It is now time to switch to a new Money AM football blog as the world cup is now over and we all look to the future.....World cup 2010 is over, Bravo Espana, and Forlan, once again and bring on the new season !.....I never expected the last thread to be such a success...thanks all.... so this new one might go on for years without the need to edit the title...we shall see...

A comment from a poster Daily Mail ;-

Everton of England 1 Chelsea of Russia 0

LOL!

I get it right every week rf and so could you , send me an email via moneyam and I'll show you how.

Meanwhile back in the real world I got 11 tickets to watch Wales qualify/cock it up against Israel a week Sunday.

1st of September and we're ranked higher than England for the first time since football was invented and also higher than Spain , Italy , France etc etc.

IMOH the rankings finally reflect a true picture of who really is the best ..... and Sepp Blatter is as innocent as Jack the Ripper :-)

Guess Stones will be on our books come the time we met his old team

And Martinez needs to grow up - the hypocrisy of buying a player from Barnsley and the bleating when he then takes the next step up - unbelievable

He seems to have forgotten his stalking of Lukaku

EFC paid top dollar for Lukaku. CFC think they can just click their fingers and the less cash rich clubs will roll over. Stones signed a five year contract last year, Martinez's stance is to be applauded. If Stones is sold eventually it will be on EFC's terms. Fxxk Off Mourinho!!!
"Money Can't Buy Stones"


As for the alleged hypocrisy of buying the player for £3 million pounds from Barnsley and his ultimate progress to the first team, maybe CFC should attempt same tactics instead of buying any player that shows potential, loaning them out, then selling them on for a profit.
How many players is it now CFC have out on loan 26-30. Shithouse club.

John Stones transfer saga: Roberto Martinez proves when a club say a player is not for sale - they can really mean it
Everton manager offers timely reminder to all clubs with players on long contracts that when they insist an asset is not for sale, it can be genuine


You can preach to the converted – those supporters who will hear whatever they want whatever the message – but deciphering what a manager truly means would have Bletchley Park working overtime.
Thus, Everton manager Roberto Martinez can receive the first bid for John Stones over a month ago with a robust ‘we won’t sell’ and hear the following day that his player is expected to end up at Chelsea.
Martinez can repeat this – he can even arm himself with a letter dispatched directly to Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck written in the thickest black ink, with the words ‘Not For Sale’ underlined, highlighted with a green marker and accompanied by exclamation marks - and still he will be informed it is a matter of when, not if, Stones heads south.
“Negotiating tactics,” is the usual, cynical interpretation of these hands off statements.
Just because you’ve said a player is not going anywhere does not mean that secretly you’re not hoping an extra £10 million on top of that ‘derisory’ opening off is coming your way. Many still suspect this is the approach Tony Pulis is adopting with Saido Berahino, despite West Bromwich Albion’s hardline approach to a bid from Tottenham Hotspur.


Liverpool certainly took that stance with Raheem Sterling over the summer. He was not for sale publicly, but privately the asking price was made clear from day one. Liverpool would sell for £50 million, and were £1 million short of this when Sterling left.
Two years earlier, when Luis Suarez was courted by Arsenal, it was a different tune being hummed at Anfeld. John W. Henry said no amount would force him to sell to a rival, regardless of the striker asking to leave. Many affiliated to Arsenal said Henry was bluffing, but he never was. Suarez stayed for another year.
The ‘Stones to Chelsea’ story has more in common with Suarez in 2013 than Suarez in 2014 or Sterling in 2015. Stones’s problem is the four years left on his contract. He will be as valuable in 2016 and 2017 as he is now, and he’ll be even more expensive if he excels at next summer’s European Championships. A bidding war involving the Manchester clubs in a year’s time could make Stones’ eventual departure to a Champions League side regrettable but slightly more palatable to Evertonians.

There should be some sympathy for Stones. His consolation for having a move he wanted blocked should be a significant pay rise to reflect his value as (potentially) the most expensive defender in English history. He’ll play in the Champions League eventually, but will need to be expertly man-managed for several weeks.
Chelsea did not help him or themselves with the timing of their offers. Universally praised for moving swiftly when they bought Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa in 2014, bidding for Stones three weeks before the start of the season was always going to rile Martinez who is a far more belligerent than his affable exterior suggests.
When Martinez said Stones would not be leaving in this window, he did not do so in the hope Jose Mourinho would return with a £40 million cheque.
Martinez’s response after Everton’s League Cup win over Barnsley was his most forceful to date. To be fair to the Spanish coach, until then he was a one-man media response unit over the whole saga, which might explain why Chelsea seemed unwilling to or incapable of taking what was said at face value.
Encouraging Stones to hand in a transfer request when you have no idea if a deal will ever be struck bordered on the obscene (we must presume Chelsea had a role in that since they appeared to know it was on its way a week before Stones wrote it).
If you want cynicism, there appears to be a trend to encourage a 'hate mob' to mobilise and turn on a player so the cameras can focus on abusers or shirt burners, thus making a position untenable. Do not mistake a few publicity grabbers for the Everton fanbase, the overwhelming majority recognising Stones as an ambitious player understandably tempted by the move. Stones was put in an invidious position by the trail of events. Martinez had warned it would change nothing – once more, that matter of a long contract limiting the power of the player.

