Naismith granted clearance by FIFA

Guess it is highly unlikely he will be starting the season so we haven't really strengthened the squad at all yet (and that is assuming that the players we have let go didn't really weaken us too much in the first place). We will need all the old stalwarts and the youngsters at their best if we are to have any chance of starting this season well.

With this and what he said at the Naismith press conference I am beginning to think he has a low opinion of the intelligence of the average Evertonian.

What exactly is "utter rubbish" about his comments? The player hasn't been given clearance, and his knee is close to full recovery but not quite there yet. What's the problem? By the way, the intelligence of the average football supporter overall is fairly low.

Moyes says it how he sees it, always has done, always will. I suspect that the training regime with him and a few dinosaurs he employs could be improved, but in his book, two or three weeks short means exactly that. Football injuries are a very complicating factor.

I've just watched the best reason to be British, Manxman Cavendish destroy the best in the world in the Tour de France. Aided, incredibly if you know the sport, by Yellow Jersey Brit Wiggins. They're all as fit as fuck, but they are horses for courses, and its a team game. A three week marathon with a prize every day.

I still think EFC have things to learn from other sports about getting players 'ready'.

Yes that's true if you follow the likes of City Utd LIverpool and any other club that is not Everton. Dont forget we go to the acedemy of science to watch our team so I would expect all Evertonians to be highly intellectual.

Rather than simply saying it as he sees it, it shows an unfortunate tendency to want to put a positive spin on any situation and that, unfortunately, makes me less inclined to believe anything he says straight-up (remember the New Labour government and their reliance on spin doctors and what that did to their credibility).

- the guy can't run at the moment

- we don't even know if we have his registration

- I believe that his claim to British nationality might be compromised by the recent discovery of his parents' Kenyan origins

Spin ain't nothing new. The intelligent Evertonian appreciates this and lets the world turn round.

Read it again. "We are able to fit him in and around training". He's just not participating in matches, which he wouldn't be anyway as his knee is not quite fully recovered. Positive spin is a very important thing in any profession. Keeping your employees motivated and your customers happy is what a good leader does. You should focus on the positive and work as quietly as possible to make the negatives into positives. Nobody wants to work for or support someone who is constantly going on about how horrible everything is.

No, when it comes down to it, we are tribal. What was that line from 'Taxi'? This, and a few meaningless rituals, its all that separates us from the animals.

No self help manuals, it's something you learn when managing a lot of people or running a business. It was an argument responding to another saying positive spin just leads to completely lack of trust. I argue it's the job of a manager to provide positive spin and keep morale high. If you'd like to weigh in with your opinion on what he should be saying feel free. If not, don't call out one person as not having an original thought when you can't offer one, original or not.

As for the intelligence of the football supporter, it's not my job to endear myself to the masses. What the hell do I care?

We sign a player but due to a well documented dispute with his former club we do not have clearance to play him yet.

I think Moyes is simply pointing out that while it would have been tempting to give him a bit of a run out off the bench in the friendlies the fact he is inelligible isn't a bad thing as he's carrying a bit of knock and coming back from a serious injury. He hasn't played since last October so the fact he is only a few weeks behind the other lads isn't too bad.

'Positive spin is a very important thing in any profession.' - strongly disagree in actuality and, more importantly, on principle when it is a matter of trust. Positively spinning something is giving it an appearance that it is better than it actually is (and is not the same as being positive) which amounts to fraud in certain professions and can land you in a lot of trouble. Trouble is we live in a consumerist society were we have got used to these marketing ploys to the extent that no-one is expected to speak plainly and honestly any more.

I am not saying that David Moyes was trying to mislead anyone but it is sad that he said something that made no real sense just because everyone now thinks every bit of information has to have some 'fairy dust' sprinkled on it.

'Actually the lad is not available to play because he is still building up his fitness, so the delay in the registrationmakes no difference one way or the other.' is what he should have said, and would there have been a great wailing and gnashing of teeth if he had? No, everyone would have said 'Righto!'

What people are ignoring is that there is already a big debate as to whether the club deals with us straightforwardly or whether they treat us like mushrooms, and the fact that a bloke like Moyes is obviously so primed to big-up everything doesn't do him any favours in the eyes of those like me who would like to believe he is straightforward but are seriously beginning to wonder.

You can call spin being positive and like it, for me it is just another type of BS and I will continue to be put-off by it (no matter who is spouting it). Maybe I am the only one and stand like Canute before the tide, but I genuinely think the adult world would be a better place if the facts came ungarnished.

On both these occasions I have actually witnessed this myself so not hearsay or spin in any way.

Not one bit of the above story 'helps' any of us associated with EFC, so it is a pointless attempt to put a positive slant on it.

• The guy can't run at the moment

• We don't even know if we have his registration

• I believe that his claim to British nationality might be compromised by the recent discovery of his parents' Kenyan origins.

The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, its never happened in a court of law. The Quakers, bless em, try to live that way. The rest of us fall a bit short.

"I am delighted about that and expect all other applications pending before FIFA to take the same course."

They then went onto state that this means "The association to which the players are affiliated can request temporary registration from FIFA to allow the player to play during the period of arbitration - which happened with Ness who has been given the green light."

So my reading of this is this is that Everton could play Naismith if he was fit while this matter is finally resolved at arbitration. Anyone disagree about this interpretation?

There are two aspects of the article that are only associated by the player himself. Not having the registration doesn't change the length of time the lad requires to recuperate - that is what it is and totally separate.

So what bothers me is this constant need to put 'lipstick on a pig', because it then makes me doubt the manager when he says he is certain Pienaar will sign for us, or that he simply won't talk about potential transfer targets because he doesn't discuss other teams' players (spot the contradiction there). Does it make me more confident that the registration will go through soon, Naismith will be all we hope for by the start of the season, or that the Pienaar deal is all but completed? No it doesn't, and the lovely scenario of progress at EFC seems a lot further away than it did last week.

The above article would only really interest Evertonians and so, to me, the manager is in effect addressing us. Where there is no danger of any damage to Everton's business interests or reputation I would like to think that the club (or their spokesperson) could address us without spinning the information. David Moyes would be the last person I would expect (given what is written about his character and principles) to have succumbed to this rather unpleasant trait and I find it rather dispiriting that it appears he has.

For the record, I have tended to work where probably 90% of the workforce would be considered averagely intelligent or above, and only the very worst bosses would attempt to spin in those environments. All it ultimately leads to is acrimony and distrust. Spin only works on those who don't realise they are being spun, and is an insult to those that already understand the reality of the situation. Perhaps my antipathy towards it simply stems from the fact that I am not used to being an anachronism in my contempt for it.

And maybe you are proving him right.

He just meant that him being unavailable made the decision for Moyes. Talk about over-reading a situation. Seek help.

Another ridiculous comment if you don't mind me saying. What should Moyes have done? Waited for the lad to be fully fit, by which time he would have been snapped up by someone else? For once we get a transfer wrapped up swiftly and some people still complain. The club really can't win.

Nooooooooooooo John!

I think some of us might have to return to re-examine the horse's mouth and gain a clearer understanding of what was said at the outset. Although I think perhaps the statement Moyes should have made is that Naismith *WAS* maybe two or three weeks behind anyway (ie, when he joined Everton). Then the whole thing would make sense.

Turns out Naismith was deemed fit to play today, so I offered a reinterpretation of Moyes's original quote, which was not 100% clear on the issue. If he was "injured", I doubt he would have been played.

That's all.