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Welcome back to Goodison for Christmas 2027 – A big month in our 27/28 campaign.

A quick start, Leicester away will be a tough one, 19th placed Watford at home shouldn’t be. Another trip to the Midlands it is then.

There’s a full programme this Wednesday 1st December 2027 evening – Man City v Arsenal is the pick of the games.

Matt Harris gets 2nd in the EPL Player of the Month, but Kris De Moor wins the Young Player award 🙂

I come 3rd in the EPL Manager of the Month after Chris Wilder (West Brom) and Tommy Tuchel (Liverpool) – we all won 3 matches out of 3.

Finances are OK – Just under £40M in the bank – £6M down on the start of November but that’s with just 1 home game.

I’m a B with the board, Dynamics are Good/Excellent/Excellent – Would be hoping Cohesion would be higher TBH.

1st December 2027 – Leicester (A) – English Premier League

Back to the King Power for the 2nd time in just over a month. Leicester sit 11th, losing 2-0 to Spurs last time out. Though out of our last 7 games Leicester came closest to getting a result against us. Rui Faria is coming up to a year as manager of Leicester (he’s in Qatar IRL) but back between 2020 and 2022 in game he managed Everton!

FT Leicester 0 Everton 1 (Prescott 52) Att 36,263 (3,000 Away)

We play in the Coral away strip this evening, and its a slow start in the rain. A pretty even game. 0-0 at the break. I give them the rocket and we go 1-0 up in the 52nd minute – another set piece goal – Bradders with a header this time from a Zinchenko corner, well battled. Time ticking down, we enter the last 20. Zinchenko picks up a knock just after I make the last sub… Should be able to get him to the end. Last 10. Jimmy Errington (On for Felliphe) should have made it 2 – he did all the hard work but couldn’t finish. Stoppages… And it’s there. 1-0, another 3 points from a tricky away game 🙂

We draw level with Arsenal on points as they lose 1-0 to Man City. Man Utd sneak past Derby, Liverpool continue doing Liverpool things, Chelsea thump West Brom and Norwich leap-frog Spurs. Bournemouth continue their good form as well. Our next game is in 4 days hosting a Watford side who have drawn Newcastle into the relegation scrap with a 1-0 win at Vicarage Road.

Zinchenko out of the Watford game with a twisted knee.

Our U18’s beat Stoke 2-1 in the U18 Premier Division Cup, qualifying for the next round. An O.G. and Sean McCulloch the goals.

And a couple of days later our U18’s draw 1-1 with Norwich – Garreth Cross with the goal.

Saturday 4th December. 2nd play 1st – Man Utd v Liverpool in the early game. Man Utd hand Liverpool their first defeat of the season, 2-1, after being 1-0 down in the first minute.

Arsenal, Chelsea & Man City all win meaning we sit in 6th, but a win on Sunday (We’re the late game) puts us back up to 4th at least.

Spurs face Brighton in the 2pm on Sunday before our match – Spurs nicking a 3-2 in the 94th minute.

5th December 2027 – Watford (H) – English Premier League

We welcome 18th placed Watford to Goodison today – Their best non-newgen (they have a young squad) is a 24-yo Jude Bellingham, who joined Watford in-game in 21/22 from Birmingham and has been there ever since. He’s not moved on in FM20. Scot Jack Ross is their manager currently – With Hibs IRL, who came here a few in-game months ago having managed Rangers for 6 years.

FT Everton 2 (Harris 20, Felliphe 27) Watford 1 (Romullo 58) Att 48,030 (1,576 Away)

We go up against a defensive 4-1-4-1 so I’m expecting Watford to be difficult to break down. We have an early highlight – Prescott heading over, but we take the lead in the 20th minute – Matt Harris, back after his bruised thigh, heading home well as a corner isn’t cleared well. And 7 minutes later it’s 2 – A lighting fast break by Matt Harris after a cleared corner leads to a beautiful cross and headed finish by Felliphe 🙂 Lovely play. 2-0 at the break, no shots from Watford, who I’ve been warned are trying to hit us on the counter. 48th minute, De Moor cracks the Crossbar from 30 yards. Watford back in the game – 58th minute, Romullo sliding home a deep free kick. Watford looking good. Last 10 – Jimmy Errington cracks the bar with a header. But we see it out. A 2-1 win. 3 more points. And 8 straight wins now.

Just 2 goals back on Arsenal now – 22 games left, it looks like it will be a really good fight for all the European spots.

We have Brighton in 6 days time, who lost to Spurs but had beaten Arsenal at the end of November, so will be a tough game at theirs.

Monday night football – a 9-man Norwich hold out for a 1-1 draw versus bottom-team Villa.

Dodo injured again for another 3 weeks in training – thinking he may have to go. Munoz is suspended for yellows so Trujillo starts versus Brighton.

Our U23’s beat Barnsley 5-1 in the Leasing.com Trophy 2nd Round North – Goals from Enzo Lacoste, Ricky Davies, 19yo AMR Grant Collin and a brace from 20yo STC Kevin Kennedy.

Our U18’s beat non-league Wootton Blue Cross in a friendly 8-2 – goals from Stephen Walsh, Lloyd Burton, an O.G., 2 from Alan Short and a hat-trick from Eddie Nketiah.

James Errington showing pleasing progress.

And we get to the next game-day – Saturday 11th – we are a 3pm kick off, Man City play Newcastle in the early game. Man City 3 Newcastle 0 – 22 yo John Hill is 19 goals in 17 in the EPL so far this season. He’s a bit of a player!

Saturday 11th December 2027 – Brighton (A) – English Premier League

We make the long trip south (Most probably would fly into Gatwick) to Brighton for a tricky game versus a team 15th in the EPL. Mason Greenwood, currently on 2 caps for England with 2 goals, is one of their best players, with Krepin Diatta (IRL at Monaco). They have Paco Jemez as their manager for the last 3 years in game – IRL he’s without a club since last year, when he left Rayo Vallecano. We are without Munoz (Suspended), Dodo and Lewis (Both injured).

FT Brighton 0 Everton 4 (de Jong 2, Harris 12, Errington 36, 73) Att 29,848 (3,000 Away)

A really quick start – 100 seconds, 1-0 Everton in their Coral kit, de Jong with a back-post header from a Zinchenko free kick. Boom! And Matt Harris makes it 2 with his 9th of the season – a lovely back post header from a Felliphe cross after Felliphe harried Bernardo and dispossessed him. A great start. Brighton lose Kristensen to an injury after 17 minutes. Everton very much on top. Mat Ryan (Now 35, 150 caps for Australia) keeping them in it. And we make it 3 after 36 minutes – James Errington finishing a great break away – we counter really well. 3-0 at the break – it could have been 6. The second half is quiet – but Matt Harris gets a red injury in the 67th – potential knee…. Fuck. But we go 4 up, Jimmy Errington with his 2nd, set free by a 70-yard Lacoste ball. Gorgeous. Brighton showing a bit more after the 4th, but we finish 4-0 to the good. Superb, but a worry on Harris.

Temporarily 3rd – 36 points off of 17 games is a great start. One game stands out – 9 goals at Molineux. Wolves were 3-2 and 4-3 up. We beat Wolves 5-0 two weeks ago…

MATT HARRIS – SPRAINED KNEE LIGAMENTS – 5-7 WEEKS – Buggertits. That him out of the Christmas period. And that’s 10 injuries in under 2 years… £150M??? Definitely Maybe.

Two really big games in the next 7 days – Chelsea in the Carabao QF, followed by Man City in the League, both at Fortress Goodison.

Our U23’s beat Leicester 4-1 – Goals from Harry Boyle, Alan Short and 2 from Shay Walker. They are currently top of the U23 Premier League.

Two huge games on the Sunday – Chelsea v Spurs and Liverpool v Arsenal…

We sit clear in 3rd as Arsenal lose 3-0 to Liverpool. W15 D1 L1 for Liverpool is a bit special.

We’ve had a youth intake preview:

Attacking players. Maybe a 3* PA or 2?

Four of the lads in the EPL Team of the Week – Rogerio, Dario Maresic, Paul de Jong & Jefferson Felliphe.

The first two Carabao QF’s are on the Tuesday:

Man City & Arsenal through to the Semis – A 31yo Dele Alli (127 caps, 34 goals for England) and 30yo Gabriel Jesus on the scoresheet, not to forget a now-29yo Dani Olmo. We play them next in the League.

Our U23’s drew with Inverness CT in the U23 Premier Division International Cup, Qualifying for the next round.

15th December 2027 – Chelsea (H) – Carabao Cup Quarter Final

A biggie today – a shot a Silverware is never to be sniffed at. We built Chelsea at the end of October 3-1 at Home, but that was the last game they lost… Pretty sure they will put a good side out as this is a Quarter Final… We are without Matt Harris so will try Bradders as an IF(A) on the left, cutting inside.

FT Everton 1 (Felliphe 10) Chelsea 1 (Mount 3) Att 50,000 (2,000 Away)

Its a wet 4C at Fortress Goodison tonight – hoping for a solid performance. Chelsea hit first, Mason Mount from 20 yards in the 3rd minute. 9th minute – Jimmy Errington crashes a shot against the bar after great work by Enzo Lacoste. But almost straight after that we are on level terms – Felliphe heading home a back-post Zinchenko cross. 1-1, game on. And then a real kick in the balls – Felliphe off with a Red Injury (Lower Leg) – 23rd minute. So both first-team wingers injured. Zhegrova on, Prescott to the right. FUCK OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Prescott now injured as well!!!!, WTF is going on! Foot Injury this time. Renault on. 42nd minute. Going hard tackling done the right now – both challenges for the injuries looked pretty hard. 1-1 at the break. 50th minute, Errington saved acrobatically by Kepa. From the following corner and clearance Lacoste hits the bottom of the right-hand post… It’s a good open game for the neutral. Time ticking away. Straight to Pens….

Mount, goal, Renault, goal, Fabio Silva, goal, Zhegrova, goal, Frenkie de Jong, MISS (Wide right), Errington, goal (Everton 3-2), Rangel, goal, Munoz, goal, Charalabous (To stay in the game), goal, Zinchenko (To send us to the Semi Final)…….. FUCKING HORRIBLE PENALTY, wide right. FFS. Sudden Death. 4-4.

Opoku, MISS (Bottom of left-hand post), Lacoste, FTW…………. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLL. We go on 🙂 But at what cost….

Championship Southampton make the semis with a penalty win also. Fingers crossed on the draw.

Jefferson Felliphe – Pulled Calf Muscle – 2/3 Weeks – Could have been a lot worse, but not ideal.

Bradley Prescott – Pulled Ankle Ligaments – 2/3 Weeks – Same. Some of the lads are going to have to step up.

We’ve had a scout report on Man City. Definitely not as strong as Chelsea… Though their star player, newgen John Hill (22yo, 27 caps, 9 goals for England) is a tad special. And we are favourites with the bookies!! Though we are 3 attacking-first-teamers down.

And we have the Carabao Semi Final Draw…

Would rather have Man City than Arsenal TBH. The 1st leg is on 4th January, 2nd 3 weeks later. So we play Man City 3 times in the next 5 weeks.

Marcelino (IRL manager of Bilbao) giving it large in the Media – we are only where we are because other teams have been complacent apparently…

Friday night Football – Norwich beat Newcastle 2-0 at St. James’s and go 4 points clear of Spurs in 8th.

Our U18’s beat Sunderland 3-1 – Goals from Jimmy King (16yo MC), Sean McCulloch and Joe Thornton.

We are the early game for TV – 12:30 at Fortress Goodison. Lets go.

Saturday 18th December 2027 – Man City (H) – English Premier League

Man City are unbeaten since a 2-1 loss to Man Utd at the end of October and have won 7 on the bounce; we are unbeaten since a 2-1 loss to Arsenal at the start of October, and have won 11 in a row (9 in normal time, 2 on pens) so 1st play 2nd by form (Chelsea join 2nd with Man City). This is going to be a toughie, and I’ll take a point.

