Everton loan Henen back from Olympiakos

Clearly made an offer at our valuation and they wanted more.

Anything obviously could happen with young players but ending up in the Greek league doesnÂ’t make me think weÂ’ve missed out on the next Messi and probably signals the club were right not to increase beyond their valuation.

I guess we would have paid the money if we felt he was better than what we had.

If he was , and we must have had a fairly good luck at him, then you'd think we'd have completed this by now.

P.S.

Looks like Alderwiereld has pretty much signed for Southampton, another one gone.

Disappointed that no centre half is coming in.

Just four centre halves at the club, one injury prone, one 37 and another who has had a nightmare start and is a rick-mare.

And John Stones who is very inexperienced.

Is this madness from Roberto?

Already signed Diame and Dawson, thats a decent few days for them

I love RM as our manager but, if we donÂ’t get a CH in tonight, then I think it could bite us on the arse big style. The form of Jags & Distin is frightening but it seems RM believes he can sort it out, I ainÂ’t convinced, tbh.

Having said that I think we came into this summer needing a striker as first pirority, a creative mid as second and a cb as 3rd. We definitely didn;t need a defensive mid and a winger was nice to have but not essential. We have therefore ignored our 2nd two priorities imo. We don;t have a positive passer in that deep midfield, although maybe Besic will be that, and that's a worry for me when we come up against teams who park the bus.

Other players have signed for so called lesser clubs and we are doing nothing to attempt to solve our defensive problems.

Cleverley was really poor against MK Dons and his signing does not excite me at all!

We can gamble with attacking/flair players but shouldn't be gambling at the back.

I mean what the fuck?

We are prepared to use our last loan up on a player who Martinez has already told us will only go into the youth team??

I'm starting to think either Roberto has been on the sauce today or he has totally just lost it.

Where's our friggin defenders?? We have FOUR CENTRAL DEFENDERS.

The Cleverley deal dead anyway, so that looks like the end of any first team incomings.

Bit shite really, in my opinion.

He owes nothing to the 'Cleverly Out' knobheads at OT...

BUT WE NEED TO STRENGTHEN THE DEFENCE!!!

First of all I can't believe he is not out there today trying to bring a central defender in and why he has signed only ONE since he became our manager.

Secondly, if as we are lead to believe and he loves Cleverley so much and we are now hearing it was a permanent deal for the United man, then why not make him a priority ahead of Besic and why spend so much on the Gareth Barry contract?? At 33??

I'm sorry but the longer it's gone this window the more it's baffled me.

We also wasted a lot on Traore who vanished without a trace.

Cleverley I am not bothered about as, IMO, he has not improved and is not worth spending money on except as a loan signing.

At least we made money on Duffy!! That should keep old BK happy.... (Does he wear mittens?)

What the hell?

No decent back up goalie.

No pressure on Howard to perform.
No pressure on Jags and Distin?

Didn't think I'd be saying that but let's face if, it's true.

Expect to concede a lot of goals this season.

Cleverley on loan may have worked but we were quite right not to buy him. Odd to sell Duffy with no replacement so it will be interesting to see how we line up in the next few games and please God Roberto sorts it out before we play at Anfield as I canÂ’t bear the thought of another thrashing there.

Re Henen £3m sounds steep to me and we have plenty of young strikers around. Shane #7 if Henen trained like the first team squad there’s no way we have got him fit for the Greeks!

The Cleverly business brought up the Wigan thing again which is not a good thing. In fact, it's beginning to get on my nerves.

As for Henen. We'd need Sherlock Holmes to unravel this one. If he wasn't up to standard we would have known within a day or two. Of course, the Martinez character test can be a lengthy affair but the whole thing is very confusing.

In my opinion, not a good transfer window. I had high hopes for this season but frankly they have evaporated. Just being an Evertonian is a very long journey.

For godÂ’s sake, just do the simple things. ItÂ’s not rocket science.

