Last night I was looking over some of the archive news on the Official Everton website. The actual archive only goes back four years, but it covers most of Davie Moyes time in charge of Everton so it made for some interesting reading what with the up and down seasons we have had and the highs and lows. One thing though that always seemed to crop up was the same old story..Transfer problems..Going right back to when we wasted a whole summer on Sean Davis only to find out he was crocked and then being outbid by Blackburn for Barry Ferguson. ( hindsight we know he flopped) The deadline day approached that year with Moyes and Kenwright coming out with the usual babble that we are now used to.. " We tried but time was against us.. Or " The players we wanted were not available at the right price". Its been the same thing year after year.. During Januarys we hear the excuse that it is a terrile month for bringing players in.. But aside from last summer when he purchased AJ, Lescott and Howard we have really ever been positive and gone straight for the players we wanted no matter what the fee. I seem to remember it was the same during the summer of 2005 when we had just qualified for the Champions League. We had a massive opportunity especially with the Rooney money there.. We should have blitzed the transfer market and got the players we wanted to progress into the group stages of the Champions League instead of blaming bad decisions.. How crazy was Moyes that summer to start the most important match of our recent history with Marcus Bent as loan striker?. Moyes apparently turned down the chance to pay 8 million for the proven class of Robbie Keane and as a result up to November that season we had scored one goal in open play.. Im not saying its ever going to be that bad again as we have a little more about our squad now but it could be bad should AJ get injured.. We have Europe this season and Im worried Moyes is doing the same again..We have lost Kilbane , Davies, and most painfully Fernandes from midfield and not replaced them (I assume Jagielka will go right back mostly). We must make the most of the time left but its going to be toght now as most targets are going to ther clubs. Dont leave us in the mire Davie.

Glad koumas has gone to Wigan as I did'nt think he was good enough anyway... BUT....I think its getting beyond a joke now as we stand by and watch the other lot shell out over 40 million in the space of a week, we are not even being linked with people anymore. Says a lot for the ambition of the club when your two top targets are (rumoured) to be Jagielka and Koumas.

Time for certain people on the board to step up and tell the fans what the situation is. The silence is deafening. If you're not up to the task Billy then step aside for someone who is. Your relationship with the fans is already at best strained ? don't push people too far

Ok, I've read many postings on this site most of which I have to say are negative. I'm a positive person and believe DM and BK are doing a great job at Everton. In the 5 years or so DM has been here we have finished higher than under Smith, Walker and Co, so he's doing somethng right.

Yes we need to push on from here and make some GOOD signings before the kick off but would Koumas or Nugent really improve us. Who would they play ahead? Also big JB and VDM, if we and DM had some faith in them they could turn out to be like 2 new signings ? Let's hope...

I would rather wait and get GOOD signings rather then go out and sign someone because they are available and pay over the odds for average players. Let's have some faith in DM, he's picked them out of the hat before, Cahill, Lecostt, Yobo, Mikey, Howard to name a few ok so he's got a couple of wrong ones as well... what manager hasn't?

I think we have a great group of players that WANT to play for Everton ? if we can get in one or two more then great... we need a good winger (maybe Richardson, Downing) and a left-back (Baines) and centre-back as cover. Apart from that I think we'll be just fine and keep the togetherness that the squad has at the momment. Good luck for the coming season boys!!! Do us proud.

I think that apart from perhaps a couple of Loanee’s Everton’s transfers in are complete. Bill needs the money for the Tesco deal according to Richard Dodd anyway. As for BK listening to the fans dream on! BK doesn’t listen to anyone he gets a gut reaction and sticks with it, that’s what Impersario’s do apparently. Like ex-PM Tony Blair BK listens to his inner voice and hey presto decisions are made. Theatre audiences and Football Fans are only important in providing the funds not on influencing how things are carried out.

As spiderman, can’t you use your spidey senses to see who were getting? - please!!!

Moyes's and Kenwrights problem is down to a number of issues:

(i) Moyes clearly has a set price in mind for any player he fancies, and by hook or crook he wont bend from it. Its a quess as we all know but let's assume it was £4m for Nugent , Koumas , and £5.5m for Barton. Now the markets gone mad with all the 3 above going in some cases for 50% more than Moyes's is willing to fork out. Moyes's could be well working to a budget set by Bill or he believes his valuation is sacrosanct - whatever ! but with the continued entrance of "Billionaire/multi-millionaires owners" to our game (Chelsea,Man Utd,Newcastle,Man City,West Ham,Portsmouth,Aston Villa,Middlesborough and shortly Arsenal ?)wanting instant success then prices are going to climb and climb and Davie or Bill are going to have to increase and spend market going budgets.

(ii) Cheaper players (Richardson, Smith??) who might want to join a club in Europe, but when they are probably already on £60-70k a week, are they willing to join our highest paid at £45k, AND is Moyes willing to possibly break the obvious team spirit to entice these "cheaper capital players". I dont think so!! - and I personally think that Everton cant afford to pay the Arteta's, Cahill,Johnson,Yobo, Lescott .... at the top salary rate for the top 5-6 clubs.

Hence the move the get the " iddle rated players" in at the £4m'ish fee - Lescott,Jags,Neville and keep salaries at below £50k a week.He has had great success in this area and should be applauded for it.

BUT those players are getting harder to find and now the likes of Portsmouth,Wigan,West Ham, Sunderland,Aston Villa are willing to contest the transfer and in most cases outbid us and outpay us.

Do we need, do we want a sugar daddy. Unless Moyes pulls out another miracle of top 5 place and stays in Europe till at least the Semi's on a bare-thread squad (and therefore hopefully he can have generated a decent budget for 08/09), then the real crunch will come next season when we will need a huge sugar daddy injection as we wont have made the income necessary to compete with the Fulham's let alone the above mentioned middle roaders.

The market is shite this year, everyone is over priced and Moyes knows this. He knows he can work with a small squad and thats what he is going to do until the market cools again. He aint stupid.