Hafnia

Congratulations John Stones, well deserved.

Smalling.... The point is??? I actually hope he has a groin strain and stones gets his place. Naughty I know.

Hart Johnson - Jags - Cahill - Baines Gerrard Barkley - Henderson Sterling Sturridge Rooney

yep pricey, but is they type of player they need. I like the lad, good solid footballer. At £50k a week for a squad player is a no from me but I see why West Ham have gone for him.

He's a £10-12m player like Romelu. Not as accomplished at finishing but better in the air and at holding up the ball.

If we had at least £50m to spend then £20m would be ok.... I guess. The reality is that if we bought him we would have no other options and we need other options. If we bought Bony or Remi I would have absolute confidence that we wouldn't be substituting them for seriously off days. Lukakus off days were really really big off days. Seriously, there were games this season where I questioned if he had been drinking before playing. The lad needed the shepherds crook a good few times with a bit of a slap if i'm honest. I caught Barkley fuming with him on more than one occassion and for me that was telling. I know it sounds crazy but he has a bit of the Victor Anichebe's about him - big, poor in the air, sometimes strong, sometimes a stiff breeze knocks him over and yes - seems to infuriate team mates. To balance this out I will bring Barkley into analysis - I seen him on more than one occassion look like a championship player, poor decisions, fragile confidence and really looked lost. However, there were never games where I doubted his ability or never trusted him to take the ball. Apart from that - we aren't being asked to blow a summers transfer budget on him - he cost nothing and his game time will improve his decision making and confidence.

The reason i'm not keen on him is that we play a possession based game, with full back who bomb on. We need a centre forward who looks after the ball - he just doesn't do this well enough.

Maybe they are "valuing" Lambert at £9m and offsetting the overpayment for him as an underpayment for Lallana. Lets say £30m for the two players - instead of £26m for Lallana and £4m for Lambert, they are reducing the lallana fee. Regardless, its sharp practice and I hope the likes of Liverpool and Southampton suffer with lower league clubs refusing to deal with them as a result of this. Pretty disgusted by this to be honest.

Be interesting to see if Roma accept this, they value Benetia at £38m and Chelsea have offered £18m+Lukaku therefore making Lukaku £20m. Or are Chelsea trying to get the money in for Lukaku by doing this... generate a bidding war....

The lad made the only decision he could do, a 5 year deal that would set him up for life. He would have been looking at his injuries and thought "I need this big contract".

Reminds me of Roy Keane, Paul Bracewell, Peter Reid if i'm honest. Joe Parkinson was of that ilk but not as technically acomplished - a great player though. Its a great feeling to have someone in our midfield who is what I call a proper midfielder - gets stuck in, covers the ground, has very few poor games.

Jordi Cryff, Stephen Clements, Alex Bruce, Tom Ince, Darren Ferguson - all end up playing football at a level higher than their ability deserves because of who their fathers are. The madness is that take a half talented kid from a normal working class background and give them the level of coaching that this lot have had and you will see a professional player. Annoys me no end and mainly because my brother was mustard, but he just lacked that break. Guts me every time a bloke i've never met before walks up to me and says "your brother should have made it", you think "yeah whatever, there's thousands of those" - but when its an ex tranmere player who admits he wasn't any where near as good as your brother it is a little sickening. Thats why I am full of anger towards Vellios, and full of admiration for Rickie Lambert. As for the likes of Ince, I just see an over indulged brat.

Hate shit like that. Lower league clubs getting shafted.

The lad worked in a beetroot factory to make ends meet after being released by his second club. Awesome determination. No wonder he scores pennos, he knows what real pressure is.

're mirallas last post:- I don't give a toss who he is likely to play for, if someone is ready to spend £20m on a player with a few key flaws then that's their decision. Opinions make for debate, my opinion is he's got a pretty awful touch and his passing is poor. If that can be brushed under the carpet and a great player can be had for £20m then my understanding of forward play differs to most. I will say again, it wouldn't have taken an expensive , world class player to score 1 in 2 for us last year.

Go with youth and we could be serious contenders. The burden of expectation has always been our downfall. Throw Barkley, sterling, and Henderson in there and I see us have a go with youthful enthusiasm.

Whichever way you look at it, it's a fantastic story for a good honest footballer who deserves everything that comes his way. Should send Vellios a brief history of Rickie Lambert. He would be ashamed.

I don't like to see people with no interest in Everton on emotive match day forums trying to stir up shit and then when we play Chelsea they start giving even more shit out. He told us we were lucky to even have lukaku... Fucks sake we are Everton. If lukaku was lucky enough to sign for us he may have the chance of wearing the most famous number 9 shirt of all.

The question if it was put to me "how much is he worth a week?" £60k is justified, you can't not pay him that because he is young. Is he a key player? Yes, definately. Would other clubs pay him that? Absolutely. Let's not get our knickers in a twist, the lad is going to be one of the best midfielders around of his type. We need to retain and reward him within our pay structure which we can. Martinez ain't soft, McCarthy ain't greedy, I don't see any issues.

Have we got a big Brown nose emoticon? I don't have an agenda it's called an opinion, I call a spade a spade...

Lenny Henry because i'm black:

That's racist that is.

we've got some strangeways of posting on this forum,

To be a top class keeper you need to have a "don't care what you think" attitude. It is the only thing that helps when they make a mistake. Mignolet looked top class when he first went to Liverpool, as the odd mistake crept in he looked less and less "confident". The likes of Southall, Grobbelaar, Schmichael, Van Der Saar and all the recent great german keepers used to blame anyone but themselves - they really did not think they copuld be held responsible.

I think he will prove to be an astute signing, when we have Stones, Jags or Distin missing - he's our get out of jail free card.