There always seems to be something that holds Everton back from signing new players. This summer I think the added complication has been the absurd money thrown around by both Real Madrid and Man City. I thought it would stop at Ronaldo going for £80M but suddenly the price of players has gone up by significant amount.

Alonso wants out of Anfield and it looks pretty certain that Benitez will let him go but he wants £35M! Crouch is suddenly worth £12M! And from this morning’s BBC website - Fulham are set to make a £9m offer for Hull City defender Michael Turner. Who?

No wonder Sheff Utd went running to ’appy ’arry with their arms open. I suspect Moyes is getting pushed by potential sellers to pay more. Trouble is we don’t have any more. Or if we have then it’s being saved for a rainy day - in Kirkby.

At the end of last season, Robert Elstone publicly stated ..." We are aware we need to strengthen. We want to do our business earlier rather than later...." or words to that effect.

Then came the proverbially ’done deals’.... M’bia, Owen, Cana, Mouthinio.... then the almost done deals i.e. Naughton/Walker... then the talks are on going i.e. Reyes etc... none of whom have actually signed or have any intention of signing for Everton.

Why are we always ’interested’ or ’monitoring’ players but never actually siging any? Last week the OS posted a headline... ’No Players will be sold this summer’... now it looks like Lescott is on his way.

This club is full of lies, lies & more lies... it’s the same every pre-season.

The FA Cup final proved beyond doubt that we need to strengthen the TEAM not just the squad, so who have we actually signed??? A second-rate striker who none of us wanted back; a 17-year-old kid from Germany who nobody has ever heard of but is ’one for the future’ — sounds like another Ruddy/Spencer/Jutkiewicz etc to me; a youngster from the USA 4th division...

In the coming weeks, be prepared for the ’The players returning from injury will be just like new signings....’ shite.

I am sick of being duped by these clowns... I feel so sorry for Moyes & wouldn’t blame him if he went to pastures anew... I would respect him even more if he told Kenwight, Woods, Earl, Green, Elstone et al to FUCK OFF!!

They’re all liars, each and everyone of them.

Well it doesn’t look as if it’s going to be Naughton, that’s for sure. Having not turned up for his medical at Spurs, because he preferred to come to Goodison, according to the Liverpool Echo, Everton Officials spent all last weekend finalising details such as personal terms etc and Sheff United agreed to let him go to us, and have now changed their minds, once again, and it looks as if Spurs will get the player — Harry having intervened again.

I thought if a player didn’t want to go to a certain club it was his prerogative... but then he’s young — why otherwise would he want to go to a club whose back-four performance is laughable, are not even in Europe this season, and whose manager has a second-hand car-dealer twitch syndrome. I certainly wouldn’t...

I don’t understand why he says anything at all. Really - I don’t understand why Moyes doesn’t just say on the official site...

"This is a one-off statement.

I won’t be repeating it but suggest you copy and paste it and refer to it anytime you hear a rumour about a possible signing or have a question about who I am or am not signing.

Ok, here goes.

ALL Everton supporters are aware of our current financial situation.

In other words you know we’re not Man City and until we’re bought by someone with at least a billion, we are not going to be in the market for crazy-priced players anytime soon.

Consequently, I will Instead be looking to find as many ’Cahills and Lescotts’ as I can, plus, with TV money, hoping to pick up the occasional player in the Fellaini/Yak bracket.

I am not going to discuss WITH ANYONE which players I am after (or not) because as you’ve seen with ’The 2 Kyles’ this talk only draws the attention of lazy Cockneys with eyes like runny fried eggs.

So to finish, the ONLY time you’ll need get excited/disappointed will be AFTER a player has been signed.

And...that’s it.

Oh sorry, one more thing.

EVERY half-arsed, half-baked rumour printed in the papers, we will be printing on the official site.

Next to each completely invented piece it will read..

THIS WAS WRITTEN BY MONTY TWAT OF THE DAILY MIRROR (or whoever) AND IT IS A 100% LIE. MONTY IS FORCED TO FILL HIS PAPER WITH ANY SHITE DURING THE SUMMER AND RATHER THAN RESEARCH A REAL STORY, HE SIMPLY ASSUMES HIS READERS (ie: YOU) ARE SO THICK THEY’LL SWALLOW ANY BOLLOCKS WITHOUT QUESTION. IF I WAS YOU I WOULDN’T BUY HIS PAPER" - All the Best Davis Moyes.

That would be grrrrrreat with me!

Who is Davis Moyes?

Is that so David Moyes can’t be sued for calling someone a twat?

