Kurt,
I am pessimistic about our summer business ahead, as I think finances will again dictate that we are left with the rejects after everyone else has had their pick.

This is not just about the lack of finance that Everton has, but the general distortion of the market in both fees and wages being splashed around by Madrid and City - though City can’t seem to sign any of the world class names they promised.

But bear in mind a lot of players will only be returning from hols shortly, and some involved in the Confusing Cup will be on extended leave. That said, in this day of 24/7 media hype and hyperbole, you don’t think any transfers are ever done quietly now. Even Owen to Man U was tipped a couple of days before it was announced.

If we were ever to secure significant funding, the difference would be that Moyes would be able to pursue his A List targets, and get them early.

Sadly until that happens, it’s more likely to be Scholes than Moutinho. It’s a shame - we used to drag on our transfers for a month or two. Now it feels like a season or two...

As I write this, Villa, Portsmouth, Spurs, and Sunderland have yet to sign anyone — at least two of those will be our rival for a Champions League berth.

I’ll not start wringing my hands and tearing out my hair until August is out...

Although I’m not worried yet, I can’t help finding Sir Philip Carter's quotes in today's Daily Post depressing and familiar — "I think it’s quite an exciting time."... Reminds me of similar talk and nothing materialising.

Oh well, let’s wait and see.

To be honest, I just don’t understand why everyone is so agitated about our transfer situation. I know its nice to hear about new signings and I keep trawling the news as often as anyone else but we dont NEED a new squad!!!

Last season we managed to finish 5th despite some of our best players being out. Our players have been improving significantly, and we can certainly expect people like Fellaini, Baines, Rodwell and Pienaar to grow even stronger.

We might all want a raftload of signings, but ultimately we should realize that at least our First XI is very good. That means getting players who are improvements on these guys is very very tough. If Lescott is worth £20M, Jags is worth even more and so are our best midfielders. Unless you are willing to fork out HUGE cash, you will not find players who can replace any of our starters (other than Hibbert and Osman).

That being the case, I don’t see why it's so bad to buy really promising youngsters who will probably become really good.

And specially on Peterlin, if no one has heard of the boy, why knock him? Maybe he is this really awesome kid who nobody noticed. At any rate I will trust Moyes on this one.

Kurt

Which do you think has more relevance with regards to Anton Peterlin? a) the fact that you’d never heard of him, or b) the fact that Moyes saw fit to not only give him a trial, but actually sign him afterwards.

Hmm, tough call that.

Thing is, maybe the funds that we have available and the terms that we are comfortable with are incompatible with the players that Moyes wants or feels he needs. In which case you & others like you will probably have spontaneously combusted by August 8th.

What a tragic waste of human life.

Kevin,

I’m not a betting man, but in response to your posting, I would put my life on the fact that, come the end of the season, Sunderland and Pompey are not within ten points of Everton. Why? Unless Sunderland invest in a whole new squad of players I’m pretty sure we will see more of the same from a team that was extremely lucky to survive last term, and Steve Bruce is an averge manager at best.

As for Pompey, where do you start? That club is in meltdown, they don’t even have a manager yet, never mind conducting transfer activity, their only saviour would be the much touted new owner however even that appears to be on very, very unstable grounds and Dr Suliman Al-Fahim himself has stated that any purchase is unlikely to be completed until the back end of the summer. Hence it's only clubs like this mean I can sleep safe in the knowledge we won't be in a relegation battle anytime soon (Touch wood just in case ... of the Organic variety!!).

So that leaves Spurs and Villa as our nearest league rivals yet to sign anyone.

Why are only Gosling, Neville, Osman and the Yak back training. Fair enough about the boys on international duty and the injured lads. Why is Lescott not back? And Vaughan, and Saha? Or are they back and just not mentioned?

No disrespect to Portsmouth (even if they did take all six points from us last season!) or Sunderland but I’m not worried about either of those at all ... regardless of what players they have / have not already signed. Over the course of the season Villa, Spurs and Man City, possibly Fulham are the ones to worry about. And we would need at least one "Top Four" club to slip up too!

It’s a tall order for sure ... however, as somebody above said, we don’t need a new squad. We need to keep Lescott, we ideally need to replace Osman (we need to move Osman to the bench) and we need a Baines equivalent on the right.

