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In the past 12 months a combination of astute transfer trading and tactical tweaking has reinvigorated an Everton team now earning rave reviews for its power, potency and panache.

But the Blues’ early-season form is nothing new. It has its origins in a masterful January transfer window, while that business has since been augmented by a shrewd, shrewd summer.

Here, with the...

No sooner had they achieved Champions League qualification with a highest ever fourth-place finish in La Liga, the rug appears to have been pulled from beneath Malaga.

In this case the rug was made of Qatari banknotes and was only two years old.

The humble but historic Andalusian club, beefed up by marquee signings, seemed destined to muscle in on the elite.

The...

Leighton Baines this week insisted he didn’t deserve to be in the PFA’s team of the season.

Typical Bainesy, most said.

But while you will struggle to find a more humble, grounded footballer, this wasn’t self-deprication – he sincererly meant it.

The Everton and England defender is all of the above, but he is also brutally honest.

Honest about the team, honest about...

The Premier League this week launched their ‘20-Year Awards’ series, so I thought it would be a good idea to Evertonise the categories.

Tweet me @efc_andylewis with your suggestions.

Below are my choices…

BEST GOAL

The problem with selecting best goals is do you pick simply the purest strike – the best goal from an aesthetic point of view – or goals which...

Whatever the outcome at Wembley this Saturday, you’d hope that this biggest of Merseyside derbies will be played with dignity, courage and class.

Should that be the case then the game will have been a fitting tribute to a man who personified all of those qualities, the late Gary Ablett.

The former defender, who tragically passed away on January 2 after a...

Ever since Ken Bates launched a typically outspoken criticism of Everton’s capture of Luke Garbutt, the aspiring full-back has been burdened with greater expectation than most Academy scholars should face.

The Blues paid a substantial fee – determined by a tribunal – but Bates’ media diatribe threw a spotlight on a kid.

Football’s fascination with potential stars of the future can...

Somewhere halfway between Claude Makelele and Ramires.

That is the verdict on the style of Everton new boy Francisco Junior from the man who scouted him, Emerson Thome.

The former Premier League defender has been scouring the Iberian peninsula and beyond on the hunt for fresh talent to enrich the Blues’ ranks for more than four years now.

He is the man responsible...

Apparently you have to be mad to be a goalkeeper.

Well, that would explain why Everton’s newest professional – young Polish custodian Mateusz Taudul – is walking around Finch Farm doing Only Fools and Horses impressions.

It has been quite a journey for Taudul, who was plucked from obscurity in his homeland after being happened upon by an Everton scout while...