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...

Soccer-Juventus boss Agnelli elected as head of European Club Association

GENEVA, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Juventus boss Andrea Agnelli has been appointed as the new head of the powerful European Club Association (ECA), the organisation said on Twitter on Tuesday.

The ECA, whose 200-plus members include all of the continent's biggest and richest football clubs, said that both Agnelli and Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis had been chosen as its representatives on the executive committee of European soccer body UEFA.

Agnelli will replace former West Germany international Karl-Heinz Rummenigge who had been chairman since the ECA's foundation in 2008 and had decided to step aside.

Last year, the ECA supported controversial changes to the Champions League which made fewer places available in the lucrative group stage for clubs from the smaller European leagues.

On Monday, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin told the ECA that the rich-poor divide was the biggest issue facing European football.

As always C/D as always.

They Were The Best Years of Our Lives
BECKY TALLENTIRE 05/09/2017 26 COMMENTS [Jump to last] SHARE:

Real Footballers' Wives – Norma Vernon
Vernon wedding day
There were little benches behind the goals for the kids at Ewood Park in those days and my sister and me would sit over the wall and watch the game. With my Dad being a market trader, we didn’t get to go very often, but when we did, we really enjoyed it.

Blackburn was a huge, bustling market town back then and one of the biggest events of the year was the Easter Fair. The fairground was set up right in the town centre on the square; it was so exciting and the whole town would turn out to go on the rides. I was 17 and went with my friend Marion. Roy was with his friend Pete; they spotted us, made their way over and paid for us to go on the speedway. What struck me about Roy was his confidence; he was by far the most confident boy I’d ever met in my life.

I didn’t realise it at the time, but Roy had seen me before. I’d left school a year earlier and started work in the offices at the Gas Board where I was trying to learn shorthand typing. He was in the youth team at Rovers but was sent to technical college because he still had to finish his education. His lodgings were in Darwen - a bit further on from where I lived, so we used to catch the same bus home.

He came from a little Welsh mining town called Ffynnongroew and went home to see his family for the close season but we met again in the September at King George’s dance hall - everybody went there on a Saturday evening. I think it was the day he made his debut for Blackburn’s first team and he came up and asked me to dance. When the dance was over, he just kept hold of my hand. As far as he was concerned, I was his girlfriend and that was that. He never really let go of me again.

My parents were market traders doing house clearances and selling antiques, and they brought my sister and I up to be very independent and to learn about life as we went along. They worked hard and thought that sending us to a decent school would make up for the time they didn’t have to spend with us. I was five and my sister, Liz, was seven when we started at the Catholic convent and we stayed until we were 16. Our parents were very quiet people and were happy with anybody we brought home as long as they were decent and respectable.

Roy had four sisters and he was his mum’s pride and joy. She didn’t want us to get married because he wasn’t 21 until the April and it meant she would have to sign for him. I got on well with her so it wasn’t that she disapproved or didn’t like me but she’d been the same with her daughters, she just had a thing about signing them away. It was only a matter of two months, so it was a bit strange, but she refused point blank and his father had to give his permission instead.

Roy was Church of England, which didn’t help matters, but he was taking instruction so he could change religion. The parish priest was a Rovers supporter so every time he went for his lessons they just ended up talking about the match, and by the time he was supposed to have learned all his religious instruction, he hadn’t done anything at all. The priest asked if he really wanted to become a Catholic or if he was just doing it so he could marry me. Roy confessed and the priest just said, “Then be a good man in your own religion”, and that was it.

It was a bitterly cold day when we got married in February 1958. It was a Monday because it was during the season but, as fate would have it, Rovers had drawn in a Cup game on the Saturday so the replay was on the Wednesday night and he had to be back at training the next day.

Liz and two of Roy’s sisters were our bridesmaids, my brother was our best man and one of Roy’s best friends was an usher. His parents came up from Wales and we had a big white wedding and our reception in the High Lawn Hotel in Darwen, Blackburn. All the press came because Roy was an established player by then. It didn’t bother me but my father was very apprehensive because he was so shy and quiet so I felt quite sorry for him. My mum took things in her stride, but Dad didn’t like a fuss.

We went to Blackpool for our honeymoon and stayed overnight at the Butlins Metropole hotel. We didn’t have a car so we got the train back on the Tuesday morning and Roy went off to the training ground.

