The Regulator

Isn't that the point though? They are there just for back-up, like Joe Hart was at man City. It's a rare case where we will actually call for our 3rd choice keeper, as it is with all clubs, but why keep Turner when he knows he is 3rd choice for us? I agree with the sentiment that if we don't give these young talented keepers a chance why continue to get new ones, but Turner is 26 now I believe? I really can't see him getting into the first team here or even pushing for it, so why not ship him off for a small amount and start again, Howard won't go on forever, but he's got a good few years left at the top level. Then there's Mucha, who is also a world class goalkeeper, so I don't see a point when 3rd will be necessary unless they both get injured. It's not really about getting rid of turner, because he could very well stay, but why not sell him and make some sort of profit from him to help towards getting a different signing?

STAY - GO - BRING IN Goalkeepers Jan Mucha - Had a good tournament with Slovakia making some great saves and making only 1 or 2 mistakes. Seems like a top class keeper who will provide competition for the first place spot. Carlo Nash - Thought he was going anyway? Surplus to requirements at this point Tim Howard - Still our Number 1, but hope he goes from strength to strength this season and progressess, tends to make random and unpredictable errors but they are few and far between. Iain Turner - We need a 3rd keeper for back-up so in this case he should stay, but realistically we should be looking for a younger more talented keeper and look to get shot of turner. Defenders Tony Hibbert - I'm nowhere near his biggest fan, as somebody who believes that full backs should overlap and get in for crosses Hibbert is far too meat and potatoes for my liking. The only plus side is he is everton through and through and will work hard to get into the side. For now, Neville is better at right-back. Leighton Baines - Just signed a 5-year contract, have no problems with him at all, glad to have him on a long term deal. Joseph Yobo - We all know he has his moments but Yobo was moulded to be a defender; big, strong, good in the air, and definately one to keep hold of. Phil Jagielka - No explination required. Sylvian Distin - Just. Distin is getting on and isn't exactly a fine wine. But his experience will be valuable for our younger defenders and he has a good head on his shoulders. Worth another year at least. Johnny Heitinga - Utility player. Fullback, centre half, defensive midfielder, indispensable. Seamus Coleman - Promising young player who is developing all the time. Would liek to see him get utilised more as the season goes on. He will be one to keep an eye on. Shane Duffy - I don't know enough about duffy to know whether he will be able to push his way into the squad this season, possibly in the cups? But I would prefer us to get some of these younger players out on loan to get some experience. LOAN Left Back - I'm not too knowledgeable when it comes to left backs but we desperately need cover because losing baines to injury at any point takes away our only left back. Despite the fact that other players can play there I don't want them to, it would be much smarter to get in a decent, albeit cheap and probably young left back as an understudy to baines, or an older, more experienced player. I'll do midfielders and Striekrs later

DONOVAN!

Don't think this is likely unless Moyes is getting rid of at least Vaughan, loaning out a few and maybe selling Yakubu to fund for a decent winger such as Donovan/Sessegnon

if ozil came to the prem it wouldn't be with us

sorry? Gosling plays RM, Pienaar, play LM, and Bily plays either RM/LM. I know they are not wingers but I used the word wide meaning the sides of the pitch as opposed to the middle.

I've always liked Vaughan, seems like a positive guy, despite the injuries, and has a natural ability for the game, but to be honest, we just bought 2 strikers are we really going to use him this season? At all? He'd be 5th choice and we only play one up front? I'd rather see him go out on loan one more time but a full year at a club who will play him not have him as cover, if not £1m is a good price for someone we won't use anymore, unless all our strikers get injured again, in which case he'll probably be the first one.

We already have Neville, Heitinga, Fellaini, Rodwell, Arteta, Cahill and Osman - all these players can play in a central midfield role, 3 of them can play an attacking midfield role, and up to 5 can play defensive midfield, however we only have 3 out and out wide players: Gosling, Pienaar and Bily. With that in mind shouldn't our focus be on bringing in a winger, preferably a right winger, with a bit of pace or technical ability? I don't have a bad word to say about Silva, but we just don't need him, Fellaini and Rodwell will get experience just fine without him.

If the 9mil is true then the yak is gone, there's no point holding onto him for another season because it's a massive risk as to whether he'll recover his best form. If we get 9 million for him then at least we can try and get another striker, though I agree finding one as good as the yak can be for 9-10 mil is almost impossible. Saying that we do have Saha who can play for the most part if he avoids injury who I personally feel is more consistent when fit than the yak.

