A solid transfer policy?

Sounds great Viv, just gotta get them signed up now....sounds dead easy! COYB!

Sounds great... but... what was the freshness of the players towards the end of the season all about???? We were dead on our feet long before the end of last season... good job Moyes kept them fresh eh?? Arteta playing with an injury as was Cahill and Hibbert... our squad was small last season.. it's absolutely minute this time around. We were like a four-furlong horse trying to hang on in a five-furlong sprint...

You do have a point, Viv and Gosling, Rodwell and Baxter have shown promise.

However, there are no easy games in this League and if we pick up any more injuries we are in trouble.

Let’s hope that the signings are on their way very soon, although M’Bia being in Beijing means he’ll not be able to play for a couple of weeks.

I’m still hopeful, but we are sailing close to the wind. 4 very good signings, a loan goalie and the 3 youngsters would just about cover the 7 who have left and give us a bit more depth than last season.

Sorry but our transfer policy sucks!! Here's why: We should have our targets from last season, as early as January, then get them in early get a proper pre-season with the current players, bonding, team spirit..etc. This would be more than helpful to the new boys, plus if you remember when we signed the Yak late on, he looked rubbish for the first 7-8 games. So I would rather get the deals done early, but that's just my point of view.

We are a joke.

Kenwright should walk the plank.

Well, to be really honest I?ve well wound my self up over transfers checking ToffeeWeb, Sporting Life, Sky Sports.. etc, getting excited over any half-decent players that are named with Everton. To be fair i?ll be glad when the transfer window is over.

If we had this current squad going into last season, I might be a tad more optimistic than I currently am, but teams who last season were sniffing around our league position have strengenthed and/or have players who are on a roll from last season and snowballing into very good players.

This week will be the longest effing 5 days of our lives me thinks and I just cannot decide whether come Saturday we will be looking back thinking what was the panic about or will we be pissed off, angry supporters with pitch forks at Goodison?!

I see Benni McCarthy could be going to Sunderland for £7m. With Moyes a known admirer and a good scoring record in English football could he be a target?

Or will it be Wagner Love on loan and a fee of £8m in a year’s time? Sounds like an Everton type deal! I can’t help thinking about Eddie Murphy’s Buddy Love in the Nutty Professor whenever I see this player mentioned for some reason! :)

Or Diego Milito?

And is Moutinho going to be prised away from Sporting Lisbon? At £13m it seems unlikely but we hope!

Is M’bia going to get his wish?

And what about Alan Smith? A bargain for £2m, but not if we pay him £60k a week like the Barcodes.

And there’s bound to be a goalkeeper, a defender we are interested in as well.

One other point is that if you look closely any of the Clubs around us have lost players as well as signed them..... Muntari, Mellborg, Keane as aew examples while some chickens appear to be coming home to roost at the Likes of Man City and West Ham.

We’ll just have to see......

COYB!!!

Or

This summer was a perfect oppurtunity to bolster the squad that wasn?t quite good enough last year. But, alas the blues come up short again.

This summer, the lack of activity at the club has disgusted me. Who do these people think they are? It is not Kenwright's club, it is OURS. We demand they run Everton the way it should be run, with a bit of class.

Rumours may be just that. But if you want Moutinho, then you have to pay the money. Not just table bids that are basically an insult to Sporting (£13.5m?). We?ve seen it all before. As for the other rumours well, we?ll see.

Finally , surely the £3m aquisition of Alan Smith is a backward step, let?s face it he shite. If he can?t get in the Newcastle side, what do we want him for?

Pienaar, Lescott, Cahill, Arteta, Yobo ? they were not big stars, but unknown and without Prem experience. Surely by now we are all 100% behind Davey and if he thinks Smith can do a solid job for us, who are we to question him? Smith should be given the same chance as any other player and at £2m with his experience is worth a punt.

