Deal or No Deal?

By Jon  Livesey :  07/01/2008 :  Comments (35) :

Every now and then a public figure utters a phrase that almost immediately finds its way into our everyday language. In 1920 when Manhattan-based sportswriter, John Joseph Fitz Gerald decided to name his column in The New York Morning Telegraph ?Big Apple? ? I am almost certain he would not have envisaged the term being used synonymously with his home state almost 90 years later. Similarly, thanks to Roy Keane?s post-match comments in 2000, we now all know the Manchester United home support to be ?The Prawn Sandwich Brigade?.

In recent years there have been two instances of this kind of utterance, with particular reference to Everton that are now embedded in my mind. The first occurred within days of David Moyes?s arrival on Merseyside when he affectionately referred to us as ?The People?s Club? and in doing so, built an instant rapport with the Goodison faithful. Before he had time to add that kopites are gobshites and Bob Latchford is the footballing equivalent of Ron Jeremy, he had the Everton fans onside and T-shirts bearing his kind words had already been printed. What?s more, Liverpool fans were scrambling around, looking for statistics upon which to base their counter-argument. This was Moyes?s first victory as Everton Manager.

The second instance happened in the summer just gone. Out of nowhere, Bill Wyness announced that two of our most influential and sought-after players, Mikel Arteta and Tim Cahill had committed to long-term contracts. This information was introduced to Everton fans along with everyone else amid a great deal of speculation that they would be departing Everton and up to that point we had not seen or heard much in the way of an assurance from the club that the rumours were unfounded.

Wyness second-guessed the fans, pre-supposing their shocked reaction to this slightly unexpected news and said that the club had been working very hard behind the scenes. I am the first to admit that I was relatively surprised by the news and I must add that I was also very pleased by it. I read Wyness?s words about the hard work that went on behind closed doors and it was music to my ears. Now, if he had only continued to concede that our business conduct has not always gone as expected in the not so distant past and then re-assured us that this was the beginning of a new era in which we would be ultra-professional in that department. He would then have earned my respect and (some of) my trust.

However, he showed great naivety and an ignorance to recent club history when he went on to say that they had conducted the deals in the ?Everton way.? Is Mr Wyness a masochist? His comments would suggest so because they were the equivalent of allowing Duncan Ferguson another half hour with the lads who burgled his house. They paved the way for fans to issue a torrent of reality checks.

The Everton way does not normally involve working hard behind the scenes to close massive deals in private. Anyone who has followed football over last 10 years can vouch for that. It would be interesting to see how many articles about Everton?s business conduct over the last decade have also included the words, ?ongoing saga? (without referring to the senior members of the squad?s choice of insurance).

First there was Sean Davis (oh how I rejoice at the fact that deal never came to fruition) and the whole will he or won?t he sign saga. While I appreciate that this was due to concerns about his troublesome knee, the club could have made a better attempt to conceal the finer details of the deal until it was complete. The Wayne Rooney saga also seemed to go on forever and eventually culminated in a legal battle between him and the manager who handed him his Premier League debut.

The proposed transfer of Mikael Forssell is another example of a deal that went on and on before inevitably collapsing and becoming yet another victim of the Everton way. Again, I realise this was due to further tests on his knee and again, I am glad it did eventually fall through. My point is that our deals are laborious affairs that are hardly ever quick and do often collapse. Even the deal to bring Joleon Lescott to Everton threatened to go the same way, before we eventually tied it up. How common is it for an Everton source to issue a statement assuring fans that a deal has been agreed for a certain player, which will be concluded later that week and how common is it for that week to turn into 3 or 4?

I realise that due to the nature of contracts today, deals take longer to be finalised than they did in the past and I also realise that Everton have a pretty cautious approach to buying players. My gripe is at Wyness for saying that the Everton way is something that it generally is not.

Why am I recalling this issue to the surface? It is old news I hear you say, but it is actually very current because whatever it is that is happening with the Manuel Fernandes saga echoes exactly what has gone on before.

There is still a fair bit of mystery surrounding what went on in the summer. I can only speculate about the reasons behind the player eventually joining Valencia. Some may argue that our manager regressed back to being ?Dithering Dave? and justified Thomas Radzinski?s parting shot that ?anyone who knows David Moyes knows he can?t make a decision.? Others may say we were right to be cautious about the third-party ownership and the transfer fee.

Whether the blame lies with the player or the club, I do not know. What is apparent is that Valencia stumped up the cash and he became their player very quickly without them mentioning the issue of third-party ownership. Did Fernandes grow tired of waiting for us to complete the deal or did we not show a great enough desire to make him an Everton player?

The fact is that we are back where we were in August. There is a growing amount of speculation that he has signed for us again on loan or that he will sign as soon as a medical has been completed. However, this speculation has arrived after Moyes publicly quashed the rumours. We have seen quotes from Ian Ross saying we are signing him, but no official confirmation from Everton. Stories appear on Sky Sports, but then they are taken off shortly after. Someone is telling fibs. It is the saga of all sagas.

There is no denying that football fans are often fickle. I?ve been guilty of it myself, voicing murderous thoughts and proclamations of love in the same breath about infuriating players like Thomas Gravesen or James McFadden. No doubt some of those who lambasted Fernandes for his decision to join Valencia in the summer are now hoping he re-signs and will embrace him with open arms. The speed at which some individuals forget is astonishing.

I refrained from criticising the player at the time because the only thing that was clear to me was the fact that this was not an ordinary transfer saga. Ask me now whether I want him to re-sign for us on loan and I will say yes. I?d be prepared to overlook his recent arrest as an anomaly and place my trust in Moyes to keep him on the straight and narrow. He is a player for whom we might just have been the second choice, but he is a potentially world-class and an entertaining player who is better than what we already have. We don?t play through the middle very often, instead we work the ball out wide and switch play more than most Premier League sides because that is where our true quality lies. Fernandes provides us with an option to look inside and extends the variety of our attacking play. As a person, I do not claim to know much about him. As a player, I like him and that is what matters the most to me.

What I would like to happen more than anything else though is for the saga to come to an end one way or another. I implore Everton to end the ambiguity and make the decision to re-sign the player on loan or put it to bed for good. I suspect I may have to wait until 31st January for this to happen. But then there is always the summer?.

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