I'd like to see Petrov here, whether Pienaar goes or not. For a start as mentioned at length he's a free signing, so he can't hurt our transfer kitty, however many bottle caps and alf pogs it may consist of. Secondly, we are desperate for some strength in depth, given last season's injury crisis, we know however well we recover we can't mount a serious champions league challenge without consistency thorughout the squad should things go awry. Thirdly and most importantly, Petrov is not a bad player. He dips in and out of form like any player, but he has good attacking quality and a wealth of experience, and he'll hardly be another van der meyde signing, as we already know he can handle the premier league. I honestly don't see a downside to this potetntial transfer, and if Pienaar was to go, hey ho, we have an extra 12 million to roll into 2 shrewd signings or 1 great signing.

I dunno it's a bit cagey, Bentley only broke into the team at Spurs in a few cup games, Redknapp preferred Bale in midfield and Kranjcar on the right to having Bentley involved, so he wasn't so much 2nd choice as last. That being said I can't believe how anyone on here could doubt his ability. Paired with someone like Coleman overlapping we would have a natural balance of pace and aggresion, quality and end product. If Pienaar did go to Spurs I wouldn't be that concerned, and Bentley coming our way would give us a natural right-sided midfielder, something I am desperate to see at our club as we just don't have one apart from Gosling. Personally though, I'd prefer to outright sell Pienaar and get Ben Arfa, or another talented young winger on our side. All the teams that finished above us have decent wingers, sometimes 3 or 4, and that adds power and pace to your attacking line. Our lack of it on the wings is devastating sometimes, as we have noone tracking back. Donovan is another one we could lump in for were we to sell him outright, but I think a smarter move would be to hold onto Pienaar and loan Donovan in January.

Didn't Cahill come from Millwall? Jagielka from Sheffield Utd? Lescott from Wolves? Who gives a fuck where he's from, he scores loads of goals, he's young, he's not a replacement for anyone he's there for the future and he's scored more goals this season than Anichebe or Vaughan have combined. We already have one off to Motherwell, Vaughan will probably go on loan again, so why not have Beckford as 4th choice? Stick him in the cup games or out against sides like Blackpool and West Brom and he'll probably net 4-5 goals this season. I don't know why people are moaning so much about our lack of ambition in the transfer market, the team we had last season had 2 defeats from last november! We just need to get everyone fit, add a couple of squad players as back up, give some of our youngsters a run out, and if Pienaar does go, bring in another class winger to replace him and we'll be fine. You know it's transfer season when everyone starts bitching and moaning

My sentiments exactly, players develop and then move on, and it's not always a bad thing, if lescott had stayed we wouldn't have had bily, heitinga or distin, and while some of them had bad spells I think we're stronger for them being here than keeping lescott. If pienaar goes, then fine, we'll miss him because he's a great player, but he'll go for good money and we can restrengthen again. Yes he was our best player last year, but next year we'll have a midfield with fellaini arteta and cahill, and anyone Moyes will add to that will be joining a world class midifield. No worries on my part, in truth i dont see the fuss.

is £7mil really that bad? He hasn't played a lot for us recently and when he has he's looked out of shape and hardly banging them in. We only ever play 1 up front anyway and we only paid 11 for him a few years back. And considering a former target of ours, Nikola Zigic, just went to birmingham for around the same money, I wouldn't be surprised if Moyes held out for a couple mil more and then bought someone else. Someone who will probably be better for us, I mean if we did get Bellamy we'd have a player that is almost the polar opposite; fast, dangerous and able to produce some amazing goals like against manure. It's not that bad a move, if he stayed he'd need to recapture his form and get in shape, while we all know what Moyes can do with a small amount of money: Jagielka £4mil, Cahill £2mil, Pienaar £2mil, Arteta £2mil...so realistically I'm not worried either way. Moyes won't do anything stupid in this transfer market, we had 2 defeats in 24 games second half of last season, there's no reason if we keep up that form why we can't get 4th next year, and that was mainly without Yakubu.

romey is correct, ledley is an academy boy and as far as I know he will still be 23 when this season ends.

As a cardiff fan, I can safely say this would be the wrong move. Cardiff are in the play off final on saturday and if we qualify for the premier league we'll be sitting on almost £100 million plus we have new investment in the club and a new stadium. Ledley hasn't really shone and peaked a couple seasons back. He has stagnated at Cardiff but either way they will want to keep him. If a club comes in for him I hope it isn't Everton because although Moyes might be able to get the best from him he would be a squad player at best and wouldn't strengthen the team or create competition for places. Plus if cardiff qualify they won't need to sell so they will look for bigger bids and more lucrative deals than £5, they will bring players in first before they sell because they won't need to. can't see this move happening anyway but thought I'd chip in.

