Hafnia

You certainly wouldn't spend £15m on a player that can't fit in with another key member of the squad. At least he's admitted it I suppose.

The problem I see is that if we are to play 2 strikers (which is something I think we need to be able to do to get better results against the top 4, and certainly avoid draws against lesser teams) - namely Yak and Saha, then neither player warrants selection. This is a pretty bad state of affairs when you consider one is a great goalscoring talisman who is a firm fan favourite who you would hate to drop through loyalty alone, and the other is a £15m investment. The first choice centre pairing would be Rodwell and Arteta (billy on left, pienaar on right) without a shadow of a doubt. Already Rodwell shows more ability in positioning, athleticism, passing, composure - than fellaini and Cahill combined. Arteta is one of the best midfielders in the Premier league from the perspective of making things happen and changing pace and direction of play. Neither Fellaini or Cahill are effective as out an out midfielders, they need another player to supplement their weaknesses which means we only have one striker when they play. If we had another decent option on the right hand side I would probably give pienaar the attacking midfield role in a 5 man attack also - which means there could be 3 for one place. I think in all honesty both players may find themselves warming the bench more than they would have hoped and being used in a rotation. However the impact that they would have would be great, would they be happy with that though?

£1m is fair enough, let's face it, if someone took Rodwell or Baxter we would be incensed. That aside, if the bearded idiot wants us banned from transfer windows (I reckon Kenwright would have loved that one - must be gutted now) then maybe he wants to look at how Delph was procured, glass houses and bricks.

I don't mind the fact that the club is being run prudently at present, I want to see some light at the end of the tunnel in terms of "why can teams such as Spurs invest heavily in transfers and overtake us?" - the answer is that they have investors and are backed by money men. I would be intrigued to know whether our ability to obtain a buyer or heavy financial backing is reliant on moving to Kirby and will this financial outly be funded by someone other than the club or Bill Kenwright. What attendances can we expect and what will be the revenue generated by such a move. surely as many people have stated, we are attractive to investors, especially given that other clubs with less kudos manage to secure investment.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/2968287/Credit-crunch-How-Premier-League-teams-will-be-affected--Football.html If the club want us to look at football as a business, then any fan of reasonable morals would stay at home and pocket the money spent on going to the match when the £50 could pay for their childrens tuition, driving lessons, uni fund - whatever. Football is football, don't expect fans to have to become financial experts, we go to the games and spend our money because we love the club and want success and have pride. If you control a club and financially cannot give it the money it's reputation and fans need, then get out. Do not refuse to answer straight questions such as "how much are you asking for the club" because we deserve better, Hiding behind a canny manager will not get you all the time in the world, many fans are waiting for the day when Man City, United or Real Madrid will come calling for Jack Rodwell, with Kenwright in charge he will be sold. Thanks for all you've done Bill, now please "actively" sell us. i.e let it be known how much we are up for.

It's an outrage, if someone did that to you on a sunday morning or 7 a side, there would be severe consequences, not to mention a riot. To appeal against the ban is disgraceful may as well say "yes, what i did was wrong, the victim may never play again, will lose a potential fortune, but do you know what, a ten game ban is a bit harsh?!" For defour to state that it wouldn't have happened if the ref had blown up earlier deserves the outrage it has caused, maybe if someone gave him a good smack in the mouth they could use the excuse "if you chose your words carefully that wouldn't have happened!" - see how that sits with the club captain. They should play that clip to all professional footballers as a reminder of the responsibilty that they have to eachother.

Ban him as long as the other player is out for, that will stop this. Only a matter of time before this happened, at 29 the other chap is probably finished and will miss a world cup campaign also. Sickening tackle.

