Nathan Limior Takes on Everton and the Premier League

Fulham 0 - 0 Everton

We could have won this one if we were more patient and had better shot selection. Thankfully, Reading drew at home 1-1 against Swansea, so we gained a slight advantage since this is on the road.
Player of the Match: Brede Hangeland (Fulham)

Everton 0 - 0 Liverpool

A bore draw, but at least we neutralized Liverpool's star players.
Player of the Match: David Luiz (Liverpool)
Injury Update: Everton's Darron Gibson is out 3 months with a torn hamstring; he will miss the rest of the season, a terrible blow.

Mendy Struggling to Adapt

Benjamin Mendy has been given a leave of absence as he's struggled to adapt to England. He has returned to France for the time being.

Arsenal 2 - 0 Everton

Considering the large number of chances they had, they should have won this one by a few more.
Player of the Match: Ryan Shawcross (Arsenal)
Injury Update: Ross Barkley is out for 2 weeks with a thigh strain

Everton 1 - 0 Newcastle

Nikica Jelavic scored the decider for Everton when he stole the ball from a Newcastle defender, had a clear run on goal, and made it count.
Player of the Match: Khaleem Hyland (Everton)
Relegation Update: Blackburn and Derby have been relegated, leaving one spot left to be decided between Reading, Wigan, and Everton.

Man City Wins the Title

Man City have won their second consecutive Premier League championship. Getting to say I got one over on the champions is a big deal.

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It'll be a close run affair until the end of the season. I'll display the remaining fixtures for Everton, Wigan, Reading, and Queen's Park Fixtures and let you comment on who you think will get the third drop:

Everton (35 points)

Everton - West Ham
Reading - Everton
Derby - Everton

Wigan (39 points)

Norwich - Wigan
Wigan - Southampton
Manchester United - Wigan

Reading (38 points)

Tottenham - Reading
Reading - Everton
Reading - West Brom

Queen's Park Rangers (41 points)

Queen's Park Rangers - Arsenal
Liverpool - Queen's Park Rangers
Newcastle - Queen's Park Rangers

Everton 0 - 1 West Ham

Despite my best efforts at motivation, Everton decided not to come to play today. Kevin Nolan scored the winning goal and also got sent off.
Player of the Match: James Tomkins (West Ham)

Other Results

Norwich 2 - 1 Wigan
Queen's Park Rangers 0 - 2 Arsenal
Tottenham 0 - 1 Reading

Reading 0 - 3 Everton

John Stones had a great day, playing solid defensively, sometimes having to last-chance defend, and even scoring the first goal for Reading. Reading was threatening to equalize, but Steven Plenaar hit Reading on the counterattack for Everton's second goal, and Javad Nekounam converted a penalty for a third goal and a big win to stay alive.
Player of the Match: Phil Jagielka (Everton)
Injury Update: Everton's Ross Barkley will be out 6-7 weeks after suffering broken ribs.

Other Results

Liverpool 2 - 1 Queen's Park Rangers
Wigan 1 - 2 Southampton

It's very simple. Everton have to win at Derby and Manchester United merely have to draw against Wigan. Queen's Park Rangers are also vulnerable with a loss at Newcastle, since they're lower on goal differential. West Brom would have to beat Reading by at least 4 goals for Reading to be relegated.

Benjamin Mendy Update

Benjamin Mendy has returned to Everton and has assured supporters that he has gotten over his homesickness.

Jagielka Rallies the Troops

Phil Jagielka has made it very well-known to his fellow players how it is necessary to beat Derby to have any chance of avoiding the drop.

Derby 0 - 0 Everton

Derby were the more likely to make something happen, as Richard Keogh had a goal off a free kick disallowed. Later, Tim Howard made a poor pass that was intercepted and lead to a one on one situation for Derby, which was thankfully saved.
Player of the Match: Varela (Derby)

Other Results

Manchester United 1 - 0 Wigan
Newcastle 1 - 1 Queen's Park Rangers
Reading 3 - 1 West Brom

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We stayed up! I didn't realize that we could stay up if we drew and Wigan lost, and that's exactly what happened. I never thought I'd say this, but thank you, Manchester United! Thank you for saving our asses!

EPIC!!!

gz on staying up now the building for next season can begin to avoid relegation fight

Wow mate, congrats, I really thought you were done for after the loss to West Ham

Supporters' Player of the Year: Ryan Bertrand

Arsene Wenger has retired from football management and Arsenal will have some big shoes to fill. The bookies' prediction is Andre Villas-Boas.