Rovers were playing Wolverhampton the day my first boy, Mark, was born in January 1959. Because it wasn’t very far away, the team usually travelled on the Saturday morning, but the forecast was for fog and they decided they would have to go the night before and stay over. The baby was overdue so I went to my mum’s and, of course, I went into labour. Roy rang at lunchtime and I’d left instructions to tell him I’d gone shopping. I didn’t want him to know I’d gone into hospital in case he worried and it distracted him from his game. I needn’t have bothered because they got beat 5-0 that day.

He got home from the Midlands at about 11 o clock and went straight to my sister’s to pick me up but I’d already had the baby and was in hospital. He was annoyed with me for not telling him because he’d got off the bus early and had to walk home and he didn’t even have anybody to share his news with.

The manager at Rovers was Johnny Carey and he said Blackburn should never part with Roy. When Johnny moved to Everton, he went back and got him. I think Everton had rejected Roy when he was a schoolboy because he was so small and slight, but he grew taller when he was about 15. He was very wiry and muscular, and stood about 5ft-10in but he looked taller because he was so slim and strong. He was like whipcord.

When we moved to Everton we lived in a three-bedroom semi-detached in Ridgeway Drive in Lydiate. Bert Slater, the Liverpool goalkeeper, lived across the road and Ron Yeats, the Liverpool captain, was around the corner so we were surrounded by good friends and had a great support network. It wasn’t too bad for me because I was quite close to Blackburn, so if Roy went away for any long spells I would go home to my parents. I never used to ask if I could go, I would just announce that I’d be there the next day and mum took it all in her stride although she had four foster children at the time.

Everton were always good to us. Blackburn was only a small club and Everton was enormous in comparison. The first Christmas, Roy came home with a hamper full of goodies, a turkey, mince pies and a Christmas pudding and inside the hamper was a Stratton powder compact for me. It was a lovely surprise.

I remember Roy phoning me up when they’d gone to Honolulu on a tour and I was in tears on the phone because I was pregnant and a bit weepy. He said: ‘There’s no point in me ringing if you’re going to cry.’ I used to miss him so much when he was away but I think it was my hormones making me upset.

He had a sardonic sense of humour; he had a quick tongue and was very temperamental and feisty. If we ever had a row it was quickly over, I always knew he didn’t mean it and that it was just his ‘Welsh’ way. He would be making me laugh the very next minute.

My second son, Neil, was born in October 1960. I was due and Roy was playing for Wales in Cardiff. He didn’t want me to be on my own so he arranged for me to stay overnight with another player, Micky Lill and his wife Paddy. Jimmy Gabriel was a lodger with them and he was away playing for Scotland at the same time. They travelled back overnight and got home in the early hours. Roy got into bed and a little while later I felt the first twinges. I woke him up and told him the baby was starting, he said, “Could you not just have another couple of hours sleep? I’m shattered.” He didn’t panic at all.

We got up and Jimmy was there, grinning all over his face. He was so excited because he was going to be the godfather. Paddy and Micky Lill were great; they looked after Mark for me while I went in. Mark was only 20 months old at that time. When you’ve got no relatives nearby it’s quite isolated, but football communities all rally round and help each other.

I was so happy when Jimmy met Pat; they were so well suited. She was a Liverpool girl and she met Jimmy on a blind date through another team-mate, Bobby Collins. We went to their wedding and they’re still together to this day.

Nancy Young was my best friend. They were in a hotel when they first arrived so when Alex and Roy went training she would come round and help me look after the boys. She always said I couldn’t cook very well and we would survive on tomato soup or egg on toast. I was only married 11 months before I had Mark and I was pregnant with Neil when we moved to Lydiate so it was all very sudden and I had to learn quickly.

My boys were mischievous, they used to call the eldest one ‘Fingers’ because he had a really inquiring mind; he had to know how everything worked. I remember him letting Ron Yeats’s tyres down once on a match day. My boys could be a bit of a handful at times.

I went to most of the games to watch Roy play, especially at Goodison Park. I think Wolverhampton beat Everton 2-0 on his debut but I remember Johnny Carey telling me how pleased he was with Roy’s performance. We didn’t get any special treatment as wives, but we did get a ticket for the match. We would stand outside in the street like everybody else waiting until we could go in though.

