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We've signed THREE players in two days? I really need to lie down for a while! Pleased with the three additions so far; it's good to get them sorted early in the window and get them among the current players as soon as possible.

Leroy Fer tweeted a few days ago that "decisions will be made" when he is is back from his holiday. He is now back in Holland and the Daily Mail are reporting that Twente have given him three days to sort out his future. They claim Norwich are ready to step up their interest while the player is "holding out for late interest from Everton". http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2358558/Norwich-City-Twente-midfielder-Leroy-Fer-close-Blackburns-Martin-Olsson.html

Sad news indeed. A true Everton Legend and I've never heard a bad word said about the man. R.I.P. Dave Hickson.

Martinez is surely going to want to meet Naismith and see the guy in training and in a couple of pre-season games up front in HIS system before he makes a decision on whether he sees a future for him at Goodison or not? Especially as Kone won't join up until later in the month so it's a chance maybe to play him up front and see how he gets on. I doubt it's going to work out for Naismith with us, despite his undoubted workrate and enthusiasm, and he seems like a really decent guy too, but if RM decides this month that he wants to cash in on him then I feel sure there will still be clubs interested in him.

As he's been working with their youngsters, I wonder if he'll take a similar role with us and Stubbs will move up to first team coach? Stubbsy did well with the U21s last season so maybe he'll be rewarded with the step up to the first team, especially as he was a defender so you'd hope he can add those strengths to Martinez's backroom. Just a thought.

Yeah he's 29 and it would be nice if he was 4-5 years younger, but if he was then we wouldn't be able to afford him anyway. Martinez isn't going to rebuild the squad during this window or the next one - or not without a major injection of transfer cash - but I believe Kone will add goals and other strengths to our attack and help the team to turn some of last season's draws into wins, and that will do for me, for now. None of us know the size of our club's transfer kitty this summer so it's impossible to say how much of the budget this used up, but I think we'd all rather the cash was spent on a striker before any other position, given that our two main men just weren't productive enough last season.

...with a clause allowing the loan to be terminated if another club comes in for a permanent transfer.

Great choice! Welcome.

Agree, he's been awful and it's beyond me why he kept being picked. He's had a dreadful tournament. Barkley showed up well and was probably our most consistently dangerous player of the tournament; he looked head and shoulders the most influential player on the pitch most of the time. The other to really impress me was Eric Dier. I wonder if we'd have a chance of bringing him back or if we've blown our chances in that regard? When he returned to Portugal at the end of his loan it sounded as though he'd hoped to be closer to the first team action.

Absolutely agree that midfield has to be our priority at the moment. Fellaini is our main saleable asset and likely won't be around for much longer, Pienaar and Osman both looked as though they were running out of steam at the end of last season and by the end of the coming season I would expect them to be viewed as rotation options, Gibson is a solid and reliable midfielder but seems likely to miss chunks of the season, and Barkley is promising but clearly can't be viewed yet as a first team regular while Lundstram is likely to get more time out on loan before he features much. With Neville and Hitzlberger gone, even our bench options are thin on the ground so midfield is definitely the area I'd expect to be occupying most of RM's thoughts at the moment. I bet, like the rest of us, he would like the Felli situation sorted out sooner rather than later so he knows how much money he has to work with.

I remember seeing it reported before that the clause has this time limit in each window so we don't get left scrambling for a replacement at the end of the window. Very wise.<br /><br />I wonder if the actual trigger amount of the fee decreases slightly in each window as the time remaining on his contract decreases?<br /><br />In any case, if he's going I hope it gets sorted soon so RM can get moving on replacements. Shame that it seems only Arsenal might be interested at present as Wenger seems to be a bit of a ditherer.

I got all six but I think I've seen it before

The rumours on this one seem to have gone quiet. I'd really love to see us sign Honda so I'm hoping the next thing we read is that he's having a medical at Finch Farm!

I just read that article. No quotes, of course, but I'd be pleased to see this lad arrive, especially at the figure mentioned.

Am I a record breaker? I was just keeping things tidy by searching before posting. I had to chuckle when I found that Moyes was apparently tracking him that long ago.

Interesting to see what Wigan fans were saying about Alcaraz in March when he was voted their Player of the Month. http://www.pieeatersfootie.com/2013/4/9/4196452/wigan-athletics-player-of-march-antolin-alcaraz You voted and the man who so far has changed our season in the four games he has played came out on top. It looked like the Paraguayan defender Antolin Alcaraz would miss the entire season, but his return in the second half of the Liverpool game has sparked a four game unbeaten run. Antoilin Alcaraz featured in all four of the games in March. His return against Liverpool was timely and he stopped the flow of goal as we held out for a 4-0 defeat. Then in the next three matches of March he started all three and helped the team to conceding a single goal against Newcastle United. The man has been an inspiration, making last ditch tackles and vital game winning interceptions. It shows how much we have missed the player with how well he has performed in recent months, had this man been fit all season, we may not be where we are now. Mix that with his possible partnership with Ivan Ramis and we could have had a brilliant defensive line up. The two of them would be a defensive partnership that we have been crying out for in recent years, and I hope the club see that and will get Alcaraz tied down to a new long term deal. If anyone deserves a new deal, it is this man. He helped the side to a 1-1 draw at the weekend, as he was vital in controlling a QPR side that was quick to break on our defence. Alcaraz is a deserving winner of March’s award, and I hope he can continue his fantastic form right to the end of this season, and help the team lift the FA Cup and gain Premier League survival.

Hello Londoner, welcome aboard :-)

Fast forward to 2013 and David Albelda is now 35 and leaving Valencia on a free transfer after 15 years there. This article says "he is thought to be interesting Everton manager Roberto Martinez now he is a free agent", although there are no quotes of course. http://www.football365.com/everton/8772118/-

talkSPORT (yeah, I know) reckon there's also interest in him from Malaga and Werder Bremen: http://www.talksport.co.uk/sports-news/football/premier-league/130612/everton-face-three-way-fight-antolin-alcaraz-199477

Yes, it seems a decent balanced article and mentions Guzan's good form, and also notes that if Howard lost his no.1 spot for the USA it's unlikely that he would want to fly back and forth from England to sit on the bench for his national team.

Under the previous deal the club had the opportunity to buy back FF every five years. I haven't seen it mentioned in this latest deal but hopefully that clause remains. Anybody seen it mentioned?

From this Sports Illustrated piece it looks as though some observers of the USA team are thinking that Howard's form might be dipping from his former heights, as I think was happening for Everton last season: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer/news/20130611/usa-panama-tim-howard-brad-guzan-goalkeeper/index.html?eref=sircrc Would love Mucha's replacement to be a younger keeper ready to compete for the first team position and put some pressure on our Tim.

Interesting article here with some stats about young James' game: http://www.eplindex.com/epl-news/32782/the-wanted-irishman-james-mccarthy-stats.html

He's looking for a move back to England after failing to settle in Germany and Bayern are allowing him to leave: http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11890/8729551/Bayern-Munich-youngster-Dale-Jennings-is-keen-to-return-to-England

There's clearly nothing else going on today in football, judging by SSN's wall to wall coverage for the last four hours.<br /><br />Still, I'm sure we'll get the same coverage when we name our new boss...