So here it is, the official Everton match thread. I checked to make sure there weren’t any others, like.
The largely middle aged demographic of Sotonians will know that Everton is not a happy hunting ground. Goodison is a grand old stadium, it’s true, but it seems deliberately contrived to give away teams and fans a disadvantage. For “restricted views”, read air raid shelter at best, pillarbox at worst, and yes, we did still have some of those about when I was a kid. I have frames of reference. That’s why I’ve not bought tickets in that shit this time.
This is a game we should be hugely up for, and I fancy the fans to be well-oiled and raucous by the half five kick off. I’ve done this fixture for a few years on the trot now. Everton fans are pretty quiet when we play them, something I’ve moaned about to my Blue mates, they say they’re a lot louder for the bigger games. Their “noisy” end is Gwladys St, and that is nowhere near the away fans. When people come to St Mary’s, they get stick in stereo
No idea whether any of you lot read this. I missed it due to the travelling. It is about PEH and his struggle to come to terms with the death of his father and the support Pep gave to him. It is a long story!
It is a really good read.
Feel guilty now not voting for him in the player of the year awards
(Also perhaps a dig in there towards the end about our previous two managers vs what he experienced at Barca?)
But being the ‘Bayern Munich Boy’ has not always been beneficial. When he left the club in 2016 and joined Southampton, eager for more game-time than he was getting in Germany, it was a name tag around his neck that he could not easily cut off. Read more: Why Millwall should be your favourite Championship promotion contenders “It’s also been difficult,” he says. “They forget that when you’re playing in Bayern Munich, to have a bad pass doesn’t happen. You have the best players around you, you give it three metres, the guy takes two men out and he shoots on goal and you might have an assist. For me suddenly seeing things from another angle was very eye-opening. It is very hard, and it’s a hard school and it’s difficult to come through the Bayern Munich ranks because of the quality that is there. But it’s just a perfect club, in terms of setup, training, outside the pitch, all aspects. You come to another level, some things are not there and then you start thinking: what is this? What is that?
Everton are shite and there for the taking, the bookies have us favourites and they won’t be 100% trying as the fans want Allardyce out, if we go one up the atmosphere will be toxic, they hate Allardyce far far more than they did Koeman.
It should be interesting, looking forward to it.
Southampton got a great win over Bournemouth on Saturday, which was their first home league victory since they beat Everton 4-1 at St Mary’s in November.
David Unsworth was still in charge of the Toffees then, and a lot has changed for them since.
There could be more changes in the summer depending on what happens to Sam Allardyce but, unlike the Saints, they are not in any danger of the drop. In fact they are probably going to finish eighth.
Meanwhile Southampton are scrapping for their lives. They badly need a win to help them climb out of the bottom three, but I don’t think they will get it.