FT Everton 3 (Renault 22, 46, Zhegrova 76) Man City 1 (Hill 31) Att 50,000 (3,000 Away)

Man City go 4-4-F-ing-2. They start strong in the pouring rain. But we should be 1-0 up – 6th minute, Jimmy Errington heading wide, unchallenged from a corner. He does head home in the 11th minute, but is a fair way offside. We end up taking the lead in the 22nd minute – Mathieu Renault, 3rd choice right winger, heading home well from a Zinchenko cross. 1-0 Everton. Adailson at fault(21yo Newgen) – Renault slips him. But its 1-1 eight minutes later – John Hill finishing from a lovely through-ball. His 24th goal of the season!!!!! In December!! 1-1 at the break. And 58 seconds into the 2nd half it’s 2-1 Everton!! One of the best goals I’ve seen in FM20 – a full-pitch move ending with Renault getting his 2nd of the game, a belter of a left foot across Ederson from just inside the area. Then calamity… Dario Maresic now injured (48th minute – Groin). Trujillo coming on. We get to the last 20 with no further highlights. Highlight, 76th minute. The ball works out to Renault, who takes it towards the by-line, crosses, AND ZHEGROVA SCORES!!! unmarked, a tap-in volley!! 3-1 Everton, Renault with his 3rd goal-involvement. Superb play from the lads. Renault wants his hat-trick!! Five minutes of stoppages. Errington has the ball in the net again, and again he’s offside. And another injury!! Trujillo gets an orange (Groin as well) but we see the game out. 3-1. That’s 10 straight wins in the league!!!

DARIO MARESIC – PULLED GROIN – 3/4 WEEKS – Bollocks. Never good to be missing a starting Centre Back.

FERNANDO TRUJILLO – PULLED GROIN – 4/7 DAYS – And that’s Maresic’s like-for-like replacement maybe out of the next league game (8 Days time v Leeds)

The big result of the day – West Brom handing Liverpool their 2nd defeat of the season, Patrick Roberts (IRL of Troyes, on loan from Man City) with the brace. We’re now 2 games ahead of Man City. Leeds next up at Elland Road on Boxing Day before we round the month out when we entertain Burnley on the 29th. The Leeds game is the start of a run of 11 games in 5 weeks – most of which we could be without 4 first-teamers with injury. We will do what we can do. Chelsea go to Burnley tomorrow, Villa host Leicester.

It’s a good fight for the Champions League spots (Would be so chuffed to be playing UCL Football next season).

Spurs play Derby on the Monday night – 5-1 to Spurs, Newgen STC Joao Sambu with a hat-trick.

Our U23’s drew 1-1 with Norwich, Alan Short with the goal. We are currently top of the U23 Premier Division 1.

Mathieu Renault makes the EPL Team of the Week.

Our U18’s beat Sunderland U23’s 5-1 in a friendly – Goals from Declan Garrick, Eddie Nketiah, Alan Short & a brace from Sean McCulloch. Nketiah injured though, Twisted Ankle – 3-4 weeks. Our 9th injury currently, worst in the League… Lowered all the training intensities.

And so we get to Boxing Day – It’s the North London Derby in the early game… 1-1, Spurs up early through Troy Parrott, Newgen Alessio equalising with 9 minutes of normal time left.

Sunday 26th December 2027 – Leeds (A) – English Premier League

We make the trip east on the M62 to a Leeds side currently sitting 14th. Manager Oscar Alvarez (IRL without a job after leaving Valencia as an Ass Man in June 2021) has been in post for just over 3 years, gaining promotion in 25/26 and finishing 15th last term. We should have enough to deal with them, even with these injuries.

FT Leeds 2 (Nilo 14, Szymanski 36) Everton 3 (Errington 9, 30, Zhegrova 65) Att 33,113 (3,000 Away)

It’s a Sleety 3C here in Yorkshire today, but it doesn’t stop the boys in Blue 🙂 9th Minute, Jimmy Errington slotting home after a long-ball over the top from Rafa Munoz – Route One at its finest. And not long after it should have been 2 – Kris de Moor beating 6 before hitting the side netting when it was easier to score. But it’s 1-1 in the 14th minute – Just a long hoof by the Keeper, and neither defender goes for it. Very poor but that happens when your centre-back partnership gets broken up by injury. We regain the lead on the half-hour, Errington with a strong finish after a great team move and pull-back by De Moor. But again we are pulled back, 36th minute, Szymanski with the DFK, 1st of the season… 2-2 at the break. Nothing doing in the 2nd half until the 65th minute, where Zhegrova powers home a weak clearance from a Zinchenko Free kick. 3-2 Everton. Errington nearly with his hat-trick soon after, his shot deflected away from the goal by the Newgen Leeds Keeper Brown. And then in an identikit chance he hits the post… I think I know where this is going… Injury time… No, we see it out. A hard-fought 3-2 win.

Liverpool lose again!!!!! At home to Norwich this time. Man City in a madness of a game with Wolves, Hill getting 4. All we can do is keep winning, keep piling on the pressure on those clubs around us – I would have snapped your hand off for 3rd place at the half-way point of the season. 19th placed Burnley up next in 3 days time. And we are lucky – there are 9 games on Tuesday – 48 hours time!!!

And we get to those Tuesday games:

Man City get a hiding from Chelsea – A win for us against Burnley puts them 9 points back. Norwich just a point behind them now in 7th – The top 7 opening a gap up on the rest.

Wednesday 29th December 2027 – Burnley (H) – English Premier League

We don’t kick off until 8pm – so a bit more than 3 days rest before our 20th league game of the season. We beat Burnley 4-0 at theirs in mid-October, same again please.

FT Everton 4 (Lacoste 7, Renault 12, 37, pen 62) Burnley 0 Att 50,000 (3,000 Away)

It’s hovering just above freezing tonight at Fortress Goodison. Burnley go with a 4-4-1-1. 1-0 Everton in the 7th minute, and its a 25-yard banger from Enzo Lacoste 🙂 Pope maybe should have done better. It’s 2 in the 12th minute – Renault finishing off a lovely team move at the back post – Assist Zhegrova, woeful marking. And Burnley down to 10 with over an hour left to play – South Korean international Kim Jin-Ya heading for an early bath after impeding Zhegrova. Gaps appearing now, and its 3-0 in the 37th, Renault getting space and his 2nd of the game as we pass the ball around Burnley well. The runs aren’t being tracked. 3-0 at the break. A bit quiet in the first 15, but we get a penalty, the first in ages in normal time, Renault pushed by Boskovic. Renault for his hat-trick… just. Hits Pope and goes in as he drives it down the middle. 4-0. And the game ticks away from there. 4-0. Professional and merciless.

We end 2027 in 3rd place, 12 straight wins since losing to Arsenal on 3rd October. 4 of our last 6 home games have been 50,000 sell-outs.

RAFAEL MUNOZ – BRUISED THIGH – 5/8 Days – Didn’t see this one in the game – Dodo will need to step up.

We’ve had a team report on West Ham for our FA Cup 3rd round game on New Years Day – currently 2nd in the Championship – and they have a couple of beasts at that level – Rhian Brewster (27yo now) – a 90 Scout rating and Newgen Dennis Wynter (24, 91 Scout Summary). They are not a young squad – lots of 30+ year olds.

There is an FA Cup game on Thursday 30th – An all Championship game between Swansea and Southampton. Southampton winning 4-0.

Kris De Moor is the Belgian Golden Boot for his time at AA Gent (Second half of the 2026/27 season). Also Young Player of the year, and Matteo Rossi gets 3rd in the Belgian Goalkeeper of the year for his time with Sint-Truidense.

And a new-year Present…

JAMES ERRINGTON – CALF STRAIN – 4/7 WEEKS – FFS – 3 strikers all out. The kiddies will need to step up. And Bradders will be there or thereabouts for the Carabao Cup Semi Final 1st Leg versus Man City.

And with that the firework displays go off. Goodbye 2027, its been emotional.

December has been superb – big wins over Chelsea & Man City. January is huge – Carabao Semis, Arsenal and Man Utd, both at Fortress Goodison, in the League and the start of a (hopefully) strong FA Cup campaign. Also we have a transfer window – expecting offers, lots of Chinese interest in my players. See you next time for the start of the run-in 🙂

Welcome back to Goodison for just the 3 games this month.

Derby, Tottenham, Wolves – AHA (Maybe Morten should be the title picture). Derby are on the up under Stevie G (since Jan 2024) – In game he went Rangers – West Brom – Southampton – Hearts before getting Derby promoted in his 2nd full season.

Matt Harris was 3rd in the EPL Player of the Month behind Mason Greenwood (Brighton) and Michael Obafemi (Watford).

Of the kiddies Kris De Moor also came 3rd in the EPL Young Player of the Month behind Steve Fraser (Man U) and James O’Brien (Derby).

Enzo Lacoste out for a month with a twisted ankle – bit of a bugger as he’s been doing really well.

I’m a B with the board – They are concerned about the daylight robbery of a loss versus Liverpool and the 2-1 versus Arsenal – Seriously? Squad dynamics are Good/Very Good/Very Good – looking for Cohesion to start rising.

1st November – Monday Night Football – Leicester and Norwich play out a 0-0. They sit 10th and 11th.

Our U23’s lost 1-0 to Derby.

14 of the lads have been called up to International duty.

Our U18’s are through to the 1st Knockout Round of the U19’s Champions Cup with a 4-0 aggregate win over Beitar Jerusalem. A 2-0 win in Israel (Scorers Stephen Walsh (18yo DC) and Sean McCulloch) get us into the next stage.

An onto the 6th November and a trip to Derby. It’s Chelsea v Man U in the 12:30

First our U18’s trounce Liverpool 7-0 in the U18 Premier Cup – Goals from Garreth Cross, Stephen Walsh, Joseph Thornton (17yo AML), Ryan Scott (16yo DR) and Jamie Moncur with a hattrick.

So to 12:30. Chelsea 5 Man U 0!!!!!!!!! The same Chelsea we beat 3-1. Mad. Liverpool can go 6 points clear with a win.

6th November 2027 – Derby County (A) – English Premier League

We travel south to Derby for an important game versus a decent side just below us in the form table (We are 4th, thy are join 5th). Like Chelsea we are going man-for-man. Stevie G v Andy P. Lets do this.

FT Derby 1 (McTominey 13) Everton 2 (Harris 59, Zinchenko 78) Att 32,983 (3,000 Away)

A cagey start (Yes, it is raining), but Derby strike in the 13th minute – an Everton attack broken down, Derby move forward well and McTominay finishes from close in. Pretty poor from the lads. Everton with plenty of the ball, but no real chances as we reach the half hour. 36th minute – Felliphe crashes a shot against the post. 1-0 Derby at the break – I’d say we are on top but we are lacking chances. End to end football at the start of the 2nd half, Prescott with a shot well saved by Lumley in the Derby net. Don’t think this is happening today – 58th minute, Prescott hits both posts… but we do equalise within a minute – Harris with the final finish after a gorgeous move. Derby have had 2 Red injuries today as well. Can we push on and win this? And we take the lead!!!! 78th minute, another gorgeous move finishes with a Zinchenko blunderbuss from 12 yards – Half-Back Valdivia with the assist. Derby pushing on now. But we hang on! We win 2-1, a nice fight-back. The match stats suggest dominance.

The 5:30 ends Man City 7 Villa 0… Liverpool now 2 games clear at the top.

And there are 2 Sunday games before the International break.

We host Spurs after the break, which will be an early-season 6-pointer for European spots. Arsenal climb into 2nd. I will do a player round-up of the internationals at the end of the break.

Our U23’s lose 1-0 to Brighton.

And then Our U23’s beat League 2 Fylde 7-0 in the Leasing.com trophy (3 wins from 3 and we qualify for the knockouts) – Steven Guest and a Double Hattrick(!) from 17yo AML Sean McCulloch! 1.5* CA 4* PA.

Our U18’s won 12-0 in a Friendly versus non-league Highfield Rangers. Goals from Stephen Walsh, Henry Corner, Paul Crawford, Declan Garrick, 2 from Sean McCulloch and a double-hattrick, this time from Eddie Nketiah.

Our U23’s beat Man U 3-1 – goals from Alan Short and a brace from Eddie Nketiah.