I was fortunate that I had brilliant neighbours and babysitters. I was so grateful about that. The people next door were absolutely great and we had a good friendship. My babysitter lived round the corner and I would take the boys there on a Saturday lunchtime so I could go to the game and she would bring them back on Sunday morning. Her name was Mrs Johnson but we called her Aunty Ann.

Saturday nights out were our big treat and we’d all go to the Royal Tiger Club or the Pink Parrot, but the Tiger Club was our favourite. It was during The Beatles heyday so it was all ‘Twist and Shout’ and the Merseybeat sound. I wasn’t used to going to nightclubs and one of the first times we went it was about 11 o clock at night and everybody started panicking and running around. We were downstairs and there was a right old commotion. I thought it was some kind of a raid like in the films, but it was because somebody’s wife had turned up and her husband was in there with his girlfriend, so they had to usher this woman out.

Because Roy was the Everton captain I was once asked to open a table at a casino. Roy told them it was a bad idea because I’ve got no coordination – I’m left handed so when I threw the dice, one of them went up in the air and the other one went somewhere else. I think they’re still looking for it now.

Roy wasn’t superstitious at all, he was super-confident. He had his own way of doing things and his own mind. One of his sayings was, ‘You eat to live; you don’t live to eat’. He didn’t have a big appetite and he smoked like a trooper so I don’t suppose that helped but what he ate was good food. He’d have steak and egg or boiled ham and tomato and some nice bread. He was a meat eater but he only ate dainty little portions. If you put a huge plateful of food in front of him it would overwhelm him and put him off. He was naturally slim and slightly built but he was a hard worker; he trained really hard and he was as tough as old boots.

He was the only man who could smoke in the shower. He would sit in the bath washing his hair and have a cigarette in his mouth and it never got wet — I don’t know how he did it. I think his smoking was a nervous thing really; he didn’t even seem to inhale he just puffed away. He would even have a cigarette in his hand as he ran down the tunnel and stub it out just before he got on the pitch.

I’ve got a lot of photographs of him and he always seemed to be holding a cigarette. Even when we won the League in 1963 and he was getting presented with his medal he had one, so I imagine he had it secreted on his person, unless one of the fans had given it to him on the way up to the balcony.

That was the best day ever and the best night too. The last match to clinch the title was against Fulham and Roy scored a hat-trick. It was the proudest moment of my life. For Roy to get three and to captain the team was just beyond belief. It was the absolute pinnacle of his career.

As a special treat the Club took us all away for a fortnight in Torremolinos. It was almost unheard of to go to Spain back then and we felt so sophisticated. The hotel had just been built so there wasn’t much to do beside lounge by the pool in the sun and eat nice food. There was a lot of building going on around us; the tourist industry was in its very early stages then. Alec Parker’s wife, Jean, fell into an empty fountain and broke her leg so she was in plaster the whole time and that was right at the start of the holiday. And my suitcase got lost somewhere for the first two days — all the girls were in their swimsuits and I was wearing a dress! It was a beautiful hotel and we felt so privileged; we had the time of our lives.
Roy was mad about horse racing. He would go to the races with Alex Young and when the Grand National was on we used to end up with all kinds of stable lads coming to stay with us. I didn’t appreciate it very much at the time but that’s the kind of man Roy was. I laugh about it now when I think back.

We were very naïve us wives — we were so young and innocent, they would often be at the races when we thought they were training. Roy and Alex were ‘men’s men’; they liked that kind of companionship of the match and the horses. I’ve got a photograph of them both judging the Miss New Brighton beauty pageant. The girls are like beauty queens used to be, so glamorous in their one-piece swimsuits and Roy is so dark and broody while Alex is so fair — they were like chalk and cheese. They got on really well on and off the pitch and were great friends.

The players were often taken away on ‘special-training weekends’, which I think were just authorised drinking and bonding sessions. It didn’t bother me too much because it was part of the job and if I did mind, I just had to get over it. I don’t think any wives like to think of their men going away especially of you’ve got kids, but the perks of the job made up for that.

I always had lovely clothes although I’m only 5ft tall so I could never buy anything off the peg. I would always have to have it altered. Roy would take me shopping in Blackpool and he liked me to dress nicely. I always had to have my hair done at the hairdressers. I remember doing it myself once and I came downstairs feeling quite proud of my creation. I asked Roy what he thought and he said, “Nice try, love, now go and book an appointment.” He liked me to look nice, I think all the lads took pride in their wives appearance.

