Results tagged “Pre-season” from Everton Banter - Join the debate with EFC fans, staff writers and club legends
DAVID MOYES pulled no punches today as he delivered a damning verdict on Everton's latest defeat and needless red card for James Vaughan.
The Blues lost for the third time in five pre-season games in the early hours of the morning - this time a 2-0 defeat against Chicago Fire - and Moyes' mood was darkened further by an awful tackle from Vaughan, for which he was rightly sent off.
IT'S a scene being played out at the homes of many Evertonians this summer. Desperate for any smidgeon of transfer gossip, supporters are scouring the newspapers, trawling the internet and flicking manically through television channels in search of even the tiniest rumour.
Hours are lost fuelling the addiction of knowing who is interested in whom, which player is moving where and, more importantly, any snippet of Everton-related news.
Those fans might be surprised to learn they are not alone in this quest for information.
NO doubt the vast majority of Evertonians were encouraged this week when they read that progress is being made with David Moyes's contract.
However, it might be a bit premature to then deduce that the manager must have been reassured that he has a decent transfer fund, and that in turn we can expect to see some big names doing the whole shirt-holding thing any time soon.
While we would all like to believe that the only thing that matters to the manager, or any other employee of the club, is how they can do their bit to ensure progress is made on the pitch, you can almost certainly guarantee that the delays over Moyes's new deal will have revolved around his remuneration, and not cash for players
THERE would seem few places more appropriate than the glorious surrounds of the Alps for Everton to start climbing their pre-season mountain in earnest.
And while Saturday's scoreline was not as easy on the eye as the scenery, there were enough positive sights for David Moyes to be satisfied with his team's Swiss sojourn.
The week-long training camp served to blow off the cobwebs on the available senior professionals while handing a clutch of young hopefuls the chance to stake their fledgling claims.
LEIGHTON BAINES is ready to hand David Moyes an early pre-season fitness boost by taking his comeback from ankle surgery up another level.
Everton's left-back was operated on days after the most recent campaign ended to rectify a long-standing problem, but there were fears he could be out for as long as four months.
Given that he missed so many games last season due to a number of niggling injuries, that would have been a huge blow for Baines, who cost the Blues £6m when he arrived from Wigan
EVERTON kick-off their summer fixtures with a trip to Marc Hottiger's old club FC Sion.
Right-back Hottiger was capped 63 times by the Swiss national side but made just 17 appearances for the Goodison Park outfit between 1995-97 when he was signed by Joe Royle from Newcastle United to provide cover for Earl Barrett.
Indeed, during his time on Merseyside, Hottiger played as many games for his country as he did for his club.
EVERTON return to pre-season training in a fortnight's time.
But don't expect the usual ECHO picture of a gaggle of giggling players jogging through Croxteth Park sporting ill-advised tints and Caribbean tans.
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