With The Yak, Arteta, Anichebe(?) and Jags returning, we don’t need several huge signings. At some point, Vaughan will hopefully produce the goods and stay fit so that would be a plus and if Saha stays fit and builds on last season that would be a plus too. Pienaar finished off the season in outstanding form (for EFC & SA) so let’s hope that continues too. Rodwell (and Gosling) can develop further — that’s a plus.

Am I looking on the bright side? Yes, you betcha and yet I still trawl the gossip and rumour transfer pages ... however, I do have faith in DM and one or two decent signings is all we need and no more injuries please!!

Simon, I think Lescott would have been given a longer break as he played for England at the end of the season... so, like the other internationals, he will be back shortly — unless sold, of course. Don’t know about the others.

How long has the transfer window been open? It seems the anxiety is a little bit previous — how will you ever survive until the end of the transfer window (y’know... the point when we normally make our signings)?

Wasn’t Jo training with the squad in Scotland and supposed to sign up today? It hasn’t been announced on the OS yet...

The signing of Peterlin gives me more cause for optimism than it should — if the guy were 18, then I wouldn’t even notice it, but why would DM sign a 22 year old if he didn’t have something about him? I seem to remember that Kevin Phillips was a late starter, and he had a couple of good seasons — why can’t this lad?

That said, 3 or 4 more please. I agree with many above that for the money I expect us to have, we can’t improve our first 11 much. So how about Ball and Scholes on frees, Jo and Bentley on loan, and one big signing (don’t care who as long as a CM).

I think this article raises some key points. The first is that, although the transfer window has only been open a week, we have been in the position so many times before when we have been told Moyes wants players in early (as he stated after the Cup Final this year), only to see signings come in the last week in August. The comments from Carter build on this anxiety as actions speak louder than words, so what's the point in talking about it? Get out and sign Moyes’s targets and give them a chance to gel.

Without going into a rant about Kenwright, the bottom line is, although over the last few seasons our turnover has massively increased, Kenwright doesn’t have the funds to underwrite a bank loan with Barclays which is what most clubs use when signing players. A good example of this is Spurs who have Joe Lewis to underwrite their debts.

Bringing us on to transfers, the upshot of this is:

1) We can’t afford to sign big players on big wages and pay them throughout the summer.

2) We can’t afford a team of superstars so Moyes has got to look at blending a good freebie (Saha) with young hungry players who aren’t yet the finished article (Fellaini).

3) It's important we develop our own players as we can’t compete with most top-half sides in wages. Therefore, we need to make sure we don’t block their path to the team as at the moment I think Everton are seen as a good team to play for if you're a hot prospect at another club. We also seem to have a good scouting system (Rodwell, Lee McCardle and another kid who’s a centre half and was on the bench recently for Northern Ireland against Italy. I can’t think of his name).

3) Under Moyes, our success has been built on being an excellent unit so he has to be careful he doesn’t ruin this, which is probably what would happen if he went out and bought 6 established players, although everyone wants to see it.

As a result of this I would like us to sign:

Jo (he is not the finished article but will do a job up front and isn’t costing much).

Adam Johnson (natural width can play on either flank and is young and hungry).

Joe Ledley (Last year of contract so is cheap and has potential, especially if we’re going to be involved in up to 60-odd games).

Angel Rangel (Right back from Swansea, seen him play a lot as originally from Swansea. He can defend well and is brilliant going forward).

Failing Rangel, I think Ryan Taylor would be a good shout from Newcastle. I also think that Fabian Delph could be an excellent addition as one for the future.

Including wages, these should all be relatively cheap in comparison to say Darren Bent who Spurs want £16 million for. The key thing is they're all young and hungry so should adhere to our team spirit and challenge for a place in the team. They should also blend well with Neville who I think has brought on Rodwell's game massively in the second half of the season.

Finally, this should give us room for the one big signing I would like to see — a midfield general. I don’t think Moutinho is coming so my vote would be Defour, providing we can strike a deal a la Fellaini whereby we pay the fee over the course of his contract. (So Kenwright or one of his pals is saved from underwriting our overdraft to Barclays again).

Now I know the fee is bound to be nominal but are these the type of players DM should be recruiting if we are to break the top 4. My thoughts are they are mid-table type players and unless the world's best have missed this talent we have just obtained a mediocre player who could be just another drain to our wage bill.