope he can keep himself fit because he has natural talent.

Not sure why we have kept the two reserve goalkeepers as we have a number of young talented keepers who are all short of match day experience. Loan moves perhaps.
But it is good to see the serious work of restructuring the squad has begun.

A true Evertonian, but probably not at the level that Frank wants to build at the club. I wish him all the very best, and will keenly look out for him wherever he plays next.

Gbamin is still in the squad and may yet prove a useful signing.

- see out their original contract term with no extension. This has an adverse impact on squad stability and means we're repeatedly entering the costly risky transfer market to cover the same positions.

- generate no money to reinvest in their replacements. This means we deteriorate in quality over time.

The same thing happened with Walcott, Bolasie and Schneiderlin.

These 6 players have a lot in common in terms of age and other profile.

It's a recipe for where we are now.

We must avoid similar fairly obvious mistakes going forward

I think he's made the right decision as he is unlikely to get many minutes at Everton. Pity his early promise didn't translate into Premier Leagus quality.

The others, yep, a waste of money.

“In professional age groups, Joe Anderson, Jack Barrett, Elijah Campbell, Liam Higgins, Mackenzie Hunt, Einar Iversen, Mathew Mallon, Sean McAllister and Patrick Nash have all been offered new contracts.

The Club is also in negotiations with Lewis Gibson over a new deal. “

Hopefully the kids sign up and progress. Everton will be a good place for them under Frank.

Wherever he goes next, the receiving club are getting a dedicated and professional player with a great attitude. On more than one occasion this season, he was first over to the away fans even when it got volatile, ahead of the senior players.

Good points on Sigurdsson, Mike and Bobby. If we judge him on the football, I too rated him. One of our most creative players and we missed him last season, both his goals and assists.

He would have gone missing in action, as he regularly did anyway, during the relegation battle we just went through. We would have struggled just as much with him in the team, as without him.

Disappointed to hear both backup keepers have got contract extensions too, we must be really desperate to have extended two washed-up keepers, who were never very good in the first place.

I hope there are more to follow with listed players. There is still a core of players who don't deserve to be at Everton after last season.

If Lampard wants to build his own team, he knows who to keep, and who to show the door. I'm hoping he has his own targets even if they are loan players from Chelsea, and may be a marquee signing or two.

It's been noted several times that Bill Kenwright gets closely involved in transfers. As an example, it was his call to bring Rooney back – not Koemans (who didn't actually want Rooney).

An old girlfriend of mine used to work for him in his theatre company, many moons ago, and said he was (and presumably still is) an absolute control freak. Why do you think it took so long to 'sell ' the club?

He was only ever going to sell to someone who still handed him a large say in what happens. I've got no idea what the legal docs say but I'm amazed he's still there after all this time.

As for Jonjoe Kenny, well, if he ever comes back and plays against us, he'll get a great welcome, that's for sure. Limited, yes, but loads of heart and bottle. Hope he gets a good move.

Putting aside the fiasco outside the game, he was a respectable professional and at times a sublime footballer in a painfully obvious mediocre side.

8 of his 25 assists were on gamewinners.

Not exactly hiding or missing.

He wasn't great. But he didn't suck either.

Agree with Annika about backup keeper disappointment… surely better to have a Leban, Virginia or Tyrer given a go than a washed-up Liverpool reserve who never was or never will (sorry pal, no point beating about the bush here).

He always struck me as a ‘special-teams' type whose main contribution was on set pieces. Later in his time here, he was even replaced in this duty by Digne.

At a £45 million transfer fee and £100,000 weekly salary, he was a symptom of the disastrous decisions made in the summer he was signed. A massive waste of money.

That total would have been a normal season for Gylfi. We would not have been in the relegation scrap if he had been available.

Then there is the suckiness relative to cost, expectation and perceived ability. On that scale Gomes also scores a 10 but Stracqualursi scores a 1 as he didn't suck based on those metrics.

Sigurdsson scored a 3 on general suckiness but on the cost, expectation and ability metric he was a 7 which is pretty bad,

He provided goals and assists from midfield, and has been sorely missed.

However, it's not under normal circumstances, and hopefully we get our wages paid back through insurance once the legal matters are closed.

