Same old story; same old Everton! Players have gone; no players in... we need at least 5-6 players before August. Five more weeks until the season starts! Take £11m for AJ now? FFS, I would take £8m!

I actually hate not knowing what's going on at the club (Moyes's contract, transfer targets, transfer budget, stadium etc). Everyone just seems to be so strangely silent on every issue. Although on hearing Kenwright?s answers in the ESCLA Q&A last you do wonder what on earth is going on. It sounds to me like he realises he has made a major fuck up with the running of our club, and he realises he has bitten off a whole lot more than he can chew. It's so frustrating that the majority of fans know where we are going wrong and no-one at the club will do anything about it.

Gary O?Brien, the amounts that are rumoured for AJ are rising every day, first it was £8 mil, then it was £9 mil, monday it was £9,5 mil, yesterday £10 mil and today it is £11 apparently. If it keeps rising with half a million every day I?ll be more than happy to wait until 31 August and receive a whopping £36 million! Although it would be nice if we anticipated on that amount and brought in some reinforcements before that time.

Seriously, there are more clubs rumoured than just Wigan and Moyes could be holding out for getting the maximum fee.

Thought Davey liked to get his new players in so they could have pre-season training if possible, but then it might not be his fault if he ain't had any dough yet!! |Lee is right, everyone does seem strangely silent but is this anything new at transfer time... course it isn?t! We all live on the knife edge, scouring the site twenty times a day hoping for some "breaking news" and a fantastic signing but there isn?t as usual. We should have learnt to live with it but we don?t because we are so anxious... fingers crossed for some good signings soon.

As frustrating as it is, we never hear much about whats going on with regards transfers. This season is no exception and will be for some of if not all of the reasons below:

* We have no money to buy anyone, so therefore aren?t bidding for players... therefore no news
* We're enquiring about players, conducting our business quietly to ensure no other clubs get wind of our interest and either out-bid us or start a bidding war
* As for selling players, we don't say anything as if we admit we will sell someone it makes it a buyer's market in relation to that player... you?ll get more for a player who ?isn?t for sale? then one who is.

It's massively frustrating and I?m nervous as hell were not going to buy anyone, or if we do they won?t be of a decent standard... who knows though we might just end up with some really great players coming in during the next few weeks.

Andy - we?ve got to buy some players. We can?t keep stripping the amount of players down and not replacing them. Look what happened last year because we had such a small squad. I know that you just can?t have players getting fat wages and doing nothing for them, and then if they are of a decent calibre they will want to play and the situation is not without its problems, but we do need some more players.

On a different note, what?s happened to the girls....where is Luc Glover, Nelly Blythe, Eileen Roberts etc. I am beginning to feel like the Lone Rangeress!!!

While I admire AJ’s work ethic...if we got 10+ million, it would be good business to cash in at this point IF the club is going to buy enough quality players to bolster the squad.

However, this being Everton we’ll sell AJ, buy 2 squad players for about 8 mill total and struggle with an even smaller squad than in recent seasons. I don’t mind selling McFadden , Carsley, AJ etc. if we looking to replace with quality and quantity.

Unfortunately I have little confidence that the club’s focus extends beyond squeezing the pennies as tight as possible.

Anxiously,waiting for the club to prove me wrong...

I still think a number of clubs are stalling a little on doing business right now due to the exchange rates. EU imports VERY expensive right now. You’re talking about 15% more due to the poor rate alone.

It is often the case that we end up buying players that were ’under the radar’ prior to the announcement of a medical being underway: Gems like Cahill, Yobo, Lescott, Jags (and ,ahem, Kroldrup).
So I’m (optimistically) awaiting Canny Davey’s amassed quality reinforcements being unveiled any day now... It sure is a relief that the ’call in/out shake it all about’ decision has no bearing on transfer policy.
Seems a bit quiet on the takeover rumours, strange since Bill has allegedly indicated he is ready to sell up to willing investors. You’d think there’d at least be some unsubstantiated rumours in the gutter press...

The current situation is:
Goalies: Howard + 1 reserve keeper needed
Defence: Lescott, Yobo, Baines, Jagielka, (Hibbert is out for 3 months) and Valente is well passed it. Gosling, who knows?? We might scrape by on this lot, but ideally one signing needed.
Midfield: Osman, Pienaar, Arteta (Will he be here?or be sold to "free up funds"?..) Cahill (out for 3 months). AVDM no comment, Kissock unproven. Woeful. Awful. Am I missing anyone? this is really dreadful and needs URGENT attention. We will be forced to play Jags or Yobo as DM and I have a sneaking suspicion that´s what Moyes is planning on doing as a stop gap. 3 players needed
Forwards: Yakubu, Anichebe (not up to it) Vaughn (will get injured after three matches) AJ (on way out) Yaks gets injured and we´re fucked. Again, criminal. Selling Aj is stupidity.
Two players needed.
Conclusion: We are up shit creek.

