Everton Banter Archive June 24 2014

24 Jun 2014 19:04:54
Looks like the rat may have been at it again. If he has then FIFA really need to seriously look at his participation in football as a professional player. Absolute disgrace to the profession.

24 Jun 2014 14:46:16
. I see the Hammers are being linked with a 6 million pound move for Swanseas Michu. that seems a steal to me.the guy has immense goalscoring talent, is Spanish & would fit Bobby's footballing ethic perfectly for me. go get him Bobby.

The guys always injured we have enough players like that already.

This guy is shot. He has week ankles and will never replicate the season he had a year ago.

If Swansea get an offer of around 5 million for him I'd imagine he'd be sold. Which is a far cry from the 20 million people were talking a year ago.

We genuinely don't need to be sniffing around that player.

One season wonder for me

24 Jun 2014 18:16:39
Jury still has to be out on Michu. Talented player no doubt but, bar one great season, he seems to spend more time on the treatment table. Too much of a gamble imo

24 Jun 2014 13:12:00
is it good or bad Lukaku playing like a dick in the WC? My feelings are he lacks consistency and he is on the low ebb at the moment. I will be happy he goes to Atletico and we can get Bony. There are interested parties but he will be the main man at Everton with European football. Maybe Loic Remy if the bigger clubs take other options. Michu might be a shout if his injuries are sorted out.

You are absolutely right that he lacks consistency. But consider his age. He is 21 and still developing. Yes the others are options, but I would like us to be doing all we can to secure Lukaku. He is also likely to suffer less injuries due to his power and strength. Bony would be my 2nd choice.

24 Jun 2014 09:42:21
I'm not a professional football person, so I don't claim to have any insight based on having coaching qualifications or played the game at a high level, but - as an avid observer of the game - I have come to the following points of view over the years.
(1) Young players - up to the age of 18, but especially at the pre-teen and early-teens stage - spend too little time learning the basic skills or being coached to improve those skills. Instead, they play too many matches - with the pressure (especially from eager parents) to win, win, win - where it's obvious that the bigger, stronger lads (in their age group) will prevail and skills will be harder to develop. By the time the players are 16-18 many of them just don't have the basic skills.
(2) Then what happens in the professional game is that players between 18 and 23-ish aren't having their abilities tested in competitive football. It's either fairly meaningless U-21 (reserve) football or it's out on loan where they're not being coached within their own club's structure - although loans are currently preferable imho to U-21 football as it stands.
(3) This lack of homegrown talent means that foreign players - who are more skilled and tactically adept and who may not be as expensive (transfers and wages) - are brought into first teams (not just Premier League, but at all levels) and this prevents the homegrown players from getting opportunities. It then becomes a vicious circle.
(4) When was the last time that we had an England squad that genuinely had several world-class players who DELIVERED at an international tournament rather than flattered to deceive and went out - sometimes with a whimper, but always against opposition that were just better at playing the game than us? 1996 (Euro), 1990 (WC) and 1970 (WC) were close, but it's just 1966 (WC) when we had the likes of Banks, Wilson, Moore and Charlton (all world class imho) and others (Ball, Stiles, Peter's, Hurst, etc.) who did their jobs brilliantly for the team.
Anyone care to offer a viewpoint to cheer me up? :-(

Sid I agree with you. Since the introduction of the premier league IMO english players skill set have significantly deteriorated. IMO this is due to the influx of foreign players who were much cheaper than home grown British talent. This may start to re-address itself with foreign players regarding the Premier league as a cash cow and upping their costs. Sooner or later teams will realise that developing British talent is actually cheaper than continually buying overseas. What may really throw things into the mix is if the new football channel sky is starting drags armchair fans away from the PL this may then lead to other leagues geting more TV investment and the value of the PL dropping significantly. With TV revenue down the clubs will find it a lot harder to be profitable so will not be able to pay wages at the present rate and be less atractive to players. This may inadvertainly highlight the atractiveness of developing home grown talent. Hopefully this will encourage clubs to develop the coaching staff to deliver top quality technical coaching at the younger age groups.

Sid, I believe I am qualified to agree and embelish your comments. I was a pretty successful youth coach from ages 7 to 15. I did the FA level 1 coaching qualification and worked with a guy associated with WBA but mostly with Forest Green Rovers (not the top I know, but I came into contact with Premier teams etc). The F.A. have done great introducing leagues for youth levels and smaller pitches etc, but coaches are often parents and if not, were associated with the past game. more aggressive English game. So when they coach, they do it to win games with that being the priority above improving the players technically. Kids at 7 to 9 want to learn and are at their most important learning time. Time after time I have seen coaches telling defenders to boot it out (within this very important age group where the kids are most suited to learn ball skills.) Ok when the kids reach 15, they know they are in a physical game, but if they missed out at ages 7 - 9 learning the skills on how to cope under pressure, it is then too late for them to with the odd exceptional person. I rate John Stones as one of these. Anyway, look at our England defenders, then compare them with say David Luiz who just left Chelsea. Hansen, Lawrensen etc slag Luiz off, but he plays the ball far superior to any English C.B. My solution is to ban competitive games for under 10's. All these kids should be allowed to compete in mini leagues on the smaller pitches with smaller goals and reduced numbers, but there should be no league tables based on results. Tables could be based on performance judged by both managers and the ref. Skill and ability could feature highly. When the kids have been coached and judged on ability and skill, they will gain confidence on the ball and improve no end. All coaching should be based on this improvement of skill. I have seen this work and know that until kids mini leagues are changed to this system we will continue teaching kids in the wrong way. Proof? Brazil kids on the beach! Compare their skills to ours.

24 Jun 2014 22:04:38
Thanks to sa90 and Degsypulford for their constructive replies.