IÂ’m not too bothered whether we sign the lad or not, why wait so long before deciding to buy or not? Central defence is what we should be concerned about.

We quibbled over paying another £1.5M and we now want to develop him in our reserves. (For what purpose??)

Are we going to then pay Olympikiaos silly money after we loan him (if he comes good) because we were too proud to pay the fee Anderlecht wanted in the first place. Olympikiaos must be laughing their heads off!

Or develop him in our reserves just to go back, again, for what purpose?! We got a lot of benefit from the Eric Dier loan a couple a years back

Window shut, let's focus on the team playing, as a team, the way it did the first 60 minutes against a first-rate side Arsenal.

But let's just see how it all pans out. Come May we will either be eating humble pie, or have pie in the sky expectations.

Rumours on other sites suggest that Anderlecht were trying to stiff us, and we were originally told it was a free transfer. The story now is that he's gone to Olympiakos on a free, and we were to take him on loan prior to a nominal transfer fee in the future if he shapes up.

Who knows? Transfer Deadline Day is a semi-orchestrated mess anyway. Apparently this summer the Premier League spent more in fees than the top divisions of Spain, Italy and France combined.

I may be mistaken, but isnÂ’t Besic meant to be centre-back who has converted to a defensive midfielder? Perhaps he was bought with this in mind?

Time will tell...

This sounds along the the lines of the old saying above, as a few posters have mentioned several valid points on here, it does not surprise me that this protracted deal has collapsed on deadline day.

Don't get me wrong, I believe a lot, well all the transfers we have completed successfully, are great additions and also prove how far we have come in the last year. This time last year, if you had said we have just signed Rom and Sammy, there would have to have been a double-take, prior to jumping higher than Tim Cahill at a set-piece.

What does surprise me though that we have totally lacked any defensive incomings, and I sincerely hope that this will not haunt us till the January window comes around, which, if the case, could well be too late.

I have beaten the drum often with the comment that it is of little use scoring goals at one end if you immediately or priorly ship them at the other. Central Defence is a worry and I just hope and pray that the first three games, where we have leaked 10 goals and scored 7 is not a marker of what is to come.

Lucky escape?

As for the defence, we already have a solid partnership, and Besic, Alcaraz, Stones and Galloway to back up. Any knee-jerk panic buys based on a few bad goals would have been ridiculous.

Why canÂ’t managers just be brave? Jags on bench, Richards and Stones centre-back, Naismith captain. Simples!

What we payed was way over the top for him, I bet Et'o scores more than him this season as he appears to be a throwback to those lumbering strikers of the past.

Todays game is about speed and agility, neither of which he appears to have.

1. This is Everton, we are never going to splash silly money (especially having already got the cheque book out early!).
2. We've captured one of the most exciting young striking prospects in world football on a 5 year deal.
3. Our defence conceded the 3rd least goals in the league last year and
4. Martinez took us to our highest ever premier league points total.
The season has only just started, and yes our defence has looked leaky so far, but Martinez has consistently said he will only bring in players who will improve the set up. I would imagine he sees that the only defensive players he wants to sign are either way too expensive or not available at the moment.

With regard to Henen, who knows what he could be like in a year or two, but some of the comments going around are like Magaye Gueye all over again (remember him, Everton's best kept secret!?!) Bottom line is, if we wanted him, we had a long enough time to see if we rated him, so I would presume he's not up to the standard of the value Anderlecht wanted.

Duffy had gone as sadly he wasn’t good enough. We still have 4 CB, how many do you need? Hibbo and Barry can play there in an absolute emergency. The back 5 last season had the 3rd best record in the league. 3 poor games hasn’t made them bad players, their form will improve.

Cleverley would have been a decent addition on loan but not essential. Contract up at the end of the season so why pay £7-8m when you could maybe expect him in Jan or the summer on a free.

Why pay over the odds for Henen? If we value at £1.5m why pay double that? It’s not like we missed out on Messi for the sake of a few quid. He may still come apparently on loan, not sure how that works as the window is shut.

