Rupert_Fuffeinsmuir III

Great thread this. My all time top five would be; 1. Neville Southall 2. Peter Reid 3. Graeme Sharp 4. Dave Watson 5. John Bailey

Today was an utter farce for which everyone at the club should hang their heads in shame and embarrassment. 1.Moyes - Get over Lescott, he wants to go and your clinging to the moral high ground is not getting us anywhere. Take the £22M on offer on Monday if possible, and work your bollocks off for the next 2 weeks to get in reinforcements. If you are being hindered in doing this by the board, please let us know. 2.Kenwright - FUCK OFF. This is the second successive season that the shambolic mismanagement of our off-pitch affairs has been so bad that it has cost us player spirit, fight, and morale. Last season we lost a game we otherwise would have won, this season we have suffered a humiliation AGAIN on a scale that I thought belonged to the bad old days. YOU OFFER NOTHING TO EVERTON, LETS HAVE SOME REAL LEADERSHIP AT THE TOP LEVEL.

Hunt will give commitment and energy, which would not be enough for some but he would make a nuisance of himself for 90 minutes, and every team needs one of those players. I watched the Ireland vs Bulgaria game recently when John Giles and Ronnie Whelan were moaning that he had been selected ahead of Aiden McGeady on the right, and by the end of the game, they thought he had more than justifed himself, and was a big factor in helping the side get an away point. A lot would depend of course on who else we signed, to look at Hunt in an overall context, but for that price, I think he would be a useful addition. Would recommend him and I have seen quite a bit of him.

I agree, I saw the interview, and it bore all the signs of being staged and scripted to lower expectations. It's the usual fare, and my fear is that these sort of planted interviews will happen every so often between now and end of August. We could all end up listening to a series of lectures about inflated transfer fees, wages, the negative effect of agents, the impact of the global recession, the loss of Setanta money, the uncertainty regarding DK, the unwillingness of banks to extend credit lines etc etc etc. This would be so much in line with Kenwright's past form. Just hope I'm wrong but the Carter interview was for me, very clear in tone and intent. He wouldn't just have a microphone pointed towards him at random like that and speak off the top of his head (unlike Bill) so he obviously had a point he wanted to make in an undramatic, low-key way. The club can refer to this later on in a few weeks and say "well we did tell tell you"

Agreed, epitomizes all that's wrong about modern day footballers.

He tends to be quite honest about these things actually. If there was nothing imminent, and he was asked, then he would probably say that himself. One of the things I admire about him, there aren't any soundbites. We will just have to wait (and wait again) I think. If we are (severely) limited with funds as some speculate, then it would probably be better if Kenwright made that clear early on in a definitive way. It would certainly please my employer, terrible waste of company time refreshing webpages *10000000 times a day needlessly. Have a heart Bill.

If we were to get Jo as well, then it would be ok. He wouldn't be a starter for us, but could be an impact player for 20 minutes, which we don't have many of. Would probably see big Vic going out on loan then. I don't know whether or not Owen signing would be an indication of our rise, his fall, or a combination of both, seeing as he wasn't at all interested in signing for us in 2005.

I'm getting sick of this saga, and this cnut Pierre Dreossi in particular. Either they set a valuation, we accept it, and they allow us to talk to the player's agent. Of course clubs have a duty to maximise their return, but the whole handling of this just seems completely unprofessional, even in this day and age. We should set a deadline and call their bluff on this.

I have to say I'm concerned but then again I would not want most of the players that are being linked to us. Mike is right, its July 1st tomorrow and with DM supposedly returning from holiday etc, we'll see what happens. We need in my view a right back, right winger, centre mid, and striker as priorities. I would like to see cover brought in at centre back as well. If Lescott leaves for City (IMO a foregone conclusion that he will) then money surely would be spent but the big question is are we holding out for such and would some or all of the Lescott money be given to Moyes? Would it be added to any potential funds we currently have in place, if any? (probably modest funding, at best in any case). Players will arrive, they always will, but what I think we are all looking for is the quality and timing of those arrivals. Moyes has said often enough in the past that he prefers to do business early which for me means, the month of July. If we come back to this topic in 4 weeks and find that we have signed 3 players that fit our requirements, then I will be happy knowing that we have another month to maybe add to it in the forms of loans and/or bosmans, and more if Lescott has gone. The summer is a frustrating period but the phoney war is almost over so the good thing is that we'll soon know one way or another what cards Moyes has been dealt with. If we have some resources, I want players in in the next few weeks. There is NO EXCUSE for last summer's fiasco, unless once again Bill and Co. find they have bugger all to play with. I thought last summer that there was no way the Everton could repeat the absolute PR disaster that was our transfer dealings or lack of last summer. I still hold to that view, however I have been following Everton long enough so really wouldn't be surprised to find otherwise. Hoping for good news, expecting no news is probably an apt proverb!