We’d moved to Stoke when my youngest son came along. It was July 1969 and Roy was away in America with the club. Maurice Setters’s wife Kathy came and sat with me every single day so I wasn’t alone and she was dying for the baby to be born. I was so overdue that she had to go on holiday and of course I went into labour almost immediately. Young Roy was born in the old North Staffordshire Hospital. One of the staff said if I’d have waited another month I could have gone to the new hospital instead.

Roy didn’t make it to an FA Cup final. He left Blackburn and they made it to Wembley, he left Everton and they won the Cup and then he went to Stoke and after he left, they won the League Cup final. He played in the early rounds but it was never his destiny. All he won was his Everton Championship medal in 1962-3 and 32 Wales caps.

There was nothing I disliked about being a footballer’s wife. We didn’t get pestered that often and the people who did come and see us were usually very nice. I didn’t like it when I was sitting in the stand watching the game and I would hear the fans shouting bad things at the lads... “Ooh, he’s a dirty devil”, or “He’s always like that.” I don’t think they knew who we were, but it used to irritate me because I always thought Roy was a
fantastic player and I wanted to leap to his defence.

None of my boys play football; they say they inherited my genes when it comes to co-ordination. Mark likes motorbikes, Neil plays golf and Roy likes to watch Rovers when he can, but he’s in the retail trade so he’s at work most Saturdays. They all blame me for their lack of sporting ability — but maybe it will skip a generation or two.

I lost Roy in December 1993. His smoking finally caught up with him and he died of lung cancer. They’d found a tumour a couple of years earlier, so he had one lung removed and really believed he was getting better. I knew he wasn’t because the doctors had told me, but I didn’t want Roy to know. He asked if there was something I wasn’t telling him and I said ‘no’. He told me that football had given him the best life he could ever have hoped for. He was from a mining village and by tradition he would have worked down the pit like his friends and his family. Instead he’d travelled, been to some of the most amazing cities in the world, made a good living and met some of the finest people. We had one last holiday together in Spain. Neither of us said a word but we both knew. He was 56 when I lost him. Jimmy Gabriel was the caretaker manager of Everton then and he came to the funeral with Colin Harvey, Nancy and Alex Young. Alec Parker and Fred Pickering were there too. It was a good turnout, he’d have been so proud.

I’ve got six grandchildren and one great grandchild: they range from 27 to 1 but there’s only one boy. When my little granddaughter was at primary school she had to do an essay about what made her proud. She wrote how her granddad had been a footballer. Jimmy Gabriel sent her the most marvellous letter praising Roy and saying how he was the best footballer he’d ever played with. She was only about 10 at the time and I was so happy.

Roy’s memorabilia is in the Legends Bar at Goodison Park and I was invited over to the opening and another time one New Year. I took my son and his wife and we met Joe Royle, had something to eat there and went on a tour around the stadium. We had a lovely day.

I live back in Blackburn now and after Roy died I started going to Ewood Park again to watch Blackburn with my daughter-in-law for something to do and to give me an interest, but then my grandchildren started getting interested in ponies so they’re down at the farm every weekend now. My son has a business and they have a few season tickets for the clients, so I still go occasionally if they’re not being used.

I always look out for Everton’s results and when they were struggling the other year and fighting relegation I was as anxious as anybody. When you’ve been there five years, there’s a great bond. We both loved every minute of being at Everton; I suppose they were the best years of our lives. The people were brilliant, we had fantastic neighbours and made great friends. If Roy was here now he would say exactly the same.



Different World, one of the comments sums it up :0)


Terrific as ever.
Interesting from an Everton perspective and fascinating from a general historical/social perspective.

I sometimes gloss over sections that include none glamorous football stuff, but then I remember, back then, these none glamorous events (babies, travel, moving house etc) without cars, mobiles, computers etc were massively time consuming and loads more complicated/difficult

Also funny how wives back then tended to be a lot less... um... 'knowing' about things.

I'm not for a moment suggesting anything untoward ever took place, but when the boys were 'judging Miss New Brighton' – must have been nice for them knowing they weren't being filmed and photographed every minute.

