Dixies 60 » Jagielka P

Superb Jags just gets better & better

Peter Bottomley — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 13:07:36 +0000

Tottenham Hotspur 1 (van der Vart 20) – EVERTON 1 (Baines 17)

Judging by the over-confident predictions coming across the blogosphere and from the twitterati you would have thought that Spurs only had to turn up on Saturday to claim the three points. In the event we had to give them a goal to keep them in the game. A Tim Howard flap, across the line of the ball, showed once again that our American ‘keeper is not infallible. We suspect Tim has never played cricket, but he may have played baseball. Batting, or hitting, or as on Saturday, attempting to punch, ACROSS the trajectory of a ball, is hugely dangerous…..just ask Kevin Pietersen.

Though Baines scored with a stunning free kick (memo to Mikel; let Leighton take a few) and his general play was excellent, our man of the match was Phil Jagielka. In defence relentlessly sniffing out trouble and good going forward; on one occasion in the second half he broke down the right wing, turned Modric inside out, before casually finding another blue shirt. He fired narrowly over the Liverpool goal a week ago Sunday and is getting into some very progressive positions; not long before he finds the net we think. Whisper it quietly, no shout it from the treetops; City did us a huge favour, they paid £23 mln for our second best defender!

Talking of defenders is there a better right back in the country than Phil Neville. His performance in the derby was superb – Cole hardly saw the ball – and again at White Hart Lane he pacified the skilful, fast and physically strong Gareth Bale. Time for an England recall?

So now we know: The newspaper inspired rumours, going back for a year or more, that Harry Redknapp wants Steven Pienaar are tripe. As we heard from ‘Arry post match; he has Bale and Lennon as his wide men, can’t even get the hugely talented Nico Kranjcar on the pitch, so “what on earth would I do with an Ashley Young” (or Steven Pienaar). With the clock winding down on Pienaar’s Everton contract, and him legally free to open negotiations with potential suitors from January the hierarchy at Goodison need to piss, or get off the pot. It’s clear where the sticking point on the contract negotiations is: Mikel Arteta, who won a new 5-year contract in the summer, is 28 years-old, in fact just eleven days younger than Pienaar. We suspect that Pienaar, not unreasonably, wants parity with Arteta. Unfortunately for him Mikel has become an iconic figure at Goodison, while great player that he is, Steven has not. We feel that Moyes and Kenwright need to show some pragmatism here and compromise. Pienaar never hides, has a wonderful partnership with Baines and is an automatic choice when fit. Goodison knows a player when she sees one, lets not lose him.

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR (4-4-1-1): Gomes; Hutton, Kaboul, Gallas, Assou-Ekotto; Lennon (Pavlyuchenko 69), Palacios (Sandro 46), Modric, Bale; van der Vart; Crouch. Unused subs: Cudicini, Bassong, Jenas, Kranjcar, Keane

EVERTON (4-1-4-1): Howard; Neville, Jagielka, Distin, Baines; Heitinga (Hibbert 79); Coleman (Beckford 84), Pienaar, Bilyaletdinov, Cahill; Yakubu (Saha 63). Unused subs: Mucha, Gueye, Duffy, Baxter

Referee: M Jones

Gate: 35,967

JAGS & VIC: More bad news

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:05:53 +0000

Apparently it always comes in threes…bad news that is. Thus following the disclosure that Mikel Arteta has had to undergo a third – albeit minor – operation come reports that our best defender, Phil Jagielka, has had a second operation on his knee and Victor Anichebe has had a setback in his recovery. It had seemed that Jags was recovering well, that a return to full training was imminent and he was targeting a return to first-team action before Christmas. However, David Moyes has revealed that the player suffered a tear in his meniscus – the cartilage in his knee – and has had an operation to repair it. His recovery has been put back by up to six weeks. Chelsea’s Joe Cole suffered the same problem; apparently cruciate injuries often aggravate and cause damage to the cartilage. Anichebe’s return to action will also be delayed by what Moyes described as a “massive growth of bone” on his injured knee following the removal of a pin.

Everton:No Jags? No Mikky? No Yak? Less is more!