In

- Goalkeeper Ernesto Montano from AC Milan for 800,000
- Midfielder Rob Reddy signed from Rochdale for 140,000
- Mattia Perin from Zaragoza for 7,250,000, expensive I know, but he will be our starting goalkeeper for a while, so it's a good deal.
- Kieran Trippler signed from Burnley on a free transfer
- Isaac Cuenca from Barcelona on a free transfer
- Panagiotis Tachtsidis from Genoa on a free transfer
- Chris Mouyakolo on a free transfer

Out

- Goalkeeper Dusan Kuciak to SK Rapid Wien for 1,300,000 pounds. Everton will pay him 8,750 p/w until the end of his contract.
- Striker Nikica Jelavic to Tottenham for 5,000,000 pounds.
- Attacking midfielder Stewart Downing to Wolverhampton Wanderers for 7,000,000 pounds. 10% will be given to Downing.
- Defender John Heitinga to Olympique Lyonnais for 12,000,000 pounds. I wanted to sell him off before his decline, and I'm glad I got him out of the Premier League.

Here is the squad as of July 2, 2015:
It's much younger and much more filled with potential than the last time I posted a squad report, we should be much better equipped to avoid relegation now.

Great signings mate, they will be fantastic players.

What a finish. I imagine that the reason you didn't take Tottenham is because the job wasn't offered to you, or was it just a matter of personal preference.

The good thing about being bottom is that all you need is a few surprised results (City, QPR and such) sometimes is enough to save your ass.

You have a few decent, young players coming in. I imagine you could have gotten more for Jelavić, but still a relatively good transfer season. Are you in the running for the next time the US manager gets the sack? Would you even take that position?

I didn't take Tottenham because it wasn't offered in time, plus I was kind of itching for a relegation fight. If I lost, I could just take another team, if I won, I would stay. It was the only way of making a midseason jump interesting.

I'm not interested in international management this time around, but I would like to find talented American players and position them for caps, but there aren't many Americans talented enough to play in the Premier League. The only player (foreign or otherwise) with half a shot at making it in EPL is Valencia, and he tops out at 3.5 stars.

I probably could have gotten more for Jelavic, but he was an aging striker who I couldn't get production out of. It was time to cash out ASAP and reinvest in younger players.

- Andre Villas-Boas took over as Arsenal manager

Crewe 0 - 2 Everton

For all our possession, I thought it was troubling that we seemed to have problems passing around Crewe's 4-5-1. The scoring didn't start until the second half, when Crewe's Alan Martin mishandled a save for an own goal. Rob Reddy has an apparent diving header goal off a free kick disallowed due to offside. Joe Mason doubled the lead on a nice close-range finish.
Player of the Match: Kieran Trippler (Everton)

FC Gratkorn 0 - 2 Everton

Shane Duffy had two goals off of corner kick headers. Otherwise, not much else, although we did dominate possession.
Player of the Match: Shane Duffy (Everton)

FK Austria Wien 2 - 3 Everton

We had trouble passing the ball around, but setting the passing to more direct helped a little bit. Everton's goals were an outside the box blast by Verre, Mason poaching a cross, and Schoeters running past the defense and staying onside, getting a long bomb, jinking past the goalkeeper and two defenders and shooting into an empty net. Austria Wien's goals were on a corner and a cross.
Player of the Match: Valerio Verre (Everton)

FC Admira Wacker Modling 0 - 1 Everton

A dull match, the only goal came when Armond Mbock found a massive amount of space on the right wing, Hyland played a perfect pass to him, and Mbock cut in for a precision finish.
Player of the Match: Khaleem Hyland (Everton)

LASK Linz 0 - 0 Everton

Not much to see here, Everton had way more shots than shown by the stats, but incredibly poor shot selection hampered us. Gabbiadini got the ball in the box, but was blatantly fouled for a penalty, which Gibson missed.
Player of the Match: Shawn Barry (LASK Linz)

SV Ried 0 - 1 Everton

A poor match; both teams didn't make many good attacking runs. Everton's only goal came after a corner kick, Krychowiak scored when the ball got loose in the box.
Player of the Match: John Stones (Everton)

In

- Senne Schoeters signed with Everton on a free transfer
- Inigo Martinez from Real Sociedad for 11,000,000 pounds
- Armond Mbock on loan from Olympique Lyonnais until the end of the season
- Manolo Gabbiadini from Atlanta for 8,250,000
- After constantly pestering the British government to get this guy a work permit, they finally conceded and gave Dentinho a conditional work permit. Therefore, he has been signed from America (MG) for 450,000 pounds. He will join the squad on January 22, 2017.
- Similarly, after much persistence the British government have granted Rafael Rivas a work permit and he has been signed from Atletico Mineiro for 350,000.
- The appropriately named Brazilian defender/midfielder Everton has gotten a work permit from the British government. He has signed from Portuguesa for 475,000

Out

- Pedro on loan to Millwall until the end of the season
- Ernesto Montano on loan to Walsall until the end of the season
- George Green on loan to Blackburn until the end of the season
- Robson on loan to Genoa until the end of the season
- Chris Mouyokolo on loan to Charlton until the end of the season
- Jonathan Viera to Schalke for 2 million up front and 3.25 million over 24 months
- Issac Cuenca on loan to Villarreal until the end of the season
- Jake Bidwell to Reading for 2.8 million

The squad is no means final, but it's as close as it'll be right before the start of the Premier League season. I'm excited to have gotten so much talent in in a summer's time!