We have had a good window, Lukaku, Barry, Eto’o, Besic and Galloway in on permanent deals with Atsu on loan. Most of them done early enough in the summer rather than a last min scramble, but as soon as we don’t bring loads in on deadline day the club get slaughtered. The club can’t win sometimes (and I’m not taking about the first 3 games!).

It would have to be a major emergency injury crisis for me to want to see Hibbert or Barry turning out at centre half in a Premier League match.

That to me is not a team set up to challenge for 4th.

I think we have had a decent transfer window I’m not sure I’d say good.

We paid over the odds for Lukaku, only to find he is apparently nit fit yet because he has been carrying a slight injury, if that’s the case he shouldn’t be starting.

We paid too much fir Barry’s loan deal to become permanent.

We signed Besic for 4 million, a squad player fair enough but we ignored the fact that we needed a younger, fitter, more able central defender.

As for the likes of Hibbert, Gibson and Alcaraz??
These three will contribute no more this season than Thomas Hitzlesperger did 2 years ago.

The signing I am most pleased with is Eto’o...a genuine World Class striker, and the word is used too lightly nowadays but Eto’o is World Cup.

Lukaku fit or not, needs to take a long hard look at Eto’o and watch the movement and see that’s what he has to start doing to become the striker we all hope for.
I’d also suggest he watch the workrate if Steven Naismith.

Hull City spent 36 million in the transfer window??

I would personally like to see him start at West Brom with Naismith behind him.

Let Lukaku cone off the bench to influence it, may actually help him because he was mire successful at West Brom as a substitute.

At least until he finds form and fitness.

Nothing lumbering when he showed the Arsenal lad his heels when setting up Naismiths goal.

http://www.Evertonfc.com/news/archive/2014/09/02/henen-loan-deal-completed

Very strange !!

Surely there must be more to it than loaning someone to play U21's. Nobody does that do they?

Fecking ridiculous situation. It must be that he wants to be here but we can't agree the costs.

At the end of the day, RM wanted the player in the U21 "development" squad. The player has the same agent as Mirallas and Lukaku, we've had recent dealings with Olympiakos (Mirallas transfer) and a compromise deal that suits everyone but Anderlecht is in place. If Henen shows progress, he'll be signed permanently, and Olympiakos will get a token fee for it.

A slight change of subject but, tge whole loan system has gone bizarre in recent seasons. Man U loaning Falcao for a season at £5mil seems bizarre to me.

I think up until now I was a modernist, thinking some other posters were stuck in the past, but these recent developments trouble me. If the top 8 teams in Europe can essentially sign all the best (young) players and then loan them all out to other clubs, at a profit, then football as we know it will collapse.

Bizarre!

There must be more to this than meets the eye; it just doesnÂ’t make any sense.

IÂ’m eagerly awaiting the clubs reasoning behind it... but IÂ’m not holding my breath.

Hypothetically then, should he be a success, which I hope he is with the future in mind, and we want to keep him, and by all accounts, he wants to play for us. We would have to negotiate with Olympiakos, who could ostensibly demand £5-6M, (well they are not going to sell him for the same price they paid are they?) come to think of it, that’s about right for Everton, we pay 4 times what we were prepared to pay in the first place, eventually.

I agree we paid too much for Lukaku but the lad is still only 21 and has phenomenal (To quote El Bob) potential. He had a lot of improving to do and hopefully he will learn from someone who has been at the very pinnacle like Eto’o. I love the star that he scored more by his age than Messi, Neymar, Ronaldo, Ibra, RVP etc.

Back to this Henen deal, I don’t understand the way it has come about. I suspect Anderlecht wanted some of the PL money and messed us about with the price. This may be a clever work around.

I'm at a loss to understand it otherwise.

The game has gone completely silly and the wages are getting out of control.

We have watched him in training for ages, obviously don't rate the lad enough to want to splash cash on him so I don't know quite what that tells Henen really?