I asked about foreign affiliates. I got the following back:

• SIPG (China)
• Suwon (South Korea)
• Okayama (Japan – Kashima Antlers)
• Higashiosaka Rosa (Japan – Kawasaki Frontale)
• Brisbane Roar (Australia)

I’m going for China 🙂 It will cost £132k/annum but will be worth it just to get into China.

So to the internationals:

• Olexandr Zinchenko (Ukraine). 3-0 W v New Zealand. 74 mins, 6.8. 2-1 W v Romania. 71 mins, 6.5. 2-0 W v Latvia/ 45 mins, 6.9.
• Matteo Rossi (Belgium – 1st Cap). 1-0 W v South Korea. 9 mins.
• Kris De Moor (Belgium). 1-0 W v South Korea. 75 mins, 6.8. 7-0 W v San Marino. 28 mins. 6.7.
• Edon Zhegrova (Kosovo). 6-0 W v Andorra. 90 mins, 2 goals, 9.5. Bruised Shin (1-2 days). 0-0 v Poland. 72 mins, 6.6.
• Jamal Lewis (N. Ireland). 2-1 W v Croatia. 90 mins, 6.8. N. Ireland Qualify for Euro 2028. 1-0 L v Serbia. 90 mins, 6.6.
• Joe Aribo (Nigeria). 3-0 W v Eritrea. 90 mins, 7.1. 11-0 W v Eritrea. 31 mins, 6.8.
• Matt Harris (Germany). 2-0 W v Russia. 69 mins (Noice), 6.8. Germany Qualify for Euro 2028. 1-0 L v Spain. 4 mins.
• Dario Maresic (Austria). 2-1 W v Slovakia. 90 mins, 7.2.
• Mitchell Douglas (England U21). 1-0 W v Hungary. 22 mins, 6.9. 4-0 W v Kazakhstan. 22 mins, 6.8.
• Rafael Munoz (Spain U21). 4-0 W v Moldova. 90 mins, 1 goal, 8.2. 3-2W v N. Ireland. 90 mins, 6.8.
• Vaclav Prochazka (Czech U21). 10-1 W v Luxembourg. 90 mins, 1 goal, 9.2. 2-0 L v Russia. 90 mins, 6.6.
• Tiberiu Hagi (Romania U21). 5-1 W v North Macedonia. 12 mins, 1 goal, 7.4. 6-0 W v Gibraltar. 45 mins, 7.5.

Our U23’s beat Leeds 2-1 in the U23 International Cup, goals again from Alan Short & Eddie Nketiah.

And our U18’s beat Leicester 2-0 – Goals from Garreth Cross and Ryan Scott.

So to 20th November – Spurs at home. We are one of the 3pm’s – It’s Arsenal v Chelsea at 12:30… It finishes 2-2, Arsenal with a Hector Bellarin 88th minute equaliser. Win today and we go 4th!!!

20th November 2027 – Tottenham Hotspur (H) – English Premier League

We welcome a Spurs side currently in 8th, top players Diego Lainez on loan from Barca (27 – IRL at Betis), Troy Parrott, now 25, a newgen called Silvio Luiz and Sir Harold Kane, now 34, worth about £18M apparently. They have a good squad, but manager Paulo Sousa (He’s Spurs’ 8th manager this save so far) – only averaging about a year, the Daniel Levy effect. Its another biggie today. And again its man-for-man – 4-1-2-3 v 4-2-3-1.

FT Everton 2 (Prescott 24, 69) Spurs 0 Att 48,445 (3,000 Away)

A quiet enough start, The one highlight early showing Spurs being comfortable on the ball. Then the breakthrough – 24th minute, Prescott completely unmarked volleying in a Felliphe corner from 6 yards. No defending at all. As we approach half-time Spurs are suffering condition-wise after the international break. Our wingbacks Zinchenko and Munoz will only go 60 I think. 1-0 Everton at the break. On the hour, should be 2-0, Harris 1-on-1 straight at the keeper after intercepting a pass with Spurs messing about and trying to play it out from the back. We look really good. And it’s 2-0 in the 69th – Identikit goal, Prescott, this time with a half-volley from a Harris corner stealing in at the back post, unmarked. Kick-off highlight… Should have been a Prescott hattrick, another fine 1-on-1 save from Ellery Balcombe (on loan at Burton Albion from Brentford IRL). Time running down. And its all over. 2-0 Everton and another dominating performance. And that’s 5-straight 🙂

And a big game in the 5:30 kick-off – 19th place Watford hold Man City! The top 3 are 2 games above us currenyly (And we’ve lost to all 3 of them – our only 3 losses).

Just Wolves (15th) left this month at Molineux in 7 days. They play in the West Mids Derby at West Brom in the 4:30 on Sunday after Villa host Liverpool.

Liverpool striding away with it, beating bottom team Villa 5-1. And West Brom beat Wolves 3-2 – A 34yo Romelu Lukaku (155 caps for Belgium, 84 goals) with the equaliser before 28yo Jonathan Leko (IRL at West Brom too) got the winner.

Monday-Night football – Leicester beat Derby 3-0.

Our U23’s beat Fulham 3-0 – goals from Mathieu Renault, Eddie Nketiah and James Errington (Who can’t get a game because Bradders is on a mad one at the moment.

I’ve got the “x Showing Pleasing Progress” news item – its Vaclav Prochazka, our 18yo Czech Utility player. 20 Flair 🙂

Our U18’s beat Gillingham 5-1 in the FA Youth Cup 3rd Round – Sean McCulloch, Ryan Scott (2) and Joseph Thornton (2) with the goals.

We get to the last match-day of November – Friday night football has Leeds v West Brom – Leeds 1 West Brom 3. West Brom now 8th.

The 12:30 is Liverpool v Bournemouth. We are 1 of 4 3pm starts. Liverpool 3-0, Newgen Luan Cesar with a hat-trick. And so we make the trip down the M6 and M5 to Wolverhampton.

27th November 2027 – Wolves (A) – English Premier League

Wolves, currently in 15th, have Morgan Gibbs-White rated as their best player (Also at Wolves IRL) and our scouts aren’t very bothered by the squad as a whole. Abel Ferreira is the manager – IRL he’s in Brazil with Palmeiras; still the Portuguese aspect at Wolves, though the squad only has 2 Portuguese players. More domination please.

FT Wolves 0 Everton 5 (Felliphe 28, Harris 41, 45, De Moor 81, Zhegrova 88) Att 30,677 (3,000 Away)

Really quite quiet early on – Wolves defending well. But we take the lead coming to the half hour. Felliphe dispossesses Diallo wide on the right near the half-way line in the Everton half, runs it all the way and slams past Muric in the Wolves net from 12 yards. 1-0 Everton. Really open after the goal, end-to-end and we go 2-0 up in the 41st minute – Matt Harris with a fine header from a Felliphe cross. Beautiful boys. Felliphe is really starting to come good. And it’s 3 just before the break. Harris again, with a half volley after a Munoz cross after fine tackling and a break. Superb work. 3-0 at the break. A strange one at Carrow Road – Norwich 3-1 up v Man Utd! And they were 3-0 up by the 23rd minute! Back to Molineux, Matt Harris gets a bruised thigh just before the hour – Zhegrova on. We get our 4th in the 81st minute, Kris De Moor given too much time, firing home from the edge of the area. 88th minute, its a 5-star performance, Edon Zhegrova with a nice header from a Dodo cross, his first minutes since his sports hernia. Kick-off highlight.. Wolves blaze over. It finishes 5-0 – a great end to the month.

Norwich do indeed hold on to put a big dent in Man Utd’s title aspirations. Arsenal can go 2nd with a win on Sunday. We definitely seem to be part of a top-6 – it’s whether we can outpoint Chelsea and Man City over the next 20 games or so as to whether we get UCL or UEL next season.

Matt Harris out for 3-5 days with a bruised thigh. He will miss Leicester in mid-week (1st December).

Just a few days left in a Sunny November for Everton before a (relatively) mad December.

Our U23’s drew 0-0 with Norwich in the U23 Premier Division Cup.

We’ve received £850k as part of the Alexander Schlager (31yo GK) – Levante move in 2026 as he’s now played 50 League games for them.

And we have the FA Cup 3rd Round Draw…

An interesting one – we go to the London Stadium on New Years Day to play top-of-the-Championship West Ham. Expecting a tough game.

Two games on Sunday 28th in the EPL:

Arsenal miss the chance to go 2nd losing to now-14th placed Brighton at the AMEX, and Spurs bounce back from last weekend with a 2-0 win over our next opponents Leicester, who we play in 3 days time. Just 4 points now between us and 2nd!

We get 4 players in the EPL Team of the Week – Dario Maresic, Matt Harris, Kris De Moor and Jefferson Felliphe.

And with that we end November 2027.

A fine month, we will want to keep up our winning ways in the 7 games this month. The Chelsea/Man City games look tasty, especially as we have them both at Goodison. See you soon for a quick start to the end of 2027.

Welcome back to Merseyside for October 2027. An interesting month:

Tough bookends and a softer centre.

First up a bit of News before the Arsenal game.

Fernando Trujillo played a full 90 and got 7.9 in Mexico U23’s 3-0 win over Costa Rica in the Olympic Qualifiers for LA 2028. He looks like a bit of a player!

Martin Terrier, on loan at Slavia Prague gets 2nd in the Czech 1 Liga Player of the month, behind teammate, a 35yo Mo Salah, in his first season since leaving Liverpool on a free.

We still have >£50M in the bank, that should increase as gate receipts go up by c. £500k per home game with the expansion to Goodison.

Zinchenko is called up to the Ukraine squad.

I’m still a C+ with the board, but the only concerns were losses to Liverpool and Man Utd and Dynamics are Good (Trending Very Good) Very Good and Very Good.

Friday Night Football – Derby 1 West Brom 0, Derby leap-frog us into 11th.

21yo defender Paul Crawford signs for 3 years – £13.25/wk

Our U18’s lose 1-0 to Stoke.

And Keeper Rogerio tweaks his ankle – Matteo Rossi in for the Arsenal game.

There’s a full Saturday program before our Sunday game.

And Jimmy Errington has been called up to the England squad as Keren Tal (Arsenal!!) has fractured his toe. Double Bubble!

Man City rescue a point in the 94th minute at home to Leicester. 18th place Burnley get a draw versus Man Utd. Bournemouth and Chelsea the winners in the top 7.

Fernando Trujillo plays another 90 for Mexico U23’s at DR in their 4-0 win over Jamaica in another Olympic qualifier. The Semi Final and Final are in March 2028.

Matt Harris is also called up to the German squad after his injury.

Liverpool v Tottenham is the early game on the Sunday – Liverpool 6 Tottenham 0!!! TAA, Ansu Fati with a brace and Bukayo Saka the non-newgen goals.

3rd October 2027 – Arsenal (A) – English Premier League

FT Arsenal 2 (Alessio 16, Ajer 20) Everton 1 (Errington 85) Att 60,432 (3,000 Away)

A trip to Arsenal is never easy, so anything today would be a bonus. They sit 4th, a win for us would put us 8th after 8 games. A 30yo Kieran Tierney is rated their 2nd best player, and they pipped us AET in the FA Cup Final at the end of last season. Staying 4-2-3-1 2DM, Prochazka fills in a Centre Back with Marseic injured and Trujillo on Olympic qualifier duty. Arsenal with a similar formation.

Arsenal on top in the early stages, Alessio buts them 1-0 up with a tap-in after Rossi parries an Everton(!) shot. Ajer makes it 2-0 in the 20th with a header from a corner. Rubbish. Sitting back a bit now – don’t want this to turn silly. Felliphe tweaks a knee in the 30th – Prescott on. 2-0 at the break. A quiet second half, until a ray of light? Errington with an 85th minute 1-on-1 after great work by Prescott to dispossess Umar in the Everton half. Kick off Highlight… Nothing doing . A 2-1 loss – could have been a lot worse. We’re not good enough to defend – I think we may need to Brentford-it a bit.

