Did you really expect Moyes and West Ham to axe cat-kicker Zouma?

The Mailbox features the backlash to the backlash over Kurt Zouma’s poor puss. Also: clear outs at Man Utd and Spurs, and fears for Frank at Everton.

Get your views into theeditor@football365.com…

Zouma overreaction
The amount of panty twisting in the mailbox about Zouma’s stupid (and punished with a quarter million pound fine) action is becoming sickeningly hypocritical and blown out of all proportion. The mailbox on this usually fantastic site is of course dominated by Liverpool and United “fans” who oscillate between “we are the best team in the world” and “our players/manager are a disgrace” literally from week to week. Read the mailbox, it’s the same every week. So dull. The fans of the former had a player who made openly racist remarks and their response was to make t-shirts supporting him.

West Ham have a wafer thin squad and our disgraceful owners failed to spend a single penny on reinforcements during the transfer window despite being in the last 16 of the UEFA Cup and technically (false reality) in the hunt for top 4. We have one striker. We have 2 quality center backs, one of which is out for the season and the other (Zouma) has been out for 3 months. We have zero cover. And yet everyone is up in arms when Moyes plays Zouma. What??

There is an investigation going on. He has been fined a huge amount of cash. He has not raped anyone, he has paid a penalty for his stupid actions, and a man whose job it is to get results or be fired if he doesn’t decides to play the players available to him. What do you expect him to do?what would you do? The fake outrage is pathetic. Get over it. He made a mistake. It wasn’t the end of the world. He has been publicly ridiculed, rightly. He has paid a hefty fine, which he deserved. No one has been killed, no one is scarred for life, no one is suffering as a result of this. It’s done. Stop the hysterical faux-woke hypocritical nonsense and move on.
Mike (was F365 better 15 years ago or am I just old???) WHU

…Sack Zouma? Really? He has apologized and was fined 250k, lost some sponsorship deals, can’t we all just rest?

Hazard wasn’t sacked for kicking a human being in front of the world but Zouma should be destroyed for kicking a cat.

Horses are whipped and traumatized for ‘sports’. Animals are kidnapped and caged in a zoo, you can get a licensed gun to kill birds. Chickens are slaughtered in their thousands everyday for meat. Hmmmm

Don’t get me wrong, Zouma did badly here but the reaction is over the top.
Me

Reassessing Moyes
When I woke up Tuesday morning David Moyes was firmly ensconced in my non-existent league of top 5 favourite Managers – I really have been delighted with how things have worked out for him at West Ham. He’s now fallen down the ladder somewhere below Steve Evans and Neil Warnock.

If only there was some recent high profile example of where a club had sided with a despicable individual due to footballing reasons and had then realised the error of their ways too late and completely shot themselves in the foot.

What’s that you say…?
Banjo, Prague (MCFC)

United should follow Liverpool’s lead
After the Burnley draw the mailbox has (understandably) been Man U focused.

Lots of ‘just what can we do to solve this problem’. The same question asked by Liverpool fans for many many years before the gradual build to Kloppism.

So I think that’s where they need to look as to how their future could be.
Brendan Rodgers was the right manager to build to a certain point. Klopp then came in and brought quality to fill gaps.

Slowly building, bringing in youth and experience, with real quality, has brought them to true challengers.

You can throw money at the problem and hope some of it sticks. But the right manager (not necessarily the biggest name or someone who ‘gets the club’) will see them back to being the playground bully they were in the nineties.
Rob G

Glazers aren’t the problem
The Glazers can be blamed for a lot of things. But right now, can see much criticism being diverted to them instead of the players.

Since SAF’s retirement, Man Utd have spent more than £1bn in transfer fees. The Glazers have approved all this expenditure, if the right players have not been recruited, then the responsibility should be on those (The Manager, recruitment team, head scout?) who have decided which player to buy.

It’s too easy to say the Glazer’s are fully responsible for the current state. The players are having an easy ride here. When a professional footballer who trains all week like Harry Maguire keeps gifting opponents goals, why is the criticism being deflected to the Glazers. He needs to take the blame. When MBE Marcus Rashford keeps losing the ball 8/10 times in every single game, he is to be blamed, not the Glazers. Where I’ll blame the Glazers is that they aren’t taking footballing decisions by booting out these mediocre players out of the team. But then again, they have delegated this authority to the Manager or the Board who are having player favorites instead of judging these players by their performances.

