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.