I hope Lescott warms his backside on the bench for most of the season but then I don’t suppose he won't mind for that weeky wage. Trust we will give him a rousing welcome at Goodison when we play Man City... it's not only Jeffers we should sing "One greedy bastard" to!

The rest of the Premier League must be laughing their tits off. Other players must look at us and think we are a complete joke. The amount of transfers we've fucked up over the years is incredible.

I just hope Blue Bill isn't hiding some terrible secret about the actual state of our club. What is the reason investors choose other clubs rather than the fourth most successful club in England, a team that has been competing in the upper echelons of the Prem for the last 4 years? We need some answers.

Banega was watched several times in pre-season by EFC, where he featured in virtually all of their games. I was told he was due to have a medical the day I mentioned, but that hasn’t been confirmed. The player said himself he expects to have a new club for this season. Maybe their officials have moved the goalposts after our routine dithering?

I also said we would be holding talks with Taylor and denied being told anything about Bystrov. I was told we were trying to sign Bentley not Bystrov but City and Villa were also in for him.

As I’ve said before I have no reason to lie, and if you go over what I have said it’s not fantasy bullshit.

1. We were after Banega. A week later we successfully applied for a work permit.

2. We were trying to sign Taylor. Thursday evening it was on SSN we were holding talks with Taylor.

3. I said I’d heard nothing about Bystrov. Moyes comes on the OS and denies it.

In future I will keep my gob shut!

At the time I stuck my neck out and said he definitely would be sold and that if the club received an offer of £25m they wouldn’t think twice as I firmly believed that was what they were holding out for. They’ve now settled for a figure close to that so not a bad estimate really.

No crystal ball needed and no contact at the club required. Simply a figure plucked out of the air based on other transfers e.g. Glen Johnson £18m and my limited knowledge of how the bargaining process works.

I was convinced we’d sell on the basis of comments made by Moyes. When he said the club did not wish to sell and then added their (City’s) valuation does not match ours. I thought well if we’re not willing to sell what the hell are we disputing a valuation. Didn’t make sense really.

I do have some sympathy for Moyes though he’s relying upon a bunch of amateurs to conduct proceedings on his behalf and when these fail to materialise he’s left with egg on his face.

All he said was, and I quote SSN: "I can't talk about Everton, but I will be leaving Valencia this season." Nowhere did he mention that he would not be going to Everton, he just said he could not talk about it. So when people come on saying it's all bullshit, that Valencia said this and that, please try tell the whole story not just the one that sits well with certain people's own ideas.

Now we have funds why should they loan at all? They want their €18 mill back, ideally to offload a player who was loaned out last season anyway. Now he has a work permit, any team in the PL can come in and bag him — so they want a bidding war.

That's my reading between the lines anyway.

Concentrating on just transfer dealings, you must remember Kanchelskis being paraded before he was signed. The facts are that we have supposedly got a work permit for Banega. Why the hell didn’t we have a contract in place to sign him on loan, conditional upon a work permit?

Clearly we didn’t and no doubt Valencia will now increase his loan or transfer fee as we’ve done them the favour of getting a work permit. The best case scenario is that our Board have fucked up — worst case is that they’ve lied and no deal whatsoever.

When will we learn?

Also if there really was no application for a work permit and it was just a big lie, why come out and say that the application was passed? How come they did not just say it was turned down and that is the end of it?

I am as pissed off as anybody with BK, and I don't think he could run a brothel in a prison, but call me naive, but I don't think Moyes would lie to that level. Let's remember, Valencia don't exactly have a good track record with us when it comes to transfers, e.g. Sissoko.

All I am saying is it has not been denied by the player. Simple. No sticking up for BK or anyone, just saying what has been said by the player and Valencia, not just selecting various denials and sticking them up to suit my own ends. Just the facts, Jack, just the facts!

Peter Griffin, it’s nothing new for clubs to pay "on the drip" for players. Remember Steve Daley who went to Citteh from Wolves? He was playing non-league against Rhyl in the 80s and Wolves STILL hadn’t received all the money from the transfer to Citteh.

Ever Banega — I know nothing about him, other than that his disciplinary record appears to make Joey Barton a saint. But we have allegedly applied for a work permit for the guy. Yet Valencia (and the player) claim not to know of our interest,

Surely in applying for a work permit, we would require consent from at the very least the player, and furthermore we would be required to disclose certain personal information that could only be gleaned from the player, his agent, or his current employers?

I have to assume that we did in fact attend a court hearing, and we were granted a permit, as this couldn't possibly be another media management exercise. Can anyone enlighten me, as to whether this is a stunt? Can we apply for a work permit without seeking consent, and if we could, why would we?

Or is it as I suspect that Valencia have now changed their minds when, during negotiations, we forgot to mention, that we don't actually buy any players, we only loan them, then offer to pay for them slower than a chav pays his court fines?