Finally for the media, it’s easier to blame the Glazers who are foreign rather than their darlings Maguire & Rashford!! Martial has had similar performances or even better performances than Rashford, yet one is torn apart in the media while the other is applauded.

Cheers
Ashwin (Man Utd fan)

How the Big Six are set
To be frank, in 2 season’s time, man utd may just be one of the best teams or worse than Newcastle. Woodward is finally gone and Arnold looks like someone that will stick to what he can do. Murtough looks like a capable man and I think he gets a 10/10 for Rangnick’s appointment. Appoint Ten Hag in the summer and actually let Rangnick have an input in signings with a greater emphasis on data to recognise what and who is needed and they can only go up. Early signs are promising but Ten Hag is essential.

Arsenal are already on the right path, they have the youngest squad and only those who play for the manager are allowed to stay. Incomings are essential but they are a sustainable team.

Tottenham look ripe for short-term success. They look the most likely to grab that fourth spot, and with Kulusevski on the right and Bentancur in midfield of that 3-4-2-1 shape, Kane as a 9, Son on the left, Royal on the right, Reguilon on the left, Dier, Romero and Davies the CBs and Højbjerg as DM, I see no technical faults. Conte can get something out of this side.

Liverpool have silently rebuilt while remaining competitive, bringing through and signing young players to first sit as back-ups while getting used to the club and the style. Jota, Diaz, Tsimikas, Elliott, and maybe even Jones and Morton seem to be a part of a conscious strategy from Klopp. I doff my hat to him for a job well done. Certainly one of the best managers to have graced the Premier league. Successful is he who threads his path.

Man City have the best football people in all positions, they have a plan for this and I trust them more than any other team, one first team player seems to leave every season, Kompany and Silva come to mind, and I really don’t think there would be any problem after Pep, I trust they have a plan for it, with their style, Ten Hag seems like the obvious replacement, they may wait for Nagelsmann, maybe get Arteta if he proves successful or Xavi. But I trust them. Signing players is not a problem for them and the core of the side, Grealish, Foden, Palmer, Dias, Jesus, Zinchenko, Sterling, Silva, Stones, Cancelo, Laporte and Ederson are all below 29 years of age. Guardiola must have planned it all meticulously. There is no hoping they will slow down, to beat them, you have to go up yourself.
Sa’ad

Satisfied Saint
I’m not going to get into debating VAR, but I will say that was a very satisfying comeback for the Saints against Spurs. Ward-Prowse whipped crosses + Spurs static defending = goals. Who knew? A rollicking match and the right result.
Remy the Saint

Spurs should be just as worried as Saints about Hasenhuttl

Spurs clear out
No idea where to start with that performance. We absolutely deserved to lose though.

Ralf beat Antonio in the tactical battle, but half of the players he had to call upon just aren’t up to scratch. No wonder he keeps talking about how badly Spurs have regressed…

Can we call that quits on Davidson Sanchez’s Spurs career? He’s been hit and miss throughout his time at Tottenham but the reality is he’s not good enough. When he’s good he’s solid, and when he’s bad he’s awful. Dier starts when fit, but surely Rodon can’t be any worse than Sanchez.

Emerson Royal is a very lucky boy that he’s recently through the door (and that Doherty is even worse). Not good enough going forward and painfully suspect at the back with seemingly zero defensive spider senses. The fact that we were looking to bring Traore in at RWB speaks volumes.

If it’s the midfields job to play football and not to slowly run around the pitch pointing, then what is the point of Højbjerg? Bentancur is already our third best player and should be the first name on the team sheet given the state of our midfield.

I actually think Winks has improved since Conte’s arrival. He’s definitely more proactive, but again, Bentancur is quickly showing us what a proper midfielder looks like… and it doesn’t look like Winks. (If Winks was the new Ryan Mason, is Skipp the new Winks?)

Ben Davies is a solid pro and you can’t not like the guy, but he should be a squad player at very best.

Our recent recruitment has been close to professional negligence. Steve Hitchen has gone but it was his decision to walk, which raises more questions about Levy.

Paratici cannot afford to make any mistakes in the next transfer window. Daniel Levy needs to stay the f*** out of his way and back him to the hilt. Get the summer transfer window wrong and the big 6 is over.
David, Battersea (Long live the big 3? Thanks for the legacy, Daniel)

Let Harry have it
I’m pretty confident any teams strategy before they play spurs is to leave Winks unmarked and funnel the ball towards him. That’s all.
Pete, Cape Cod USA

Liverpool’s hope for Everton
Aidan, EFC, London shared his fear about Everton and to be honest I am incredibly torn.