£18M + Jo on loan is what I hear. Regardless of the Citeh source, its a case of when rather than if. My concerns are that DM wouldn't get all the money and we could be looking at a negative outlay in terms of transfer spending. I would be absolutely furious if some of that money was siphoned off elsewhere. We need to make at least 5 decent signings if Lescott leaves, not just a hastily-arranged collection of frees and loans either, and history shows thats a big ask for us.

Looks a prospect alright, and could be useful provided the fee was reasonable. Afonso Alves scored a bagful of goals in the Eredivisie but doing it in the Premiership is an entirely different matter.

For the last few seasons, the club through DM and BK generally seem to make conflicting noises. We're skint, but don't worry, the players who eventually end up at Spurs, Aston Villa, etc may well have signed for us if we had the cash. Very comforting. I suppose its the same at other clubs, but I think the policy of say nothing and keep saying it is the best one as far as finances or transfer policy goes. We'll sign players, we always do - but I was reading yesterday that DM and BK would be sitting down this week to discuss what's available. Couldn't that have been done already surely? I'm not expecting miracles but at the very least I hope the targets within whatever budget we have are already earmarked and we do our business in July.

I'm sure some club would pay that for him but its a lot of money for us, probably half of budget. The player(s) we sign in the £7M bracket will have to come in and doing a job relatively quickly, and this kid would probably need a full season or two to adjust, so not sure if he is for us.

I'm disappointed with some aspects of the performance today which actually surprised me a bit. We were always going to have less of the ball and be chasing shadows a little, maybe the conditions on the day just made that a little harder. Even though I thought Neville played very well today and has had a great season, we need an athlete in the centre of midfield, someone with physical stature who can make darting runs with the ball at feet as well as break up play. The stature of Osman, Pienaar, Arteta, and Neville screams to me that we lack something important here. Lampard and Obi Mikel were able to make searing runs down the middle of the park today and thats without considering the damage done on the right.

Proud of the boys and how they have stood up against the odds all season. I can take defeat because I know the lads will give it all, I am just hoping and even praying today that we all get the victory and the day we deserve, having seen us win in the glory years honestly for me Phil lifting up that cup today would top it all. Its about belief and pride for us today.

Looks like the Fortress Sports Fund all over again to me. A sophisticated sounding but ultimately toothless front for gathering a cabal of motley-crue investors who between them probably don't have much money. The names of the FSF people sounded like characters from Cluedo when that came out. Would not doubt Reidy but nothing will come of this.

Wouldnt have started him last night, but having said that I thought the lad gave it everything and caused them a lot of problems so on that basis alone he earned his place for next Sunday. It's clear he needs a run of 8-10 games to read the game properly and get his fitness levels up to where they should be, but he certainly has a lot of 'raw' ability and potential if it can be harnessed properly.

It's one thing not be able to afford to buy, another altogether to leave some of the quality that is there leave. All players have their price, but Moyes is arguably the best in the Premiership at making use of the loan system. It would be nice to make the top six again, and at least get us to the end of the season having achieved that before taking another look. If we don't need to sell for financial reasons then we can just play this out in the media like Sporting did with us on Moutinho. Arteta and Lescott together are worth £30M at least in my eyes, when Lescott is on top of his game he is one of the top defenders in the Premiership.

I think 6th is enough as long as Man Utd win the Carling Cup.

Would love to have him here of course, but I think that ship has sailed.

See that Milner has gone to Villa, and Citeh have signed Zabaleta from Espanyol. I'm getting a bit concerned now that our immediate rivals are signing players with arguable experience and pedigree whereas we have to resort to taking cheap or free 'punts' Saha is such a gamble given his injury record. He is a decent player no doubt , but I don't expect we have paid any sizeable amount for him, which again begs the question of how much if any money, in net terms, Moyes has available. There is only so much he can do with his hands tied before the financial muscle of other sides has an affect.

Very tough, I want to progress us in this competition. Actually the pressure might be off to a certain degree as they are a good side and so they will fancy their chances going into this too. We have the ability to get goals away so whilst going to Belgium with a decent advantage is what we all want, keeping them scoreless at GP is what is important. That's really what caused us the problems lasy year against Metallist. Things are never straightforward for us Lets beat them to ensure there is no smug smirk on Alan Green's face!

Perhaps this is the masterplan...wait all summer to unearth unknown gems and even better, sign them all up for nothing!! Oh second thoughts, no, we really haven't a pot to piss in.

I have agreed with a lot of what you have said lately Jimmy and agree that we don't necessarily need a billionaire to bring us success. Yes BK is blue and British, but on that basis alone we could have 1000's of potential chairmen. Personally I would settle for a chairman who can identify targets to achieve and stick to those targets, show slow but steady progression year on year (in terms of corporate and business development, not on the playing pitch as that is down to the manager provided he is given the resources), and finally, but perhaps most importantly in our case, a chairman who does not appear on T.V. talking absolute drivel and then goes hiding when it all goes balls up.

If this is going to be the theme for the next seven days, loan signings, trials of complete unknowns, free agents etc, then regardless of getting bodies in, its just a very, very, very sad state of affairs for Everton F.C..