I would like Bent and Moutinho at least to start the season with we can't put all the pressure on Arteta to produce the goods ? what if his stomach flairs up again? Now that Liverpool can only afford £12m for Barry what about a cheeky £13m bid for a laugh? COYB.

What I cant understand is why we left it to the end of the season for CARSLEY to decide on whether he was staying or going and why we let McFadden, Fernandes, Wessels, Gravesen and Johnson go with no plans to replace them in place.

We must be the most unprepared club in the league.

I dont know about "No plan B" there’s not even a Plan A.

Just like everyone else, I am HOPING to see new faces arrive this week. Was Vaughan suspended for yesterday?s game, or have I missed something. There were also reports that Cahill may be ready for Blackburn, but again no sign of him either.

I have to say, we weren?t that bad yesterday, but I dread to think what would happen to us should the Yak get injured.

They should take all the ?Peoples Club? banners down at Goodison and replace them with ones saying ?No Plan B?, as this seems to be the motto which the club is run by.

How are we going to get 18 players for next Saturday? I can see Hansen et al laughing on MOTD now.

The most worrying thing for me yesterday was Moyes's lack of interest...

We should never have let Carsley go. He had a great season last year and unless we already had a replacement in line we should off offered him 2 years not 1. Can't blame him for leaving, at Brum he has job security for 2 years and is closer to his family but still, we should of made more of an effort.

The role of Defensive Mid is so important. Sweeping between the midfield and defense and picking up any loose balls. Also it helps our attack as Arteta and Cahill have more of an attacking mindset if they know that someone is there behind them waiting to help out defensively if they?re caught in possession. Arsenal did it with Flamini and Fabregas, Chelsea with Makalele and Lampard and United with Carrick and Nani/Ronaldo.

We will struggle next season and will be lucky to finnish in the top 10. Neville needs to improve his passing along with Hibbert. So for me unless no one is signed next week, we should start with Neville in the "Carsley" role and slowly break Rodwell into it by bringing him on as a sub for the first few games. He?s definitely one for the future, if not the present.

I, like everyone else, would like to see more signings coming in; however, I can imagine a player about to sign for Everton under the current situation at the club would have serious doubts wether I was joining a club that I was being allowed to go forward due to government processes and the political rangling by councils and fans alike. The current high profile players at the club must also be wondering about a move away based on the current events and it would not be a surprise to see them leave just like Johnson.

The upcoming EGM could possibly be the platform when David Moyes and Bill Kenwright depart from the club. After all the dust has settled, there will probably be ground sharing with Liverpool and as Bill Shankly said there are 2 teams in the city of Liverpool, Liverpool and Liverpool reserves playing under the name of Everton with Everton paying rent to play there.

We need at least 5 players to put up a decent season, but realistically require about 8 players but that won?t happen, 5 wont happen.

Rodwell, Baxter and Gosling are too young, 10 games or so maybe but none of them are of Rooney?s ability, after 10 games with the big boys they?ll be shattered. They should be bled through in pointless Euro games, League cup and early rounds of FA cup with the odd sub appearance when were already winning.

Smith would be a good AJ replacement, hard working, persistent and will do a good job in a number of roles.

Vagner Love is not very good really, at £5, 6 or 7 mil then maybe, however to move to the next level having a Brazilian is not the requirement, having a good player is more necessary. He is over-rated and distinctly average and at a reported £16mil would be a serious error. A BIG NO.

M?Bia I know nothing of, never heard of him 'til we were linked with him, however have heard good things and this type of player is totally necessary. If he?s better than Carsley then we have improved on last season, which is all you can really ask for.

Milito has a good record in 2 very good leagues, and could play that target man role while Yakubu persists on dropping back. Could prove a good strike force.

