If last season taught us anything it's that we need more depth to our squad — we struggled without Cahill and lost our key attacking midfield element in the form of Pienaar at a crucial juncture in the campaign — but, of course, the key is not to buy 3 to 4 average players but pick up real quality for as little outlay as possible. Maybe it's 3 quality players instead of one £18m player... who knows. Right now, I'd settle for just knowing Moyes is going to stick around and that he will have money to spend this summer for starters.

A decent Premier League side, who have pretentions of Champions League football next season, make an enquiry, apparently eager to buy said playmaker. Unfortunately for this club, history dictates that there is only a very slim chance of them making the CL.

Your player has real confidence in his abilities and would like a tilt at winning trophies elsewhere in a bigger league. You have real confidence in this player and his abilities. Do you:

A - let the Premier League club sign him for £10M?

B - hang on to him until after the major international tournament in the hope that he shines and let the bidding war commence, knowing that you can most likely offer him to aforementioned club anyway.... £15M anyone, do I hear £18M, £20M perhaps???

Come on people, it's a no brainer. Arshavin was never leaving Zenith until after the Euros. Do you think that Mr Advocaat got where he is by letting this kind of opportunity go untried?

The only chance we had of signin Arshavin was if Russia crashed and burned in the group stages, or Arshavin never turned it on. I'm sure he did make positive noises about the blues, but you don't think that was a safety net, in case his ambitions of a top English or Spanish club didn't come to fruition?

Get real!!

As it happened, it was quickly apparent that one of Engelaar?s prime responsibilities was to deny Arshavin the space to influence the game and he failed so miserably in this role that he was substituted before half-time. Meanwhile, Arshavin went on to have a huge impact on both the game and, thereby, the result.

As a result of just two Euro performances, his ?apparent? value has rocketed, some would suggest doubled, and he has sparked the interest of some of the biggest (richest) clubs in Europe. To put it bluntly, EFC have missed the opportunity to make, perhaps, one of our greatest ever signings. Realistically, given his ?new? price tag and the level of competition, we have little or no chance of securing his services.

I cannot say, definitively, that we would have succeeded in signing him had we made a strong move earlier, but I do believe that we would have had, at least, a fair chance. Some reports suggest that Arshavin was well aware of our interest back in the last window (January), and again, immediately after the Uefa Cup final. His current manager, Advocaat, even went on record to say that he believed that his star player would be leaving Zenit, and as far as I am aware only Man City and ourselves were suggesting any interest at that time. Despite Shinawatra?s money, I would have backed EFC to succeed over City had it come down to a choice between the two.

Today, I see that the link with Engelaar has been rekindled. There may, of course, be no substance to this report, but it has just re-ignited my frustration. Simply put, we have lost out on the Thoroughbred, because we apparently didn?t have either the means or the balls to open the stable door when we had the chance, and we seem to have ended up trying to pin our name on the tail of the Donkey instead. Did I once read the word ?ambition? in the same sentence as Everton? If so, I could do with a gallon of whatever the author of that remark was drinking. If Engelaar is truly our number one pick for this summer then heaven help us.

Tony: a request from the Editor: Can you stop with this "Wafer Cup" thing of yours. It was mildly amusing the first time. Now it's just irritating...