In view of his devious antics I guess we are better off without him. No matter how good a footballer he is he obviously does'nt give a damn for Everton.

I posted on here at least a week ago about....'where is Manny', well he has gone, pathetic, what a class act we are, nothing on the official website ofcourse, it makes me want to vomit, Yakubu, will get his permit in 2 years I predict, this is beyond a joke.

Having just read a report on a Portuguese site I'm totally bemused as to what can possibly have gone wrong with this deal. The player alludes to the fact that everything happened so quickly but admits that he has no idea what happened at the Everton end of things? This would suggest he fully intended to go ahead with the transfer and that in the end he had very little say in the matter.

Contrary to suggestions that Valencia had been able negotiate a deal allowing the third party to retain an interest, this report indicates that a deal was done for 16 million Euros and that Benfica received half of the fee. If this is true then this deal surely matches the bid which Everton were rumored to be brokering. Is it possible that in the end we simply didn't have the money and were seeking to negotiate a reduction on this fee assuming there were no other interested parties and this strategy backfired?

"What happened with Everton are things that I know nothing about and what is most important now is that I am here," Fernandes said. "I did not expect everything to happen to me so quickly, but I am very excited to be here.

So, what the hell has gone on then? The ballot stinks and now this stinks. How many Evertonians are now questioning whether Yakubu will actually sign?

It's the Everton way...

Unexpectedly...I was surprised anyway... two weeks ago Everton swoop for two quality players and please us all with a potential 20 million pound outlay.

We all get excited after a reasonable start, and the fact that these two can only improve things further.

Everton let us down, as once again they can't keep their powder dry and announce the transfer until the player is signed.

I am just resigned to a lifetime of this shite.

Without trying to second guess who or what was at blame for the Manuel Fernades saga..we as supporters and David Moyes as our manager now to have to move on.

What bothers me is that if Everton were willing to pay somewhere in the region of 12 million for a unproven..but extremely promising prospect, what will it cost us now to bring in a player of proven quality who can..

A) Provide the creativity need to unlock premier league defenses.

B) Bring with them the work ethic demanded by David Moyes.

C) Be available to sign within the next 4 days without work permit or third party ownership delaying the deal.

Personally I dont think its likely to happen..I think he may well now keep his powder dry till January...

Right now every team with somebody to sell knows now that 1) We have a large amount of spare cash to spend...and 2) We are close to desperate for a quality midfielder.

All though is not gloom and doom..

Tim Cahill should be fit in time for the second leg of our Uefa cup tie and Stephen Piennar should little by little be getting to grips with life in the premiership.

I realise I dont always see Eye to eye with the anti-everything brigade on here ..but from a quick scout around it would seem all now agree that Neville, Lescott, Yobo,Baines..has to be our 1st choice back line in future.

A.J and the Yak(he will come) up front.. And any four from six in the middle.. It's not a bad team..and we may be in for a (good) surprise before Saturday comes

While I agree that we don’t need players who smile in your face than stab you in the back but that’s no excuse for fucking the deal up.

You ask: "Are the club to blame because red tape delayed the deal?". And I say: sure, they knew that they had fucked up simpler deals than this in the past and they knew full well that this third party slavery is not welcome by the PL, except of course when the RS or Manure are involved.


"How can you blame Everton when it was Fernandes who quietly arranged a back hand deal at a different club."
In other words: unlike us, he _did_ have a plan B.

This is not some touchy-feely fairytale, it’s rock-hard business, you should line up several alternatives because anything can go wrong at any point. Even more so when you know the deal you’re trying to strike is risky.

So while I accept that the blame for this particular transfer collapsing lies mainly on Fernandes and his slavers, who do you think is to blame for us not having another midfielder lined up instantly?

the club cant win if we arnt linked with players they get accused of not trying to sign players so when they do try and sign players and its public knowledge they are criticsed for letting the cat out of the bag, we cant have it both ways

John there is a world of difference with being linked to a player than whats happened here. we had him and let him go last May then wait until the end of the transfer window to try again could you see Chelsea.man utd ect missing him well I cant

gutted about manny but hes a valencia player now obviously he wanted an easier career in la liga good luck 2 him!! hope valencia get knocked out of the champions league and we’l dump them out of the uefa cup!! coyb

What happened is as clear as day ...