I agree that the EFC ’Transfer Policy’ does appear to be absolute shite, and this is exacerbated by the club’s ridiculous ’Communications Policy’ - further compounded by the need by the Club to attempt to reassure the fans.

But... surely whether a player moves to EFC or not is at least in part down to them. Maybe in the Naughton situation Moyes and the club could have done things differently, but I think that if Naughton wanted to come he only has to say to Spurs "get stuffed — I’m signing for a team which is playing in Europe".

Rupert, that’s what I am thinking, you only have to look at Ronaldo to see that the players have the powers these days. Naughton can refuse to move to Spurs if he wants, not sure what will happen if he refuses, as Ferguson did not want to go to Newcastle either

And so it begins... another nail-bitting countdown until the transfer window slams shut in our faces. Don't expect anything of note to happen until the final few hours of the last day of the window. It never does and never will as long as BK is in control.

Please don't quote Elstone as this man is a tit. The only reason he got the job at Everton is because he knows fuck all about football or football supporters (he openly admitted this when he signed up) and he is cheap.

Some fans are pointing towards the newly opened Everton shop in town and saying what a wonderfull job Elstone has done here. Well, fuck me, what would you say to that... I mean who would've thought it... a Premier League club from a big city with a megastore in the city center... Jesus, whatever next!?!

Elstone is a Kenwright clone/stooge and says what he is told to say; end of. The entire set up at the club is a fucking disgrace and it looks as if the only way to get rid of these muppets is if the fans riot at Goodison, which won't happen... FFS it aint half looking GRIM!

Neil Vaughan, calm down mate.... there are several issues here in terms of the transfer policy, and I am by no means defending the club, Bill, or even David Moyes.

However, we have no money, the previous regime’s saw to that. We are mortgaged to the hilt, this means we are striking with one hand held behind our backs. Whatever money we do have has to be spread as thinly as possible in order to get the best out of any investment we make, which means we will be tight, and try to play hard ball as much as possible to get that deal.

Whether this really is because Bill refuses to sell is hearsay, unless someone has concrete evidence to the contrary...!?

The proverbially "done deal" statement is all press talk, at no time did anyone publicly state we had a deal to sign these players, or nearly a deal to sign them, it was all talk from papers and the web, and you don’t know if they would sign for Everton... have you asked them???

Where does it say Lescott is on his way...? Until he goes, then he is an Everton player and we should back him 100% no matter what the press may or may not say.

I’m sorry, Jo is not a second-rate striker if that is who you are referring too. You come back on here by the end of the season and see what we think.

The new signings crap has already been spouted by Carter earlier this month, and possibly one of the squad members whose name escapes me.

And whilst I don’t believe they aren’t full of their own self-importance, and full of some bullshit, to just come out with all that....

In terms of youngsters, how many teams do exactly what we do, sign players for the future... and then the player is released or sold? Every single one... even Real Madrid.

The transfer policy does seem a bit odd, but we can’t help it if clubs release press statements telling all who will listen that we have bid for a player... trying to turn it into a bidding war... how is that the club's fault? I mean WTF??

Most of the players we have signed nobody knew we were going to buy them, if we did, it wasn’t because one of ours has spouted to the press... unless the deal had been inked...

I agree though we really could do with that right back and right winger.... love Ossie as I do, he isn’t a 38 game a season winger; a good squad player is all — same with Hibbert at right back.

Hopefully someone will sign to satisfy all our wants and desires for the club...

I'm starting to wonder if are transfer buisness relies on Man City coming back in with an acceptable bid for Lescott? I think if City come back in with what Everton want and Lescott does want to go then Moyesy will set his standards higher with regards to signings and splash the Lescott cash but, if City dont come back in for him or he doesn't want to leave, then he’ll go for the cheap options, these unheard-of young players who he’s hoping to steal on the cheap and turn into established Premier League players in the up-and-coming years... that's just my opinion anyway.

Why don’t we, in the future. Make an offer to the selling club, have it accepted, sort out the terms with the player, put him through his medical, then parade him with the shirt.......all within 48 hours?

Others do it, why not us? That way we wouldn’t lose out on a player who was obviously David Moyes’ choice as our fisrt signing, to the likes of Spurs! Naughton having now signed for them.

WE NEED TO SIGN SOMEONE. FULL STOP.

Mark Hill, Can I question your comment:

"We have no money, the previous regime’s saw to that".

If you are in fact referring to what BK inherited, let me tell you that myth was perpetrated by Kenwright himself and was put to bed on these very pages by a business analyst who demonstrated that BK inherited a £5 million overdraft and, despite player sales, the debt jumped to £20 million in his first 2 years of tenure. It now stands at about £75 million despite the sale of Rooney for about £27 million.