If I was Moyes I would be loathe to admit defeat to Spurs on yet another player (Naughton & Walker). Let' s face facts - we don't know the facts - the fact is the club let us only know the facts they want us to know, All we can do us to air frustrations out on forums and at the moment it appears that fans are split. Some are happy with 5th place and a runners up whilst spending £0 net money, enjoying the "genuine" praise from the press and other sets of fans for doing it the right way, whilst pittying Moyes and continually stating that he is nailed on for Old Trafford when his apprenticeship days at goodison, shining Sir Alex's shoes are up. Other fans are sick of reading news sites (sometimes using google translator to understand portuguese or belgian) awaiting the news that our solid season would be rewarded with signings of the ilk of Moutinho, Defour etc which may see us break into the top 4, earn millions and challenge the best - only to have to take part in rows with Man City fans over the true worth of Lescott, fully knowing that he will be sold. Kenwright will always be brought into question whilst being the chairman of the top club with the lowest net spend yet with the highest press contact with transcripts such as this being released: QUESTION FROM A SHAREHOLDER… “Looking at the record turnover…most of it from TV rights…the core business, the commercial side, stayed the same, slightly backwards; you say we’re punching above our weight how long can we go on without investment…I hear every week…I read the paper and there’s club’s being bought…if you’re looking 24/7 why haven’t we found someone……… Is one of the reasons no on has come in for Everton is that the board are asking for too much money? Bill Kenwright… “No” SAME SHAREHOLDER… “Some clubs have consortiums bidding for these clubs… Peter Trembling former commercial director, recently left the club, we’ll never find out why, within three or four months of leaving he found investors…middle east based…to buy Notts County………if Everton are for sale how much are you asking for the club? Bill Kenwright: “Here we go…oh please………come on” SHAREHOLDER: “You’re not answering the question…” Bill Kenwright: “I’m not answering your question…I’m bored with your question…you’re not getting an answer to the question.” Telling a SkySports reporter that he was working on a signing (over the phone) with 20 minutes to go was just lunacy - what chairman of a club does that - when the chance is it will fail?! When being continually questioned over his status as chairman he doesn't do himself many favours, having a fan at the helm isn't enough - we have more than 40,000 who will sing the clubs praises. Fact is he doesan't help himself, so when people question him, can they be blamed?

In order of quality our centre midfield is 1. Arteta 2. Rodwell 3. Cahill (not in 2 man centre) 4. Neville 5. Fellaini Hate to say it but the £15m spent on Fellaini may never be realised - has no pace combined with work rate which means he needs to be part of a hard working central 3 (same as Cahill) Personally I would go this: Saha Yak Billy Pienaar Rodwell Arteta Baines Distin Jags Heitinga I would give Baines and Heitinga wing back roles and allow pienaar and Billy to cut in centrally when wing backs join attack - this would give us so much creativity and attacking options. If away from home, the usual 5 man midfield formation.

Unfortunately I don't view a successful midfield signing at £15m as one is joint top scorer at the club when the fact is we had no recognisable striker. With his height comes the advantage of getting up for headers, however with his height comes a price as he is the least mobile midfielder I have seen in a blueshirt, he makes Barry Horne look lightning. Physical presence is great but when combined with lack of mobility you tend to find clumsiness. However the jury is still out, for £15m I expect a world beater in next 2 years. If we were more pro active in the transfer markets we wouldn't be over paying for players of Felli's ability. Allegedlly we went for Krancjar - why not a month ago for £2.5m that represents the best business done that I have seen. Maybe we wouldn't have got him, but it's always a last minute rush.

I think the issue many of the people frustrated with Bill is that he is not as straight talking as he would like to make out. Yes, we sold Lescott fot a good price and replaced him adequately with 2 centre halves and a left winger. But that is all. On the balance of things we are one player off better than last year (including Jags injury which has no guarantee of success - fingers crossed) The squad size we had last year was no way near big enough, and you cannot blame injuries for that, other teams get them, it's just that we show them more because we have no cover - simple as that, and Anichebe is not a premier league striker - in effect we had Yak and Vaughan for the majority of the campaign after signing Fellaini for an inflated price with very little research done (we are almost relieved when he has an ok game and doesn't get booked - £15m?!) The problem is that we have been so mistreated in terms of how money has been spent for so long that we are almost expected to be grateful when we actually sign a few players. The level of expectation has gotten so low that any photo of a player holding a shirt aloft is treated with a major buzz, when in fact the last proven exciting premiership player we signed (Distin aside) was Yak. The troubling fact remains that we are no longer able to compete when the likes of Spurs open their cheque book. The manager deserves full backing in securing the players he identifies, in my mind he will be looking forward to the day when Sir Alex retires and he has an opportunity to get the players he wants. Are we as Everton fans wrong to have ambitions that exceed the spending power of our owners?

Ossie has been a solid player for us in the past, a good squad player and I for one have always backed him. However, at this moment he is looking somewhat less than what we have and what we are looking for to take us forward. I think Moyes likes everything about him and wants to give him the chance to kick on with the club, in other words, shape up Leon and be the England international we thought you could be or you will be replaced.

Just sent my top scout out to see him on Football Manager 2009, good stats in terms of heading and anticipation, aggression, little bit slow though. Apparently has the potential to be as good as Yobo. Let's pull the plug on this one then eh!