Man U, Liverpool & Arsenal in the first 8 games means it looks tough to get Euro places at the moment. We shall see. Liverpool with a perfect record – we were seconds from stopping that at Anfield…

International break now – time to step back and look at the tactics.

Our U23’s beat Sheff Wed 4-0 in the U23 Premier Division Cup, goals from Alan Short and a hattrick from Eddie Nketiah.

GK Matteo Rossi made it into the EPL team of the week with a 7.2 versus Arsenal.

A Consortium takeover has been rubbished by the board – expect more news soon.

And there was a mad one in the Leasing trophy.com group – our U23’s beating Lincoln 9-4!! Goals from Lee Robinson (20yo STC) with a brace and 2 hattricks – Alan Short (22yo STC) and Kevin Kennedy (20yo STC) – We have too many strikers I think! Liverpool youngster Caoimhin Kelleher, now 28, in goal for League 2 Lincoln – Rogerio in goal for us got a 7.1 even with letting 4 goals in!!

Fernando Trujillo played 90 at DR as Mexico U23’s beat Honduras 3-1 – 3-from-3 in their North American Olympic qualification group.

Joe Aribo got a 9.0 and scored the winner in Nigeria’s 3-2 friendly win versus Guinea (32yo Naby Keita, now at Chonquing in China, not in the Guinean squad) and Chris Whitehead and Steven Guest both play 90 in England U19’s 3-0 win over Estonia, Steve with a goal and an 8.3.

3 Senior Euro Qualifiers – Dario Maresic played 90 in Austria’s 2-1 loss to Sweden, Olexandr Zinchenko played 90 in Ukraine’s 4-0 win over San Marino, and 19yo Kris De Moor came on as a sub for his debut in Belgium’s 1-1 draw versus Romania. And 3 U21 Euro Quallies – Mitchell Douglas came on for the last 10 in England U21’s 4-0 win over Finland, Tiberiu Hagi had 79 mins in Romania U21’s 2-1 loss to Norway and Vaclav Prochazka played 90, scored 2 and got a 9.3 for Czechia U21’s in their 4-0 win over North Macedonia – Playing as an AMC, which is his most natural position TBH.

Jamal Lewis played 90 in N. Ireland’s 4-1 win over Azerbaijan – Big Colin McGarvey and ex-Dundalker Barry Reilly with goals. Rafa Munoz played 4-1 minutes in Spain U23’s 3-0 win over Tunisia, and Steven Guest and Chris Whitehead were in action again in England U19’s 6-0 win over Bosnia & Herzegovina – Steven with another goal and a 9.0.

Our U18’s drew 3-3 with Liverpool – goals from Chinedu Effiong (17yo DL), Bradley Lane (16yo DL) and Ryan Scott (16yo DR)

Edon Zhegrova played 90 in Kosovo’s 3-0 loss to Turkey.

Dario Maresic played 90 in Austria’s 3-0 loss to England, and Olexandr Zinchenko and Kris De Moor went up against each other in a 1-1 Ukraine v Belgium draw.

Our U23’s beat Liverpool 3-1 – goals from Eddie Nketiah and a brace from Alan Short.

Matt Harris came on for the last half hour, scored and got an MotM 8.1 in Germany’s 2-2 draw with Hungary. Jamal Lewis played 90 in N. Ireland’s 1-0 win over Estonia. Top of the group with 7 wins out of 8!! Mitchell Douglas got more game time in England U21’s 4-2 win over Poland, Tiberiu Hagi played most of the game in Romania U21’s 1-0 loss to the Netherlands and Vaclav Prochazka played 90 in Czechia U21’s 2-1 loss to Albania.

Joe Aribo got an 8.4 in Nigeria’s 8-0 friendly win over Zambia, Edon Zhegrova scored and got an 8.3 in Kosovo’s 5-2 loss The Netherlands, and both Steven Guest and Chris Whitehead had another 90 minutes in England U19’s 4-0 win over Sweden.

Our U23’s beat FC Heidenheim U19’s (Their first team is in the 3. Liga in Germany) 2-0 in the U23 International Cup – a brace from Eddie Nketiah.

Our U18’s had a 4-0 friendly win over non-league Hull Utd – Goals from Sean McCulloch (17yo AML), Jamie Moncur (17yo AMR) and a brace from Garreth Cross (17yo MC)

Dodo out for a month with a sports hernia… Trujillo will be Munoz’s backup.

And we get to the 16th October – 19th placed Aston Villa at Goodison…

A bit of a shock in the 12:30 – Norwich hold Man City to a 1-1, Ben Godfrey with the equaliser just before half time.

16th October 2027 – Aston Villa (H) – English Premier League

We welcome an Aston Villa captained by a 32-yo Jack Grealish – Villa stalwart for all but 1 loan season at Nott County for 16 years in this game. They also have a 30-yo Jarrod Bowen. We need 6 points for these next two (Burnley next, 18th) so we go out on the offensive. 4-4-2 wings. Lets go.

FT Everton 1 (Harris 48) Aston Villa 0 Att 43,821 (3,000 Away)

A good start by the Toffees – Errington missing a sitter after 80 seconds, nice expansive play. Medina with a few really good early saves. Half time, 0-0, we should be 3-0 up.

Rocket given at the break – 1-0 Everton, 48th, Matt Harris with a sublime drive from just inside the area. Better. And then very quiet. It finished 1-0 – hardly a highlight after the goal. But I’ll take it. Medina with a 7.6, saving 5 clear-cut chances!!

Up to 9th, 2 points off the Euro spots. Liverpool 9 for 9, 13 points above City in 6th.

Watford v Arsenal is the Sunday game – Bottom v 4th – and a surprise 2-2 draw. Watford’s 2nd point out of 9 games.

Next game – Friday night football at Turf Moor. Mikel Arteta is the manager there now, Dyche is now unemployed after his England tenure 2020-22, a year at Sheff Utd and 2 at Motherwell. In game Arteta stayed as Ass Man at Man City until 2024, then his first management role was at Swansea for a year before joining Burnley in 2025, gaining promotion last season.

West Brom beat Burnley on the Monday night 1-0 – West Brom now 12th.

Zinchenko made the EPL team of the week.

Our U18’s beat Beitar Jerusalem 2-0 in the U19 Champions Cup 2nd Qual Rnd. Goals from Sean McCulloch and 16yo STC Louie Morley.

22nd October 2027 – Burnley (A) – English Premier League

We make the short journey to Burnley to face 18th placed Burnley on Friday Night Football.

FT Burnley 0 Everton 4 (De Moor 26, Harris 39, 78, Prescott 79) Att 22,546 (2,254 Away)

Going to Burnley with an Asymmetric 4-3-3 – Matt Harris out wide AML, Prescott up top on the right, Errington central. More open play, and a Pen, 5th minute, Harris fouled by Kavanagh. De Moor to take… saved brilliantly by Pope (Now 35, 3 caps for England). Munoz picks up a knock in the 18th minute – Trujillo comes on. We take the lead in the 26th minute, Kris de Moor making up for the penalty with a bullet header from a Matt Harris corner. Matt Harris makes it 2, making a bit of room for himself just inside the area before finishing well. Harris gets his second just before the break, but was a yard offside. And in the 4th minute of stoppage time we have the ball in the net again – Prescott offside this time… Just the wrong side of the last man. 2-0 at the break. A very quiet second half – we go to a more conventional 4-2-3-1. Harris gets his 2nd with a fine volley from a fizzed Trujillo cross. 3-0, 78th minute. And within 90 seconds its 4 – Prescott with a 30-yard curling free kick. Gorgeous. Burnley get their first highlight in the 87th minute – Rogerio saving well when 1-on-1 with Bell. 4-0 it finished. That’s more like it!

Up into the European places temporarily 🙂 Just Checked and Matt Harris is now in the Media Dream 11 on the left wing now! He’s not going anywhere for less than £200M.

Before the Saturday games our U18’s lose 2-1 to Man Utd – Harry Molloy (16yo DR) with the goal.

The early game – Man City (7th) v Chelsea (4th) – Man City 6 Chelsea 2!!!!!!! English newgen John Hill with 4.

We finish Saturday in 7th – Liverpool 10 for 10 11 points clear now of Chelsea in 4th – Them and Man Utd running away with it currently.

And we finish the weekend in 7th – Spurs lose 3-2 at Leeds after Arsenal go 4 points clear of Chelsea with a 2-0 win over West Brom. Next up for us, Leicester away in the Carabao 4th Round in 3 days, before hosting Chelsea in the 5:30 game on Saturday 30th to round off the month.

Monday Night Football – Newcastle beat Brighton to join them and Fulham on 10 points after 10 games – 5 points above Villa and the relegation spots in 18th.

Our U23’s lose 2-1 to Spurs – Alan Short with another goal. Moved him to the senior squad.

We had 3 players in the EPL team of the week – Trujillo, Zinchenko and Harris.

First 4 Carabao games on the Tuesday – no real shocks (Maybe bottom team Watford beating Palace). Chelsea have an extra day off before our match on Saturday…

27th October 2027 – Leicester City (A) – Carabao Cup 4th Round

We make the trip South to face a Leicester side currently just below us in 9th. We will be putting a strong side out, 4-1-2-3 Gegenpress. Their best player is Daniel Arzani (AUS, IRL on loan at SK Lommel in Belgium from Man City) and they have an aging Kurt Zouma, James Ward-Prowse, Jan Bednarek, Caglar Soyuncu and Demarai Gray. Looks like they are putting a strong-ish side out, but not the EPL side.

FT Leicester 1 (Gray 90+5) Everton 1 (Prescott 73) Att 24,518 (2,029 Away) – Everton wins 5-4 on penalties

Quiet early doors, Everton in their Coral away kit. 0-0 at the break – 15 shots to Everton, only 3 on target. really quiet – Harris hits the bar with a header from a Trujillo cross in the 65th minute. But then an absolute rick by Leicester – short goal kick, keeper Bodart and defender Varnier passing back and forth – Prescott catches Varnier and taps in from 8 yards or so!! OP High-Press FTW 🙂 1-0 Everton, 73rd minute. We enter the final 5. Last highlight… Gray gets in and scores somehow. FFS! Straight to fucking Penalties. Leicester 5 Everton 4 (Rogerio saved Choudhury, Short missed wide left, Zinchenko saved by Bodart, Sosa missed outside of left post with a kick to win the game. Sudden Death Zouma saved by Rogerio, De Jong scores the winner. Into the Quarter Final draw.

Southampton the only Prem team in the last 8. And we have the draw:

Chelsea at Goodison – same as our next game in 3 days. That’s in Mid-December.

We are joint 5th in the leading development clubs table – 12 Everton-developed players are at top flight clubs, more than Liverpool.

Friday Night Football – Watford move off bottom with a 2-0 win over Brighton (15th).

We are the 5:30 on Saturday – the 12:30 is the Manchester Derby. Man Utd 2 Man City 1!!

Our U18’s beat Leeds 2-1 – Goals from Sean McCulloch and Garreth Cross.

in the 3pm’s Spurs nick a 3-2 in the 93rd minute v Villa, Liverpool’s perfect start is ended with a 0-0 v Fulham and Bournemouth lose 2-1 at home to Derby. It’s a 6-pointer – we go 5th with a win.

30th October 2027 – Chelsea (H) – English Premier League

Chelsea have a mix of youth and experience today – Frenkie de Jong (30yo) rated as their best player. Frank Lampard is still their manager! 3 Prem wins, 2 Champions League, an FA Cup and Carabao Cup in there so he’s done well! We start with our best team. This will be interesting.