On top of that we have made continuous operating losses every year until last year's momentous performance of a £26,000 profit.

BK, despite all his endearing qualities (and I don't see any), would never make Chairman of the Year nor Businessman of the Year. Gregg saw through his inadequacies and was then stabbed in the back by the "Fortress Sports Fund" falsehood which was instigated by BK.

Moyes is operating with a millstone tied around his neck and that's because the boardroom performance is light years away from the performance on the pitch.

Naughton has just gone to Spurs:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/sheff_utd/8144711.stm

Oh well, let’s hope Coleman breaks into the first team instead.

Tony Williams - re ’DAVIS’ Moyes’ you ask "is that so David Moyes can’t be sued for calling someone a twat?"

No, not at all.

But nor is it a miss-type (the S being next to the D and all that).

It is actually due to the fact that I’m am currently reading the ancient Celtic Trilogy ’Trilthorgh’.

And the hero is named ’Davis’ which (with a surname like Williams) you may know is the Celtic version of ’David’.

Obviously I got the two confused.

Incidentally, you may be interested to know that the Celtic version of ’Tony’ is ’Norbedd’

Isn’t this like Groundhog Day? Did we not have posts just like this before the start of last season? And indeed the season before that?

At the end of the day there’s still a heck of a long way to go before the transfer window slams shut. And a fair few clubs still haven’t done much (if any) business so far. Ok so Citeh have been busy, but that’s to be expected really. Villa have signed a crocked player, and have yet to replace Barry and Laurson. Arsenal have signed 1 player? The RS haven’t signed anyone, Cheatski haven’t been prolific, nor has anyone else.

We’ve signed a few younger players which is good in my book, and we’ve Jo back for the season which I’m pretty pleased with, as I hope he’ll bag 10 - 15 goals and fill a gap for free.

God I hate the transfer window in closed season!!!!

Why the fuck can Spurs afford players we can’t?

They don’t have a sugar daddy
They don’t have a successful team
They have spent recklessly in the past with little reward (Wasted millions more than we have)
Their average attendance is not much bigger than ours

Yet... season after season they outspend us...

Why?

One thing that the Spurs mess has me thinking about is yes, the genius in uncovering diamonds in the rough has apparently come back to bite us on the arse.

Why wouldn’t a club wait until the last moment (like Spurs) and swoop for a player that Moyes wants?

Can we recap the silly season so far.... City has gotten a lot better (but I could have posted the same thing last year). Villa... weaker. Spurs.... not really much going on there. Gunners... weaker and Nasri’s injury is a disaster for them.

So, we are certainly a top Six side right now, and two signings can have us pressing our noses again into the Champs League.

Not to worry. Yet. Last year was worse.

I know its sour grapes over Naughton but I wish, with all my blue blue heart, that Spurs are relegated this season (they came near enough at the beginning of last season) and that Sheff United also flounder. Hope Naughton enjoys his European football with Spurs this year... that’s if he gets off the bench!!!

Kevin, the answer is in the boardroom. Spurs get £40 million a year from commercial income. According to the last set of EFC’s accounts I looked at, we get about £2 million.

Our season ticket sales and Goodison Park are both mortgaged to the bank and incur excessive interest charges.

In fact, out of Kenwright's 8-year reign, we have made operating losses in 6 of them. Of the other two, one year was the Rooney money and the other was last year when we made the princeley sum of £26,000.

Unlike Spurs, we are a farce at boardroom level — that's the difference.

I couldn’t care less about Naughton! No guarantee that he would develop into a talent and he would not add much this year. With Neville, Hibbert and possibly Coleman we have decent if not exciting cover @ RB.

I do agree with the general message of this post. The close season in recent years has been nothing short of frustrating. I wish I could just stay off of the internet from May to Aug. The sheer number of targets that we are linked with, the soundbites of BK and DM, the constant worry of having to sell to buy is just a joke. We couldn’t even re-sign a player we had on loan without a 3-day hiccup and the ominous spectre of a sinister Lescott deal.

We have a decent squad, a good manager and a loyal following..... I am sure we will have a decent run in one of the Cups and a Top 8 finish. However, as usual, I feel we are in a position to push on and yet the club is unable or, more worryingly, unwilling to attempt to bridge the gap.

I said this elsewhere, but I think this is Aaron Ramsey all over again. If the offer wasn’t a phantom offer, then probably the clincher was Spurs offering the full whack, while we piss about with appearance clauses and staggered payments. For all we know, Sheffield United might have been asked to wait until we sell Lescott to City (which we will). We won’t know, because Kenwright doesn’t answer questions like that.