Martinez has already stated that he's only going into the U-21's anyway, it really can't say much for our young lads can it?

I am beginning to start worrying about Roberto.
I'm starting to see him slowly but surely turn into the Everton way of thinking, some of the things he has said/done this year are mystifying.

The whole Lacina Traore issue , was nothing more than mind-boggling.

The ignorance of needing some serious central defensive cover, and I don't mean Hibbert, Barry or Besic, play them there in this league and they will be eaten alive.

Then there is the whole pursuit of Tom Cleverley when he already had an abundance of players who play in that position, and why after signing Barry and Besic? Where would Cleverley have fitted in?

Then there is baffling decisiIons like playing Robles in the Arsenal Cup quarter final? Why would you do that in a game of such importance?

Don't get me wrong here he's done far more right than he has wrong but I'm just becoming a little concerned by some of the things he does and says.

Now the Henen deal?

Just plain strange.

As I say I do live him, I'm a big fan and I was one who banged the drum for his appointment last year but I think the honeymoon stage is gone now, it was pretty good but this season is when the married couple really start getting to know one another more..

Lets hope there aren't too many rough moments.

If Matt-#80-is correct this may be an example of intelligent negotiating by members of the club. Forever derided as commercially inept, perhaps they aren't always the villains?

To be honest, IÂ’d prefer two years of EtoÂ’o. He looked well up for it on Saturday and brings the obvious commercial advantages too.

Of these, the absence of any structure to the pre-season has been the most serious. It was downplayed by many but has clearly left individual players underprepared and the whole side short of practice in playing together again -- organisationally we look a mess this season.

The gap between us and a CL place has widened over the space of 3 months. So let's forget coming top 4 and give the 3 cups a real go. And that means playing not far off our strongest side for each cup game.

IÂ’m sure Roberto did most likely try for a CB - like the kid a city but it didnÂ’t happen, weÂ’re not party to these matters on unsubstantiated rumours mainly.

The only thing IÂ’m struggling to understand is Henen situation and I think that needs to be cleared up by the club as it has left us looking a little stupid.

Did we keep money back for another player (Cleverley perhaps) & hope to get Henen only for Olympiakos to come in and meet AnderlechtÂ’s fee, then when other deals to collapsed we loaned him last minute?

Do we have some sort of agreement in place with Olympiakos to sign him in a year provided he meets the standards expected?

Strange & needs clarifying.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/02/Everton-sign-david-henen-loan-deal-anderlecht

http://www.Evertonfc.com/news/archive/2014/09/02/henen-loan-deal-completed

Everton have confirmed they did complete the loan signing of 18-year-old Belgian forward David Henen before the transfer window closed on Monday evening.

Henen was transferred from Anderlecht to Greek side Olympiakos on transfer deadline day but was immediately loaned to the Blues for 12 months.

A Belgian youth international, he will link up with the ClubÂ’s Under-21 side after playing for BelgiumÂ’s Under-19s in Serbia during the international break.

Blues boss Roberto Martinez said: "As we had said previously, heÂ’s someone whose potential we recognise and at this stage he will go into the Under-21 development squad. We are looking forward to working with him this season."

What's wrong with the Henen deal?

I think about another 100 posts or so could tell you that.

Why have we loaned a player that is not going to star anytime soon for the first team so.

Surely Olympiakos won't sell next year so what's the sense?

And if he's that good why are the Greeks allowing him out on loan?

TW rule 2,780 (see subsection 4, page 1054) - 'If a TWer doesn't know or understand absolutely every single detail of every transfer and/or loan, he/she is entitled to get all eggy and/or hysterical and make the massive leap to 'Everton have fucked-up big style this time'

Maybe this is all about taking the long view, you know development and all that, given that we aint loaded with cash to chuck around on expensive. already-developed players,

You say "surely" Olymp wont sell next year. You don't know that. There might be a buy-out clause, we get first pick etc. And if we'd loaned from Anderlecht, same issue, what certainty that we could buy at the end of the year - like all loans. That's if we want to buy!