Ok, so we bid £5m for Ramsey - so can probably presume that amount is the minimum we have to spend, maybe add McFadden money which would be another £5m? Perhaps there might be another 5-10 mill knocking about, add £10 mil for AJ (possibly replaced by Milito on loan) and we have £25-30 million for new players! But then again this comment is full of possibles, perhaps? and probables which really adds up to the fact nobody outside a handful of people have any idea of what?s going on.

I kinda like it that way too - it certainly hasn?t done us any harm last few seasons. Let everyone else sweat on supposition and trust that a few gems will land our way soon! The only fear I have is the prospect of Dan Gosling playing RB (though I don?t particularly have an issue with that), or Hibbo, freeing Captain Neville to take over the Carsley role :-o

Every day it gets worse. No new signings, dm still to put pen to paper, Hibbo out, Cahill still a long way off, Arteta should I stay or should I go, and all players we would like to have, would like to go elsewhere, squad that depleted that they have asked the hotel staff to get a team together for a five a side at there swiss camp. Kit that we can't get out on time. What a fuckin joke we are.

If it wasn?t for the fact that I?m putting a lot of stuff on ebay I think I would power my fucking PC off and stay off the ?net for a few weeks!

It?s enough to drive any Everton fan NUTS! For me I think I?m there, nuts that is.............the lack of action in the transfer market, the way things seem to be handled top down ......... okay, I like Kenwright but FFS is there anybody at the club that realises that us fans scour the ?net every-blinking-day looking for news, preferably good news but news!

It?s almost like the board have realised they?ve come to an impasse and they haven?t got a clue what to do next...........I?m not saying things won?t be right on the first day of the season but right now I?m going mental!!
A few specifics...........

I?d prefer AJ to stay but if any club offers 10m+, shouldn?t we snap their hand off? Is that a true rumour?

Saha..............PLEASE NO!!

Fletcher - yes, if cheap enough (less than £5M).
Is it fair to assume Manny won?t be coming back as he?s not with the team in choccy/cuckoo land? I mean it would make sense to take the lad with the team if we?re going to get him at all?

When FFS will Moyes sign? Are we going to sign anybody before the deadline? Will Arteta stay (I think he will)?

Arrrgggghhhhhh...........

I guess on the bright side Arshavin is STILL available!!

Martin Cutler above-- I read in the Independent today that Arshavin would only consider four clubs in England and they are all in the Champions League. I think we can forget about any chance of signing him.

Tom.............that unfortunately is one (more) rumour I?m already aware of.
I guess that just pisses me off all the more........I mean what?s so frigging good about that jammy team that finished 4th last season???
A resounding "NOTHING IS ANY GOOD" from Evertonians everywhere!

Mark P writes

"I still think a number of clubs are stalling a little on doing business right now due to the exchange rates. EU imports VERY expensive right now. You?re talking about 15% more due to the poor rate alone."

Sorry mate but the real diference in the last 12 month?s to the EUR/GBP rate is about 5%, and it?s certainly not going to drop by anything between now and the rest of the pre season, may even go up.

Everton will break there record sighning fee again this season, it?s one BK?s biggest boasts so he?ll be trying to do it again.

I know the board are pretty laughable but wait 'til we have a few signings to judge the work that's going on at the minute behind the scene?s.

Everyone needs to chill out a bit, it?s been alright the past 3 pre-seasons..

And £11 mill for Johnson would be a good deal for everyone involved; the lad needs to play every week and whoever signs him will get a good goal return for their cash.

Well Geh Looker, I have heard it ALL now, I mean..seriously I have heard it ALL, so we have the European exchange rate to blame for the lack of transfer activity? I cannot stand this shit anymore, I am taking a break until the season starts. The bloody Euro... God help me!

"We wasted the chance to sign Arshavin when he was a relative unknown to most of Europe's big clubs." ? I'm not so sure we could have got him in January like a lot of people think because Zenit didn't need to sell and Arshavin was good in the Ufea Cup but didn't he say he liked Everton and Goodison itself after Zenit played here in December?

We should have tabled a £10 million bid as soon as Zenit won that Uefa Cup back in May; since then, Arshavin has let all the nice rumours of Barcelona, Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea go to his head, which you would expect. Also, Zenit are now saying £20 or £25 million for him after the Euro 2008 exploits. Wasted chance thanks to our very limited board.

Someone said on their post, "Look what happened last year..." Well, if I remember correctly we finished 5th with our best points total and goal difference for some years, we got to a semi-final for the first time since 1995 and we got to the last 16 in Europe!!