I feel sorry for David Moyes, who signed that extension and stated that he wanted to get his transfer business done early this time. There’s no accounting for the chairman and his luvvies tying his hands behind his back and leaving him gagged in the corner.

When I hear about the sort of players we’re linked with, it makes me go "wow".

Yada yada yah...... whatever Bill. No-one really believes you anymore.

Bit touchy aren’t you Eugene?

I suppose as there is no inflection in words you didn’t realise that it was meant to be a funny quip but you see the need to get personal I see with your last comment.

No problem I can raise above it, it seems that the admins are fine with your thinly disguised "nob head" joke ... Funny that.

Editor's Note: Sorry, I'd fixed the "Davis" thing and turned off your comment, Tony, before I saw Eugene's riposte. It's as you where now. — Michael

To support Jay in his answer to Kevin Sparke — as well as the Commercial difference of £30m odd, Spurs generate nearly £40m a year in season tickets and executive boxes, 120, each at approx £50k. Everton get at best £20m from ticket sales.

Their yearly income is at least twice that of ours and their value is at least twice of ours and their debt is about half of ours.... AND they have about 3-4 multimillionaires on board.

Everton FC as a club are a joke when it comes to transfers. Every season there is a transfer debacle. I really hoped this year would be different as once again we were in postion to really push things on. Once again we are going to blow it. I don't dislike BK as a person, I dislike him as a chairman; he and his cronies are useless. We will never be a top4 club with BK in charge.

This time last year, I posted a really negative article concerning the club's ambition or lack of it. I feel we are in the same position again. We have a great opportunity to push into the top four but only if we improve our squad in terms of depth and quality.

The negativity towards the club certainly bore fruition on the playing field with our abysmal start to the season, which you could say cost us a top four slot. I think we are in danger of repeating our mistakes as any quality that comes in will need to bed into the team's way of doing things and it could well be 4 or 5 games again before we get going.

Bearing in mind we are going to be without Jagielka, Arteta and Anichebe at the start of the season and Yakuba will probably be well off the pace if he is fit. We need more quality to break into the top four and we need to break into the top four before we can go and sign top quality that has already delivered on the big stage rather than taking a chance on players that have potential, these should be our squad players.

We need to buy now if we are to have any success as our standing in the game is improving so we should be growing and not stagnating.

Kenwright's transfer policy seems to be "Don't sign anybody"!

I think the failure to sign players is due to Moyes rather than Kenwright. If Kenwright was withholding money then Moyes would leave. Moyes had a dig at Benitez last season when he said he had control over transfers and Rafa didn't.

Dithering Dave. That's the top and bottom of it. There’s obviously a lack of lower division players he can sign or wants. He doesn't sign big stars. When he took over, the first players shipped out were Gazza and Ginola.

He doesn't like flair. He doesnt like width. We have no genuine star players. And don't bother telling me that Mikel "not good enough for top four clubs or his country" Arteta is a star player. Neither is Pienaar. Runs round in circles and passes back. Two goals a season.

You all may be happy with 5th every season, like Moyes, but I’m not. I want us to win trophies like I remember in the 80s.

Supplementing a 5th place team with Championship players and Bosmans is a joke. Big Nev is right. Make him Manager. He won't settle for right backs from Championship clubs

We all know that Lescott is on his way. Why pretend otherwise. Sell him now whilst there's time for a replacement to be signed. Jagielka isn't fit until November; Rodwell isn't ready to play centre back for 3 months...

We’ve just been given a large amount of money for finishing 5th and also from Sky. Where is it?

How dare you, Mr Edwards? You're not allowed to be critical of Darling Dave. David Moyes is a genuine genius and is beyond your nasty comments... Seriously, though, no matter what farcical situations arise due to our pathetic transfer dealings, none of them will ever be DMs fault.

I still remember the motley crew Moyes signed the summer we were pushing for a Champions League group stage slot: Simon Davies, Per Krøldrup, Andy van der never Meyde it, and James Beattie in the January instead of Darren Bent and Dean Ashton — the pair for less money than Lard Arse Beattie cost us.What a shower of shite.

Moyes later admitted he had never seen Koughdrop play and that's why he didnt know PK couldn't head a ball. WTF?!?! If Walter Smith had've done that and lost £5 million quid, they would still be going on about it right now.

The thing is, Ian, Moyes does dither and walks away from negotiations thinking the jobs done; instead of signing them up, he takes their word and we all know what happens then, don't we?

Just give up on any new players coming until the end of August then you wont be dissapointed when fuck all happens... Works for me every time.

Ian, why would Moyes want to leave after he has just got himself a mega-bucks contract?