FT Everton 3 (Prescott 5, Felliphe 22, Harris 52) Chelsea 1 (Hudson-Odoi 79) Att 50,000 (3,000 Away)

We go man-for-man. And we take the lead in the 5th minute – A Zinchenko free-kick bundled across the line by Bradders, his 6th of the season. And it’s 2 in the 22nd minute! Jefferson Felliphe with a back-post header, completely unmarked, from a Zinchenko cross after Chelsea failed to clear!! A great start. Should have been 3 soon after – Prescott 1-on-1 with Kepa shoots weekly straight at the Keeper. 2-0 Everton at the break. Waiting for the poked Bear to do something. It’s our first 50,000 sellout today as well 🙂 Another chance for 3 – Felliphe this time heading over from 5 yards after a nice move, Harris with the whipped cross. And it is 3 soon after!! Harris with a thunderbastard after a number of attacks are rebuffed. Bradders with the assist. Munoz picked up a tight hamstring in the build up – Trujillo on. Kick-off highlight… should have been 4 – Felliphe with a weak shot, should have been an easy goal after Harris nicks the ball in the midfield. Chelsea pushing on on, Rogerio with a good save. 3-1 in the 79th – Hudson-Odoi gets inside of Trujillo and finishes easily. Come on lads!!! Into the last minutes – Zhegrova, on for Harris, well saved by Kepa. And it’s all over! 3-1 Everton! We go 5th! A great way to end the month.

Would have taken this at the end of October! Those top 3 are very good, but a Champions League spot isn’t outside the realms of possibility.

That’s our last game of the month, but there are Sunday games to report back on. Arsenal 2 Wolves 1 in the early game, Burnley 3 Leeds 0 in the late in the War of the Roses.

A good month after a disappointing first game at the Emirates. November only has the 3 games, plus a little international window. All 3 are winnable – Derby are 9th, Spurs 8th and Wolves 14th – and these are the games we need to maximize on to get European football next season. See you soon for November 2027.

Welcome back to Goodison for September 2027. A potentially very tough month.

Newcastle are 18th, so 3 points are a must. Get a point at Anfield and i’ll be ecstatic, Norwich away we’ve seen to be tough already, and an OP Bournemouth financially (8th) rounds out the month. But we have 10 days of an international window to get through unscathed…

Rafa Munoz is the first to play – 90 mins in a 3-0 win over Egypt U23 for Spain.

We are £53M in the black, which is good, seeing as we were the 5th biggest spenders across Europe, and highest in England at £120M. Barcelona top at £232M. £1.15B was spent in the EPL, almost double La Liga!

I’m only a C+ with the board, but that is to be expected.

Dynamics are Good/Very Good/Very Good – Need to get the Cohesion up to Very Good at least.

Tiberiu Hagi played 24 mins in Romania U21’s 4-0 win over Gibraltar.

Joe Aribo played a full 90 in Nigeria’s 2-2 with Tunisia.

Mitchell Douglas got 10 mins in England U21’s 3-0 win over Kazakhstan

Kris De Moor got 28 mins in Belgium U21’s 5-0 win over Estonia

Vaclav Prochazka played a full 90 in Czechia U21’s 3-1 loss to Russia

Jamal Lewis played 90 in N. Ireland’s 2-1 win over Serbia, Big Col McGarvey with a goal.

Garreth Cross got an assist in England U20’s 2-1 win over Germany, but picked up a Groin Strain right at the end.

Rafa Munoz has another 90, scoring in Spain U23’s 2-0 win over Venezuela

Chris Whitehead and Steven Guest both got minutes in England U19’s 4-1 win over Scotland

Dario Marseic played 90 in Austria’s 1-0 win over Slovakia

Olexandr Zinchenko also played 90, scoring in Ukraine’s 7-1 win over Latvia

Our U18’s lost 3-2 to Burnley, goals from 17yo DC Declan Garrick and 16yo DL Bradley Lane.

Edon Zhegrova played 90 and scored in Kosovo’s 1-1 with Poland.

Jamal Lewis played another 90 in N. Ireland’s 3-0 loss to Scotland

Our U23’s drew 2-2 with Chelsea – goals from 18yo AMR Grant Collin and Matt Harris, getting 45 mins on his return from broken ribs.

Olexandr Zinchenko got another 90 in Ukraine’s 7-0 win over Cyprus, Kris De Moor played 90 and scored in Belgium U21’s 3-2 win over Israel, Vaclav Prochazka played 90 in Czechia U21’s 1-0 loss to Italy, and Steven Guest and Chris Whitehead got 4 minutes between them in England U19’s 2-1 win over The Netherlands.

Dario Maresic played 83 mins in Austria’s 2-1 loss to Norway

Edon Zhegrova played a full 90 and got an assist in Kosovo’s 3-2 loss to Lithuania

Got this story through:

Tony Khan – yes, that Tony Khan (President of All-Elite Wrestling) – Currently DoF of Fulham in game, and IRL he’s still co-owner of Fulham I believe. Think I’ll leave that one.

My 20yo Striker Shay Walker has turned down a 4-year deal. He’s still contracted for 2 years.

A bit of Friday night football – Fulham drawing with Burnley with a 91st minute goal.

Our U23’s beat Arsenal 5-2, goals from Jefferson Felliphe (Giving him time to bed in, always tough for South American wonderkids), Shay Walker, Alan Short and a brace from Ricky Davies.

And our U18’s beat Sheff Utd 3-0, Goals from Declan Garrick, Bradley Lane (16yo DL) and Sean McCulloch.

11th September 2027 – Newcastle (H) – English Premier League

FT Everton 3 (Zhegrova 3, De Moor 21, Renault 41) Newcastle 2 (Evander pen 26, Gil 64) Att 34,032 (3,000 Away)

We welcome a Newcastle side sitting 18th whilst we are 11th. Brighton played Man City in the 12:30, holding them to a 1-1, Mason Greenwood with the goal for Brighton.

Newcastle have a 30yo Joelinton up top – ever-present for Newcastle since 2019. It’s a quick start, Everton 1-0 up in the 3rd minute, Zhegrova finishing off a bit of a scramble well, assist from Gomes. Great start 🙂 And it’s 2 in the 21st minute, Kris De Moor with a tap-in, no marking, after great work by Zhegrova, Zinchenko & Prescott on the left. But soon after a very soft penalty given against Munoz. Evander tucking the penalty away. 2-1, 26th minute. Two goal cushion renewed in the 41st minute – Renault with a back-post volley from a Zhegrova cross – Matt Harris has big competition in Zhegrova at the moment! 3-1 at the break.

Newcastle come out hard and Rogerio, back in goal for his first game since injury has made some superb saves. But its 3-2, 64th minute, Gil flicking-on a free kick. Kick-off highlight… Nothing. Going 4-1-2-3, getting Valdivia on as a DM. He hold on for a 3-2 win – really thinking 4-4-2 isn’t going to work, we’re not big-enough physically.

Up to 6th – Chelsea with a big win, Liverpool continue their perfect start. And we have them next…

And on Sunday Man U beat Watford 1-0, and Bournemouth beat Leeds 2-0 – both away wins. meaning the last 3 games this month are versus 1st, 5th and 4th (Liverpool, Norwich in the Carabao, Bournemouth).

And on Monday Arsenal maintain their perfect record – 4-0 versus Aston Villa. Top 7 will do I think this season!! That’s the expectation anyway.

And Edon Zhegrova made the EPL Team of the Week 🙂

Our U18’s drew 1-1 with Gaz Metan Media U19’s of Romania in the U19’s Champions Cup 1st Qual Round, Vaclav Prochazka with the goal and MotM.

A bit of Friday Night Football – Leicester beating West Brom 3-2, an 88th minute Dan Arzani goal (IRL at AGF in Denmark on loan currently – owned by Man City) deciding the result.

Early on the Saturday our U18’s darw 1-1 with Derby – 17yo AML Sean McCulloch with the goal.

We are the early game on Saturday – lunchtime kick-off at Anfield. A tad nervous.

18th September 2027 – Liverpool (A) – English Premier League

FT Liverpool 2 (Fati 81, Dybala 90+2) Everton 1 (Errington 50) Att 54,074 (3,000 Away)

We go with a 4-2-1-3 Wide on Cautious that we have been training for these games – getting a bit more cover, but I’m not particularly confident versus an amazingly strong Liverpool side, with a 33yo Dybala up top, Ansu Fati on the left, Bukayo Saka on the right, TAA, now 28 still there, Szoboszlai in Midfield. A tough one.

A relatively quiet start, we get to 30 minutes with just 2 Liverpool highlights. And we have a good one soon after, Zhegrova running inside but dragging the shot wide. 0-0 at the break, Liverpool looking worse condition-wise.

And we take a shock lead!!!! 50th minute, Zhegrova takes the ball into the area, is dispossessed, wins it back, passes to Zinchenko who’s cross is headed home powerfully by Jimmy Errington 🙂 1-0 Everton. 65th minute, Liverpool with a chance, but they are taking long shots… But in the 81st Minute Fati scores, basically leaving 4 Blues for dead, scoring the one-on-one. Disappointed. Injury time, Everton corner, we hit the post!!! But Errington was offside. Why the late highlights!!! AND OF FUCKING COURSE LIVEPOOL SCORE. Dybala from 20 yards. FUCK THIS GAME. Get up the pitch!! And a last highlight… And Gomes fires it out of play. 2-1 Liverpool, really really disappointed.

Bournemouth, who we have next in the league, up to 3rd, and Norwich, who we have in the Carabao cup in 4 days, up to 5th. Need to get some wins to keep morale up.

Two massive games on Super Sunday – Man Utd v Arsenal, Man City v Tottenham. Man Utd 1-0 in the 2pm, Man City 5-1!! in the 4:30. That was Arsenal’s first loss of the season.

Monday Night football – Newcastle 5 Derby 1!! The 3-2 win against them looking pretty good now.

Our U23’s lost 1-0 to Sheff Utd.

And onto Tuesday night, Carabao cup with the big shock being Watford, bottom of the league, beating Man Utd 3-1. Man City beat Liverpool 3-0 at Anfield, Liverpool almost completely rotated, Man City not so much.

22nd September 2027 – Norwich (A) – Carabao Cup 3rd Round

FT Norwich 0 Everton 1 (Prochazka 85) Att 12,537 (1,292 Away)

We make the trip to Norwich having rotated heavily before our trip to Bournemouth on Saturday. Hoping Norwich do the same. We keep with the 4-2-1-3 Wide. Looks like a fair amount of rotation in the Norwich side.

Everton in coral-pink tonight. And we should have scored in the first minute, Felliphe’s shot straight at the Keeper. Everton with most of the ball early, Nketiah missing a sitter in the 20th minute. But pretty quiet after that. 0-0 at the break.

Made a few changes at the break – Nketiah off for youngster Shay Walker. quiet through 60 mins. Ricky Davies on for Zhegrova, going 4-2-3-1 2DM, Prochazka up to AM. And we take the lead in the 85th minute, 18yo Prochazka with a well struck shot from inside the area after a good spell of pressure. Shay Walker with the assist. And we hold on for the win. A good performance, very well deserved.

No real shocks in the other games.

Our U18’s lost 2-1 to West Brom, Sean McCulloch with another goal from the left wing.

50,000 Seater now 🙂 Lets see how often we fill it.

Fernando Trujillo has been handed a Mexico U23 call-up For 3 matches at the start of October.

Friday night football – Man Utd 4 Newcastle 0, Newcastle with 10 men for 70 minutes, Ben Chilwell with a hat-trick…

We’ve had the Carabao 4th Round draw…

Leicester (8th) away. Another tough one. 26th October.

Our U18’s lose 1-0 to Man City.

We’re playing at 3pm versus Bournemouth – Liverpool win the early game 1-0 at Brighton.

25th September 2027 – Bournemouth (H) – English Premier League

FT Everton 1 (Felliphe 73) Bournemouth 1 (Gibbins 90+2) Att 48,500 (1,203 Away)

Bournemouth come into this game in 4th – Their start player is Henry Reeves on the left wing, 23yo, 3 caps for England but just really, really good. Otherwise they are getting on a bit. Our scouts rank us a bit better. But I stay with the 2 DM’s, but play De Moor further up the pitch.

Lewis Cook picks up an Orange knock in the first 10 minutes in Centre Mid. Otherwise its quiet as we reach the half-hour, where we nearly gift them a goal with some dodgy passing at the back. 0-0 at the break.