Kenny would have been a solid squad member, but fair play to the lad on seeking first-team football. Expect him to move abroad and hope he does well.

Delph redeemed himself when we needed him. So good for him and us that he leaves with our blessings, but overall he's been a let down due to injuries.

Tosun, well that fascist supporting cumbersome Allardyce mistake can do one.

The first of what I expect will be a good few exits this summer. A leaner squad will await us, but hopefully one where every member can be relied upon.

Already Out
1. Delph
2. Sigurdsson
3. Kenny
4. Tosun
5. Van de Beek
6. El Ghazi

Departure Lounge:
7. Richarlison (Unfortunately)
8. Kean
9. Keane
10. Gomes
11. Allan
12. Virginia or Lonergan
13. Rondon
14. Alli
15. Broadhead
16. Gbamin

Glad to see Annika (33) got her last licks in re: Sigurdsson, LOL.

Lol poor old Lonergan is the least of our troubles – he's probably on a fiver and bag of crisps a week. Though apparently we've offered to extend his deal. You're always going to need a few warm bodies to bulk out the squad and he is one.

In truth, anyone of the playing staff going would not surprise me, it's going to be a sell-to-buy, rebuild and recover monies approach I think. There will be a core that Lampard won't want to sell but, if the offer is big enough or in some cases if there are any offers, then it's about the money...

It should keep the accountants happy, I just hope there is a rebuild plan of sorts to replace those going.

Ed #43, agreed.

Fran #46, I don't think there's any way in the world we will get back the £5 million we paid Sigurdsson this year. He wasn't in jail or otherwise physically unavailable. The insurance company will look at it and say hey, sorry, Everton, but it was your choice to shut him down until his contract expired.

I see we beg to differ on Sigurdsson's worth and his contribution and whether Everton got anything near value for money. So be it.

Sigurdsson for £45M + £120k a week definitely didn't justify the fee or wages, too often disappeared in games.

Delph and Tosun were a total waste of money and wages.

I hope it works out for Kenny, and he gets a good contract elsewhere.

We disagree that he was useless.

Being fair, Sigurdsson has not been a £45M world beater, but he has contributed a whole lot more than some players who we signed for massive £20M + fees in recent years.

I see that Delph, Sigurdsson and Tosun who cost £88 million in transfers and heaven knows how much they have earned since being here, have left and Everton don't get a penny for any of them.

Sigurdsson gave us goals and assists – and a lot of running to close down passing lanes.

If he'd have been played this season, we'd have put relegation worries to bed much earlier.

If you want a better player than this, you have to speculate outside of the Premier League. If you want a Premier League player, you have to pay the premium for someone that good.

Jonjoe Kenny tried hard but not a single person on here would have him as their first choice in defence, so no doubt we offered him a deal commensurate with a squad player and he clearly didn't fancy it. No hard feelings, let's all move on.

I will watch with interest the new signings.

nb: I think it's a little premature to say “Alli hasn't worked” – yes, he didn't make an immediate impact, but he's hardly had a run out yet. Without question, his arrival turned the game that mattered most at the end of the season. There's clearly still a player there, just need to give him a chance.

Previous incumbents fell at this very first hurdle.

He did not ask the club to pay such a ridiculous fee, absolutely preposterous it was… and my resentments with him are actually displaced, it is the Koeman-Walsh-Moshiri shit show that is underpinning it all. I know that isn't Sigurdsson's fault but somehow I still held it against him, I certainly never warmed to him.

I think if I dig a little deeper, my displaced frustration is that I was annoyed how we treated Barkley (hung out to dry by Koeman – and yes, I know he acted like a shit over the injury and transfer… but still) and lost him, only to spunk £75M on No 10's!

This splurge set us back years – I am of the view it derailed the 'great Everton project' before it really got going and we had to shoehorn him into every bloody side even when he didn't fit. Again, not his fault.

To add insult to injury, we could have got money for him last summer, if he hadn't got arrested. Once again I feel annoyed with him. I think it's awful that the club can't get some compensation for this.

Either he is guilty in which case we should be allowed to sue the arse off him for all those wages and loss of transfer fee. Or, he is innocent and we should be allowed to sue the accuser for lost transfer fee and wages over the past year.