Moutinho, would be next to Modric and Keane as best summer signings in terms of propelling a team. One thing Everton lacked last season was ability to build attacks from midfield, ability to hold possession in midfield and anyone other than Mikel to pass a ball accurately further than 10 yards. He would change that. It's a long shot, a very long shot but could be the difference between 5/6/7 or 4th, which on its own is worth £20+mil so a fee of £16mil. It is also the sort of signing that would have Lescott, Arteta and Yakubu licking their lips and staying at this club.

Yet we still require a RB sub, Left Winger, GK sub and ideally another centre mid (Fernandes?) to offer competition and give option of rotation.

I just cant see it and expect a season finish of 9th, 8th, or 7th which would be disastrous.

Carsley, McFadden, Wessels and Johnson were let go/sold because they were not good enough. Moyes has rarely sold a player he wanted to keep (rooney is the only I can think of) and the players he sold he got very good money for.

I think we will get players in, I think they will be the players Moyes wants, I think they will improve the team.

I agree the timing isn’t great but with the Euro’s, the Olympics and the DK issue it has meant that it’s been a funny summer all round.

I don’t believe that the teams around us have improved that much. Man City seem to have problems of their own with players being sold without the managers knowledge, Blackburn have gone backwards, Spurs have too many new players and with Berbatov likely to go it’s too much to expect a new strike force and midfield to gel that quickly. I think they will be very good next season. Portsmouth, despite the signing of Crouch don’t look an awful lot better than last year - and Muntari is a big loss for them. Whether Barry leaves Villa or not it’s the end of him as a force for Villa and as for their signings they hardly put the fear of god up anyone.

West Ham, Fulham, Newcastle, Sunderland, Wigan and Boro will be satisfied with mid table and that leaves Bolton, Hull, Stoke and West Brom to have the interesting battle.

Oh and one more thing, no AFCON this season either so that will make a big difference in Jan/Feb.

Seeing as your glass isn't half-empty, John, can I have a pint of what you're drinking because with such optimism ? or is it Dutch courage ? we obviously have nothing to fear. The way the Club has conducted itself this summer has plumbed to new depths, an absolute laughing stock with a fantasist of a Chairman who thinks he?s Cool Hand Luke. The most important date on the calendar isn't Saturday but the 3rd September for the EGM when we can hopefully expect some long awaited answers to the continuing mismanagement of Everton. How Kenwright has the bare-faced cheek to keep trotting out the same shite of selling the Club to the right investor is beyond me, one more season of this for me and I will sadly be throwing in my season ticket.

Whilst I agree with Peter Laing’s comment "The way the Club has conducted itself this summer has plummed to new depths" - it is only in the sense of its absolutely poor communications/managment of expectations.

Moyes might well be playing his poker hand re transfer strategy - ie" poor clubs cant expect to pay too much for players ", but for goodness sake if we want to be a top 4 club at least act like one, in respect of displaying a proud,ambitious club, one of which wont pay over odds and will wait for right player , right price etc - but actually lets its supporters and media know that !

All we have displayed to the world is a club which internally doesnt know what the right and left hands our doing and one of which continually says we are broke..ish.

Onto this season - if we manage to get the promised 4-5 players of quality I can see us challlenging for 4th again and hopefully doing well in Cups , but if we dont get enough players in ,we’ll rely on our defence to get us 7thish but unfortunately deprioritising the cups and exiting asap, to save our meagre squad for the Premiership.

I might look like an idiot here, but if you look at the teams who make over 5 signings, year on year they always massively under perform:

Liverpool
Fulham
Sunderland
Spurs

All to be shit this season.

I like us only buying a couple of quality players.

Liam, agree partially with your view but Liverpool buy the players and are gradually progressing to become title challengers. They have bought some duffers but they’ve also bought some really top class players. I guess that they will be round about the top this season and will do well in one or more of the cups.

The reason for that is they are now getting a massive squad together, to pull them through a long season.

Sorry to go on about them but I think that they illustrate the gulf bteween us and (I was going to say the top four but it could well be the top eight.)