Bournemouth look a bit more dangerous at the start of the 2nd half, so I move to a 4-1-2-3, pulling De Moor back to a DLP in centre Mid, Gomes as a BBM, Valdivia as a Half-Back. Errington off, Prescott up top, Felliphe on, Harris as a Raumdeuter, finding spaces and being a nuisance as he’s been poor so far. And we get the breakthrough!! Jefferson Felliphe with a DFK from 30 yards, an absolute screamer!! Time ticks on. But yet again defensive frailties kill us. 1-1, 92nd minute, Gibbins finishing the loose ball at the back post as a free kick isn’t cleared. FFS. 1-1 it finished.

Loads of draws today mean the draw isn’t too damaging. Man City held by West Brom, Arsenal by Norwich, Tammy Abraham coming good late doors.

That’s that for games this month.

2 Wins, an OK draw and a sucker-punch of a loss versus the league leaders. Not too bad. Next month gives us 2 very hard games at each end of the month, with 3 very winnable ones in between.

Any more news to end the month?

Sunday football – Wolves beat Aston Villa 3-0 in another Midlands Derby. Wolves go 13th, Villa 18th.

Monday night football – Tottenham 4 Fulham 0. Tottenham go 9th. And our U23’s lose 2-1 to Man City, Mathieu Renault with the goal.

Joe Aribo gets a Nigeria call-up for October.

Our U18’s are through in the U19’s Champions Cup, beating Romanian’s Gaz Metan Medias U19’s 6-0 in Romania, 17yo sean McCulloch with 4 more goals – 10 in 11 this season from the left wing. Ryan Scott (16yo DR) and Bradley Lane (16yo DL) with the other goals.

Twelve international callups. Dario Maresic tweaks a knee in training, will most probably miss the Arsenal game before going away on leave.

And that’s that – See you next time for October 2027.

Welcome to Merseyside for August 2027 – The start of the 27/28 campaign. Looking forward to it, I’m confident that we have a broad-enough squad to get a really good finish (Injury Crises aside).

We have West Brom today at a 34,032 capacity Goodison while the expansion to 50,000 is ongoing. Let’s go

7th August 2027 – West Brom (H) – English Premier League

FT Everton 3 (Zhegrova 36, Errington 72, 78) West Brom 1 (Sanchez 45 + 2) Att 34,032 (3,000 Away)

An Interesting 12:30 result – Man City scrape a 1-1 versus a Bournemouth side that played the second half with 10 men. The First day of the season is often a bit odd. We are one of 5 games at the traditional 3pm. West Brom have a had a solid if unremarkable pre-season – a tour of Singapore, a draw versus Penafiel (Promoted to the Portuguese Top Tier this season) and a 2-0 win over TNS (Welsh Champions). A slow start, we’re having shots but not highlights. We end up taking the lead in the 36th minute – Edon Zhegrova with the final finish after Olex Zinchenko’s initial shot from a great De Moor cross was deflected. Good to get that first goal. We go in even however, injury time, a free kick headed in by Sanchez. Fucking Set Pieces. A quiet second half, we end up taking the lead in the 72nd minute, James Errington with the finish after lovely pressing panics the West Brom players into some bad passes. Brad Prescott with the assist. And we make it three 6 minutes later – Errington again, Johnny-on-the-Spot beating 3 West Brom players to the ball to stab home after a Prescott shot is parried. Better. And that’s how it finishes. Three points on the board in front of a full house.

Arsenal & Chelsea start off strongly, Liverpool get a good win at St. James’s against newly-promoted Newcastle, and fellow promotees Villa get a 3-2 win versus Burnley. Spurs sneak a win versus Watford.

All possible season tickets (30,713) have been sold 🙂

Not a good weekend for Manchester – United, who we face next, well beaten by a Leicester side that finished last season 14th. Derby get a good 3 points versus Leeds – they may be few and far between for them this season.

Finishing the weekend we have a good 3-2 win for Norwich over Wolves, 34yo Romelu Lukaku scoring for Wolves late on.

James Errington makes the EPL Team of the Week after his brace versus West Brom.

Our U23’s beat QPR 5-0 – Goals from 21yo MC Ricky Davies, 21yo STC Alan Short and a hat-trick from 19yo STC Shay Walker. BPD Vaclav Prochazka with 5 Key Passes and an assist, taking corners 🙂

It’s so nice to have a few really good young English players 🙂 James is getting better and better.

We’ve had the Carabao Cup 2nd Round Draw.

Bolton of League Two Away. They are relegated from League One last season and have been in League Two 5 years out of the last 7. They are secure financially now apparently.

Dundalk – They bomb out of the Europa League with a 2-0 aggregate loss to Universitatea Craiova of Romania… They play KR in the Conference League 4th Qualifying Round now. Win that and they will have Conference League Group Stage Football. Poor.

18yo Gary Lemon is off on loan to Oldham until Christmas. 2.5* PA.

Our U18’s drew 1-1 with Leicester – 17yo AMR Jamie Moncur with the goal.

We play Man Utd on the Sunday – As such there’s a Saturday programme to report on first.

Not a good start for Man City! 1 point from 6 As Liverpool demolish them at Anfield. Arsenal also get their second win away to Burnley. Fulham sneak past Villa and West Brom do a number on Spurs! Lastly Bournemouth showing they are going to be difficult opposition with a second point of the season versus Chelsea after drawing with Man City on opening day.

We are the 2pm kick-off as we make the short journey East to Old Trafford.

15th August 2027 – Man Utd (A) – English Premier League

FT Man Utd 4 (Chiesa 15, Dias 31, Rodrygo 45, Martinez 84) Everton 2 (Gomes 28, Errington 89) Att 75,635 (3,000 Away)

Man U lost 2-0 to Leicester on opening weekend at Leicester so I’m expecting a backlash from that. They have Lautaro Martinez up top and Bruno Fernandes still with them in the middle and overall have a cracking squad. Let’s give it a go. It’s a man-for-man 4-4-2 battle. Maybe a more defensive approach? Quiet early on, with a couple of Everton highlights, both headers over. We go 1-0 down to a deep free kick – Chiesa breaking the offside trap to head past Rossi. Poor defending. But we get back level 13 minutes later – a ding-dong end-to-end phase of play ends up with a Toffee break – Gomes finishing with a placed-shot from the edge of the area after a final pass from Zhegrova. Interestingly I’d just pulled both lines back to Standard, so I’m taking full credit 🙂 I see Gomes is wanted by PSG… The lead lasts 3 minutes. Another set piece, Dias being in the right place to volley home after a corner pinged-about the 6-yard box. Bollocks. And it’s 3-1 just before the break – Rodrygo finishing off a good move. Lacking composure, losing the ball higher up the field, and this is what happens. Think i’ll try and slow it down a bit. 3-1 at the break. A flurry of Yellows at the start of the 2nd half for Man U. A quiet half, but Man U get their 4th in the 84th minute – Martinez with a header after fine work from Chiesa on the wing. Yep, not good enough (Yet). We get a consolation in the 89th – James Errington, anonymous all game, with a thunderbolt volley from 20 yards after a Zhegrova head-down. Man U then have the ball in the net again straight from kick-off, but Felix was a few yards off. It finishes 4-2 – Good lessons learned (Maybe two holding midfielders a la Southgate against the bigger teams??)

The Match stats really weren’t too bad, it’s just being clinical at this level. Norwich next up in 6 days. There’s one game left – the late Sunday game…

Leicester with a beat-down on Watford. Three teams 2-for-2. And on Monday Wolves lose 2-1 to Derby at home – The Newly-Promoted Rams now 2-for-2 as well!

Our U23’s beat Leicester 3-0 – 2 goals from 21yo MC Ricky Davies, 1 from Joe Aribo.

Jimmy Errington got in the EPD team of the week after his wonder-goal.

We have a Friday night game in the Premier Division – Brighton host Wolves. 1-1, 30yo Raphinha with the equaliser for Brighton.

And onto Saturday. There’s a 12:30, and it’s a biggie – Chelsea host Liverpool!

Before then our U18’s thump Sunderland 5-1 – goals from 17yo DC Lloyd Burton, and 2 braces – Jamie Moncur (170 AMR) and MotM Sean McCulloch (17yo AML).

Back to Stamford Bridge. Chelsea 1 Liverpool 2, a Dybala (Now 33) pen cancelled out by Frenkie de Jong (Now 30yo), and Casteneda (23yo Newgen Mexican) wins it for Liverpool 3 minuted from time. Liverpool 3-for-3!

21st August 2027 – Norwich (H) – English Premier League

FT Everton 0 Norwich 0 Att 34,032 (2,879 Away)

We host Patrick Vieira’s Norwich today in what could be a tricky fixture. Norwich finished mid table last season and are W1 D1 this season. We should beat them, but I’m hoping the 4-2 loss last time out won’t have affected the morale too much. 4-4-2 plays 4-2-3-1 Wide.

Norwich playing in Red today – Canary Yellow does not clash with our Blue. A quiet first half – We should possibly be 1-0 up after a fine break, Prescott’s shot parried by the Keeper, trickling past the post. 0-0 at the break. Jordan Pickford (33yo) has made a couple of good saves today, another one from Gomes at the start of the half. Norwich starting to look more dangerous – Tammy Abraham (now 29) having a 1-on-1 saved well by Rossi after a long bomb from Pickford. Time ticking down, and the chance for a winner missed – Jefferson Felliphe shooting wide after winning the ball back near the half-way line. And just after Alvarez breaks the line for Norwich, but misses with just Rossi in between him and the goal. It finishes 0-0, a fair result on the balance of play. Jordan Pickford man of the match with a 7.7!

Only Arsenal are now 3-from-3 with a good win over Leicester. Both Manchester’s get 1-0 wins away.

Bolton up next in the Carabao 2nd Round in 3 days – expect rotation 🙂

There were a couple of Sunday games – Leeds hammering Fulham (Who we travel to in the League next) 5-2, West Brom winning the Midlands Derby over Villa 1-0.

Our U23’s drew 1-1 with West Brom – 19yo STC Shay Walker with the goal.

24th August 2027 – Bolton (A) – Carabao Cup 2nd Round

FT Bolton 0 Everton 3 (Felliphe 34, Prescott 61, 90+3) Att 28,018 (1,400 Away)

We make the short trip to Bolton to face a side 5th in League Two currently. Since their relegation to League Two in game in 19/20 they’ve been in League Two in all but two years. I’ve rotated (I’ve not got a massive first team squad but I’m resting most of the First Teamers) and I hope that doesn’t mean a disjointed performance. 4-4-2 v 4-4-2.

A quiet start in the pouring rain. We take the lead in the 34th minute, Jefferson Felliphe with a fine finish after a corner wasn’t cleared particularly well. Assist for Mitchell Douglas (England U21 that we picked up from Sporting Kansas City in the summer). Bolton with the bigger share of possession interestingly, but we go in 1-0 up. 2-0 in the 61st after a 6-yard-box pingathon. Prescott with the final touch, 19yo Mexican Libero(!) Fernando Trujillo with the assist. Vaclav Prochaska (18yo Czech Wonderkid) comes on for 20 playing as BBM and looks like an absolute nuisance. At 6ft 5in he really stands out. And in stoppages Prescott gets his second of the game after a fine break and 70-yard run by Ricky Davies on the left. 3-0 it finished, a professional performance.

No real shocks in the other games.

Just one game left this month – Fulham at Craven Cottage in the League in 5 days.

We’ve had 5 international call-ups for the start of September window – Rafa Munoz to Spain U23, Kris De Moor to Belgium U21, Tiberiu Hagi, on loan at Konyaspor to Romania U21, Jamal Lewis to Northern Ireland and Keeper Matteo Rossi to the Belgium first team.

No real shocks in the other 2nd Round games in the Carabao.

We’ve had the 3rd Round draw…

A toughie – Norwich away (again). Note Liverpool v Man City 🙂 This will be in late September.

Another 11 players with international call-ups:

• Joe Aribo (Nigeria)
• Vaclav Prochazka (Czechia U21)
• Mitchell Douglas (England U21)
• Gareth Cross (England U20)
• Obinna Ali (England U20)
• Olexandr Zinchenko (Ukraine)
• Steven Guest (England U19)
• Chris Whitehead (England U19)
• Dario Maresic (Austria)
• Edon Zhegrova (Kosovo)
• Fernando Trujillo (Mexico U23)

Our U18’s beat Norwich 3-1 – goals from Jimmy King (16yo MC) and a brace from AML Joseph Thornton

There was a 8-game Saturday program before we play on Sunday.