So Moyes is sat with loads of money burning a hole in his pocket but doesn’t want to spend it and would rather have Hibbert and Osman in his team??? Is that what you’re saying, Tony?

I agree with all your comments about Kenwright (who I detest with a passion. Hate him...) but you seem to be implying in your posts that Kenwright doesn’t give Moyes any money but you then critise Moyes for not spending money? I don’t understand.

Absolutely gutted! Yet again we miss out on major transfer target.

I don’t know why I get so fustrated because I understand that we do not have financial muscle to compete with any of our peers, but it still upsets me.

I’m more fustrated that we cannot get close enough to Spurs' offer to allow our on-the-field advantage to make the difference, especially when you consider Spurs have about 10 full backs on their books.....

The combination of an inflated transfer market, the economic/financial climate and the impact on our ability to service debt, combined with our lack of Commercial ability, leaves Everton FC in a terrible position. Without the "right" investment, we will at best become a mid-table Premier League team during the forseeable future.

Wow! I am seriously depressed and my new season tickets arrived today, shouldn’t I be in a good mood???

The word I get from my contact within the Club is that we can expect yet another record breaking tranfer before the window closes. But it’s likely to happen MUCH NEARER 31 AUGUST THAN 31 JULY so we shall just have to be patient.

Once again, Blue Bill will come up with the money but we have to wait for payments to come in from Sky before the deed can be done.

Ian - I agree with you in thinking that our failure to sign any players is down to Moyes. However, I applaud him for it. To have spent the amount of money Spurs have spent on two untried players would have been suicide. The market is unrealistic, and we all know we’re on a limited budget. So it makes sense to be prudent, not rush in like a mad dog.

Suggesting Moyes doesn’t like ’star players’ is a little silly - these star players want more in a week than most of us earn in 4 or 5 years, which might be the reason he avoids them. Arteta would have been courted by an Arsenal/Big European team if he’d been fit and is kept out of the Spain squad by 3 or 4 of the best players in the world. Pienaar won plaudits for his role in the Confed Cup. I suppose Jagielka, Lescott, Yakubu are all shit too eh?

You’re right to want the glory days of the 80s to return - we all do. But if I remember correctly, didn’t we sign a star player post 85 only to be double runners up to the RS the following year? Moyes has been recognised by his peers no less than 3 times, and he is doing things the best way he can in the circumstances - blending together a squad of players who are young are hungry for success - and guess what... it’s working. We do need one or two additions down the right - he will know it better than we do - but he will also know better than any of us which players will be realistic additions to the squad in every way - transfer fee, salary, character, ability.

How do you know Lescott is on his way? Did you hear from his friend’s auntie’s cousin’s Mum? It’s all paper bollocks, generated by the cunts at City who have just realised their ’superstar’ attack has the equivalent of a rusting Metro defending behind them. Or to put it another way, would Big Nev sell him (as you seem to think he could do a better job than Moyes).

BTW, figures recently published show where the money you refer to has gone - 2 thirds of it into the banks of our squad. And it seems you want to give them even more!

Tony, you’ve named two transfer mistakes there that Moyes has made in seven and a half years. Don’t know about you, but I can’t think of many more, and even SAF has racked up more than 2. Of course Moyes is accountable for any dealings made in the market, and mistakes made therein, same as he is the results on the pitch - he is the manager. But likewise, he deserves the credit for all the good he does in those areas - it just seems to me (and many others judging by previous posts) that you are loathe to give this credit. And may I remind you that players have arrived - only cos they’re not the ones you wanted, you dismiss them.

And my general message is this - last summer, we had all the same doom and gloom, and I have to say it was justified to begin with. Why now? No contract saga, no masses of injured players, a squad who have only been beaten a handful of times this year, with key players to return from injury. A couple of additions would be the icing on the cake. And if they only arrive in August, so be it. Roll on the 15th.

So Harry played Kyle Naughton for Spurs last night in a pre-season game against Aldershot but, oh dear, Spurs lost 3 - 1. Lets hope its a sign of things to come !!

I note the amount paid by Spurs for Naughton and Walker was undisclosed. Would love to know how much they paid for the pair of them

Tony Williams - scuse me, I’M a bit touchy!?

Sorry mate, but as you sew, so shall ye reap etc.

You pointed out an obvious typo - fine, your choice

I responded not with any obscenity or anger but a bit of whimsey.

I then point out the REAL Celtic for Tony (AND IT IS!) and you’re whining to admin.

Good to see that you can ’rise above it’

(rolls eyes)

Sorry Eugene, calling someone a "nob head" (albeit poorly disguised) is not is not a bit of whimsey.

The comment about the admins was to do with our (admins/me) ongoing differences, not you.