CAHILL!!!! EUROPE IS BACK ON!!!!

if we draw then we need a miracle to get europe, villa and pool both need to lose their next 2 games which i really would not put money on...

Agreed the Yak is a liability on the pitch, he looks like he's got a ten tonne weight strapped to his back...

I watched us against man city on the net and I realised how much we just need balance in the team to actually compete. When Fellaini was playing out of his skin at the start of this year and we had Donovan we had a few players on the pitch who would actually track back and stop the other teams attack (Donovan, pienaar, Fellaini mainly), which took the pressure of our defence and gave us the ability to play further up the pitch and at a faster pace, off setting teams like Arsenal, Man City etc. When Fellaini left and Arteta came in we lost that balance but still had Donovan and Peanuts doing the work. Against Man City I noticed cahill working his socks off to do as much of that as possible, and I think against a failing West Ham desperate for a win the balance in the team will be all important. Our team could be: Howards, Neville, Jagielka, Distin, Baines, Heitinga, Pienaar, Osman, Cahill, Arteta, Saha. In which case if we play to our full ability as we have done and cahill pienaar and rodwell do the work then we should be able to out play west ham. Wham are one of three teams in the league we usually do well against but always make me nervous, because they always seem to come close for a great proportion of the match and we usually end up with a flattering scoreline despite being lucky for it not to go the other way. However with the attitude of our players at the moment, the high probability of us getting into the europa league if we continue getting the results, and the 1000000-1 shot at getting Champions League should every team around us drop enough points, I think we will again prove too much for the hammers. Zola doesn't deserve to see his side relegated and West Ham are a team worthy of playing premiership football on their day, but all we can hope is that their day is not sunday and we get the 3 points we need. Incidentally it's Villa park after this so although the hammers could score an upset I think the team and the manager are all too aware of what we stand to gain should we win big, given Villa's trouncing at the hands of Chelsea shoring up the goal difference. 4-1 Mido for them, Cahill Saha and Pienaar for us. COYB!!!!

Just been on Man City's and they don't have it either: http://www.mcfc.co.uk/Fixtures?showall=1

Hey guys been a while..... So I have a question, don't know if anybody else has noticed but, we're only playing Man City once this season according to the fixture list here: http://www.evertonfc.com/match/premier-league-football-fixtures.html and here: http://www.skysports.com/football/teams/everton/ and here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/e/everton/fixtures/default.stm Anybody know when or IF we are in fact playing at Eastlands this season?

I gave it to Bily for the 2 assists and the 9.3 player rating on skysports <_<

I'd have one or 2 changes to rest players Howard Hibbert Yobo Distin Baines Gosling Rodwell Fellaini Pienaar Cahill Jo Bench: Nash, Heitinga, Osman, Yakubu, Saha, Neill, Wallace There's the strength to be Hull anyway but with Ossie Yakubu and Saha the necessary backup to come on and influence the game if needs be. We should win this 2-0 in my book.

Personally I can't see anything wrong with this transfer. We got rid of one player, and brought in 3 with the money and now another...as far as I'm concerned this is more great business for Moyes. Our total possible* defense start of season: Jags (injured) Yobo Lescott Baines Hibbert Rodwell* Neville Gosling* Our total possible* defence at present: Jags(injured) Yobo Distin Baines Hibbert Neill Heitinga Neville(injured) Rodwell* Gosling* Rodwell and Gosling will normally play midfield, but Gosling showed great promise in last night's match of being a quality RB which means we now have up to 5 people who can play there, Neill as far as I know can also play CB so we have 5 for that, and we have 3 capable of playing left back. Honestly compare our team now to last season, I'd say when our injuries are over in 6 - 8 weeks (longer for Neville), we'll be much stronger than we were, and be in a better position considering we have players coming back only 4 games in. Neill won't just walk into the team he'll have to fight to get in, but I for one am relishing the thought of a strong and experienced bench to back up a strong and experienced starting 11. Fuck spurs they always say they'll compete and wind up around 10th, Man City have the weight of expectation and their "stars" antics to deal with, Villa have lost strong players, and that's all we're really competing with for 5th. Depending on whether we can take the maximum from these next soft games (Blackburn H, Portsmouth A, Stoke H, Wolves H, Bolton A) we could be 4th by Halloween. Or we could lose all confidence and play crap and end up bottom. Don't think so somehow.