Young Wayne might have out-earned them a gazillion trillion times over but (as we've just seen) he can't have a shite without a team of Sun 'reporters' getting pics, interviews and producing a 12-page pullout on it.

I remember Roy. A skinny no 10 but was pacy and could crack a ball. Deadly penalty taker. In those days the ball was as heavy as a medicine ball when it got wet. He played for Wales. As I remember, he played alongside Alex Young at no 9, Brian Labone at centre half and Jimmy (Angel) Gabriel at no 4.
Reading that makes me feel my age.

How do you work out I'm defending Coleman ? Coleman is the useless idiot who keeps picking Vokes when I say he shouldn't be in the team.

Another great example last night was Coleman leaving Woodburn out even though he changed the game when he came on last Saturday and it was the same when he came on last night. Vokes came on too and missed a sitter ... there's a surprise.

I hope you get Coleman as your next manager Stan.

Aye, iturama me too. August 1963 I inherited my Dad's season ticket Bullens Road age 9, can't remember if it was upper or lower stand though :0)

Volks came on (at last) and took two defenders away enabling Kanu to score..so get your facts right Dil.

I graduated from the boys pens to the Bullens Road. But in the standing, terrace area. I still have it in my minds eye, Vernon running on the shoulder of the defender, waiting for the through ball from the likes of golden Alex...

Roy Vernon, one of my dad's favourites in the 60s.

Vokes was totally irrelevant concerning the goal , the match and the whole WC campaign.

Our supporters have had a bigger influence than him.

Just shows how little you know about the game.. stick to the game with the banana shaped ball in future old son 😂

Wish someone had said that to Vokes when he was a kid :-)

Joking aside if Volks can be managed to his strengths along side this new kid from Liverpool (assuming he is not a flash in the pan) then you might be very surprised. Volks does a lot of unseen work off the ball that the average fan won't appreciate.

Volks looked a bit of a lumbering lump when Howe first signed him but handled properly or as we say "Dyche style" then he could be a very very effective player for you.

'Herbie' WILL play for the blues on Saturday.


Rooney will play despite manager's disappointmment
Thursday 7 September 2017 15 Comments [Jump to last]
Ronald Koeman says he is "very disappointed" in Wayne Rooney following the player's arrest for drink driving, but Rooney will feature against Tottenham on Saturday.

Ronald Koeman has said he is “very disappointed” at Wayne Rooney's over the 31-year-old's drink-driving charge and that the player will be “dealt with internally at the appropriate time”.

However, Everton's manager confirmed Rooney would play against Tottenham on Saturday.

Koeman, reading from a prepared statement at the start of his pre-match press conference, said: “I am very disappointed. In line with any disciplinary matter, this will be dealt with internally by the club at the appropriate time.”

Rooney was charged with drink-driving by Cheshire Police on 1 September after being stopped in the early hours of the same day. He was released on bail and is due to appear at Stockport magistrates court on 18 September.

Ronald Koeman also talked breifly about meeting with Ross Barkley on Tuesday to discuss the midfielder's failed move to Chelsea.

"Ross also came to see me on Tuesday and he explained to me why he turned down (the chance) to go to Chelsea," said the Everton manager.

"That is a private talk with Ross and I am not the right man to explain to you about his decision or the reason for that decision.

"He was open to make a move to another club and from what I heard from the board, there was an agreement between Chelsea and Everton.

"But finally the decision was by the player and that is what happened at that time."

Asked whether his Everton career was over Koeman added: "No, he is still an Everton player and he has a contract until the end of this season.

"At this time he is injured and it will take another two to two-and-a-half months until he is available.

"I don't have to take a decision [now], I can wait to see what happens and then we will see what the decision will be at that time."

Stan , Coleman is clueless so fat chance of playing to anyone's strengths. It's usually a straight pick between Vokes and Robson-Kanu to lead the line and I would always pick the latter.

If Coleman had any balls then against weaker teams he would pick both and chuck Bale in there with them and launch ball after ball into the box. Instead we try to play like Barcelona and walk the ball through teams and we haven't got the class of player to play like that.

Championship manager of the month Warnock (Cardiff City).

Championship player of the month Mendez-Laing (Cardiff City).

Next 8 games are the toughest run of games we will face all season starting with Fulham away tomorrow. I'd take a draw , probably best footballing team we faced last season.