So we have the 5th best squad in English football, every other club below us are having to spend millions just to catch up, nobody in the Uefa Cup will want to draw Everton and I include the likes of AC Milan. So can someone explain to me why suddenly we are shit? Fuck me... I wouldn?t want to be in the trenches with you lot!

Hello Patty, I?m still around! I just do more reading than writing these days. Concerning transfers, I am sure there will be newcomers, but they will undoubtedly be average bench-fodder on loan deals. I hope I am wrong but the fact is the Club is skint.

The reason....? Simple, we do not have a single individual who is able to pump a little cash into the Club for transfers and our cashflow is very small. The Sky money has gone to pay back the loans we got for Yakubu et al last year and our cashflow cannot pay the wages that better players (the sort of players we need to move on to the next level) expect. Therefore, even if we could buy them, in many instances they won?t come.

Why do we not have a rich investor? Because it is not about football to them it is about making money and the kudos of ?owning? a successful football club. Nobody will invest in Everton until they know they will not immediately be faced with the unavoidable bill for a new stadium. That issue has to be resolved first. Additionally an investor would have to consider the detrimental impact of a trophy laden club with a brand new stadium a few hundred yards away. Would you invest in a shop a few hundred yards away from the building site of a new Tesco if your primary concern was making money and not the history and past achievements of the shop you wanted to buy? I think not.

What a tragedy. The game we love is dying on the vine and our beloved Club could be one of the first casualties because of geography and the way the game has been usurped by money and the people who have most of it. Despite the relative success of last year...in fact of the last few seasons...I am extremely pessimistic about Everton?s future. These are all the same arguments I had with Tom Hughes and others last year and when we had the vote it seemed a small majority held the same view as I. I don?t really want to go to Kirkby but at least a new stadium there would give us a chance. Stay where we are, and as we are, and we will die.

Nobody is going to come along and build us a stadium on the Loop or anywhere else in the City and the sooner Evertonians realize that the sooner they may be able to put the future of the Club before their own prejudices....and I use that word in the best possible taste!

The fact is, the world and the game has changed and we have to change with it. If that means we have to regroup in Kirkby and at least earn enough extra revenue to pay better player?s wages, then that is the necessary first step. Remember, Wellington had to retreat a few times before the ultimate victory of Waterloo. Nobody loves their Club more than Evertonians do and with that kind of support we may be able to advance once again to the pre-eminence we once had. We have to recognize the present , remember the past has gone and look to the future.

As wonderful as our history is, we cannot live in it any longer.

Everybody is worrying & I don't blame them, but this happens every year, and Davey Moyes always comes up with the goods it might be harder this year but I think there has to be a plan in place.

I know we have a lot of injures but hopefully that will be sorted soon, with the likes of Cahill comeing back and their will be a few signings, & maybe this could be Andy van der Meyde's season, he has to come good, they wouldnt hold on to him otherwise. He's gone to Switzerland as well... Come on, keep the fath,

"In Moyes We Trust"
COYB

At the end of last season, I thought once we get a couple of signings we will challenge the shite for fourth. I mean we should have been fourth last time but paid the price for having a small squad, so Bill will stump up the cash... I should have known better! Already we have less players than last season and it looks like AJ is on his way, so things can not get worse... Then my mate calls on his way home from Bill's performance and in the 35 years I have known this guy, Bill is the first person to leave him speechless. He said I thought here we go more bull from Bill and after he had finished I wished it had been. Yet people still believe there is nothing to worry about!?!

Do people really believe that we were the only club or fans that knew of Arshavin in January? Clubs have scouts spanning the globe and lots will have certainly watched him. We wouldn't have got him then for his wages alone were too high before all the hype and wouldn't be paid by our skint board.

Stop panicking and let DM get on with the bizz.

Seems that most of you commenting here are ready to put your heads in the gas oven.

This is football, not some life or death situation.

The club have made massive strides these past few years and will most likely improve again this year.

DM would have been off by now if he was going anywhere and with his new assisstant on board is unlikely to jump ship any time soon.

AJ may or may not move but life goes on and someone will fill his shirt if he is shipped out. For the money being mentioned it sound like fairly good business as god loves a trier but triers dont win trophies.

The last thing we need to do is to let everyone know how much money we have to spend and on whom we want to spend it.

Did we get outbid on Koumas and Nugent last year ? Lucky if we did cos they would not have taken us anywhere. My guess is that DM never went anywhere near either of them to start with.

DK will never get past the next phase and so we can all look forward to redeveloping the grand old lady in order that we can watch our accomplished blue boys run onto the hallowed turf for the next hundred years.

Look on the bright side and trust in DM.

COYB

Good post, Eileen, nice to see you back and talking sense.