Some may think that's harsh. Needless to say I am pleased he has gone, if only for the fact that, to me, he symbolically represents that ill-advised, feckless, clusterfuck of a transfer splurge.

Sigurdsson didn't choose the fee that was paid, that has nothing to do with him. Why are we having a go at him for what he cost. The blame for that is laid at the feet of our board.

However, he was often devoid of any ideas when he didn't have time and space, he didn't have a clue what to do against a team that defended deep, although he ran a lot out of possession he was rarely actually doing anything and most of his set-pieces were crap. He was the complete opposite of what we needed at the time.

Up until the second half of this season, I would say, considering the fee, he was up there with Iwobi, Tosun, Schneiderlin, Gomes, Niasse and Bolasie as the worst value-for-money signings we've ever made – although I'm not sure about Iwobi being on this list anymore.

Sigurdsson's best season was 2018-19 with 12 goals from open play and 2 pens.

The open play goals were against Rotherham, West Ham, Fulham (2), Cardif (3), Spurs, Leicester, Southampton, Chelsea, Man Utd.

Spurs, Chelsea and Man Utd probably qualify as 'bigger teams'.

Overall, Sigurdsson has been a very expensive mistake but, having said that, he was a huge miss last season.

Everton have absolutely no grounds for any insurance claim. He hasn't been found guilty of any crime and the choice not to play him was Everton's alone.

Hope it works out for him. Great lad and great Blue.

He did have a knack for goals in that season; however, in the next 2 seasons he contributed 11 goals from 82 games (including penalties) and was frequently poor against the weaker teams.

His assists and goals scored ratio seriously impacted Everton's chances before last season started.

But now hopefully a clean slate for Everton to start fresh, and take the tempest of last season's cauldron of Goodison Park into next season, both home and away.

UTFT!

If the club suspended Sigurdsson for a full season without being in some way covered financially, regardless of the verdict in any future trial, then surely there's a fuck-up in there somewhere.

In the past 10 seasons, the only other Everton midfielders to make double figures are Barkley in 2015-16 and Fellaini in 2012-13 with 12 each.

This past season in the Premier League, De Bruyne was the top-scoring midfielder with 15, followed by Madison 12, Mount 11, and Raphina 11.

What would we have to pay to get one of them?

I usually just read stuff here without making judgments, but that made me chuckle!

I suspect the club offered a contract but with terms geared towards a minor role in the first team. I don't think either party will have regrets in the long-run

His Bundesliga season was the best of his career by far. Scored the only two goals of his senior career, and they were both screamers.

He was one of the few impressive performers in a truly horrendous Schalke side that has now been promoted back up.

Jonjoe done well there, in the first half of the season, which reflected the Königsblauen in general. And he was popular with the Schalke fans.

One of his goals was a beauty too. Low hit first-time shot rifled in from the corner of the box into the far corner. If you haven't seen it, Google it.

He faded a bit in the Ruckründe after the Christmas break but so did Schalke, and badly. They dropped like a stone and got dragged into a worrying relegation fight. Not quite as dramatic as ours this season and the end table looked more comfortable that it was in the closing weeks. It flattered them. They pulled away avoiding the drop only to go down the following season.

Big gulp.

For obvious biased reasons, if he goes to Germany, I'd like him to return. Not just the colours. It's his type of club. Our type of club.

Actually both his Schalke goals were nearly identical. Low rockets from the right corner of the box, across the keeper and into the side netting. One a first-time crack, and one off the dribble.

Also had some very nice assists.

It was the following relegation season that, Wagner included, they actually went through 4 managers in a season. The players didn't know if they were coming or going. Okay, we haven't been as extreme but a familiar theme? Lack of stability and a plan or strategy that we stick to?

There is always a balance in looking after business interests and assets, but I will always question how much this interference from non-football people simply disrupts team and player progress. So by default, disrupts their own investment.

Our owner said lessons have been learned. Well, employ the right people and give them time to deliver before triggering on the advice of an incompetent panicy board worried about their own comfortable positions. Long-term benefit over short-term survival always trumps in my view.

Hold your fire. Keep your powder dry and don't panic. Step in occasionally when you need to steer the ship back on course. But generally, leave the troops to it. They will win the battle.