Deja vu - see post 5780

Kicked off - Tottenham dominated - Rooney deservedly booked again (now he's not wearing a Man U shirt) - Tottenham won

End of

Becoming a habit

Stoke 2-2 Man Utd

MU struggled a bit against Stoke and spoilt their clean sheet on opposition goals.

At the time, I didn't quite get why Mourinho wouldn't/didn't shake the Stoke manager's hand at the end of the game and yet did shake with all the rest of their management team.

Woeful Blues make a mockery of top-six ambitions
BY LYNDON LLOYD 10/09/2017 21 COMMENTS [Jump to last] SHARE:

EVERTON 0 - 3 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR

It was only a few weeks ago that Everton’s impressive transfer business was being heralded by a usually ambivalent national media and the Blues were being talked about in terms of being genuine top-four contenders.

The return of Wayne Rooney, admittedly past the peak of his powers but a world-famous name nonetheless, gave the show of ambition an added layer of legitimacy and Evertonians waited for the two or three additions to the squad that would top of an excellent transfer window.

Those signings never came, of course. Romelu Lukaku, the source of football’s most important currency — goals — departed for huge money but wasn’t replaced; 32-year-old Leighton Baines (not to mention the rest of a defence boasting a 35-year-old Phil Jagielka and Ashley Williams, also 32) was left without cover; and if there was any desire on the part of the management to add pace and/or genuine creativity to the side, there was precious little evidence of it.

The product of this largely one-dimensional approach to recruitment this summer has been Everton’s uninspiring start to the new season, one which has, over the past two games, lurched from concerning into the realm of deeply demoralising.

Worse, the team looks like a collection of acquired individuals bereft of a plan, an identity, or any consistent attacking threat which means that when the wheels come off defensively you get the kind of humbling Everton suffered today at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur.

Seldom, if ever in the Premier League era, has a Spurs side enjoyed such an easy ride at Goodison Park, a venue that had become a veritable fortress for Ronald Koeman’s side since the turn of the year. By the same token, it’s hard to recall the Blues so lacking in desire or spirit in a home game against highly-fancied opposition in recent years other than the 3-0 reverse against Chelsea at the tail end of last season, the only defeat at Goodison in 2017 before today.

For the first time in the league this season Koeman abandoned the five-man defensive line he had been using, perhaps to keep one of his experienced centre halves in reserve with an eye on the upcoming trip to Italy in the Europa League or perhaps because he identified something in Tottenham’s makeup that was better tackled with a flat back four.

Cuco Martina made his first Premier League start in an Everton jersey — many will hope, probably in vain, that it’s his last — while Davy Klaassen and Morgan Schneiderlin returned to the side and Sandro Ramirez was preferred to Dominic Calvert-Lewin alongside Rooney in attack.

The opening exchanges didn’t offer much hint of the debacle to follow from the home side as Rooney and Martina combined well down the right and the latter found Sandro in the middle but the Spaniard couldn’t guide the ball on goal from a difficult position.

Gylfi Sigurdsson, making his Goodison debut, had a couple of early but unproductive set-piece opportunities, Williams was booked for pulling Harry Kane back while both Eric Dier and Christian Eriksen escaped yellow cards from erratic referee Graham Scott shortly afterwards.

The warning signs for the Blues came before the match was a quarter of an hour old. Twice Ben Davies took advantage of far too much space afforded him by Martina to whip in dangerous crosses from the Spurs right. Dele Alli chested down the first and teed up Eriksen but the Dane hooked a first-time effort uncharacteristically wide; the second fell to Moussa Sissoko whose goal-bound effort was blocked well by Williams

The opening goal would come from the other flank, though, and in annoyingly unfortunate circumstances. A corner on side eventually ended up on the Tottenham right where Kane tried to swing in a cross but ended up drifting his centre over Jordan Pickford and under the crossbar to make it 1-0 with 27 minutes gone.

Sandro saw one snapshot at the other end cannon off Toby Alderweireld’s head from close range after good work by Rooney but it was a rare opening for Everton that was swiftly followed by a second goal for the visitors.

Sucked into his six-yard box, Martina waved a leg at a cross that had been flighted over everybody in the middle which left Davies in space to force Pickford into a save but he could only push it out to Eriksen who converted the rebound from close range.