Ed Bottomley — Mon, 18 May 2009 11:38:00 +0000

“Here comes success, hoo-ray success!”
So hollered Detroit’s grizzled Iggy Pop, the optimistic lyrics mirroring the minds of thousands of Everton fans who jubilantly bounced through the week on Champagne bubbles after our Cup win over United. We even managed to bag a point a Stamford Bridge, and things were looking very rosy. That is until Phil Jagielka’s injury stopped us all in our tracks.
Jagielka has had a wonderful season at Everton, looking more assured with each game and forcing his way further into Capello’s thoughts and the England squad along the way. With our bare bones squad, a decimated strikeforce and a weakened midfield – it was comforting to have so much solidity at the back. For Phil to miss the Cup Final is painful for everyone, but it is just yet another setback in a sea of problems which started last summer with CEO Keith Wyness walking – and somehow we are heading to this season’s finish line still fighting for a trophy. At Everton every injury to personnel miraculously transforms into a team building exercise, we are swiftly becoming the masters of less is more.
It has been a funny old season for the funny old game. Newly promoted Hull City rose so fast they got the bends, while previously bullet proof Aston Villa now look as prone as Detroit roadkill. Arsenal have had a rocky season but are firing on all cylinders now, and Everton, despite their rancid start, have had a strong season. Riley may be a United fan (we know he isn’t really), Clattenburg may support the RS and Lady Luck – more important than those two shambling buffoons – is definitely not a Toffee. So the cards have been dealt, for our star defender and burgeoning England squad player – anterior cruciate damage and at least six months out – for our Iberian midfield laureate – season ending knee damage too – and for our main striker, a man who scores more goals than I have hot dinners – a ruptured Achilles tendon.
All you have to do is look at the Premier League table to see that thick black line between fourth and fifth, a line that separates the haves from the have-nots. First amongst the underclass is usually Everton, and we are seen as outsiders in the FA Cup too, with many a pundit already dismissing our chances against Chelsea. Things will definitely be harder without Jagielka, but when a team knocks three of the five teams above them in the league out of the FA Cup they can never be written off in such a cavalier fashion. Chelsea could also still progress to the Champions League Final, which is just three days before our Wembley match-up. Against Barcelona on Tuesday Chelsea’s millionaire superheroes looked decidedly Clark Kent, and I fancy Everton, comfortable in their underdog status, to hassle, harry, and harangue them in the Cup Final.
Above all, no matter how gutting the Jagielka injury is, we need to remember that it has happened to the strongest area of our squad. Defence is one of the few positions where Everton have reinforcements; step up Joey Yobo. Jags may be our number one choice for centre half , but Joey Yobo is the man who helped us sneak under the velvet rope, and into fourth place. This is Moyes’ first chance at silverware, and his first Everton signing – Joey Yobo – could yet help him get it.

Phil Jagielka: Footballing Swiss Army Knife

Ed Bottomley — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 18:51:00 +0000

We did it! After stalking his quarry for an inordinate amount of time – the Moyesiah has finally snared Phil Jagielka, the man that the Guardian wittily describes as a “footballing Swiss Army Knife”. Phil can play all along the back four, in midfield, and even in goal (thus giving Moyes the possibility of playing no goalie on the bench like Warnock did on numerous occasions.) The crucial element of the Jagielka signing is that Moyes refused to be rushed, waited patiently until Sheffield Utd’s relegation was confirmed (and the 4mil release clause was activated), and swooped; signing him on OUR terms. Jagielka is an Evertonian, already refers to Everton as “we”, is young with commitment and passion without the niggling “sonofabitch” qualities. Moyes is rumoured to be interested in Koumas too, who is also an Evertonian – building up a healthy spine of Blue Boys. Another Evertonian lurking on the periphery like a Shakesperian Ghost is David Nugent – a huge Everton fan. I think if someone else doesn’t snap him up soon there is a real possibility that we could get him cut price over Christmas, or even on a free when his contract expires next summer.

Whilst Evertonians were awkwardly trying to cope with the ridiculous debacle going on at the official Everton website – a post going up for a few excruciating minutes falsely claiming that we had signed Riquelme, Liverpool were busy negotiating with Fernando Torres. I believe Torres is an extremely expensive and risky signing, especially given the belly flop of an English career that another Fernando (Morienties) had. I look forward to Reds scuttling out of the woodwork and pointing to his robust goalscoring record. He has however been Athletico’s offical penalty taker for a number of years now, something that has added a certain fake sheen to his scoring statistics. I remember that Everton’s signing of AJ was met with rabid howls of derision from the imbeciles across the park, “he scores all his goals from the penalty spot” — Oh how times change!