- we only had £6m to spend,
- we agreed to spend this with Benfica
- we then tried to arrange complex documents / agreement with his 3rd party owners to the satisfaction of the Premier League
- because this takes time as a consequence of the Premier League shitting themselves over this type of arrangement, the door was opened for Valencia
- Valencia then did things properly by buying him outright paying £6m to both Benfica and the 3rd party - clearly a more favourable position for his 3rd party owners who were only too happy to sanction the deal
- Fernandes showed his true colours and went back on his apparent ’agreement’ to sign for us. Just the sort we want in the trenches to fight for us, I think not!

Notwithstanding that Fernandes appears to be a mercenary and we may have had a lucky escape, we cannot escape the conclusion that we are completely inept at negotiating deals - everything takes forever.

Perhaps Fernandes is not a mercenary after all - he may just have seen us for what we (our Board) really are - complete amateurs

In view of the clubs press release it would now seem that they were not prepared to enter into bidding war. If it was a case that they had agreed a figure with Benfica and they were then seeking to move the goal posts in an effort to raise the price then I think the club acted correctly in refusing to engage in further contract discussions, Particularly as the player had no strong desire to join the club. However, there are too many unanswered questions e.g. had we previously agreed a fee? and if the assertion above is true then why did the club not issue a statement spelling out their position much earlier? Frankly whatever way one looks at this it has been a PR disaster. What one can say however is that this whole episode has seriously undermined the credibility of the club and deepened the mistrust of the fans.

Great post Dutch, I agree wholeheartedly. Some thoughts:

1) Manny didn’t want to be here, as is clearly demonstrated by his about turn. Whether his heard was turned by the money, by his agents or by thought of playing in Spain, the fact of the matter is that he dropped us at the very last minute, with us having spent a lot of time trying to firm the murky behind the scenes stuff up. Thus, whilst I’m gutted he isn’t joining us because he is exactly the sort of player we need, I’m almost glad in a sense because the dressing room solidarity is one of the best things we have going for us and Manny could well have upset things.

2) A lot of people are pissed at the board the moment over the stadium saga. Fine. But this is a totally different situation. The board seemingly bent over backwards for him and he stitched us. It isn’t their fault.

3) The Yakubu deal WILL go through. The rules state that a player has to play 75% of his nation team’s games to obtain a work permit. Yak has rowed with his national coach (which is a bit of a concern but there we go) and thus hasn’t played that many games. However, the great majority of players who appeal their work permit get them and these players on the whole haven’t spent the last 4 years of their career in Britain scoring goals at the top level of English football. Yakubu has and thus WILL get his permit when the appeal goes through. This, like the Eduardo Da Silva appeal at Arsenal, is just a formality and next weekend, we should be seeing the Yak and AJ up front together.

4) We need a creative midfielder. Of this there is no doubt. However, I’m not sure that Moyes should rush into signing someone now just to make the numbers up. If the right player is available at the right price then fine but we’re not West Ham (thank fuck) and can’t go splashing money around on players who might not make the grade. Our fingers have been burnt in recent years with ’make-do’ transfer decisions and we can’t do this again. We’re on the cusp of something really great here and for me, waiting until January to get the right man would be time worth waiting. A midfield of Jags, Cahill (when he’s back), Pienaar, Osman, Mc Fadden, Carsley and Arteta will see us through. Move Neville to right back to replace Hibbert and job done. A first choice side of Howard, Neville, Yobo, Lescott, Baines, Arteta, Jagielka, Cahill, Pienaar, Yakubu & Johnson with Vaughan, Anichebe, McFadden, Osman, Carsley, VDM, Hibbert, Stubbs and Valente in reserve will see us be in and around the top 8 by January.