Alli should have buried Everton in stoppage time but, completely unmarked in the middle, he mis-kicked yet another delivery from wide on Tottenham’s left before Martina gifted the ball to Kane and the striker dragged his shot wide.

Kane made no mistake less than a minute into the second half, though. Laying the ball out to Davies with Martina badly exposed again, he continued his run untracked by Schneiderlin and calmly side-footed a first-time finish past Pickford to make it 3-0.

That goal ripped up whatever plan Koeman had had for the second period having thrown on Tom Davies and Calvert-Lewin for Klaassen and Sandro and for the next 20 minutes, all the chances were created by Spurs.

Kane and Eriksen combined impressively in the 53rd minute for the latter to volley towards the far corner but Pickford was equal to it. They carved their hosts open again a minute later but Alli’s attempted cross came off Schneiderlin’s heel and Pickford saved again to deny Kane.

Sissoko then tried to get in on the act as Kieran Trippier picked him out in a laughable amount of space in the middle but he made a hash of the free header which went well wide.

Lloris nearly made it mildly interesting by tying himself into all sorts of knots trying to play it out from the back and passed it straight to Idrissa Gueye but the Senegal international failed to bother his goal with a first-time shot aiming for the empty net.

Everton sputtered into a bit of life too late in the proceedings as the game ticked through the last 10 minutes after Nikola Vlasic had come on for his debut following his deadline-day move from Hajduk Split. It was a cameo that featured some neat touches and confident running that ensured he would walk off at the end as one of a very small number of Blues players to emerge with any credit from a pitiful performance.

Meanwhile, Baines despatched a fine cross to Rooney that the veteran air-kicked badly and both Calvert-Lewin and Sigurdsson had shots charged down before Rooney headed disappointingly over. In the final reckoning, Everton had just one shot on target and failed to trouble Lloris with a shot all game… as damning a statistic as you can imagine for a team supposedly challenging today’s opponents for a place in the top four.

Let’s get the supposedly mitigating circumstances out the way first. Yes, this is a team featuring a number of new faces, some of them who are new to the Premier League, who will take time to bed in and gel. And, yes, Everton were handed a brutal start to the new league season — few fans were wild with expectation over the number of points that might be gleaned from a run of games against four of last season’s top six in the first five fixtures.

It’s not the fact that we have picked up a solitary point from those difficult games so far that is the problem, however. It’s how poor, how toothless and how utterly directionless they have looked in all but the game at Manchester City when there at least appeared to be a game plan and they wanted to have a go. Two shots on target in that match, zero at Chelsea and just one today… obviously you can’t hope to win football matches like that.

Koeman, a man steeped in the Total Football of Holland’s finest era and a Barcelona legend in his own right, is presiding over some awful yard-dog football that is, on the evidence of today, marrying the worst elements of his three predecessors’ reigns: the striker-less days of Walter Smith, the defensive and cowing disposition of some of David Moyes’s teams, and the spineless and defensively shambolic performances in the worst days under Roberto Martinez.

Tactically, he looks to be a novice despite his lengthy CV. His team has no width, no pace, no creativity and too many like-minded players stuffed into the same line-up. Sigurdsson, deployed out on the left, might as well have sat on the bench and only come on to take set-pieces such was has anonymity on the day. Klaassen, clearly an intelligent player who could be a great asset in a functioning team, played a similar role to the Icelandic international but offered little when the side was crying out for a consistent link between midfield and attack.

So, too, Gueye and Schneiderlin — the Frenchman was abysmal, it has to be said — who perform the same disruptive function in front of the back four but leave Everton short when defence turns to attack. That left Sandro once again chasing lost causes, not helped by Rooney’s lacklustre (bordering on disinterested) distribution in forward areas, and Martina to take the wooden spoon as a glaringly ill-considered addition to a supposedly top-seven team full stop, let alone a starter ahead of Mason Holgate who, playing as a makeshift fullback, at least has the positional awareness to do it justice even if it’s clearly not his best position. Moreover, it’s hard to see how even an inexperienced Jonjoe Kenny could have been any worse.