I know times are different, but Howard Kendall wouldn't have survived under this. Joe Royle didn't.

Back on topic, I'm not making excuses and I have questioned Jonjoe's ability based on him being a top player. But he's played in the Premier League and Bundesliga. I haven't and I played to a half-decent standard. Credit to the lad. He never gives up and to get to even being considered for the likes of Everton, Schalke and Celtic, you've got to be a very, very good player.

I gave the jet-lag warning…

To be honest, Everton is not Premier League level either right now but trimming and trying to replace this kind of player will only do good.

As for Sigurdsson and Tosun, both of them represent how bad our transfer policy has been. Sigurdsson had a good season when James was here but overall he is easily in the top 3 worst signings we ever made.

As for Tosun, we should never have signed him in the first place. I hope more will go so we can sign younger hungrier players.

And, hopefully, a fit Patterson turns out to be a good ‘un.

It is not a competition I want to nominate candidates for, the options are simply too numerous to contemplate without spoiling a day off.

He was a good full-back, has all the basics (awareness, first touch, passing, crossing) but isn't the toughest or best tackler and lacks pace and creativity. If he'd have been around 15 years ago he'd be more appreciated.

But full-backs in the modern game are expected to do so much more these days. Good defenders who can play as wingers.

I'm sure a Wilder type coach would get the best out of him.

Take that away as it's not my money or decision I try and simply judge a player. Are they good and do they put the effort in.

Sigurdsson was good and tried hard. Delph was good but injury-prone. Mina and Gbamin were good but injury-prone. Tosun was a failure as not suited and didn't try hard. Same for Schneiderlin, Moise Kean to name a few.

Did I want Sigurdsson? Yes, for his goals from midfield and creativity. Would I have paid that for him or moved into other targets? Definitely moved for other targets.

Many think James was a failure. But I witnessed a slightly aged, but definitely top class player who scored, created, tried hard and was, in my opinion, a joy to watch.

We hear stories of blackmail. If innocent, it's a very long time to have this in your head.

Sigurdsson wasn't our worst performer but he was a financial disaster and a bad signing that most of the fans knew at the time.

Best of luck to Jonjoe Kenny but, to be fair, I can't ever see a time when the Blues are in trouble and I think, “If only we hadn't let Kenny go!”

Gylfi, he also often got dog's abuse on here, but he was a big miss last season, and too many on TW seemed to blame the player because idiots holding our purse strings seriously overpaid for him. Good luck to him.

Sometimes us fans get het up with supposed price tags and speculated wages.

Some seem to really study that and have access to detail.

I try to judge on football ability. Most of the time. I'm no saint in not using a players alleged price tag in my criticism on occasion.

But I do try to keep it to the football.

If we'd have had the Sigurdsson who frustratingly only turns his true ability on for 10-15 games or Rodriguez only available for the same, even off the bench, that would have been a very different season.

Sigurdsson's 14-goal season was under Marco Silva when he played in his preferred position. He was moved into a more defensive role when James arrived to help us stop leaking so many goals.

Not good enough for Spurs who expected more than just a "football quarterback". A lot of money for a player who only looked useful striking a dead ball.

The common denominator for Everton's lack of value for money in buying and selling players is the inappropriate appointment of Directors of Football. We pay £20M+ for players who don't improve our team; Liverpool manage to sell players for £20M+ to the likes of Bournemouth and Sheffield United who will never kick a ball again at the highest level.

I hope the current appointment proves a better fit than those before. If Moshiri appointed someone to make his clothes for him he would be walking round naked at great expense – somewhat like our teams have in football terms.

I stand by my opinion, Sigurdsson was a total failure for the money we paid. Goals is the essence of football.

I remember well how much stick Lukaku received, he scored plenty of goals too but he had the touch of an elephant etc.

When James was here, Sigurdsson raised his game and he was actually quite useful.

Good luck to Jonjoe Kenny, he's better than some on here will credit him and would have been a good third-choice full-back. He'll be first choice somewhere and do alright.

Interesting turnaround on Mathew Mallon who was due to leave but is now staying. An Unsworth decision reversed?

