A warm hello once again to all Everton fans â for those who donât know me itâs a Royals fan 100% in peace, and I represent Readingâs âRoyals Rendezvousâ. It would be really interesting for us to have any general comments from you, like how you see the game going and general thoughts on your own team, and your (honest!) opinion of Reading. Trust me, our members love to hear what other fans have to say ⦠These simple following ideas might be used as a very basic guide in case youâd like to write to something slightly longer, but donât feel you need to answer a âshopping listâ because any (sociable!) comments are equally welcome ... A] How is your squad developing this season, which are the success stories, and what did you make of the winter transfer window this time around? B] Many had yourselves down as dark horses to break the monopoly of the usual front runners. Whilst itâs been a most solid season, a champions league place is probably just a small step too far with less than a dozen games to go, so how are your predictions as to Evertonâs final placing? â and who thinks a top four slot is a fair bet on the cards next season or the following one? C] How strong do you see the premier teams around generally, for example Iâm sure youâre glad to be sitting above neighbours Liverpool, WBA fairly consistent all season, and Swansea moving up a bit ... and err ... how much hope is there for the Royals considering our recent improvement but nose-dive last couple of games - please give honest answers, Iâm not expecting them to be particularly positive!! Just a word on âRoyals Rendezvousâ - weâve always prided ourselves on large and in-depth match presentations, which largely feature on the team we are playing and not on ourselves. I hope you might all enjoy browsing it this week â http://royalsrendezv...topic/9831894/1 We go to a lot of detail! Many thanks, hereâs to a good game! Any questions from yourselves, just get back on this thread ... daib0/David
Some of the squad are looking a bit tired unfortunately, Pienaar and Osman are the two that immediately come to mind. As, for all his qualities, Moyes has a serious inability to rotate and trust his fringe players which is the reason for the fatigue in the squad and thus contributing to the recent decline in form. That isn't the only reason but it's probably one of the main factors. Coleman has looked very good at right back this season but unfortunately his season has been hindered by injury. He's come back in the last two games though and shown us what we've been missing down that right hand side over the years linking up with Mirallas who has also struggled to shake of an injury. Victor Anichebe has 6 goals and 7 assists in 20 appearances (14 starts) this season which is a plus as his whole career has been halted by injuries. Lastly, Sylvain Distin has also stepped up his form and shown he is a top class Centre Back despite his age. The calamitous transfer window is also a reason for our decline since the turn of the year. We were close to signing Leroy Fer only for a medical to show he might have injury problems in the future so we tried to restructure to initial deal to no avail. On the last day there was talk of Negredo which was never going to happen and we spent £3m on a 19 year old right back from Barnsley instead. Exciting. I think at the start of the season that many Everton fans just wanted to get back into Europe and obviously hopefully grab a bit of silverware to as we do every season. It's been a few years since we've been in Europe so the Europa League next year would be an step in the right direction. There is disappointment that we've dropped off from the top 4 running because most of it has been our own fault but I don't think we'd have been able to displace Chelsea or Tottenham (Bale) anyway. I don't think it's possible to make any predictions on next season. Fellaini will probably be gone and although he's a brilliant footballer, I don't think he'd be too much of a miss. Baines could leave but I can't see him leaving in a million years. The managerial position is precarious too. There's too many "if this" "if that" situations at the moment. There's no surprise that the likes of West Brom and Swansea are doing well as they're well run clubs with a plan in place for the future, and the same of Southampton to yet the likes of QPR and Villa are a catastrophe at the moment with one spending too much whilst the other is happy to pick up the relegation money. I don't think I could say whether the league is any stronger or weaker. It's certainly more entertaining though. Well maybe not for Reading fans. Can't say I've seen a lot of Reading recently to be honest. Obviously Le Fondre has been in decent goal scoring form but I think that has papered over the cracks a little and Jimmy Kebe has done well lately too. You'd been turning a lot of games on their head so I thought you had turned a corner but the defeat at the weekend, in such an important game was a bit of an eye opener. I did think you'd stay up this season but the only teams I think are worse than you are QPR and Villa. Wigan are probably on par despite the weekend match but they usually start playing like Barcelona around now so it'll be tough for you. I was looking at some stats yesterday and saw Jobi McAnuff has 7 assists this season and no goals so perhaps if he starts scoring some your season can be rescued. I'm glad to see that Pobgrebnyak is suspended for this as although he got you 3 points against us, I don't think Le Fondre is as good when he starts. I'm expecting us to screw this up though so I'm going for 1-1, someone who hasn't scored all season for Reading and Pienaar on the score-sheet.
this is FANTASTIC, shogs, undoubtedly one of the replies of the season; just reinforces my view that we are treating with true football fans at Everton, above the petulance you sometimmes see on other boards. My hat off to you sir ...
Are you coming onto me daib0? Hope to see you in the match thread at some point tomorrow daib0, you're always welcome here
OK, will look in ... no whinging if (when) we lose - and certainly no gloating if (strangely) it went our way ...