Rumour has it that Anderson could be on his way here along with Gary Neville, how tiring this all is! Anderson would be a great buy, he needs a steady spot in a team to see his quality.

So we got £22m for Lescott which is approx £19m in the coffers. We had a £5m offer for Kyle Naughton before we considered selling Lescott. That takes our budget to £24m at least. Bily = £9m Distin = £5m Leaves us with £10m remaining of what we as fans should expect to be available. If after finishing 5th with a cup final we are only given £5m to spend then it's a disgrace, Moyes has operated on a ridiculous net transfer budget for too long now, and the board really do need to get their fingers out, there are some wealthy people in their who are just waiting for a payday and are not prepared to back the manager, it's a case of put up or get out. I feel we have been more than patient enough. It would be interesting to see our finance reports. We have been in a great position not to gamble, but to have a calculated risk in strengthening our squad with players like Moutinho etc who would have taken us close to that 4th spot, alas now I feel even the likes of Liverpool will struggle to do that given the resurgence of Arsenal, Spurs and Man City along with the perenial contenders of Chelsea and Man Ure. Unless we are lucky with injuries and the likes of Distin and Bily settle and improve the squad we will struggle to make the top 6 and we will continue to shop at Aldi whilst the rest of the aforementioned teams take their pick of the elite. Just watching the goal we conceeded against Wigan made me realise just how weak our right side is, and unless that is rectified, it will be a focal point of attack by other teams in the prem and we will concede goal after goal.

The date is 2008 on the article

Just been in sports soccer in Liverpool and seen Moutinho! He was buying some Lonsdale boxer shorts for his medical, he also picked up an Everton key ring and a pair of Kangol Jeans for £8, expect to hear something soon.....

strangely enough, thinking to when I played FM 2009, when a russian player is out of contract you still end up paying a fair bit of compensation as in millions, so I don't think the transfer system is the same when it involves their players... regardless, hopefully this is a player who can give us something different, on the scale of thigs £10m isn't that much any more, to sell the likes of pienaar would take £12m so it's a risk worth taking, if Hiddink rates him, that's good enough for me.

Football hapiness = Best league + best team available + (best support and wages) Why holland?

being an Everton fan ain't easy, it's one thing wondering how far we could go if we had a few pound more to support the manager with - especially when we get 5th spot and a place in the final. However it's another thing when we have to wonder what bargain basement player we hope can emerge as a player who can take us forward. We have gone as far as possible by shopping in the lower leagues, we need proven players or players who can change games in an instant. Never has that been proven more than against Arsenal, a free flowing instinctive footballing team who took our 'disciplined' players apart at will. There is something going on that isn't right, whether it is getting kirby approved before selling or whether we don't want to pay the going rate, the fans are being insulted by lies and false promises. From being told our transfer targets are exciting to we should see signings in the next 48 hours, something is seriously wrong and the fans are kept in the dark.

That is what they want, £25m and that's it.

If ever the club needs some positive things to happen it is now, we are contending with that horrible sod hughes who now says "he understands David's annoyance, it is annoying when a big club comes in for one of your players?" In other words, "Man city are bigger than Everton" not getting into that one.....they won the league twice, nuff said. We need freshening up big time, however we do it I don't care, we need a midfield general, could we swap fellaini for defour and throw £5m in there? Fellaini is not good enough, he made Fabregas look like Usain Bolt for his goal. Yobo is scary, poor defender . I would throw in Rodwell than have Yobo playing. Need Jags back asap. Really poor start, Arsenal were good and we were extremely poor.

This is the type of signing we need, similar to mascherano with more skill. Awesome for me on footy manager 2008. Loan then buy is perfect, with mascherano living in the city hopefully he can settle which has been his problem at valencia.

This is a bit like expecting to be taken for a nice 3 course meal and ending up in the queue at mcdonalds. Whilst i'm doing that analogy - why not go for a big slap up fancy meal, impress the mrs, and then later on if there is a gap in the belly, grab a cheeseburger just to finish things off. You can bet your bottom dollar if you buy a few cheeseburgers, you don't have the space for a fillet steak. We do not need these types of players, Gosling could develop instead of having this lad take up space. We need players who will take us forward, not to increase the number of players who can do a job. Any money we have in the regoin of 2-3m should be used to pay a premium to get a top class player.

That raises a good point, when was the last time we seen a player slalom through challenges and leather one in ala Robben, Ronaldo. I'm thinking Rooney vs Leeds was the closest, would be nice to see.