Baba

Great news! In that case it would be nice to break convention and move him into the general football and sport discussion now rather than wait a year. A forum exception for someone who has been an ‘exceptional’ player for us, in some unfortunate aspects. Even if we don’t replace him, we’re stronger for him having gone.

Didn’t even know that he smokes. Strange to be doing it in training though?!

Rooney, a lifelong Evertonian, celebrated in front of our fans and kissed the united badge after he'd scored, following relentless abuse from our fans. United's fans, by contrast, gave Rooney a decent welcome on Saturday and applauded him when he was subbed. The neutral might be drawn to think that United fans are respectful and classy whilst Everton fans are bitter and spiteful. I'd hate to think that that might be even remotely true, I really would.

Astonishing that Kane is starting. He didn't have a shot on target during the Euros as far as I can remember, certainly never came close to scoring and his effort levels were embarrassing. Cahill is a yard dog who literally collapses on the pitch and cries whenever they are knocked out of tournaments, and Stones is immediately elevated now he's at City and wouldn't have been starting if he were still here. Been said before a million times but England selection appears nothing to do with form and relatively little to do with quality - it's all about the big clubs token Englishmen. In recent times, if you don't play for United, City, Liverpool or somewhere in North or West London, you may as well explore your Irish, Scots, Welsh roots and go that way.

I suggested that he ought to have said nothing in public and dealt with it privately. The response to the press conference question could easily just have been the tried and tested rebuff along lines of 'Oumar Niasse is a player for this club at this time.' Like you say though, lots of fuss and probably not worth this much.

Fair points but whilst not pointedly nasty, his words were extremely sarcastic - which is the other side of the same coin. My post wasn't intended to imply that he'd used the same words as my hypothetical example used and in fact in using those words I detracted from my own basic point. I understand and agree with your comments, but maintain my original point of decency and respect, and saying things like that in private rather than public.

I get paid much more now than I did 10 years ago, but if my boss went on TV, radio etc. and told everybody what a useless twat I was and that if I like being in employment then I ought to look for a new job then I'd be as upset now as I was back then. And it wouldn't have anything whatsoever to do with how much money I have or haven't got. Maybe values are a bit different on the other side of the Atlantic, which is fair enough if so.

If you discount the first season where they partially came into money (Shinawatra season) as a reflection of the ownership being resoundingly dodgy, they bought Robinho as a statement when they first came into money proper after the Abu Dhabi royal family takeover, and he was a massive name and coup at that time as far as I recall. I think we ought to dispel this myth of Everton coming into money though because there is no evidence yet that we are going to even fully spend within our own means let alone dipping into the new owners own theoretical budget. Maybe he'll entirely focus his own resources on a stadium but having said that, none of the new TV money has been invested so one might assume that those funds are going that way. If he's running it as a business then fine, just ought to make that known to all like Ashley did initially at Newcastle before softening and starting to spend some of his own cash. I think the problem now is that if he were to come out and say that he's going to spend in January, next summer etc. then he may not be believed due to having insinuated that to be the case previously and before this window (or others having done so on his behalf, such as Bill when he introduced him). The statement re. Sissoko and McCarthy is bizarre and almost embarrassing though and I still don't believe it's not a hoax. If it isn't though, then it's very weird to talk so naively about being a family and not wanting to sign any other players just in case the ones we've got get a bit down about it. Perhaps we can't get a new striker in January in case Rom's sensibilities may be upset as well then, and that's why no new No1 goalkeeper came in - just in case Stekelenburg got offended. Wonder why we bought Bolasie then, and Valencia. Did no one give any thought at all as to what it might do to the mental wellbeing of Geri, or Kev? Weird.

How would you feel if your boss did the same to you, in public, when you had tried your best but just weren't very good? Don't think he's lacking motivation, based upon his headless chicken like running all over the park when he's appeared. He certainly looks like a trier if nothing else. Not his fault that we bought him, and football isn't like other jobs where you apply to the employer. We (Martinez) went after him. Not saying there's an issue in Koeman thinking he's not good enough or even telling him that privately because he's most probably absolutely right, but it lacks class to personally attack someone through the media. For what it's worth, I entirely agree that Martinez has failed us massively with this one, but he's still a human being and still should be treated with dignity at the least.