If he's that good why Olymp allowing a loan to us? Well, maybe there's a sweetener in it for them. Who knows!!

You can tell all this by 3 games?

We just enjoyed one of the greatest seasons in recent times, and now, 3 games in, 2 draws and a defeat the 'gloss is coming off'?

RM has a long term plan, you can see by the infrastructure being placed.

Let me guess, we fail to beat WBA, then we are truly screwed! Jesus, did I miss the memo that the BPL was to be run over a 4 game period.

Just found this in the Echo

David Henen’s agent, Christophe Henrotay, has an excellent relationship with Everton ... and Olympiakos. #EFC

Kristof Terreur (@HLNinEngeland)

This suggests (reading between the lines) that the agent has set up a future deal between Olympiakos & us.

Then Greg o’Keefe tweets

Henen will go into U-21s but hope is that if he progresses as expected he could later become a first team option during his loan spell #EFC

His transfer was always complex due in part to issues over the player’s ownership and what #EFC believed was an over inflated fee #Henen

which seems to suggest that there may be plans for him to be brought into the first team/squad this season.

Here’s the link to the page on the site

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/live-Everton-fc-news-views-7701878

A loan is to fill a temporary gap until you can get someone permanent... and as Marti­nez has repeatedly said, he is one for the U21s.... so what gap is he filling? It would be rather bizarre to loan a player to go into your youth set up unless there was something else afoot....

I guess something like Steve mentions above half fits the bill... but still seems a strange way of working to me. If we get an option of buying later, at what price... Olympiakos won't be doing it out of kindness!

Confused!

Tricky, Colin as it takes three postmen to lift the book and they simply don't have the manpower. However, the rules (re criticism of positional play) are very clear.

Anyone who has just had a competent game in any position can be described as having had "a fucking great game" and must stay in the side forever. TWers can also add that this player seems to 'love' or 'get' Everton.

Anyone who hasn't played well in their most recent game (and has maybe made a couple of mistakes) can be described as being "Fucking SHITE!!!"

TWers are also allowed to suggest this player should be sold immediately, then shot, then stabbed... then shot again.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29030725

After the Traore madness, of keeping him the rest of the season despite Martinez knowing full well in early March that it was a "8 week injury" then whatever has happened with Henen should be no surprise at all.

As mentioned, why would you loan a young lad just to play in the youth team? What about the progress of Chris Long or McAleny? We can only assume they are not ready yet either.

It's a shame we couldn't have found a decent bloody centre half to loan.

Is it still permissible to include Neville in the blaming of all things that go wrong?

I think this is long-term, developmental, not any short-term fix. Just as the Scottish manager bought Stones to go straight into the U21s with a longer-term view – and look at him now.

I don't think it's rocket science – it's the School of Science.

Makes no sense on the surface of it.

Thanks, as ever.

All the messing about with Cleverly saying that we only wanted a loan deal and Man Utd wanted only a sale. That's what I thought was happening anyway. Now today it seems that Villa have taken him on loan??? Again very confusing. Don't get me wrong: I'm not disappointed that we didn't get him because we have enough playing in that role.

I thought Richards had moved to Italy permanently only to see it was a loan deal. I still don't get why we didn't go for him. He's not a punt, loads of prem experience.

In general, I'm happy with the window, keeping all our players and getting a few in, but not having another option at centre half is going to hurt or season I reckon. Hopefully we don't have a manager that's too proud to admit he was wrong and we did in fact need someone at the back when he said he wouldn't be strengthening there cos we didn't need to. I hope he's right and everyone on this site, or so it seems, is wrong.

Maybe weÂ’re going all-out for the U-21 League Championship and heÂ’s the final piece in the puzzle. This must explain why we did nothing for so long; we were waiting on a club with money to buy him and then let us have him for a year.

My copy is out of date, Hibbo is at fault for everything.

I think you are perhaps being a bit too harsh given that none of us are in possession of all the facts and reasons for what transpired with either Traore or Henen.

