We Can Win It

Jo believes that Everton can go all the way and win this season's Europa Cup. The Benfica result apart, the Blues have once again been on fire in Europe this term with wins against Sigma, Bate and AEK Athens. Prior to the Benfica thrashing thoughts had gone back two seasons to our remarkable run in the old UEFA Cup, and if we get a win against the Portuguese outfit in the return at Goodison on Thursday, Jo's comments may have some truth in them.

Jo says: "I think we have everything we need to win. I’m taking into account there are still some major clubs to drop down from the Champions League in the next round, but I still think we have all the assets required to win it. We need to qualify through the group first though and I’ll be doing everything in my power to help us get into that next round.”

Everybody wants to ply their trade in the best competitions in the world and the Europa League and the Champions League are the places where the clubs really want to be. When a player takes that stage he wants to show his best. But the Premier League is also the best league in the world and my effort will always be the same whether I’m playing in the Premier League or in Europe. I always want to show the supporters my best." (03/11/09)

Bring On The Competition

With a few long term injured players edging nearer to full fitness, Everton will hopefully have a much stronger squad to pick from soon. Jo, like most fans thinks this is good. If the Brazilian continues to fall on his arse whenever an opposition player brushes past him, and The Yak gets back to scoring goals and King Louie keeps banging them in, then hopefully he will be on the bench until his performance improves.

Jo says: “I think competition for places is good because the more world-class players you have the better. The competition is quite fierce but it’s a long season and we’re involved in lots of competitions so, in my opinion, the more players we have the better. Having a squad of 20 top-class players to choose from will be nice because we have so many games to play. It was quite a difficult start to the season for the whole team, even though we had a good pre-season, but we then picked up some great results. I’m confident we will keep on picking up good results as the season wears on.” (30/10/09)

Jo's Race Against The Clock

Jo has a chance of being fit to face The Arse this Saturday after going over on his ankle against Blackpool last week. The on loan striker then missed the Malaga victory at Goodison, but Moyesy is hopeful that Jo is heading in the right direction to partner King Louis up front against the North Londoners in the Blues curtain raiser.

Moyesy says: "When Jo went over on his ankle, we didn’t really think it was that bad and we hope that he is going to be okay for the weekend. He is back running now but is only doing straight line work. He’s not twisting and turning yet but we hope to do that kind of work with him in the next couple of days." (13/08/09)

Ankle Injury

Jo's missus, sitting with the Everton fans, was visibly concerned when the Brazilian went down injured late in the friendly at Blackpool, but it doesn't look too serious.

Moyesy says: "I think he's just rolled his ankle. I don't think it's too bad. Hopefully he'll be alright, and it wasn't too serious." (05/08/09)

The Best Is Yet To Come

Moyesy is sure that the Blue's faithful will see the best of Jo this season after he secured the Brazilian striker on a year long loan deal. Jo netted five times for the Blues in his first loan spell last season, and Moyesy is delighted to have him back at Goodison.

Moyesy says: "I thought in the six months he was with us from January, I thought he contributed and helped us. He's still young and getting used to the Premier League, so hopefully we can get the same return of goals which he showed in the period he was with us before.

I think he had a difficult time at Man City - it's not easy settling in in the Premier League, and we'll give him an opportunity to do that. And obviously because we've been able to get him for no money, and bring him in on loan, makes him attractive to us. I know that he enjoyed his period here and I think because of that, then he's looking forward to another." (13/07/09)