Jesse_Wray

In an effort to look on the bright side, I've discovered Denis Stracqualursi must be a long-lost older brother of Seamus Coleman...

Here's my massive rant, if you'll allow me to indulge... Everton selling Arteta is effectively an admission by the club that it no longer has any hope of challenging for the Champs League spots. Arteta told the club he wanted to play CL and Moyes let him go after telling him they couldn't achieve that. Arteta deserves this though, hopefully he can help Arsenal do well and stay in the CL next year. And hopefully he might FINALLY get a gig in the Spanish side now that he's at a 'big' club. His departure has also sent shockwaves through the rest of the team on Twitter this morning: Phil Nevllle - "Window closed I'm shattered see you all tomorrow”. Distin - "Feeling confused right now...." I'm worried this could lead to the downfall of Everton. They've effectively given up and surely our top players like Fellaini, Baines, Jagielka and Rodwell will see this and begin to wonder if they should move on. It also raises the question of how much longer will we have Moyes for. Because he certainly couldn't put up with another season like this. If we don't get new owners this season, Moyes WILL leave by season's end. I'm sure of it. Also, to elaborate on our other transfer dealings... OUT: - Beckford to Leicester for £4m. At a time where we desperately need to strengthen our striking stocks, we go ahead and sell last season's top scorer. Fantastic. - Yakubu to Blackburn for £2m. He was always going to go, but again, why sell him AND Beckford. - Vaughan to Nowrich City for £2.5m. Yet another striker departure, but this was done ages ago. Shit thing about this is that all of his transfer fee was immediately given to the bank. IN: - Drenthe on season-long loan. He'll play out on the left wing where we've already got enough cover. And he's hardly had a glamourous last two seasons (just 14 games out on loan for Hercules last season, and just 8 games at Real Madrid). I'm not excited about him. - Denis Stracqualursi on season-long loan. Who? Not only is he a no-name, but he's yet another fucking unpronounceable player like Bilyaletdinov! Haha! Moyes is on a mission to make commentators' lives difficult. So that's £18.5m raised (or £20.5m if you include Pienaar's sale), and I'm willing to bet the large majority of that now belongs to the bank. And the fact our only signings are merely on loans is a real worry. No looking to the future, just a view to surviving. We are fucked.

Phil Nevllle earlier - "Window closed I'm shattered see you all tomorrow”.

Halewood Blue: You can't seriously think leading by example on the pitch is the only mark of a good captain. The job of a leader goes faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar beyond the skills and performance shown on the pitch. To think otherwise suggests a real lack of football knowledge and experience.

Haha! Dammit!

Totally agree. But hopefully they can still for a formidable trio. Also, *breath

With the (hopeful) emergence of Ross Barkley this season, it got me wondering if we might begin dream to see the second coming of The Holy Trinity. In a few years' time could we view Barkley, Rodwell and Fellaini in the same way Everton fans viewed Kendall, Ball and Harvey in the late 60s/early70s? Now, I realise it's pretty unlikely that we'll have BOTH Rodwell and Fellaini still at the club in a few years, but just allow me to indulge for now The thought of Fellaini and Rodwell destroying teams from defensive/holding midfield positions and Barkley then taking over to set things up in attack is one that should get any Evertonian excited. One can only pray.

Yeah I hate to say this, but I'm tending to agree. Selling Rodwell would be devastating because it would affirm that we'll never be able to hold on to young players with elite potential under the current ownership. But, if we do sell him it is absolutely VITAL that Fellaini stays with us for the long term. Felli is already becoming one of the premiership's best defensive midfielders, and I believe he's still got a lot more potential. Rodwell's best position, imo, is also at def mid and we've got others who can cover in there (Neville and Heitinga). So getting 20mil, or 10mil plus a player, wouldn't be such a blow because def mid is probably our best resourced position and it would allow us to bring in a quality striker and perhaps a winger and/or backup left full back. Having said all of that, though, my heart is prevailing right now and I don't want to see Rodwell go

This is the most exciting news of anything relating to Everton's transfer window. Excitement over a player leaving - this is what supporting Everton has come to

Haha! I can't argue with that!

Also, I reckon it's bloody disappointing to see people slagging off Pienaar and saying good riddance. It's not as though he's breaking his contract, or has backflipped on an agreement. He signed a contract that ends at the end of the season and after that he is no longer ours - end of story. He is clearly no a player that is after money - otherwise he would have accepted Chelsea's offer. He is a player who wants to push himself to the top. He wants to play in Europe and we can't offer him that. If we made it into Europe last season then I suspect things would be vastly different. I don't think it's ridiculous for Pienaar to feel as though this club has gone as far as it can . . . for the moment. So I will be sending him off with my warmest blessing, and I think everyone else should too. Because, if you really think about it, he has been one of the hardest working players at the club for the last three seasons. I thank him for that very, very much.

Have you played football regularly before? (That's not meant to sound like I'm having a go at you! Just a genuine question) Because it would be negligent/ignorant to dismiss the importance of the psychological side of the game. Not being in the right state of mind has a MASSIVE way on the way a player performs. Part of the game IS a cerebral process. If a player's performance came down to pure instinct, then there would be no such thing as a fit player being in good form or bad form. They would put in the same performance every week - because instinct doesn't readily change. We wouldn't see Arteta playing as poorly as he is - because, as far as we know, he is fit but his head/heart clearly isn't in it this season. For myself, I know that when I play with confidence I play much, much better than without it. When I've got faith in my abilities I dribble with my head up and my shooting/free kick technique as a far sight better than when I'm not psychologically prepared. I think it's grossly unfair to suggest that Pienaar asked not to play because he couldn't be bothered. Perhaps he thought he would be doing the club an injustice by playing when his mind was clouded with other things. He has been playing well this season because he has been driven immensely by the desire to win a contract with a bigger club. And when it became clear that his job was almost done, that desire and drive would have dropped right off. It's incredibly hard to get yourself back into the right mind set for a game in such a short space of time.

I'm hoping that Cahill, as groomsman, can pull a little sneaky trick and slip a new 5-year Everton contract in for Mikel to sign while he's signing his marriage papers at the wedding. Two birds with one stone and all that.

I can't say that I've noticed Felli's too much (his afro is probably pulling too much focus!). But I'm totally fine with Arteta's, mainly because he looks as though he can actually grow a decent beard... Now, although that's just an un-maintained growth after a few days, it's streets ahead of what Baines, Osman and Jags can muster.