’Stephen Piennar should little by little be getting to grips with life in the premiership’

How Terry? Moyes won’t play him. I think he should have definitely been in yesterday and against Reading for that matter. Warming the bench will soon piss him off and I would understand entirely

Fernandes is not master of his own destiny, he is owned by people who see him as a commodity to be utilised in order to bring in the greatest return on their asset - which is the player himself. No doubt he will have had some sort of view on Valencia or Everton but the bottom line is that all other interested parties stood to gain financially by his going to Valencia.
I’m bitterly disappointed that he’s not coming here but to call him mercenary and other tasteless comments is a bit unnecessary.
Football is a multi million pound business, it may be laced with passion and loyalty to us but for the vast majority of players it’s their career and a way to make a living whichever colour shirt they wear. Why berate someone for getting the best deal for themselves? Would you not want the best deal for yourself? If we had done the same thing to Valencia or whoever would we be calling the player involved a gobshite? Probably not.
I have little faith in the board but I can’t honestly believe that this has all been part of some intricate web of deceipt managed by BK. Whoever did or said what we’ll probably never really get to the bottom of it but i just hope and pray that nothing else goes bosoms up in the next few days because I’m becoming an alcoholic trying to keep my nerves from jangling. It’s bloody hard work being a Blue.

Dutch why slag the player off when you know fuck all about what gone on?For all you know MF got fed up with getting pissed about by BK and the Everton way of doing thingst just like Nigel Martyn did back 1900s when he was left sitting in park foods factory by Johnson and left and signed for Leeds United.Wether you like it or not we as a club have got a long history of this kind of thing so why is this one any different?WE ALL KNOW DEEP DOWN ITS BEEN A CON SO WHY DEFEND IT.

Anthony, are you sure the best way to utilize Pienaar’s talents and introducing him to the Premier League is by having him kicked to bits by Reading and Blackburn?

Tony, the difference is that he had actually been training with our players. For a second, let’s forget about the board, the media spin and everything.

He had been here, unlike Sissoko, and for all we know all our players were convinced he will sign. Which means he clearly hadn’t shown any intent of not signing to the people he was supposed to be mates with, but coworkers at least.

Now, if that’s not being two-faced then nothing is.

But ultimately everyone (including myself) here is trying to use this story to back up his own preconceptions.

Isn’t it so easy to excuse the board of any wrong doing, this transfer has been on going for about 3 weeks, so someone tell me why it takes 3 weeks to sign Manny not forgeting the various statements from Moyes/club, and Valencia can sign him in less than 24hrs. Stop excusing the crap we have to put up with, blaming Manny for the inept dealings of our board is hardly. When will fans wake up and smell the shit we are constantly being fed. Who knows whether the board have the money As far as I am concerned it is time the we reminded them that this shit is not exceptable and those of you who insist in protecting the board it’s time you relised more and more fans are becomming disilusioned with the shit played on the pitch the shit that comes out of BK/KW, enough is enough I for one can take no more of the lies and spin, when are we going to unite and act for the sake of our once great club. Spurs last season reminded Moyes how things shoud be done it’s time to remind the board how things should be done stop excepting second best.

i love tony marsh’s questioning why slag off manny when we know fuck all about what went on but its ok to slag BK etc about it, thats double standards in my eyes, its clear to me that no con exists we got gazumped on the deal and the player chose Valencia,

The worst part of Tony Marsh is that he immediately blames the club. Fucking Fernandes smiles and makes friendly at Goodison then signs for more money the next day for another club and Tony without knowing any facts just blames the club.

Without knowing what really happened who do you give the benefit of the doubt to, a player from a different club or your beloved Everton?

I love the club, watching news today and seeing the players pay respect to that murdered boy made me very proud to be a blue.

Course people like Tony fail to comment on things like that, far better to dream up elaborate conspiracy theories that can be used as ammuninition against the club.

John please do not tell me you don?t think Kenwright is faultless in this latest fiasco ? he's had since the end of last season to sort it out if indeed that?s what he intended to do.

Dutch you say "Who do you give the benefit of the doubt to a player from a different club or your beloved Everton"?Problem is Dutch,it is hard to give the benefit of the doubt to the club,after all,Kings dock,NTL,Fortress,Rooney.Can you blame people for not giving the benefit of the doubt to the club?