Cornish Steve

Based on the limited number of games so far? The league: Man City FA Cup: Swansea League Cup: Everton

Swansea are a team to reckon with this season.

Not exactly a break for Lukaku, though. He'll be playing full games on Thursday and Sunday.

Lawrenson never gives up: "If you can get £35m for John Stones now then take it. British clubs are like 'why sell our players?' But they are going to go at the end of the day. Look at Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Suarez. The clever thing is to be 18 months ahead. Southampton have done it and there's nothing wrong with it." (BBC website)

Once again, it's clear why Chelsea want John Stones. Their defence is leaking like a sieve.

Nice start for West Ham.

Spurs 2-3 Everton Barkley

The clock on that news site is counting down to the end of the transfer window, and it's assuming 11pm, not 6pm. I'm guessing the 6pm time someone quoted in another thread was from ESPN or some other US site on Eastern timezone.

Given the limited number of posts, I assumed it was a sarcastic Chelsea fan. PS - Looked again, and he must be an original! Around since 2007.

I thought Bill Kenwright was known for soap? Sorry!

I thought it was a Spitting Image segment. Proof please!!

I just spotted Elvis walking down the street.

It's a deal.

I agree completely - except for the lazy part. He has to pace himself. Remember when he first joined? His fitness level was such that he could barely make it through 60 minutes. Last night, he was on the field scoring goals for 120 minutes. To my mind, that's real progress.

Frankly, if the guy stubbed his toe, that would be enough for you. I just don't understand how you can be so negative. The Lukaku loan happened on the final day of the window, completely out of the blue. Now, I realize that involved only English clubs, but there remains plenty of time to seal deals that have been in the works for weeks. Patience, patience, patience.

He's a young lad, and a decent lad by all accounts. With all the headlines and the speculations and rumours and tweets and lawyers telling you what you can and cannot say and your agent breathing down your neck to make money and then having a bit of a bad game early on... Yes, I really feel sorry for the guy. Words hurt. Not everyone is Mr. Macho-man inside, and we shouldn't be putting young people through something like this. Your story put a dose of reality on things. I've been irritated by some of the aggressive and/or negative things people post on here, and I'm sure other Everton forums are worse. We're armchair warriors, right? So easy to type and create an image. But for young players, accusations and diatribes are real and hurtful. Just imagine how these guys must feel if they or their families actually browse through forums themselves. Sometimes it must be devastating at a personal level. Just imagine if our own son or brother faced such pressure. Would it be fair? How would they cope? There's no shame in getting upset.

Even jumped for joy about it - just at an inopportune moment.

This has reached crisis levels. Honestly, the best LB option this weekend might be Barry.

Away to Barnsley. Another routine day at the office. Ho-hum.

Glad you remain superstitious and always state the opposite of what you really mean!

Second half.

I just hope Everton fans don't boo him this evening. Psychologically, that might just push him over the edge. Right now, we should be cheering him like crazy to demonstrate support!

If it was my decision, I'd keep him but, without him having to ask, increase his weekly wage by 50%.

Some of the messages posted today have me baffled. - First off, comments made to the Barnsley guy were disgraceful. Whatever happened to "thinking Evertonian"? A little decency costs nothing. - Second, this is a transfer request. Request does not equal "done deal". Everton hold almost every card in this little game of poker. - Third, football is a business. If a recruiter tells you they can triple your salary, would you ignore them? I can't believe anyone here would remain loyal to their company with such an offer on the table. - Fourth, almost everything discussed so far is conjecture. There's no point crying over something that hasn't happened. My main concern is that, behind the scenes, some shady shenanigans are going on. I don't mean anything with the board, but some of the billionaires that play around the Prem represent, shall we say, powerful interests. I would not be surprised if we aren't being held to ransom here - with power-brokers blocking our attempted transfers elsewhere until we give in to their demands. Fair? Of course not. Real life? You betcha. Anyone who's done business in the parts of the world represented by these owners knows exactly what I'm talking about.

I think you mean games per goal.