Norwich with a big win versus Chelsea in Injury time. They may be the weak link where we could sneak 4th as Liverpool, Man U and Man City are all a bit naughty. Arsenal are not bad either.

29th August 2027 – Norwich (H) – English Premier League

FT Fulham x (Diego 66) Everton x (Prescott 24) Att 28,000 (2,800 Away)

We make the trip to SW6 to face a Fulham side sitting 17th, W1 L2, and who were thumped 5-2 by Leeds last time out and 3-0 by Lille 3 days ago in the Conference League 4th Qually Round, so I’m hoping to pile on the misery. Rafa Munoz is already off on international duty so Dodo gets a full game. 5-4-1 Fulham.

Quiet again from a highlight standpoint, Zhegrova picking up a tight groin early, Ricky Davies on in his place. We take the lead in the 24th minute, a well worked move across the face of the Fulham area ends with Prescott getting a tap-in, Jimmy Errington with the nod-down assist. They look dangerous on the break – we are having lots of chances, just a lack of composure I think. 1-0 at the break.

Fulham have the better of it in the 2nd half, and get back to 1-1 in the 66th – Gomes losing the ball high up, Fulham break and Diego finishing well. Poor. And Fulham score again near the end, but Wilmot was offside. 1-1 it finished. We dominated, but lack composure.

We’ve got to be doing better than that. Hoping its early-season gelling that is required. Watford look doomed already. And I need talisman Matt Harris back!

That’s it for games for the month, as a load of players go off on international duty.

Seen a news article – apparently Lionel Messi is manging Kasimpasa In the Turkish Super Lig……..

Our U23’s beat Norwich 2-0 – goals from 19yo STC Kevin Kennedy and 18yo MotM MC Stephen Garner.

And in the Auto Windscreens (Then Leasing.com Trophy) our U23’s went t o Valley Parade to play Bradford, winning 6-1! Goals from 19yo DL Jason Purrington, a brace from 22yo STC Alan Short and a hat-trick from 19yo Shay Walker. £12k for the win 🙂

We are 8th in the EPL by Commercial Income (£44M – Chelsea top at £238M, Newcastle bottom at just under £12M). we are 7th in leading player production (16, Man City & Chelsea on 34)

Ezequial Barco has gone to AS Saint-Etienne on loan until the end of the season – 70% of his wage (£55k/wk) being paid.

A bit of an up-and-down month – Can’t afford the draws. Three league games and the cup, including the Merseyside Derby at Anfield. A tough start to the league. See you soon.

Welcome back to Goodison for the rebuild – We will play through the Summer of 2027 up until opening day.

Firstly all the end of season gumph.

Of the Current players we have Dodo and Prescott in the 1st XI, Rogerio, Maresic, Aribo & Chong on the bench.

Building for the Future with Matt Harris!

Everton had a horrendous first 5 games but were in a decent spot coming up to half-way through the season, but their drop in form saw me take over with them in 13th. We did very well to get back to 9th. Goodison is 95% full on average, may need an upgrade soon.

The Board are still ahppy with a top-half finish next season. Fine. Dynamics are Good/Very Good/Very Good, and the End of Season Team Meeting sees the team happy with going for a top-half finish in 27/28.

We get a £2.6m tax bill.

Will need to get back into Europe in 28/29 – hopefully UCL!!! 279k shirts sold which is really good.

Wage Budget – £2.6M/Week (Current £2.4M). Transfer Budget £65M. Will try and break even.

What did I say! – Goodison will be expanding to 50,000 capacity, ready by the end of September!!! £38M, £3.6k per seat… That will be the 8th biggest stadium in the EPL with West Ham and Newcastle, in the Championship promotion playoff both having larger capacities.

Matt Harris set a club record with 13 assists last season. Looking for a lot more next.

Three of the lads get International call-ups for the June internationals (Euro 2028 Quallies)

Takeover Rumours not to be believed apparently… Might try and get some transfer business done relatively early just in case.

Tahith Chong and Yusuf Yazici (Not our Player, on loan from Marseille) also get international callups. And A couple of days later Jamal Lewis is called up to the Northern Ireland squad,

Three more call-ups, plus Gbamin & Aribo are going to the African Nations Cup in Mali.

James Errington came 3rd in the EPL Player of the Month award for May. I came 2nd in manager of the Month.

We are currently £42M in the black – the £38M ground expansion offset by £42M sponsorship.

One of the Kids, Stewart Ferguson (18yo DC) is called up to the Scottish U19’s.

Somehow I’m only a C+ with the board!!!

NEW SIGNING

Rafael Munoz (19yo CWB, Spanish U21 international) comes in from AA Gent in Belgium for £25M on a 5 year deal. Mad physicals for his age and 2-footed, looking forward to seeing him develop. He will be sharing time this coming season with Dodo at right back. He will come in at the start of the transfer window in a week.

We’ve had the first of the internationals – Edon Zhegrova getting a goal in Kosovo’s 4-1 win over Andorra. Tahith Chong played 64 minutes in The Netherlands 3-1 loss to Poland and Yusuf Yazici played 56 minutes in Turkey’s 8-0 win over Lithuania.

More call-ups – Garreth Cross, Obinna Ali and Stephen Garner go to the England U19’s, Matt Harris to the Germany first-team.

Dario Maresic played in Austria’s 4-1 win over Belarus and Olexandr Zinchenko played in The Ukraine’s 1-0 loss to Belgium.

NEW SIGNING

Look at the state of this Fella!! Jefferson Felliphe (18yo MR Wonderkid, Brazilian U20 caps) joins on a 5-year deal for £23M from Sao Paulo. 3* CA, 5* PA, again, mad physicals, he will be sharing the right-wing role with Mathieu Renault.

More internationals – Edon Zhegrova played 90 in Kosovo’s brilliant 0-0 with The Netherlands and Yusuf Yazici also played 90 in Turkey’s 4-0 win over Andorra.

Jamal Lewis played in Northern Ireland’s 1-0 win over Croatia – David Dallas with the goal 🙂

First 2 in – B-‘s…

Dario Maresic played 90 in Austria’s 2-1 win over Belarus and Olex Zinchenko played 64 minutes in the Ukraine’s 2-1 loss to Romania.

The Euro U21’s have started – France drawing 2-2 with Spain, Mathieu Renault played the last 24 minutes.

PLAYER LEAVING

Didn’t know much about this, 15yo left-back Andy McEvoy goes to Spurs for £3.9M going up to £7M. He has potential, but will need a lot of development to get there. 40% of the profit of the next sale as well could be nice.

Some more internationals – Jean-Phillipe Gbamin played in Cote D’Ivoire’s 1-0 win over Venezuela and Joe Aribo played in Nigeria’s 1-1 draw with South Korea.

PLAYER LEAVING

29yo Club Captain Leonardo Forcato goes to China for £25M – On 1st July.

Some Euro U21’s action. Enzo Lacoste played 7 minutes in France’s 3-1 win over Italy, Mathieu renault played 24 minutes. new signing Rafael Munoz played 29 minutes in Spain U21’s 4-1 win over Norway.Stewart Ferguson played 72 minutes of Scotland U19’s 2-2 draw with Russia and a couple of the lads played in England U19’s 2-0 win over Belgium – Garreth Cross and Stephen Garner.

NEW SIGNING

We welcome 19yo Kris de Moor (Belgian U21 international, MC Playmaker) for £25M from AA Gent (again). Another wonderkid, Kris is resolute and is just an all-around beastie of a player. Like the other 2 signings he comes in ranked as the best in the squad in his position!! He will make a formidable midfield even better with Gomes and Lacoste.

I get a B for that one 🙂

the Irish Premier Division up to 34th best league now 🙂 Just below the Slovak first division 🙂

More internationals. New-Boy Kris de Moor played in Belguim U21’s 4-1 win over Ireland, getting a goal. Tahith Chong played in The Netherlands 3-0 win over Iceland and Yusuf Yazici played in Turkey’s 1-0 loss to Ecuador.

PLAYERS LEAVING

Another kid going – striker Gary Moss to Leeds. Not too bothered by this one though, only a 47 Scout report.

33yo Emre Can off to Brighton. Good business, even though we are paying just under £20k/Wk of his wages.

18yo Mark May goes to Fulham for £3.8M. Another youngster with a bit of potential, but will need to work very hard to achieve it (47 Scout report).

And 20yo Midfielder Dean Miley is off to Huddersfield for £93k

26yo Nathan Ferguson goes to West Ham. 2.5* CA on £57k/wk – a good deal (39 Scout Rating!!)

France U21’s beat Norway 5-1 – Both Enzo Lacoste and Mathieu Renault getting sub appearances. Rafa Munoz played 58 minutes in Spain U21’s 0-0 with Italy.

PLAYER LEAVING

Alex Richardson (23yo STC) goes to AFC Wimbledon for £160k. 40 Scout rating.

James Errington played the full 90 as England U21’s beat Poland 4-0. New-boy Kris de Moor played in Belgium’s 1-0 loss to Russia.

Marco Kana (24yo DM & Belgian International) goes to Zenit for £14.25M. 49 scout rating and doesn’t fit out formation going forward.

Jean Gbamin had a shocker for Cote D’Ivoire versus Angola – 5.9 and a sending off.

Joe Aribo played 90 in Nigeria’s 3-1 win over Guinea-Bissau in the African Nations.

James Errington had some sub time in England U21’s 2-1 win over Portugal. Lacoste and renault both had time in France U21’s 2-2 with Belgium. Rafa Munoz had 17 minutes in Spain U21’s 2-0 win over Russia.

More consortium takeover rumours… glad I’ve got a good few bits done already.

PLAYER JOINING

19yo Romanian Centre-back Tiberiu Hagi joins for £1M from Dunarea Calarasi. 82 Scout Rated, 4.5* PA, very promising indeed for very little outlay.

Really solid, good attributes in the right areas.

And a B for that signing.

Enzo Lacoste and Mathieu Renault had more sub time for France U21’s in their 2-1 loss to Spain in the 1st Euro U21 Semi Final – Rafa Munoz started for Spain.

James Errington played in England U21’s 1-0 loss to Germany in the 2nd of the Euro U21 Semi Final.

Fixtures released – We start at home to West Brom, my first Merseyside Derby is in mid-September 🙂 We get £95.1M for TV Rights for the coming season. The main issue why English teams are a bit OP in FM. I notice we get that in dribs and drabs though, so it doesn’t help at the moment.

Joe Aribo played in Nigeria’s 1-0 win over DR Congo, getting an assist.

Matt Harris’ 7.51 average from 43 appearances is a new Everton record.

Jean Gbamin played in Cote D’Ivoire’s 3-0 win over Burkina Faso.

(Some of) the players are now back in training at the start of pre-season.

Kris De Moor scored in Belgium U21’s 3-1 win over Denmark and Rafa Munoz played in the U21 Final for Spain, losing 1-0 to Germany.

We are in Hong Kong for a 10-day Training Camp – Just arranged a couple of friendlies.

Joe Aribo played in Nigeria’s 1-0 loss to The Gambia.

PLAYER LEAVING

20yo ML Sean Fox is moving to Rotherham – He will be out of contract at the end of the game day so is valued at £170 🙂

A few other players released.

C+ with the board – they don’t like that we’ve spent money to get the wonderkids in the door.

PLAYER SIGNING

20yo Belgian U21 GK Matteo Rossi joins from St. Truidense for £21M. Already rated higher than Rogerio Matteo has 5* Potential – Another massive building block in for the future.

PLAYER LEAVING

31yo Jean Gbamin off to Valencia. 40 Scout Rated.

30yo Lucas Tousart off to St. Petersburg. 49 Scout Rated.

So we now have £43M in the bank, a Transfer Budget of £66M but are £13k/Week over wage budget. Need to get rid of a few more of the oldies.

And we reach our first friendly – The John Stones Testimonial versus newly-crowned Champions of Europe Man City.

