Or vaguely more realistic, Butland, Capoue, Gameiro?

Gutted we never got Holtby though.

We need a midfielder and another striker.

Can I be cheeky and ask for Kompany as well?

I'd settle for that in the transfer window.

Talksport are saying 'Everton have lodged an £8.5m bid for Toulouse midfielder Etienne Capoue, according to sources in France'.

I can't see how it can be true!

Anyway, Butland, Sissoko and Hangeland if he does't sign a new contract at Fulham. That should strengthen us a bit more defensively

I understand other teams bringing players in frees up players. Surely not another window where we will be told, "We tried for the deal but due to the players demands we ran out of time"???

You can fool all the people some of the time, you can fool some of the people all of the time, but you can't...

I agree that we need about 6 players though.

Whilst I apprecaite the other clubs around us have stronger benches than we do most weeks, we are still within touching distance and if Miralles and Gibson can get back and stay fit who knows. Arsenal have the Champions League coming up again in a few weeks and Chelsea and Spurs seem to be as unpredictable as we are at times. If we could seal just one or two loan deals to push through this season then maybe next year could be a great year. And add the increased TV money to Champions League money and we may just be able to make a sizeable move forwards.

On the other hand....

My fears for next year if we were to make the Champions League is that we are not in a position to capitalise financially, we might make an extra £10 - 15 million and in the course of that drop down the Premier League (@£1million a place next year). The extra money does not pay us enough to give the squad enough depth to do it all.

Does that mean that Mirallas, Gibson and Hibbert will soon be returning?

To get us through to a possible Top 4 place we desperately need a top centre midfielder and also another proven goalscorer - sell Heitinga for £4-5m, use it on a golascoring gamble and hopefully get the midfielder on loan with a promise to pay the full whack in the summer.

1. Vossen, Gameiro or another quality striker to help Jelavic
2. Capoue, M'Vila or another quality midfielder
3. A quality centre back

Jeez... conspiracy theories R us! Michael hit the wrong radio button when posting the story. The thread has been open for comments for a while now.

“I think the criticism of him is very harsh but then goes with the job for goalkeepers.

“Joe Hart’s been going through a bit of a dodgy time of late but I don’t see any clamour to replace him.

“Tim Howard is far from finished. He’s an outstanding goalkeeper and just because Everton haven’t got the results they’d have been hoping to get in recent weeks, people are looking at him."

Southall, who maintained his own high standards at Goodison for many years without ever seriously being challenged for the number one jersey, does not believe that extra competition for places is the answer.

“Tim will be hurting at the moment but think of the number of games he’s kept Everton in it and his own form is nothing to do with competition for places.

“Olympic gold medallists don’t have competition for places when they’re training, it’s your own personal pride and ambition to push yourself as far as you can that spurs you on.

“If they did bring another goalkeeper in then it would obviously be a kick up the arse from the manager – not that Tim needs it.”

Let's face it, it is unlikely that we will get the likes of Butland or Hangeland as they will get better offers from some of our competitors. I think it is unlikely we will get more than two players in this transfer window as well.

Unless there is someone guaranteed to score goals, then I could live with the attackers we already have and hope the team overall could get the results we want (always hoping that Jela finds his scoring boots soon). Powerful and pacey midfielders, wide players, or defenders could all be useful, with midfield being the absolute priority for me to give us some decent cover at least.

Even with injuries to Gibson, Mirallas and Coleman plus Fellaini's suspension, we've been putting out teams that are dominating matches and creating bucket-loads of chances. We just haven't been finishing them.

The difference between us and 8-9 more points is 100% up front. If Jelavic was in the form when he joined us we'd be winning games comfortably, or at least turning draws into wins.

As it stands, our front line striker has 6 goals from 21 league games, which is frankly terrible considering the way we're playing and the chances he's had.

The support behind him is as good as you could ask with goals coming from Fellaini (8 from 17), Pienaar (4), Osman, Naismith and Baines (all 3), and our second tier supersub Anichebe has also weighed in with 4 goals from 6 starts (and 5 sub appearances).

