Rivals jealous or what

[QPRDave]

How did it all go wrong at Villa? He walked away from the club. And regardless of how much he spent at Villa, he made them a top 6 side. He certainly did well at Wycombe and Leicester with no money. O'Neill is a top manager, and very shrewd in the transfer market.

Cahill only scored 2 goals in PL last season, good business to move him on. They've still got some talented players in the side, and like you said he gets results with the team year in and year out.

He walked cause the backing wasn't there anymore, ....you missed out norwich btw. I'm not saying he isn't good but just wonder how much money he'll have, and how much that might affect his performance.
As i say how much longer can moyes keep this going.

[Greg1882]

Moyes is a fantastic manager who always seems to do well on a shoestring , take moyes away from everton and I genuinely think they would struggle . Moyes for united when fergie packs it all in IMHO

[Will M]

I believe that is underachieving we haven't got the squad to be hitting 14th place we have spent a large sum .ask your self this who has a better squad than us.
Man city
Man u
Scum
Liverpool
Arsenal
Newcastle
Spurs
In no particular order.
We are on par with everton maybe slightly less so we should be finishing around that mark.
That's just my outlook I would be happy with 14th but we would be underachieving.

What about 16th? So where do you see us finishing? So you think we should be 8th with our squad being so strong, but that's just where we should be I guess. So what's a good season for us then?

Take a look at our defence, compared to other PL defences, how would you rate it?

Most teams have yet to add to their squads, we have strengthened our squad early. I'd agree we are looking good, but you'd be foolish to so casually dismiss established Premier League teams.

[Will M]

He walked cause the backing wasn't there anymore, ....you missed out norwich btw. I'm not saying he isn't good but just wonder how much money he'll have, and how much that might affect his performance.
As i say how much longer can moyes keep this going.

He wasn't at Norwich long. Didn't seem worth mentioning, just like I left out Celtic even though he got them to a UEFA Cup final. I thought he left because the owner wanted to dismantle his team. Sparky left Fulham because he was frustrated by Al Fayed too. Who is the better manager Dave, O'Neill or Hughes?

Everton have a number of solid younger players coming through the ranks, I think Moyes will be fine for awhile yet to be honest.

[QprSinceBirth]

What about 16th? So where do you see us finishing? So you think we should be 8th with our squad being so strong, but that's just where we should be I guess. So what's a good season for us then?

Take a look at our defence, compared to other PL defences, how would you rate it?

Most teams have yet to add to their squads, we have strengthened our squad early. I'd agree we are looking good, but you'd be foolish to so casually dismiss established Premier League teams.

What is a good season for us ? Staying in the premier league but that is still underachieving .
Our defence? Nedum with fabio IMO is solid with traore as a back up if needed.ferdinand hill worked very well so how will Ferdinand and nelson work well we go on about Ferdinand needs a commanding cb then he is solid nelson is just that hopefully with the addition of another good cb that also looks strong.

Established premier league clubs? IMO it doesn't mean sod all because a club has been in the epl longer does not help its not all the players that are established it's the name of the club they don't play the football at the end of the day the team with the better players should win. Like man city .

[QPRDave]

I think they're pretty much the same Will to be fair, Mark has done fantastically well starting with Wales where he came within a whisker of getting them to a tournament, which is some achievement. He then took Blackburn from near the bottom to a top 10 side, turned the Fools into a top 10 side, building good solid teams at each club.His one small shadow on his CV was City but i don't think the new owners wanted him anyway, so not sure everything within was rosy.
Finally came in here to a club in disarray and saved us from probable relegation so i think he is on a par with MON, and they go head to head again this season.
I don't think it's a case of Everton firing DM, but maybe he gets fed up with no decent funding, and as i say getting Everton in the top 10 every year

[Will M]

What is a good season for us ? Staying in the premier league but that is still underachieving .
Our defence? Nedum with fabio IMO is solid with traore as a back up if needed.ferdinand hill worked very well so how will Ferdinand and nelson work well we go on about Ferdinand needs a commanding cb then he is solid nelson is just that hopefully with the addition of another good cb that also looks strong.

Established premier league clubs? IMO it doesn't mean sod all because a club has been in the epl longer does not help its not all the players that are established it's the name of the club they don't play the football at the end of the day the team with the better players should win. Like man city .

So if Premier League survival is underachieving, what's a good season I asked?

I also asked, how does our defence rate against the other PL teams? You said we have a stronger squad than them, doesn't that include the defence? How did our defence look in mid-week?

Established Premier League teams, I say this because they've kept their status year after year. Whereas currently, we have only finished 17th. Established as in knowing how to grind out results away from home. Why do you think Hughes bought in so many Premier League players with experience? Because we were naive last season, very naive. We lacked Premiership know how. But the point I was making was, you're underestimating other Premier League sides.

I'll ask one other question, if we lost Cisse for 3 months how do you think we'd fare?

[Will M]

I think they're pretty much the same Will to be fair, Mark has done fantastically well starting with Wales where he came within a whisker of getting them to a tournament, which is some achievement. He then took Blackburn from near the bottom to a top 10 side, turned the Fools into a top 10 side, building good solid teams at each club.His one small shadow on his CV was City but i don't think the new owners wanted him anyway, so not sure everything within was rosy.
Finally came in here to a club in disarray and saved us from probable relegation so i think he is on a par with MON, and they go head to head again this season.
I don't think it's a case of Everton firing DM, but maybe he gets fed up with no decent funding, and as i say getting Everton in the top 10 every year

Fair enough Dave, personally the things Martin O'Neill has achieved I'd put him above Hughes. Although that's not to say Hughes isn't a good manager, and I'm very happy to have him here. I'm just worried about the expectation being placed on the team and Hughes. Isn't healthy imho.

[QPRDave]

Just to be clear Will I do think expectations need to be managed amongst the supporters, I don't want posters calling for MH's head by christmas cause we ain't in the top 6, survival for me would be plenty good enough.........just like it to be with 4 or 5 games to go!

[Will M]

Yes, that's my worry too. We've got some tough games in September, and our away form still needs sorted. Our defence isn't good enough for me. And while our midfield does look superb, our front line lacks strength in depth imho. Cisse or Zamora being out for a lengthy period would be terrible, shaky defence and can't score goals.. mmmm

[stainrodisalegend]

exactamondo.....rather try n fail than never try at all...evton remind me of the adams family car n wacky races...always a dark raincloud swirling over it!!!

You say that, but remember charlton sacking alan curbishley because "he had taken the club as far as he cd". think they were about 8th in the prem league at the time. then look what happened to them. think some fans underestimate just how tough it is to get high up the table and sustain it. martin o'neil claimed lack of backing at villa but how much did andy lerner give him for players - 50m? 80m? and they soon sunk down the table again, and them a big, big club. as one or two posters have said, by all means be optimistic but lets not get carried away. fully expect to be turned over by five goals or so a couple of times this season, and suffer a few bad defeats on the bounce. also agree that an injury to a key player such as cisse and we cd really struggle.

[Mellowhoop]

Bottom half again