On the one hand there’s a lot of rivalry between our lot and theirs. A lot of their social media fans are ludicrous to the point of parody. I’ve seen that lot think they’re going to finish above Liverpool and challenge for honours many times. I’ve also seen them laugh at Liverpool fans for crying about bad tackles not being punished only to do the exact same thing. I’ve seen them laugh at poor unfortunate players succumb to an injury which I never find funny personally. And ultimately we share a city and sort of hate each other.

Except we don’t I don’t think. We sort of love each other for the most part. Evertonians might like to take the piss of our lot (and same back) but they also stand firm on the things that matter like never buying the S*n and Hillsbrough. Families are sometimes split red and blue and you’ll get trouble for a lot of stuff in Liverpool but you’ll mostly be able to enjoy your football anywhere without fear of getting a Chelsea smile for your trouble. You might regret not paying a lad to mind your car on match day though, depending on where you park.

In a way we’re more like brothers; arguing, fighting and sort of hating each other at points but then remembering that when you actually need someone solid and decent you’ve got that lad across the park who always supports you when it matters.

What I am saying is that in the ideal world Everton would finish 17th every season. It’d be funny and they’d be nervous and stressed but at least they’d be close by. I’d hate not having a couple of derbies to look forward to and there are far worse clubs (owners/football style/racists/wife beaters/cat beaters…pick your poison) who don’t deserve to be in the league.
Minty, LFC

Fears for Frank
Just a few things first off.

Tim, not all Americans are about money. Glad I could set you straight.

Grumpy Dip, a man once walked up to me and said “The answer is money, now what’s your question?” The money is apparently more important (CL spot, PL placing, etc…) to West Ham than suspending Zouma for abhorrent cruelty towards an animal. That may not be fair to say but that’s how it looks from the outside.

As for Everton, I mailed a few months back that I didn’t think we’d even beat Newcastle. At that time, they weren’t a solid outfit but after watching them dismantle Everton last night, I don’t think they’ll have any trouble passing us in the table. In fact, I think their biggest threat right now isn’t relegation, it’s losing St. Maximin. What a player !!! He just tore us to shreds last night. They’ll be comforted in knowing they’ll get a large fee for him though, not that it matters now. They’ve got the dosh to kick on to bigger and better things. Let’s hope they spend it wisely. I heard about a club in the Premier League that’s blown close to 500M over the past three or four years and have absolutely zero to show for it.

Frank is in for a job. That much is true. But I’m sure he didn’t count on losing Godfrey, Mina, & Gray in the space of two matches. Our failure to find an adequate center back in the transfer window may ultimately be our undoing. Our confidence is at the lowest I’ve ever seen in my 20+ years of supporting the club. It begs the question. “Where is our next win coming from?” You’d like to think it’ll be Leeds at Goodison over the weekend but EVERY team in the league has to be looking at us as an easy three points. Press Everton and they’ll cough up the ball in possession or lose it through poor passing. Get a set piece and you’re almost guaranteed to score. Unless Frank fixes those two main problems, we’re odds on to go down.

Credit to Newcastle. Even though they conceded first (Holgate off of Lacelles own goal), they got back in to it rather quickly (Lacelles off of Holgate own goal….that could be a Premier League first !!) and took off from there. They had a game plan and stuck to it.

Let’s hope Frank can come up with a game plan for us that works, uses our best players (VDB looked like our player of the season in his first 15 minutes,) and gets us out of this rut.
TX Bill (it ain’t looking good) EFC

Cole’s cool
I was never too excited by Joe Cole’s initial move to punditry. A promising player, who I felt never realised his potential. It didn’t help that his spell at Villa was forgettable. When he started punditry, I just assumed he would be another one of the lads, telling a few stories and showing little preparation/insight whilst being barely comprehensible. I now think he’s one of the best pundits around- he’s one of the few pundits that is passionate about the tactical side of the game. He may not always be the most articulate, but he’s clearly someone who understands the game, is passionate about it and thinks deeply about tactics (maybe that was his problem as a player, overthinking at times). To top it off, his response to Rio’s comment tonight that Conte ‘will be pulling his hair out’ (he paid a lot for that…) had me in stitches. I genuinely look forward to games where Cole is in the studio; there are very few ex-players that I can say that about.

I’m just wondering, are there any other pundits that any one else thinks is underrated? We’re always so quick to talk about those we don’t like, maybe its time we show some appreciation for those who do add value to our screens.
Dave S