If we get two or three players in, no matter how good they are, our squad will be to small. If we haven’t got the money, fair enough, we will have to cut our suit according to our cloth and go for loan signings and car boot bargains.

We were supposed to have around £20million, before AJ was sold. Personally, I think that was bollocks. A couple of weeks back, I was writing that we shouldn’t be panicking. Now; I feel a bit like panicking!

Viv, how depleted do you have to be to be depleted?

We have a first team squad of 21 players, 5 of which are made up of 2 reserve goalkeepers amd 3 youngsers with very little (if any) experience of sitting on the bench let alone taking the field in a prem match. Of the remaining 16 players, 3 are injured with no indication as to when they will be fit and 2 others are either suspended or at the Olympics. This leaves available 11 players with first team experience for Saturday. Now that is what I call depleted.

Someone posted ?Moyes is not blameless? earlier in the week and too many Evertonians see the manager through rose-tinted specs. Nothing is ever his fault - it?s always been down to Wyness and Kenwright. Just face the facts: Moyes has fucked up big time this summer - just making lists of players the club can?t afford is not management, it?s fantasizing.

He?s paid £60k a week to do a bloody job? not keep going on about what he would like to do. Some fans on here need to wake up and realise he plays the dream games along with his pathetic boss!

Great positive news here folks, check it out
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/article4500428.ece

The two Jay?s being cheerful as usual! Okay, we?re low on numbers, but the ones who have left either didn?t play or the ones who occasionally did, are shite. They?re not exactly great loses. Wessels played about one game, Grav. about 40 mins. JM, MF, and AJ - played occasionally and were average. Carsely. He has had some superb seasons and I love the guy, but he was very poor last season. How often did he give the ball away? And don?t get me started on his shooting. If he didn?t cross the half way line, fine, but he did and when he did, oh dear. Adam, sure you were watching the same games??

You are a cheery little Fella aren?t you? Struggle for 10th? Well I?m glad you?re not in charge. No dount things will be tougher this season (Spurs look decent, City have spend some money, etc.), but we finished 5th last season. I know we?re low on numbers, but hopefully we?ll have a few signed by the end of the week, plus we have some decent young players, backed up by all the quality we have at the club (Arteta, Cahill, Yak, Lescott, etc, etc.), decent manager, good fans. So let?s have a go. As for finishing 12th or somewhere around there, forget it. Aim high and you might get somewhere high. COYB.

Yanni, what?s all that shite about? Do you want him to hand in a list with players such as Dwight Yorke, Nick Bramby, maybe a few from the conference? Some seasons we get players in early, like when we got AJ, and Lescott in early doors. Other seasons it takes time. We offer Sporting 11 million, they say 20 mill. Now let?s say we end up getting him for 16 mill the day before the sason starts. What would you prefer 1) Costing 20 million, signed 4 weeks before the start of the season 2) 16 mill, signed at the last min?

Moyes won?t buy any old shite. He?s trying to get it right. Would you rather he rushed in and bought cheap shite, would you? We don?t know what will happen, but hopefully we will end up with some of these players that you said he was ?dreaming? about.

Here?s hoping we beat Blackburn, see you at the match! COYB.

Damien
in case you havent noticed we’re not the only ones being "cheerful".

But I do wish you’d get your facts right before criticising others.

Wessels actually played 7 games not 1

And here are the official stats for the others who are no longer with us:

Johnson 29 (10 goals)
McFadden 14 (5 goals)
Fernandes 11
Stubbs 11
Gravesen 3
Carsley 48 (1 goal)

According to my calculations that’s 123 man games and 16 goals.

If you dont think that’s a significant loss then I dont know what it will take to convince you.

Before we get any more of this "Moyes wont buy any old shite" nonsense, would anybody on here NOT feel just a little bit better if we had McFadden and Carsley in our ranks come Saturday??

I?m not saying its his fault as I?m sure he was promised cash for replacements, but that for me puts this bloody farce more into perspective.