Big nose Thompson said it all: his goals hide the fact he is just a good defender, nothing special.

I fully expect when all our players are back / fit our team will be
Howard
Neill Jags Distin Baines
Pienaar Rodwell Arteta Bily
Felliani
Saha

So we will have replaced Lescott albeit with an older model, moved Hibbo and Ossie to the bench, strengthened our 1st team and bench, and increased options to change things around during a game, ie Bily and Pienaar swopping wings etc.

So, although I liked Lescott (Jags bette), it’s a resounding Distin for me. Thank fuck it wasn’t Senderos!!!

Distin for me every time... proper defender, he will be fantastic when Jags is back.

£24 million, how does the song go? "We're in the money, we're in the money."

Add the injury to our captain, people don't realise his importance in this area, then getting Distin in for Lescott was a must and, as Matthew pointed out, Jags made him look better than he actually is, his record so far with other players alongside him has shown that.

Opposition managers will look at our team and say Everton are weak down the right hand side: Osman doesn’t track back, Heitinga has no pace and Yobo has the odd blooper.

We all say Distin has slotted in seamlessly due to playing in the Prem, as does Neill. Moyes said when Neville got injured he wanted cover and that's why he went for him another right back — I think maybe Heitinga is another Krøldrup. Finally Neill, when i’ve seen him play, gives us more steel for battles like Saturday's second half.

Going off track a bit but in reference to comments made here on Heitinga, the lad obviously needs time. His ’slowness’ seemed to be more of mind, him thinking he had more time than he did, though granted he doesn't appear lightning! He seems fully committed in challenges, a crisp passer and I think a player who will shoulder increasing responsibilty for us as he settles. We need to get behind him and not write him off after 3 starts.

As for Heitinga... as bad in these first games as that Kendall we got from Preston.

Heitinga... I said a few weeks ago that he wasn’t much better than Hibbert and I still hold to that.

Just a footnote here: in The Netherlands the dutch still blame Heitinga for the lackadaisical performance against England a few weeks ago.... ’nough said.

Being honest the way myself and people are talking it does sound like we are just being biased now he has gone, but I honestly think he is good but not that good and his goals (which were mostly when he was left back) have addded the value on his head more than his actual defensive ability, I used to dread him playing for England as you knew what to expect in the papers the next day and he carried that on to his last England performance.

It's just opinions and I respect what you are saying, he was an excellent servant for us, but he will never be world class and for £24M you should expect he can be.

Distin has filled the void left by Lescott and the money we made was surely a profit that no other club would have paid except City, but it's clear what a negative impact losing Lescott had to our start to the season. We maybe starting to get shit together now but one wonders what shape the season would be right now if we had a loyal Lescott.

Lescott was/is over-rated, but FOR EVERTON he was a quality player who was Distin's equal and even better with the goals he contributed. It's good we have moved on but it's taken a while and we still look very shaky!