Journos now spiking Barkley's Card...

I see a certain Sunday paper is already linking Ross with a move away from our club. We've seen the same with Baines and Coleman recently. And Fellaini was constantly linked with a move pretty much throughout his Everton career.

Are we not allowed to have quality players without the media trying to get them out of our club. One of the clubs who supposed to want Barkley, is, bizarrely, Moyes and Man Utd.

Paul, he was from the same school as Case, Yeats, Hughes, Gerrard and Tommy Smith. His main tactic was the violent and dangerous tackle from behind in the first few minutes which tended to intimidate opponents who knew that playing well in that particular match wasn't worth their career.

The Liverpool way has always been the cowardly attack from behind (Suarez on Distin and Mirallas epitomised it last year), or on a player lying on the ground (Gerrard's speciality).

I would not argue about Souness's effectiveness in an era of low standards and easily intimidated refereeing, but I think today he would be off after 10 minutes or be run ragged by the likes of Barkley.

Mourinho is not the Messiah the media make him out to be; the latest gaffe out of his self-inflated ego is the piss taking of his defenders with the dummy remark. He is still purring over his old guard but they have aged and lost pace since he was last here, and the likes of Mata and of course Lukaku (who has scored more than all Chelski's strikers) are ignored due to his arrogance.

If his battle of words with Rom has affected his performance then it's another reason why he won't be in a hurry to get back to the Bridge; get the piggy bank emptied, Bill...

Can't really see Ross wanting to go and serve a manager who doesn't play him.

Can't see it myself - even Stevie Bambi Gerrard has already warned Ross about moving for greener grass - and you only have to mention both "Moyes" and "Rodwell" in order for him to make a common sense decision!
The usual shite delivered by so called expert hacks with nothing better to do

Cleverly coming in to our side — forget it. The times I've seen him play he's been shite, and if he played for Roberto, Roberto knows it. With Spurs about to implode, I can see them breaking the team up, maybe we could get Dembele or Holtby to help us with our midfield lack of depth (and injuries).

Calm down people!

The journalists are just looking for stories.

Barkley will sign a new very good long term contract in January, and Baines and Distin will. I read in Observer Sport today Moyes has a load of money to spend and is looking at a striker, as RVP is out, and midfielder.

How much would Suarez cost?

Watch this space

Regardless of what we the supporters or the manager have to say, if our beloved chairman has a chance to make a huge profit from a player, don't hold your breath on Barkley staying.

We can't stop the papers printing utter gibberish fantasy but we can offer Barkley a lucrative new contract. We need to tie Ross to a long contract and resist any offers for any amount from mega-rich clubs.

Journos have to sell papers. If he did even wish to think about leaving (and I highly doubt he would) It is Moyes who didn't deem him worthy of a regular place in our team.....

Genuinely wouldn't get why any young player (maybe Baines is a bit different given his age) would consider leaving EFC at the moment.

This really annoys the shit out of me.

I remember the Rooney headlines. " How long can a club like Everton realistically hold onto a talent like Rooney".

We are 4th in the league and only beaten once, I've just watched the media darlings from across the park totally embarrass the Spuds and both of them are nothing but average teams.

I'm not saying we are world beaters but for fuck's sake!

Leave us alone, you shower of phone-hacking jackanory merchants.

Rant over.

It would be so fascinating to see a documentary or something about how clubs use the press. Maybe SAF talked about it in his book. But when something like this come out; when they say Moyes et al sat for five hours discussing transfer targets, with Ross being the main point of discussion. And that Tom Cleverly will be used a sweetner (Yeah! That's a like for like swap). How much of this is just a journalist trying to connect his own dots, an agent trying to leverage his client, or the club "leaking" information to unsettle a player?

It's one of the aspects that I don't quite comprehend on this side of the pond because there are penalties for teams in the major sports leagues when a team potentially "tampers" with another player.

Calm down, calm down. Ross's agent is his mum (he still lives at home) and she's blue down to her bones.

I agree with Colin.

Ross isn't Rooney.

If only we could get a new or extended ground that money would make all the difference to our future

You see we'll be fine at the end of the season.
Spurs fans want AVB out!

Colin,

Rooney's parents were Blues' as well – but it didn't prevent the move. I assume you mean that his mum is his spiritual agent as I think either Paul Ferry or Kevin Tully have pointed out that Ross has a new agent with possible links to OFM.

Patrick, Rooney's parents were dead against him going to Man Utd at such an early age. It was his agent (Stretford) and some of his mates who convinced him to go.

Colin - seems you are bit behind the times there fella.

Barkley's agents are Wasserman Media Group and guess who is looking after his interests in the North-West?