With Traore perhaps we weren't paying, perhaps insurance money was given he was out long term.... we don't really know, although of course from a fans point of view a frustrating situation... And with Henen, I say I am confused for the moment, perhaps the master plan will be revealed in the goodness of time. We have to wait before we can know and make a full judgement, but I prefer to give the benefit of the doubt until things become clearer rather than immediately criticise because I don't know what's happening.

Perhaps I'm too innocent but never mind.

Agreed Alan, v strange.

Just have to wait & see. The lad desperately wants to be at Everton so you’d have to believe that an agreement is in place – one season from now for us to take him permanently.

Maybe it is to take care of.....

Perhaps....

No, can't think of anything that makes this make sense. Just have to see how it pans out and hope it becomes clear.

That said, there is no hard logic to it.

Wonder how Henen feels.

A lot of theories being thrown around that we have shafted Anderlecht, and this deal with Olympiakos was a bit of a set-up,read this theory on another site, could be plausible.

"We weren't willing to pay their asking price before we got a full season out of him to see if he's the real deal, so Henrotay, Henen's agent, (also Mirallas and Lukaku's agent) who we have a good relationship with, has approached Olympiakos (who he also has a good relationship with) and convinced them to take him for Anderlecht's fee. Part of the deal is that he'd be loaned straight to us for the season with an option to buy him for a set fee if he impresses, and if not then he'll return to Olympiakos with experience in English football (amongst top players) under his belt.

It's a bit 'trust me, I'm a doctor / policeman, whatever'

On the face of it, the deal appears strange given the seemingly protracted run up to it.

Again, without all the facts, I don't get the Duffy out, Henin in logic.

But I 'm not an economist.

I guess we just have to trust the manager on this one.

Am I allowed to say that?

There are a lot of assumptions, suppositions and the like going on here.

We'll have a thread on 'JFK conspiracy theory' next that might contain as many facts as this one.

For me, Si #149 states things about right.

Anyway, so much for my break from football until after the international rubbish is out of the way.

Regarding Matt's post #80, Matt as far as I can see works in the and around "the game", is widely travelled and well connected and informed. If I read anything from him, I immediately assume it's no bum steer.

Matt, don't be coy, tell us where you work, what you do etc! Some might have more faith in you then and stop bleating so much.

Drew, it might be somewhere in between those two extremes - i.e. we didn't think he was the next Ronaldo, but didn't believe he was overhyped (who was doing the hyping?) and thought he had sufficient potential for us to want to sign - but not so much that we wanted to pay whatever Anderlecht were asking?

I can't see how Olympiakos would sell him to us for less than they have agreed to pay us.

The only way I can see this working is if Olympiakos were able to get him for much less than Anderlecht were prepared to sell him to us for. We give them a loan fee and agree to cover the transfer cost next summer if we take up the option to keep him. The total we pay to Olympiakos is less than the £3 million Anderlecht wanted so we are happy. Olympiakos come out of the deal on top because they get the loan fee plus the top up transfer fee or the player himself to keep or sell on.

The problem is it has so far been reported that Olympiakos met the £3 million asking price, which only makes sense if we weren't able / willing to pay that amount for a player we firmly believe could prove himself worthy of in the next 12 months.

I take your point but stand by my own - even an educated guess (which is better than a stab in the dark) is still a guess.

No further questions.
:)

However, I don't understand Matt's (#80) last sentence:
"If Henen shows progress, he'll be signed permanently, and Olympiakos will get a token fee for it."

It just doesn't make sense or seem logical to me. The story so far: Olympiakos own him, we've loaned him but somehow we have first refusal and Olymiakos get shafted.

Confused.

Get the Traynor on, ref!

We need to hear from the man himself I think (yes, without causing a TW virtual fisticuffs, I think it's an educated guess but happily stand to be corrected.)

I'm not having a go at anyone.
But when TW threads start getting all legalese (ifs, buts and maybes etc) and player deals about as easy to understand as an MFI flatpack chest of drawers booklet with a couple of pages missing then something needs clearing up.