If those early forays into Europe could be chalked up to pre-season rustiness and a lack of peak fitness, what can explain away the abject displays at Stamford Bridge and at Goodison this afternoon? Performances characterised by aimless hit-and-hope fare that was epitomised by the kick-off to the second half: Everton restarted the match with a backwards pass and a hopeful punt forward to a hopelessly out-matched Rooney and less than 60 seconds later, Tottenham scored their third. School of Science it most definitely wasn’t.

Everton under Koeman have no answer to the high press, they go backwards far too often and they have no focal point up front which means the ball keeps coming back. Again, this isn’t just a question of us having played last season’s top three and lost; we look lost at the moment and it’s difficult to see where the progress has been made with an outlay of £140m on new players.

There is plenty of time, of course, and it was only a few short months ago that this looked like an Everton team that could go places if it could just work out how to win away from home. Time for the manager to really earn his abundant corn and figure out a way to get his side playing basic football again or this is going to be a very long, frustrating season.

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Reader Comments (21)
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Mick Quirke
1 Posted 10/09/2017 at 08:14:31 Pretty damning that, Lyndon. We have to start picking up points quickly and deliver in the Europa League or the mood's gonna turn nasty.
And not just for Koeman. Lots of talk of £140 million but it was very little in net terms and would have been practically nothing if Barkley had gone to Chelsea.

We'd known Lukaku was leaving well before the end of last season and no-one came in. Was Giroud our only real option?

And the lack of pace! All top teams have pace to burn. Without Coutinho, it's all the Shite have, but it can be devastating. If our game plan against the top teams is principally to contain, how can you get any respite if you have no pace on the counter?

Two big games coming up and it's difficult to see us getting anything at Old Trafford.

David Johnson
2 Posted 10/09/2017 at 08:44:03 Most on here would have settled for a top half finish last season. We did a bit better than that and got seventh. We actually have a decent defence when pitted against the sides who finished below us, but age and a real lack of pace at the back is absolutely exploited by the top managers in the land time after time. The side Koeman inherited needed a huge overhaul and we shouldn't forget that. Some of his comments thus far seem to suggest that he was probably promised more than has been delivered in this respect. Would he have spread the signings more evenly throughout the team if he'd known or should he have known by now so is himself culpable, who knows. This is Everton after all and nothing is ever as it seems. There's been lots of talk about breaking the top 4/6 and transfer war chests and stadiums. Think we're probably all a bit more realistic this morning. If the project exists it is to develop youth so I expect we'll need a bit of patience.
Mike Davies
3 Posted 10/09/2017 at 08:57:53 Damning and mirrors my thoughts exactly. I can accept losing, even by a greater margin than against Spurs, if there were signs of progress, development or some kind of plan.
No width, no pace, all 5 midfielders are of 2 sorts: destructive, holding, defensive players with limited creativity, or slow No10s who need space and time to create, and in this team are rarely afforded either.

Due to the formation Gylfi is pushed out wide, which for me is the main reason why he failed at Spurs. He's a number 10!

I understand using Holgate (a centre back) at right back if we are going with a more defensive approach but surely if we are looking at using the full backs as an attacking outlet, Kenny is a better option for numerous reasons than Martina?

I hope there is a plan that our very well paid, vastly experienced manager is developing, and that as just a fan with no football qualifications, I just can't see it.

Tony Marsh
4 Posted 10/09/2017 at 08:57:55 Those of us who have watched Everton for a long time know the signs. We can smell the bullshit from the board and just instinctively know when a manager has lost it or just doesn't have it.
We have been brought up on disappointent and I'm afraid we are witnessing another David Moyes scenario but a lot earlier in Koemans tenure than even I thought possible. Koeman is a dead man walking.Well he would be at another club.

We are terrible. Koeman's signings and tactics are shocking. It's so painful to watch.

SOS Big Sam is all we can do right now to stave off a relegation scrap. Seriously, that's how serious this is.

Mark Hughes made not just one but two unsuccessful attempts to shake hands with Jose Mourinho after this spiky encounter on Saturday – even pursing the Manchester United manager to the dressing room, it has been revealed.

United had let it be known the initial snub had occurred because the Stoke manager had shoved his counterpart in the chest, before swearing at him and calling for his dismissal. Mourinho even walked out of a TV interview when asked for more details.

On Sunday, Stoke said that Hughes had later attempted a reconciliation outside the United dressing room. This second attempted handshake was again rebuffed.

Hughes is fiery but a man. Mourinho is moody and a tart.