Essentially then, all I really want in the transfer window is someone with a track record of putting the ball away. Doesn't need to be super skillful or hardworking in the class of VP, Rooney, Aguero, Tevez... a Ba / Fletcher / Dzeko character is what we want, someone with instinct who's hungry and ideally in some form to have as an option whilst Jelavic misfires.

Where I am with DM goodness knows. I can be for him; I can be against him. Depends on what's going on. He's well aware of the problem and said as much after Swansea game when he confessed to being disappointed with the speed of passing and general all-round movement. Something I'm sure they will now be working on.

As for additional players. Well until we know who's going it's hard to pick any one. What I did find interesting was the New Year's Eve Leighton Baines Interview where he urged the need to strengthen the squad. "It's when we have three or four missing that it affects us. We can cover one or two because we have little strength in depth and we feel it. I'm sure the manager would have liked more options from the bench, or the likes of lads like Kevin Mirallas and Seamus Coleman available to him."

Not a mention here of any of the younger boys on the bench. In fact he doesn't seem to rate the bench at all. Like DM, he is probably hoping for experienced loans or signings age 27-32.

Without spending £5plus million, I don't really see the possibility of getting in a striker who can displace, or effectively challenge, Jelavic. Even the good Championship guys go for lots of money these days... We could try a cheeky loan bid for Darren Bent, or Gabby but, irrespective of Lambert's favorites, he wouldn't let either go.

Shame we haven't returned for Donovan imo... We could really do with his pace and ability with Mirallas out.

I'd like:
Buckland
Dawson
and controversially perhaps but I still think he's going to be a cracking striker,
Andy Carroll.

Yes, Andy. The youth system seems to exist for the sole purpose of finding the likes of Rooney and Rodwell and a big profit. Barkley was the next in line but suffered a multiple legbreak and it all went pear-shaped. Right now he's not worth a cent and is being fast-tracked elsewhere rather than keeping him on the bench and bringing him on slowly.

We've certainly got a pretty good squad, injuries or no injuries. No-one wants to face us. The "10-minute boys" on the bench are getting a fairly rough deal but it's the way DM works and he's not about to change a formula which helped cement his reputation within the world of football. OK, it drives most of us crackers but he must think it's the best procedure.

M'Vila. Top quality in CM.

Sneijder.

4th is a big ask.

Arsenal W 1 D 3 L 16
Man Utd W 1 D 4 L 15
LFC W 2 D 9 L 10
Spurs W 3 D 5 L 12

In the last five seasons we have won twice at Spurs and drawn once while we have gained 4 draws at Chelsea and 2 draws at LFC with a singled draw at Man Utd and Arsenal with a total of 14 defeats in 25 games. 15 points from a possible 75 hardly fills us with optimism going into those fixtures in the coming months.

Agree Ray
All these cycles will eventually come to an end, but even the most optimistic Evertonian would struggle to believe that we will break more than 2 of those ducks on the run in and with these teams all vying for the elusive Champions League spot, they are essentailly 6 pointers.

Still, I believe we can do it. How naive am I.

We've dominated in several matches and only come away with 1 point, or lost when we have easily been the equal and should have come away with a draw. In all cases we created plenty of chances but just couldn't put the ball in the back of the net with lack of quality in the final 3rd.

If we had another quality striker who could have put away some of those misses, we'd easily be sitting in the top 3. We may not be 1st, but I think we'd be sitting in 2nd just about.

Someone more realistic, Iago Aspas for Celta Vigo, or Leo, for Rayo Vallecano (same club that Michu came from).

I think goalkeeper is a position we don't need to urgently address, should wait until Summer by the earliest.

Another midfielder is needed. I think Capoue is the best option, and although he is pricey I say we snap him up.

If worse comes to worst and we spend more than we have and end up missing out on the top four, we can sell Fellaini for £30+mil.

Zarate - on loan from Lazio until the end of the season.

Sissoko - match what newcastle offer from him.

Amorebieta - nominal fee from Bilboa

I would then try and get some cash back from sales from Heitinga and Gueye.