A good evening to all, gents.
:)

Can't think of a better explanation?

None of us will ever see him play before he fooks off back to Olympiakis.........or Brentford.

I assume this all around 3rd party ownership, which is an issue in England but not elsewhere. That said we've had some strange signings - da silva, that Azerbaijan kid??? spring to mind.

"Youngster David Henen is not going (directly) to Everton after all. Yesterday evening he one-sided broke his contract with Anderlecht. Soon afterward, he signed a deal with Olympiakos in Greece."

Olympiakos did have some interest in him. The Greeks have 'bought' him for £3 mil. They will loan him to us for 1 season for £1.5 mil. This money will be paid by Ol. to 'buy out' the 3rd party owners. If we like him, we pay Ol. a further £1.5 mil. which they then pass on to Anderlecht. Thus, it costs Ol. nothing; we get a player we like for £3 mil. Ander. get £1.5 mil. and the 3rd parties get £1.5 mil. If we don't keep him, then Ol. pay Anderlecht £1.5 mil. [of their own money] and they own him for the next 3 years.

Apparently everyone agreed he was only worth £1.5 mil. but the 3rd parties wanted that amount AS WELL AS Anderlecht. They wouldn't take half of £1.5. This was the sticking point .... Simples ... [as they say!] .

I am like most others re: this particular deal, it would make absolutely NO SENSE whatsoever, if it is a loan from Olympiakos...............unless of course, they owe us a favour, or Blue Bill promised them some front row tickets for his latest production, Le Miserablue..........it's never easy being a Blue is it?!?

As much as this situation & the one with Cleverley bothers me, I just want our defensive situation sorted out & get back to winning ways once again, so COYB!!

Must be more about deferred payment or hedging our bets than third party ownership. Either way we still have to pay £3 million if we want to keep him. We could hand that over to Anderlecht and the third party now and try to recoup half of it by selling him on at a later date.

I don't see why such a simple solution took so long to come-up with. Wonder if we had to wait until we were sure we didn't need the money for somebody else?

If so, that seems slightly open to interpretation but is probably saying Olympiakos did sign him and we loaned from them.

Imagine if he breaks into our first team and plays a few blinders, Olympiakos are laughing and we got a good loan player. If he doesn't work out - then we took a risk that we wanted to, that it didn't seem like Anderlecht were going to allow us to and Olympiakos take him back without having paid his wages for him to be sold I for £4m in two years.

Why didn't we buy him for £3m? I imagine that having a player like this on loan has various financial and accounting benefits over shelling out the £3 which weight use in January if we're still in lots of cups!

Perhaps to sweeten the deal for Olympiakos, we have offered them first refusal on Tony Hibbert if he ever decides to leave.

Interesting to note that Mr Jones and the coaches are putting in extra time on these problems with the non-international squad members. Hopefully, someone will pass on a few tips to Jags, Baines, McCarthy & co when they return.

That sounds like the most plausible explanation for these bizarre transfer goings on. If this is the case, I retract my previous post suggesting he is over hyped and revert back to my belief that he is the next Ronaldo / Messi / Pele ;)

But my point was that a club of our stature should not even think of working with the bandits who control him. They ARE the 99p shop!

From reading your posts and seeing the amount of attention your posts attract IÂ’ve come to the conclusion that youÂ’re a wind-up merchant.

YouÂ’re pretty good at it but itÂ’s also pretty fucking sad.

But hey, itÂ’s not my website so once the editors allow "opinions" like yours to be aired then go for it if it gets you off.

HereÂ’s one for you, black is actually white.

But frankly I can't persuade myself to feeling thus..You and others are welcome to see him worthy of 214 posts on this site but now I ask you : where's the evidence?

People are discussing what they know about it. YouÂ’re just doing what you generally do; post something controversial to get a reaction. Job done.

Is there one post that said he was going to be a good/great player?