To his credit, when the manager publicly ridiculed him by saying that if he likes playing football, then he needs to leave he resisted any social media/ press responses and just carried on turning up to training. Can't imagine that I would have reacted so reservedly had my boss done the same to me in public. It would be nice if Koeman were to apologise for what was an unnecessary public statement now. Irrespective of how good or bad a player he is, he deserves to be treated with some dignity (though reports of his private life suggest that perhaps he doesn't deserve that, but another matter altogether)

He doesn't want away though, that's the point and may be part of the reason that he's still here. Be ironic if he actually turns out to be a proper player now. Can't see the club selling many shirts with his name on though..

BBC saying that he's likely to be on his way to Tottenham.

And a month or so ago it was Mata, Witsel, Koulibaly, Carvalho, Ghezzal etc. We really ought to know better than to get our hopes up, and never seem to learn from previous windows.

Did we fill the positions we need to? I'd say no. We need a striker (probably two), and have needed a creative mid for years. Do the players fit the style of play? Yes, but so did the ones that left or that we already have in similar positions. Gueye aside, who is the one shining light. Can we be successful with what we have? Well why not, but my query was what do we have now that is better than we had last season. The above points don't really answer my query as to why you think the window has been great. Great is quite a statement, and from what I've seen the window has been benign, Gueye aside. Bolasie may prove to be a good signing, but could equally be the opposite so only time will tell. Not questioning your optimism as everybody is sharing in it in view of the very positive start and strong foundations laid, but in terms just of the transfer window, the window has been far from great.

Mark, on what metrics do you define it as great out of interest, in terms of lost and gained and in comparison against peers such as Stoke, W'Ham etc.

It's fair to say that we have lost more than we have gained though isn't it? - Back up goalie in, who is then installed as first choice to replace Howard (and is doing well thus far) - Player vaulted as a future england captain, replaced with a very acceptable but much older and cheaper player - Excellent find of a CM at a great price (the one standout signing at this point) - CF out (or never to be played again at least), and though he should never have been signed in the first place, we are still a striker down - Young forward out on loan In reflection of what other clubs are doing and have done, I'd describe it as below average at best. We've broken even/ made a profit again haven't we, late moves notwithstanding?

With the names being mentioned now, I really hope that our business is done for this year, bar any outgoings.

With the lack of movement so far, I'd be happy just with Niasse and McGeady out come 23:00....

Stoke is a good fit for him and an opportunity to prove that he does still have something to offer. My suspicion is that if city, in this inflated market, are actually willing to offload for £8m then they know something that we don't - and perhaps he's a spent force.

I still don't like the prospect, even at 'just' £20m When did he last actually play competitive football; stats suggest that his last goal scored was way back in Dec 2015. Rusty would be an understatement in terms of his match sharpness. Can he return to the scoring ways that he's fleetingly shown during his career; remains to be seen.

Many of the players comments at the end of the season when Martinez was sacked suggested that he had not been too popular and had effectively or metaphorically 'lost the dressing room'. That was fairly clear to most observers for the latter part of the season though, with his treatment of Mirallas and then Baines both taking their toll on morale.

I don't think there's any cause for concern - he's a goal scorer and will be back amongst the goals soon. Need to remember that since the end of May, he's scored 7 international goals across June and early July. By contrast, Kane has scored none, and was almost as lean at the end of the domestic season as Lukaku. If I were a Tottenham fan then I may be more concerned at that as Kane doesn't have the provenance over a number of years that Lukaku has and so is far more at risk of being flash in the pan theoretically - though I expect both of those lads to be scoring again soon and to continue to do so in the future.

Not what we need though if his observation is correct. We need a striker who will notch a goal every other game rather than two goals in a single game each month. First half of last season he was fairly regular with his scoring so that ought to be the target again. There aren't many alternative goal scoring outlets in the team, though hopefully that will improve as well with Ross and Geri, Mirallas etc. chipping in.

They are all clipped on and appear to have harnesses underneath their outerwear. I'd say it was taken very recently. Hairstyles etc. look contemporary, and the little guy on the left end is wearing Richard Hammond style bootcut jeans.

There are so many participating in this behaviour that I wouldn't know where to start, and the reality is that I'm tripping most of the time as its literally quite easy not to see some of the smaller people when you're looking for signposts, MRT platforms etc. Have almost had to leapfrog one or two that I've not seen until almost too late. I do recall that article but from experience out in Germany in fairly recent times I've not found it any worse than the UK or USA. Singapore is far, far worse, Malaysian cities slightly less so but still eye-opening in terms of how widespread the 'issue' is.