3rd July – Friendly – Man City 2 (Sterling 36, Rodrigo 53) Everton 3 (Nketiah 15, 51, Gomes 67) Att 55,097 (2,754 Away)

Since leaving Everton in 2016 John Stones has been ever-present for man City IRL and in-game, until last season when he only played 8 times (He’s 33 in game). Just expecting a run-out this evening. But we ended up running out as winners against a strong side containing De Bruyne and the like. Very impressive, Nketiah was on fire.

Expecting 27,400 Season tickets to be sold this season, not bad.

Our star man – 5* CA.

Joe Aribo played in Nigeria’s 3-0 win over Ghana in the African Cup of Nations 2nd Round.

We are now on our training camp in Hong Kong, and we have a friendly versus Happy Valley.

7th July 2027 – Friendly – Happy Valley 0 Everton 10 (De Moor 2, Lacoste 17, Felliphe 27, Zhegrova 33, Terrier 39, Nketiah 46, Renault 50, Harris 53, Errington 67, Gomes 69) Att 3,200 (160 Away)

As expected a big win, but the extraordinary thing was it was 10 different scorers 🙂

A week now before the 2nd friendly of the Tour (Kitchee) so time to get some good training done and go and see the sights 🙂

Joe Aribo played in Nigeria’s 1-0 African Nations Quarter Final win versus hosts Mali.

Our U18’s lost 2-0 to Reading in their first friendly.

James Errington also showing improvements – not far behind Matt Harris.

Our U23’s draw 1-1 with Dartford in their first friendly – Goal from a non-player.

The Euro U19’s has now started – Obinna Ali & Garreth Cross played in England’s 4-0 loss to Spain.

Joe Aribo played in Nigeria’s 0-0 with Cote D’Ivoire and subsequent penalty loss in the African Nations Semi Final.

14th July 2027 – Friendly – Kitchee 0 Everton 16 (Prescott 3, 24, 32, De Moor 35, Errington 45+3, 66, Nketiah 47, 78, Zhegrova 50, 52, Lacoste 56, de Jong 58, Terrier 71, 73, Renault 75, 89) Att 6,374 (1,519 Away)

Our 2nd friendly in Hong Kong. A nice morale booster 🙂

PLAYER LEAVING

Tahith Chong goes to Lyon. that’s £100k wages back. and a bit of spending money. Transfer Budget now £97M, and we have £110k wages below budget.

Gavin Coyle and Garreth Cross played in England U19’s 1-0 loss to France.

We are back in the UK after our training Camp – sneaking in a home friendly as I’ve been inundated by Friendly offers from far and wide – this may be our only home friendly.

17th July 2027 – Friendly – Everton 4 (Dodo 23, Zhegrova 43, Prescott 50, Davies 66) Chorley 0 Att 16,454 (66 Away)

Chorley are in the Vanarama National in game. A solid win.

NEW SIGNINGS

19yo Mexican U20 International Fernando Trujillo (Left footed BPD/Libero) joins from Chivas for £3M. 76 rated by the scouts, gets a B+ from the fans. He has some brilliant physicals for his age – looking forward to seeing him progress.

21yo England U20 international Mitchell Douglas joins from Sporting Kansas City for £10M. He started his career at Aston Villa before moving to the MLS. A B-, but mainly another Englishman in the squad.

Solid, great passing, teamwork & work rate plus naturally fit – BBM I think.

Garreth Cross got a few minutes in England U19’s 2-1 win over Scotland.

Our U23’s beat Bolton U23’s 61- – goals from 21yo AMC Nathan Smith, a brace from 19yo Shay Walker and a hat-trick from 33yo Yussuf Poulsen.

PLAYER LEAVING (LOAN)

23yo DC Joe Smith-Dalton goes back to Eintracht Frankfurt of the Bundesliga for the season. he’s 47 rated by our scouts, so nice to get his wages covered. He played 26 times for them last season and played 34 for Rangers the season before.

21st July 2027 – Friendly – Southampton 0 Everton 2 (Aribo 84, Nketiah 90) Att 10,105 (1,521 Away)

We travel to St. Mary’s to play newly-relegated Southampton this afternoon. We ground them down and two good goals from Aribo and Nketiah got us over the line. Nketiah will be getting a fair amount of game-time this season.

An interesting piece – We are the best of the rest in matchday income after the big 6. The capacity increase to 50,000 will help narrow that gap to Liverpool.

7th favourites, so just outside the big 6, not far off of Spurs – I want top 6 this season and Europe next.

New-Boy Fernando Trujillo played 90-mins for Mexico U22’s(!) 1-0 loss against Uruguay in the 2027 Pan-American Games.

Our U18’s drew 2-2 with Notts Forest, goals from 17yo AML Sean McCulloch & 16yo MC Jimmy King.

24th July 2027 – Friendly – AS Monaco 0 Everton 2 (Errington 21 De Moor pen 26) Att 17,998 (899 Away)

A decent test today against a Monaco side that finished 2nd in Ligue 1 last season and got to the Europa League Quarters (Knocked out by Ajax). Monaco have a 33yo Eric Dier playing as right-back. A good win, we dominated the first half but had to tighten up in the last 10 as Tiberiu Hagi got sent off for a professional foul. Regardless a really decent win.

Almost 31,000 Season Tickets sold – Solid seeing as we only have a 34,700 capacity until late September.

PLAYER LEAVING (LOAN)

33yo Yussuf Poulsen goes to Trabzonspor for the season – Now £120k/wk under wage budget which is cool.

Our U23’s beat Plymouth 5-0 – Ricky Davies (21yo MC) With all 5 goals!

27th July 2027 – Friendly – AZ Alkmaar 2 (Koopmeiners 22, Hajib 90+1) Everton 1 (Errington 48) Att 25,211 (x Away)

We make the trip to the Netherlands to play an AZ side that finished last season 4th in the Eredivisie and had UCL football, finishing bottom of Group G. Somehow we lost a game where we had 41 shots to 4 against. Plus Harris got an upper body injury and De Jong got sent off for a gorgeous sliding tackle. Totally FM’d

Matt Harris – Broken Ribs – 5 to 8 Weeks. Fuck Off.

PLAYERS LEAVING (LOAN)

Martin Terrier goes off to Slavia Prague until the New Year – More money coming back in. £200k wage budget and £80M transfer budget left – And I have my one a beautiful Brazilian wonderkid…

Tiberiu Hagi goes off to Konyaspor to get decent amounts game time in a decent league. The next Gica (Gheorghe) Popescu apparently (Spurs and Braca in the mid 90’s)

Our U23’s lost 2-1 to Watford, 20yo STC Lee Robinson with the goal.

Fernando Trujillo played 90 in Mexico U22’s 3-0 loss to Argentina in the Pan-American Games.

32yo Yerry Mina also off to Slavia Prague until Christmas. Just under £300k/wk wages left now.

31st July 2027 – Friendly – Atlanta (ARG) 0 Everton 5 (Felliphe 1, Prescott 14, De Moor 30, Prescott 36, Nketiah 74) Att 7,182 (1,264 Away)

We make the trip to Argentina to play 2nd Division Club Atletico Atlanta (I fucked up, was positive that was Atalanta) in a testimonial for Nicolas Previtali, 32yo Playmaker. Why did they ask us? Very odd. A decent result seeing that Kris De Moor got sent off for absolutely nothing in the first half.

So that’s that for friendlies, I will run through until the morning of the first league game versus West Brom.

Dundalk – Out in the 2nd Qual Rnd of the UCL on away goals to Qarabag!!! FFS. Europa League 3rd Quallies versus Craiova for them next. Very very disappointing.

As we tick into August I’m a C+ with the board (They haven’t liked the firesale) but Dynamics are Good/Excellent/Very Good, so not been affected too much.

We lose Rogerio (Joint best Keeper with Rossi) for a few weeks with a Groin Strain.

Our U23’s beat South Shields 3-0 – Goals from 20yo DC Harry Boyle and a brace from 21yo Des Higgins.

We’re at Transfer Deadline Day – I have 1 iron in the fire currently, from Czechia (The Brazilian I mentioned above came back with a 58 Scout rating and wasn’t as good in the areas I needed as I thought he was.)

Dundalk see Colm McShane to Motherwell for £230k…

NEW SIGNING

18yo 91-Scout-Rated Wunderkind Vaclav Prochazka (D/AMC) joins from Banik Sotrava for his release fee (£11.75M).

At 6ft 5in with 20 Flair and 16 Tackling I will be training him as a BPD. And he’s a Lefty as well. Glorious.

PLAYERS LEAVING (SALE & LOAN)

16yo Brian Whelan (27 scout rated) MC goes to Leeds for £1.2M

21yo STC Des Higgins goes to Portsmouth in the Championship for the season.

We are 9th in Wages/Week in the EPL – Moneybags Bournemouth the highest outside the Top 6. Burnley bottom ay £1.1M/wk

The Transfer Window is done – we were biggest spenders overall (£120M on 8 players)

We did raise £145M to do what we needed though, really trimming the fat. Very happy with the players we have now in our 25.

Hoping that the young defenders we have brought in kick on. We are a bit reliant on Matt Harris on the left, and will be without him for the first 3 weeks of the season. And maybe in January we will have a look at a 4th striker, but apart from that all good.

A decent pre-season, The AZ game a blip and major FM-ing. 5 games in the next post – Man U will be a good test early doors, anything from that game would be superb and we have a Carabao Cup 2nd round game where some of the Kiddies will get a game. See you soon.

Welcome back to Merseyside for the end of the 2026/27 Season. Three League games and the FA Cup Final 🙂

No losses in my 6 games with Everton so far – W5 D1 – And I’m hoping to maintain that. But mainly we need to win the FA Cup Final to get European Football next season (I’m pretty sure that’s still the case in game)

We’ve signed Attacking wideman Bradley Prescott to a 5-year contract – £85k/wk for a 23yo 4* CA player worth £50M.

Enzo Lacoste comes 2nd in the EPL Young Player of the Month for April.

I get 3rd in manager of the Month – Eddie Howe (Man Utd) and Tommy Tuchel (Liverpool) 1st and 2nd.

18yo Keeper Gavin Coyle has been called up to the england U20 World Cup squad.

We are the late game again on Saturday 1st May, and there are some interesting results before the game.

Chelsea remain in charge with 2 games left – a good 3-0 win versus Leicester. Liverpool dispatch Millwall and Arsenal go to Vicarage Road and dismantle Watford but the biggest shock of the day was at the City of Manchester Stadium – West Brom with a massive win, putting them 4 points clear of the relegation zone, Man City almost certainly not going to win the league now, 5 points behind Chelsea. Fulham have 6th place in their hands as well as Tottenham lose 2-1 to a Southampton side still 2 points from safety, Derby with a game-in-hand in 17th. Millwall all-but-mathematically relegated.

1st May 2027 – Norwich (H) – English Premier League

FT Everton 4 (Renault pen 12, Errington 52, 70, Nketiah 90+5) Norwich 1 (Dodo o.g. 75) Att 35,376 (2,115 Away)

Norwich have a had a good season and will be a tough opponent – lots of losses recently but to the top 6 mainly. A quiet opening, but we get a penalty in the 12th minute – Dodo fouled (very soft) by Andy Robertson. Mathieu Renault steps up… 1-0 Everton, tucked bottom right past Jordan Pickford (33yo, left Everton for £9M just before the 25/26 season). Norwick playing Cautiously. Everton very much on top, but its a pretty dour half highlight-wise. 1-0 at the break. Should have been 2-0 in the 50th minute, Prescott missing a 1-on-1 after a great counter. We do go 2-0 up a couple of minutes later, Errington with a nice header from a Renault cross, again after a fine team move and work from Prescott. And we make it 3-0 in the 70th minute – Errington again stabbing home from close range after great battling, another fine team move, Lacoste and Harris involved. Disappointingly Norwich get a goal back in the 75th minute – Dodo with the final touch as a back-post header from a corner deflects in off of him. Time ticks down and we seal the deal 5 minutes into a stoppages, another clinical counter, Eddie Nketiah finishing beautifully. It finishes 4-1 – A brilliant performance.