Let's get another opinion.

Spurs' manager Pochettino:

"Gylfi Sigurdsson would have been perfect for me at Tottenham"

“I think after he moved to Swansea and we saw his development at Swansea, he was a perfect player for us”

Sigurdsson was a first-rate midfielder who did whatever was asked of him during a chaotic time with the Club.

And did so while lugging that £45M millstone Moshiri draped around his neck.

Longeran is here more for the coaching aspect more than anything else. He knows Alan Kelly well and is providing that coaching support for all our keepers. He's on probably next to nothing and isn't really taking th eplace of our younger keepers as Tryer has been featuring more on the bench than he has.

Significantly no mention of the following young names from last season's U23s (henceforth reverting back to U21s from next season) – and therefore by my calculation set to be or already released are:

Rafael Garcia
Rhys Hughes
Harry Hagan
Sebastian Kristensen

I thought Hughes was a decent prospect; I'm surprised about him if true.

Garcia can sniff out goals but he has not played much these last few years. Hagan and Kristensen also played very little last season.

Maybe he has turned over a new leaf with the correct decision to leave. Let's hope he has a long and fulfilling career away from Everton. I wish him every success.

We obviously overpaid for Sigurdsson, but I enjoyed many of his contributions and like others here, I think he did okay.

Perhaps Gomes will thrive if we can get a busy boy in next to him. With a lad like Gallagher on board, Gomes might come to life. He needs people to do his running. No-one expected Pirlo to run around making tackles.

I felt he was pretty unlucky to be behind such a player as Coleman and, whenever Coleman got injured, Kenny never grasped his chance as he also got injured.

Everton releases list from the Mirror, but Lonergan and Gibson have recently been offered a new contract I think, they forgot Sigurdsson:

Fabian Delph, Rafael Garcia Ferreira, Lewis Gibson, Harry Hagan, Rhys Hughes, Jonjoe Kenny, Sebastian Kristensen, Andy Lonergan, Cenk Tosun

I am surprised at Rhys Hughes being released as he was a player who was always involved in matches. He could make something happen. Who knows?

We may have offered him a low deal and he thinks he can get better elsewhere? Or they just didn't think he had enough. A bit disappointed that we can't see more of this player, another season, to assess his development more.

Also surprised, but slightly less so, about Garcia, this was his return year after a bad cruciate injury and 2 years out, he looked a live wire. The injury will have set him back and next season he could improve again. I think he will have a career in the game.

I wish them both the best of luck, and will look out for them wherever they end up. There's other more knowledgeable posters Phill, Brent amongst them, who will have an interesting take on this.

Just messes with my mind when the official Everton website and their own news releases once again totally fail in terms of openness and transparency.

Instead of telling us who are leaving, they write this at the end of their "new contracts" piece:

Everton wishes to thank all departing players for their contribution throughout their time at the Club.

Utter shithouses – not even bending the knee to name them in such a two-faced anonymous 'appreciation'.

All the best to Jonjoe Kenny.

The Telegraph say it's back to Schalke for Kenny.

So someone's telling porkies.

Please, Benfica or Porto – make it happen.

Also how the hell did we pass on the chance to sign a 15- year-old Haaland for £60k!!!!!?

Sarcasm aside, I hope he goes to Schalke. For selfish reasons I'll get to watch him when I go to see them next season.

Your point on Haarland. It's one of those things. You can never truly tell at a young age if a player has what it takes. Similarly when clubs have a player but at the time don't consider them good enough so sell or release them.

Kevin Sheedy: Liverpool reserve, Everton great.

I'd bet Chelsea fans cringe every time they see Kevin De Bruyne now.

There are probably many more examples. The ones that got away. All about judgement at the time.

My best mate was released by Howard Kendall in 1983 after playing in the FA Youth Cup Final that year. He didn't recover football-wise, he had offers but it had torn his heart out.

How Lampard picked him against Palace after his previous performance against Brentford was a major concern about his judgement, IMO.

He had similar trials / spells at lots of clubs and chose his route from Molde, Salzburg, Dortmund to Man City very wisely and carefully – passing up much bigger pay packets along the way.

Jeff, I hear you loud and clear.

