Here we no 😵‍💫🤷

El Bobble is more reliable and has just said that talks are advancing with Thierno Barry for what it's worth.

I reckon that deal might be done before the week is done. £27M with £4M in add-ons apparently.

The Bobble is the other one I take notice of, Sam. That's pretty much what Romano said, just up to £6M in add-ons.

But they are both saying the same thing.

It would appear that Mr Romano figures, if he links Everton with just about every player he can think of, eventually he will be right about one of them actually signing.

Then he can claim some sort of insider information when in fact it was just a lucky guess. Because nobody remembers the 99% of transfer predictions he got wrong.

It's a pity Alan Myers leaves Sky this week, he is reliable also.

Alan lives about a mile from me and comes across as a very decent and genuine bloke. I think he is going freelance so hopefully he continues to stay in close contact with the Blues.

Neil, I forgot about Alan Myers.

Yes, a statement said he was going freelance. He's been very good over the years, so, as you say, let's hope he keeps it going, as well as his links to Everton.

The Bobble has a habit of breaking Everton transfer stories just slightly after others nowadays.

He used to be first in to be fair to him. But not for a while.

Frank, I agree.

Romano is rubbish. He comes out with his, “Here we go” crap when a move is official as though he's just had the scoop of the century.

The other Italian (name forgotten) was much better.

Colin (8),

You're probably thinking of Gianluca Di Marzio.

It's a strange stick to beat the guy with - Everton's reknowned ability to be gazumped on deals.

He'd only be wrong if we were never actually interested in any of these players, which we clearly were.

The question is whether he is deliberately doing someone other than Everton a favour by making the negotiations known whilst there is still time to interfere, because a verbal agreement isn't binding is it?

He's an absolute dick.

Just tweets news from anyone else.

Si, yes, a verbal contract is binding, it's just difficult to enforce.

There's even a famous case of a contract having been made by semaphore signals.

I guess it's down to opinions. Journalists will always try to speculate in the hope of getting one right.

No different from people on here, who speculate often without substantiating their knowledge. Are they dicks, Ryan?

To be fair to call deals from the club responsible for transfer fiascos such as Muller and Manny Fernandes going from "here we go" to "no we don't" in a heartbeat may not be too far from the truth at times.

@Danny 13

The difference is ordinary fans don't claim to have any inside information, whereas people like Romano do. They claim to know people "close to the player" or a "source within the club" etc without providing a scrap of evidence to back it up.

Then, when they are once again proven to be wrong, the "sources" they claimed to exist suddenly disappear. The fact is that when it comes to the buying and selling of players, outside of the people directly involved, nobody actually knows what is going on.

Clubs have become very good at keeping this stuff under wraps until they deign to announce it.

Without the speculation (a lot of it is true but a lot of it is just clickbait) we would have nothing to debate on here nor get excited about.

Some sensible people stay away from it until they are wearing the shirt. Other suckers like me wait with bated breath for the next incoming.

The life of an Evertonian, uh.

Cheers, Anjishnu.

NewsNow Everton is more accurate then Romano and they are really crap.

Harry, I totally agree. As a matter of fact I still go with the sequence of:

Negotiations with Existing players, maybe the odd young player move, but not in the first team squad.

Players moved on: not offered a new contract or put in the shop.window.

Loans in or Loans out.

Players signed on free contract or bought on a staggered finance basis.

The rest is noise and better to take a holiday during the Summer from all the nonsense spouted from these so-called "in the know" ejitts.

I would go as far to say ignore all the players they mention. I doubt any of them will be playing for Everton. If they do, it will be pure luck rather than being in the know.

Romano makes so many ridiculous transfer announcements, he eventually has to get a few correct, but paper never refuses ink, keeps him in a job.

I remember the summer, about a decade ago, when a certain Colin Glassar was insistent we would bring in Lukaku on a permanent deal. We did eventually do it and for a big sum but I always believed Colin because it all seemed plausible.

Having insider knowledge beats most other sources but people like Romano imply they are on direct dial to agents etc when they are merely speculating.

That was a total one-off, Andrew, because I did have insider info regarding Lukaku. The same as with Deulofeu.

But my contact retired shortly after, though he does remain friendly with people in the game.

I find it interesting listening to Paddy Boyland on the blue room. I get the sense he is genuinely connected to the club and could speculate a lot more. But carefully chooses, according to his journalistic standards, what he communicates.

Fabrizio, on the other hand, is obviously very well connected globally, but I suspect he has lowered his standards in recent years. His word used to mean something but he's become more and more speculative.

And with Everton, we all know how it works: "I won't believe it until he's wearing a shirt and holding a scarf on the pitch."

He's saying it's confirmed.

https://x.com/EvertonNewsFeed/status/1940497748530442368

I think he's is well connected. Of course footballers may change their mind at the last minute but Romano is one of the more reliable sources and is probably right about 60% of the time which is more than most.

Let's see if he's right about confirming Thierno Barry.

Yes, I remember the summer when Colin Glassar became "The Oracle"!

They were good times.

I wish we could return to the days when the first you knew about a transfer was a picture of Harry Catterick and the new player on the back page of the echo or daily post (which used to be a decent paper)

But (digressing slightly) Re. The Catt. there is also a good case to be made that...Tommy Jackson notwithstanding...the last decent signing he made was in 1967 with Kendall - just thought I'd throw that in as a close season pot stirrer.

Edit; if it please M'Lud the prosecution would like to enter exhibits A, B C, D & E. Namely,The Irish Jimmy Hill, Ernie Hunt Henry Newton, David Lawson Mike Bernard...there will no doubt be others I've missed.

Eric 12, consideration must accompany the verbal agreement. It seems the AI know-it -all agrees.

And Jamie 26, it was 'Glasstrodamus' as I recall, during the Lukaku chase.

If I could remember the name of the octopus who supposedly predicted the winners of games in the World Cup, dates I can't remember either, then I'd make some witty quip connecting Colin with said octopus.

Colin @2, one of the few, if not only times I had genuine insider info, was that Lukaku was convinced to stay for a season on Moshiri's yacht. A former colleague (Evertonian), had a friend who was Moshiri's bodyguard and relayed the details he had heard.

Very rare I get to say anything like that.

Paul @29. He was called Paul; your namesake!! Sadly he passed away not long after the 2010 World Cup when he made his predictions.

Eric (12) and Dale (28), I would have thought the ‘certainty of terms’ would be the real ‘can of worms’ in these situations. What is written down in an employment contract generally goes well beyond what can be easily be discussed / confirmed verbally.
I would say most verbal agreements could only add up to ‘an agreement in principle’ - unless the contract is extremely basic - which is a stepping stone to a contract but not legally binding.