Chairman Bill Kenwright’s public statement on Thursday evening was a welcome intervention and seems to have made the London club back off.
That could have come sooner. The initial lack of a public response to Stones’s formal letter was baffling and may even have contributed to many (wrongly) concluding the sands had shifted. Martinez took the opportunity with his impressive and reassuring performance at Oakwell to correct that error and clarify that was not the case, but it was a mood shifter when Kenwright confirmed it. It should not always be left to a manager facing the microphones to reaffirm a club’s stance. The manager, after all, is an employee who is a hostage to fortune.
We now – finally – have the assurance Martinez was speaking entirely for his board. A fanbase increasingly wary of their club's history of selling high on the last day of the transfer window must be confident there will be no compromise this time.
By Thursday evening we reached the point where Everton can not let Stones go. They left themselves no wriggle room.
No Chelsea bid can be deemed acceptable before September 1, regardless of how high Mourinho is prepared to go or how many transfer records threatened.
By resisting, Martinez will offer a timely reminder to all clubs with players on long contracts that when they insist an asset is not for sale, it is possible to really mean it.

Comment from above :-

Let us, once and for all, get this business of John Stones needing to move to a "bigger club" in order to secure his development into perspective. Everton have nine League titles, five FA cup wins and a European Cup-Winners Cup to their credit. It will be some many years before Chelsea can manage to match that record. And that presupposes that they manage to win a major trophy every year for the next ten years. I'm not sure when Chelsea made their first appearance into the Football League but it sure as hell wasn't before 1878. And then we have the record of the number of years in the top flight of English football. Arsenal, clearly have the longest time in the top flight. But who is next? Sorry Chelsea, but it is Everton, who have been in the top flight since 1954. In the intervening years Liverpool, Chelsea(sic, several times), Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham have all been RELEGATED into the SECOND tier in the years since 1954. Only Everton and Arsenal have stayed the course!
What determines greatness in a club is the length of time that that club has spent in the top flight of English football and the number of trophies it has won in that time. Clearly, on that basis, Everton, as a big club, is head and shoulders above Chelsea, and will be for many years into the future!
I think that many people confuse greatness with wealth. It is absolutely true that Chelsea have much greater wealth than Everton, but that is courtesy of one Roman Abramowitz. But that wealth has undermined Chelsea's ability to promote a good local academy to inspire local kids to develop.
Everton does not have a "Sugar Daddy", nor do we want one. We will continue with good governance to maintain our presence in the top flight by coaching and nurturing kids to develop their potential. And when all our good kids, prudent purchases and good governance bear fruit, we will win a title or two.
All of that is a measure of why Everton is a great club. Chelsea cannot match that! That is why John Stones is staying at Everton.
On the other hand I have to concede that Chelsea is a richer club than Everton. But that will cease when Abramowitz dies!!

Joe - Click on You Tube Everton Fans Sing Money Can't Buy Me Stones. LOL!!!

No need to - but what a load of tosh on the big club argument

Come on Wolves, Newcastle, Weds and Leeds

Woo hoo we going to France !!!!

Unless Scotland beat the Germans : they will be out of it.....the Irish still have a big chance....

Test

We only have to beat Andorra in our last game and we're there.

A win tomorrow against Israel and against Andorra and we top the group , the game against Bosnia inbetween is irrelevant even if we lose 20-0 as the first criteria to decide positions is the head to head results.

Party time in 17 hours 30 minutes :)

Israel came and "parked the bus" and Wales didn't want to lose.

Only got to draw against Andorra at home to qualify but we blew our chance of ending up top of the group imo thanks to our useless got lucky jack bastard manager's tactics.

Was like watching paint dry.

Congratulations to Rooney.....incredible record !.....can just imagine Kane in an Real madrid shirt alongside Bale.....England barely broke sweat and are starting to look impressive.....capable of the euro-semis I reckon....beyond that is a lottery...but the semis yes......

EVERTON 3 chelsea (small club)1 LOL LOL LOL!!!!!!!!!

CAN"T BUY ME STONESSSSSS STONESSSSS

MONEY CAN"T YOU BUY STONES!!!!!

THE SCHOOL OF SCIENCE IS ON THE WAY BACK!

Can't see Chelsea retaining the title at all.....

Would be refreshing if the normal order at the top could change.

It's obvious our clubs are now second best if not third in european football now.....this is the lack of british players in these sides that is doing this....you have to have a very, very tight group to succeed at the highest level and I'm having big doubts about this mish-mash lot I have to say...that so called 5 billion pounds deal for the premiership is a joke !.....nuts who paid for that...

Diego Costa: Chelsea striker charged with violent conduct by FA