Nine years ago today: Everton 4-0 Manchester City. 🔵

4 hour VAR check

An agency that clearly delivers for their clients

Hard to choose whether to watch The Traitors at 8pm tonight or that Claudia Winkleman thing on Bbc1.

You'll never sing that

On choosing new Head Coaches at biggest clubs: Personality match to club leadership is by far the most important thing. For big clubs - can they handle the media scrutiny. Easier for big name ex pros used to 24/7 surveillance. Can they lead a group? Hiring a front man - the band matters too.

The (player) wage disparities between England and mainland Europe are insane. League One players earn more than quite a lot of Europa League level starters. As for signing fringe players from Premier League 2 teams....some PL youth players are on 3x the salary of star players at decent sized teams

Sackings during transfer windows are always the sign of well managed clubs.

Luckily there are lots of available Head Coaches out there with the personality to manage huge clubs under intense pressure.

Simultaneous "what was the keeper doing" situations in the Old Firm and Premier League games.

Gyokeres discourse intensifying. Sesko was seen as the alternative and he is another player where people just aren't sure if he is worth the hype. Scoring goals is hard.

Merry Christmas, may all your presents be as exciting as a 36 year old Everton jigsaw.

Morocco overhead kick for the ages there.

So many football data jobs descriptions are: "Reinvent the wheel" Most of the the things they want people to do have either been done publicly, are available commercially, or tried by many and don't really give any useful output.

That was going wide

I know Liverpool are playing badly and have done so for a good few months but I'm surprised by the amount of seemingly genuine Slot out shouts. Did last season not buy him more than a few months of grace?

3 points off 3rd.

This player is a lot of fun. Suspect he will end up at a big Spanish club as soon as he is allowed to leave Peru.

Interesting BBC article on Tony Pulis and data in football. Quotes include "my database was in my head" Halfway through the article Tony talks about buying the Rothman's Football Yearbook. That was a printed database. Data = information

With the grumbling about Everton's summer recruitment there is quite a good debate about the strategy. There was a clear need to buy younger, they did. Are they starters? You can't get world class 20 year olds at Everton's level. Right positions? Right skillsets?

It's really hard to buy players with upside potential who will also immediately perform better than experienced, proven players. Particularly in the Premier League.

Dastan Satpayev, the Kazakh striker Chelsea have already signed looks fantastic. Scores every type of goal, fast, good close control.

As a 20 year subscriber to World Soccer it was exciting to be quoted in it.

xG gods worked against me today. Every client over +1 and no victory.

I hate that the online world I live in means that I know more about the New York mayoral election and Trump's advisors than I do about the people who I can actually vote for. I would not know my own MP if they walked past me but I could pick out Chuck Schumer in a look a like contest.

Anyone who says set pieces are boring football has never experienced an Andy Hinchcliffe corner. We used to celebrate the winning of a corner more than most teams celebrate goals.

Seeing that Kompany has signed a new deal at Bayern Munich, here is our article from that summer showing why the biggest clubs will go for coaches like him. mrktinsights.com/index.php/20...

They were giving away chilli peppers at a garden near me. I took home the hottest one for the novelty. Curiosity got the better of me so I tried the tiniest amount humanly possible. I am already regretting it, sweating with a feeling of impending doom.

One of the hardest things in football is keeping perspective. Players get written off after a few games in a new team. A defeat after a run of success means the world is ending. It happens with fans but also within clubs and is really disruptive. It is really hard for those under public scrutiny

Philogene is a cheat code at this level

Nothing lasts in football. Huge departmental restructures every 12-18 months with almost complete churn of staff are almost ubiquitous. Continuity is THE most underrated thing a club can have.

Just putting my T-shirt on and a massice HORNET is inside it and stings me on the arm. Great start to the day.

Great strike, terrible goalkeeping.

Prosper Peter (Angers) is worth a look.

You see some really, really beautiful internal player target presentations at clubs that have clearly had a lot of time put into them. But if your decision-makers are so remote from the process that you have to pitch to them should they be the people making the decision?

The sheer amount of time that goes into getting invoices paid in this industry is unbelievable. Luckily we have a nice client base who pay on time but there are some people/clubs who I would never work with again.

Cheering myself up at the state of the world by watching Botswana suddenly being so good at athletics.

It's finally happened. I've been on here long enough to self- congratulatory repost my correct takes from the past.

What a hattrick from Philogene.

Football has a way of constantly surprising you with just how crazy decisions can be made. Heard some genuinely staggering stories this week. A lack of basic ethics and morals abound in this industry.

Wages (and clauses) generally make up 50-100% of the cost of transfer but aren't public domain. So much of good player transfer work is minimising downside risk on the new contract.

Fame at last

If you are interested in how the FA reached their verdict in the Lucas Paqueta case you can read the full FA panel report here www.thefa.com/news/2025/se... I am pleased that our evidence (some would say "compelling"!) was helpful to the FA in reaching what we believe was the correct verdict.

Scienza sounds like a fun story. Third division regional footballer at 24. £8m Southampton player at 26. www.transfermarkt.co.uk/leo-scienza/...

Price anchoring is real. Much easier to sell a player for £10m if someone else has previously paid £20m for them. Even if they have shown nothing like the form to be worth £10m.

My once a year Sky Sports News viewing. Why are the men dressed in overly tight 3 piece suits with no ties?

Everon's reinvention as the league's great entertainers is going to take some getting used to. Grealish / Ndiaye / Dibbling / KDH / Armstrong Now Rohl too. Not sure where he'll play (Merlin won't play CAM a lot*) to be honest but looks another fun footballer *stolen joke

Championship teams dropping €20m+ on single players. Madness.

Dibling gives Everton a very exciting attacking lineup. And at least they work together on paper well with left/centre/right dribblers Clearly an excellent young player, great to finally have an asset. Base of midfield and fullback choices will have to reflect what is in front of them.

A few days in Germany / Austria One of my favourite regions in the world.