- After much persuasion, the Everton board have relented and have agreed to look for a feeder club so that we can secure work permits more easily.
- In a great day for Everton players in international football, Rob Reddy won his first senior cap for Ireland, and Dejan Stolnik and Apostolos Vellios scored their first goals for Croatia and Greece, respectively

Leicester 1 - 2 Everton

Everton take a tough road win to start their season on the right foot. Manolo Gabbiadini opened the scoring by intercepting a backwards header by Leicester and scoring the easy one on one goal. Leicester equalized on a free kick after Inigo Martinez failed to beat Knockaert on a header. Everton's winning goal was on a penalty on the 80th minute.
Player of the Match: Manolo Gabbiadini (Everton)

Everton 0 - 2 Manchester City

Yaya Toure ran the show, scoring 2 goals off of corner kicks. Both Manolo Gabbiadini and David Alaba were sent off, reducing the final portion of the match to 10 on 10.
Player of the Match: Yaya Toure (Manchester City)

- Vidima-Rakovski has become affiliated with Everton for the purpose of helping Everton avoid work permit peskiness.

Capital One Cup 2nd Round
Scunthorpe 1 - 3 Everton

Even with a rotated squad, we were easily able to defeat Scunthorpe. Dejan Skolnik got Everton off to a flyer on a header just inside the 6 yard box. Javad Nekounam doubled the lead when he took a free kick, got the rebound off the wall, and got a nice shot from outside the box. Matt Derbyshire pulled one back for Scunthorpe when Inigo Martinez's backwards header didn't quite make it to the keeper. Rafael Rivas pulled away once again with a header off a corner kick.
Player of the Match: Rafael Rivas (Everton)

Everton 1 - 1 Swansea

Frustrating game, we had more efforts at goal, but our shot selection was poor. Gabbiadini was disappointing but he did pick up a late goal to equalize.
Player of the Match: Jorge Enriquez (Swansea)

In

- Santiago Hernandez on loan from Chelsea until the end of the season

Out

- Bryan Oviedo sold to Stuttgart for 425K up front, and 2 million over 24 months.

This'll probably be the last time we'll be above Manchester United, so we may as well enjoy it while we can.

Hernandez looks a class signing, even if he is only on loan. Hope he does well for you

Difficult but decent start. Lets hope Everton can really improve on last season's relegation dog fight

Chelsea 2 - 0 Everton

Even after falling down a man, Chelsea still dominated us. Douglas Costa's goal was well outside the box, and that should soften the blow of getting red carded.
Player of the Match: Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea)

Everton 2 - 1 Tottenham

Opening up the passing game worked well for us, as Manolo Gabbiadini looked much deadlier, scoring two goals. His first was at an extremely tight angle, a great display of skill. Tottenham's equalizer I felt was blatantly offside, I don't know how they didn't catch that. Gabbiadini scored his second goal with a nice close range header with the assist from Marc Stendera.
Player of the Match: Manolo Gabbiadini (Everton)

Capital One Cup 3rd Round
Fulham 0 - 1 Everton

Manolo Gabbiadini proved the difference here, a well placed shot from outside the box. Fulham wasn't very threatening.
Player of the Match: John Stones (Everton)

West Brom 2 - 1 Everton

Apparently we were luckier to not lose by as much as it seemed. Poor goalkeeping led to both West Brom goals as parrying instead of catching gave West Brom second chances they capitalized on.
Player of the Match: David Ngog (West Brom)

In

- Achraf Radhouani from FC Metz for 825,000
- After numerous attempts, Baby has finally been granted a work permit, so he has been signed from Golas from 575,000. It's a bit of a risk since he has a torn calf, but not much of one, as it's still a low transfer fee for what could be a great player. He will join the team on August 22, 2017.

Out

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It sucks to see how many players I've brought in and we're still only a few points out of relegation. Reading and recently-promoted Hull and Wolves are doing surprisingly well for themselves, each holding high-table spots.

Wow eb, I must admit I haven't been following, but now that I read it, you seem like a great manager and a great writer too! Keep it up