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After the game on Saturday, I was fully prepared for the internet to be overflowing with gloom and doom regarding the boys in blue, and I was happy to use my momentary soapbox here to try to calm the storm. Much to my surprise though, while the match reviews were obviously negative, (as they should have been) the news remains dominated by transfer rumors.
David Moyes says Everton are blocking careers of United targets Fellaini and Baines - Express
Oh how quickly your mindset changes when you have all the money in the world and think everything should be handed to you. This is absolutely ludicrous behavior from David Moyes, and this is the sort of comment that if made by Roberto Mancini about one of our players last year, would have caused Moyes to explode with rage. That leads us to this...
Alan Stubbs is spot on about this one. Moyes' treatment of the Marouane Fellaini and Leighton Baines transfer attempts has been massively disrespectful to his old club. I think we all expected Moyes to try to come calling for both players over the summer, and I have no problem with that. But because he has had as bad a transfer window as Arsene Wenger, he is resorting to plain classless tactics.
Why Everton should cash in and sell Marouane Fellaini to Manchester United now - Mirror
The author here argues that Fellaini's form, and therefore value, may never again be as high as it was at the end of last season, so Roberto Martinez ought to strike now, and get the best value possible for him. It is a reasonable rationale, one that I have seen floated around the comments here from time to time as well, and really comes down to how much more you think can be expected of the big Belgian.
I really like this for two reasons. One, Tim Howard is absolutely underhandedly calling Luis Suarez an idiot, and that's always fun, and two, he is absolutely right. I always expected the professionalism from Baines, but I had my concerns about how Felli would handle the whole situation. Both have kept their mouths shut and their heads down, and ought to be applauded for it.
Now onto the match fallout...
O'Keeffe basically comments that it was obviously a frustrating performance, but Martinez will need more time and less distractions to make his system work with Everton.
Everton vs West Brom - rate the Blues players out of 10 - Liverpool Echo
So far, the lowest rated starters are Leon Osman and Nikica Jelavic. We have spoken before of the fear that Ossie might be in over his head this year, and it's a fear that has been somewhat realized I feel. Jela on the other hand, I did not feel was that bad.