Robert, he was being trialed by us when he was at Bryne prior going to Molde!

Before anyone starts, I always described it as taking money from them. They were paying my mortgage.

When I was home, we'd meet for lunch and I'd wait outside the Kop. My memories of my then very young son calling Robbie Fowler "Fish face" as he bent down to say hello, and turning his back on and refusing to talk to Roy Evans live forever. I don't know where he got that from. There are bad influences out there.

I digress but there is a link.

It is ruthless. As an employee, she got to go to the Cup Final. I don't remember the year, but it was the one Cantona scored the winner in an uneventful 1-0.

She told me that on the train back to Liverpool, all the youth / academy players were told "You're staying", "You're going to Oldham [or whoever]", "You're released".

She was really upset as it was ruthless, without any compassion and done in front of everyone.

A lot of the young lads broke down. Understandably.

Mate, I keep saying, at the time he came through, had Messi been English, he'd have been dismissed at a young age and never made it. Too small. I can hear the scouts now. We had a few from Tottenham down to watch a lad who played for me. They were more obsessed with his physicality than his footballing ability.

We are getting better but still have a long way to go on youth development.

And it's about development of young players, not winning a meaningless league or trophy.

It's a shame though.

Embarrassing start to the Thelwell era if he obviously thinks he can't or won't find a proper back-up for Patterson on this planet.

He's never going to be in the starting eleven, apart from in injury situations, and he clearly wants first-team football.

Best of luck to Jonjoe.

Kenny has been nothing but professional; he may not have yet fulfilled that early promise but he deserves his shot at first-team football. Berlin is a fine city (I used to live there) and I really wish him well with his footie next season.

Good on you lad, you've never let us down, enjoy your career!

You don't get better sitting on the bench, so I hope Jonjoe gets to play every week because he's a very genuine kid, who has now arrived at a cross roads in his career. With him being a free agent, I'm sure Everton would have also had to give him a signing on-fee if he'd have signed another contract at our club.

I thought Brands should have sold Kenny to Burnley around 18 months ago for a few million, so maybe he's partly to blame now Kenny has left for nothing?

He was poor and never lived up to the billing. Slow, drifted out of games, rarely showed in big games etc, etc.

If he had been available this season, he would have his usual act, created nothing, fluffed his free-kicks, and gone missing for large parts of the game. He won't be missed.

We all have opinions. I thought Sigurdsson was a decent midfielder, an organiser and solid but not Hollywood in his game.

Same as Neville for us, a motivator and gave it his all every game. People had it in for Phil from the off but, for me, he was a great servant despite his short time with us.

Thanks for your efforts Jonjoe, as you say maybe you could have done better but you always did your best.

I hope you succeed in Germany but you were never a failure for me at Everton.

I know John Senior will shout at me for expletives, but I don't mind admitting, fucking emotional.

Best wishes, Jonjoe. The Bundesliga fixture list was released today, so I'll look at the Shalke - Hertha date.

I'll always remember the journey to Goodison for the Crystal Palace game at the end of last season. We were driving in from our hotel, and you go down Scotland Road and past the little football cages where I used to play as I kid.

I know that game was nerve-wracking and none of us wanted to be in that situation, but to go from that kid playing in those cages to playing for Everton Football Club in such a big match…I just had a moment where I thought, ‘You've done alright'.

I'll never forget those last few weeks of the season. I think it was in that moment when I knew that I was ready to maybe move on for a new chapter, because I felt like I kept getting a bit emotional, especially when I was seeing the fans.

It did keep bringing a little bit of a tear to my eye because I knew that might be the end. They were lovely moments that were great for me and to see that reaction of everyone coming together. The funny thing was, I knew a lot of the people who were outside cheering on the team coach. I knew who they were and what it meant to them.

Yes, Jonjoe, you've done more than 'alright'... all the best wherever you go from here.

On a serious note, sound words from Jonjoe and I'll go to watch him when Schalke play Hertha. Like all Evertonians, I wish him the very best.

Is it 6 August yet?

More than all right, Jonjoe. More than all right.

Seems to be a lad who is still aware of his roots and his merited rewards.

Justifiable criticism is one thing but the incessant competition to hate on members of our own club makes me despair of some Evertonians.