Everton FC: A European Dream

Everton appoint a new man in charge!

Bill Kenwright has today announced the arrival of new man Mark Tonge to the club. Tonge will take the hot seat left available by the departure of David Moyes at the end of last season. Tonge has no management experience but Kenwright spotted something in the young manager and believes he will be the right man to guide the Toffees to European success.

Tonge is said to be relishing his first job in management and after a stelling career for his beloved club Northwich Victoria which led him to an extraordinary call all to the England squad where he played 31 games and scored 14 goals. The highlight of these was a hattrick against Moldova.

Tonge has issued a statement which was released on the offical Everton website:
'I stand here today, as a proud new manager. I hope that the Everton fans give me both the time and support that they gave David Moyes and together I think that we can build on what started. With the limited budget that I have been given, the Chairman and I have both decided that players will have to leave in order for me to get the required budget I will need to mount a European challenge within the next few years. I have a wealth of targets that I aim to bring into the club and I feel that these will help strengthen this club for many years to come. I cannot wait to start and let the challenge begin!'

http://s589.photobucket.com/user/TongeyLad/media/Everton.png.html

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Transfers

Outgoing

3 out and 4 in!

Tonge has begun to put his own stamp on his newly acquired Everton team and the fans haven't taken to like some of his transfer dealings. The fans are said to be very unhappy with the fact that their new manager allowed arguably their two most influential players to depart. Tonge released this statement to the fans 'The decision to let Marouane and Leighton go was not an easy one to make. The decision was made purely on the basis that the club needs money to move forward so we made the decision to let them go for the money we thought they were worth. I promise that the club will not be damaged with the departure of these two players'.

Tonge has already bought in his replacements for the outgoing players and hopes that they can make an instant impact for the club.

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August

Tonge enjoys a mixed bag of results in his opening month as new manager of Everton.

Premier League

Wigan Athletic (A) 1-1
Steven Naismith (pen 30)
Steven Naismith missed pen (63)
Bryan Oviedo

A disappointing start as manager, I expected a win out of this game to be honest and I thought we had it when we were awarded 2 penalties. It's a shame that Naismith could only slot away one of them. All the same I'll take a point in my opening game.

Southampton (H) 2-1
Leonard Kweuke (8,29)
Leonard Kweuke

A nice first win for the club in the Premier League. Leonard Kweuke absolutely dominated the game, and bagged his first and second goal for the club. I'm hoping that he will start banging them in on a regular basis now.

Capital One Cup

Nottingham Forest (H) 3-1
Shane Duffy (17)
Nikica Jelavic (36)
Daniel Ayala (74)
Nikica Jelavic missed pen (3)
David Ospina

A good solid win here in the cup with a rotated squad. I was trying to give some of my reserve players a run out to see what they could do and they delivered. I need my penalty takers to start becoming consistent though as I can see it becoming a problem in the future.

September

Premier League

Norwich City (A) 1-0

A disappointing start to the month, a match that really swung both ways and one that both teams could have stolen the points.

Arsenal (H) 2-0
Seamus Coleman (38)
Kevin Mirallas (50(
Leonard Kweuke

A massive result and one that I really wanted to win. We defended brilliantly and Leonard Kweuke was outstanding upfront, he held up the ball and linked play with ease. A massive 3 points in the season.

Chelsea (H) 1-0
Steven Naismith (70)
Sylvain Distin

Another huge result, to build on the win against Arsenal. We are starting to make Goodison Park a fortress which is needed if we want to mount a European challenge. Again a good performance from the defence and Naismith grabbed us a winner late in the game.

Manchester City (A) 3-1
Leonard Kweuke (59)

A game which I didn't expect anything out of, and it happened that way. We were pretty poor in the first half and allowed them to dominate for most of it. We came back stronger in the second half but it was too late and Kweuke grabbed us a consolation goal.

Capital One Cup

Aston Villa (H) 2-4
Nikica Jelavic (14)
Phil Jagielka (60)
John Heitinga (47)

A very poor game from us, never really got going and let Aston Villa dominate us in all areas of the pitch. I had given professional debuts to two players. A rotated squad once again, but disappointed with the way in which we were knocked out of the cup.

Young Player of the Month

Ross Barkley
Ross Barkley took the September young player of the month award with some outstanding performances which woed the fans at Goodison Park.

He beat the likes of Aston Villa's Christian Benteke and Manchester United's David De Gea.

October

Premier League

Fulham (H) 1-0

A poor game from us, Fulham passed us off the park and we were outnumbered in the middle. A disappointing performance led to a disappointing result.

Sunderland 0-0

Another poor game, against a team we should really be beating due to their poor league position and recent performances. Neither side really got going with very few shots on goals for both teams. A middle of the park battle that never really took off.

West Brom 2-0
Sylvain Distin (15)
Leon Osman (77)
Sylvain Distin

A good end to the month in a game we dominated from the start. Sylvain Distin was a rock at the back and came up with a goal in the first half to set us on our way. Some more performances like this are needed if we want to climb the league.