That's what I meant Colin, parents don't have a great say in these things depending on the player himself of course. I assume most of his mates were from the Dark Side Colin I don't think the lad will leave this year and I hope he doesn't but you just never know.

OFM's Agent son.

Tabloid Nonsense. Barkley is going nowhere. He plays pretty much every week here and is already set to be going to the World cup so has no reason to move. Especially since he would win nothing at United.

I too reckon someone will make a move before the World Cup... It would be the 'smart' move.

Note to editors: Please, please don't publish those endless yakety-yak fuckin' debates by those natterjack fuckin' divvies who will inevitably yak-on about how much we will get for him and who w'ell buy with the fuckin money to the N-th of forever when the transfer window opens.

Kenwright and the Board of course should be watched like serial killer suspects.

On one hand, I can see some of the "bigger" clubs wanting our best players in order to improve their squads, but I wonder if the underlying factor is the true FEAR that the bigger clubs have of Everton crashing their party and truly becoming one of the "big boys"?

If we crash the party and end up in a prized Champions League spot, one of the big boys is going to be left out in the cold, and this has to scare the shite out of them. I'm still learning all this as a new Blue, but it if we hold the course, hold onto our core players, and add some more depth in January, then we can sit back and watch the "big" clubs that are behind us in the table scrambling for talent so that they can catch up to "poor Everton".

I think the big boys are trying to pinch our best players solely out of fear of what we may, and will, become. Everton have every right to be one of the "big boys" and I look forward to the day when we finally get that respect.

I'm with you, Tom. I would ban all talk of other players coming in or our players going out... but the sad fact is that web pages like this and links to transfer rumours are the most popular ones related to football. A lot of people love this shit. I hate it.

All I'm interested in is who we have now and how they are playing. I've never understood the speculation about players coming in: we've proved season after season that 95% of it is pure bunk. People make seemingly 100 posts a day anticipating signings next month.... as if recent history means nothing.

Yes, we may get players in... but we may not. Yes, they may be great... but they may not. Either way, we carry on with what we have come February. I guess it's the emergence of Fantasy Football, Championship Manager, and Fifa xy which have engendered this mentality that all problems will be solved in the transfer market. It simply ain't so.

If the so-called big clubs want Ross put their money where their mouth is: £100 million if that's what Bale is worth, why not??

It would be a bad move for Ross to go to another club for at least another 1 to 2 years yet, he's getting regular football here & learning through the experience.

But loyalty tends to go out of the window when big money makes an appearance.

How much would it take if someone made a ridiculous offer to buy Ross, because its going to happen before long, there's probably been inquiries already?

I'm dead against him leaving, but!

He just posted on Twitter a Soprano quote 'don't believe what you hear and half that you see' or words very similar, basically saying its bollocks.

Ok, so we pretend that silly offers are not going to happen.
I get it!

Ray, silly offers will come no doubt from ginger bollocks, probably around £25m if we are lucky, just to annoy us and unsettle the club but the lad is going to be worth double that and more and until that gets offered the club can tell anyone where to go and I'm sure they will.

Paul, OFM will probably offer £7.5m plus Cleverly. I think Roberto should just come out and say, none of our players will be sold to Man Utd for the foreseeable future, so their hacks in the media can go and grope some other teams players.

Patrick, I agree. Kids have no respect for their parents nowadays. At the time I heard that Rooney's dad was distraught at the time but a few holidays in the Bahamas and a brand new Bentley soon changed all that.
Michael, this type of gossip/drivel is the life blood of fans forums. It gives us a chance to dream or quake in our boots.

Paul, I think they will bid a lot more than that & not only Utd.

I'm dead against him leaving as much as the next man, anyway I'll let it drop its just a pity we have to put up with all this shite every time get a world class player!

Paul Gladwell

Just seen that on Twitter. What a bloody brilliant way to dismiss the speculation. Top work, Ross.

Just read on caughtoffside.com (yeah, I know) that Everton are now fully confident that Barkley will sign a new £50k p/w contract very shortly.

Is it a real account on Twitter?

Yes Jamie,

Personally I don't think he's going anywhere anytime soon but we'll see.

Interesting that such rumours are relatively tepid with most predicting he'll stay and generally reporting that at least for now, he should. This seems to be miles away from the the Rooney situation and I don't think this is because they are more balanced in their reporting. This Everton side is much stronger than the one Rooney last figured in. I also suspect we have a manager who knows the value of the player he has and a manager who will hopefully move us away from the peasant mentality of his predecessor, seemingly viewing us as a stepping stone. Hmmmm...

Until we get money into the club and are successful, it's always going to be that way, although I just cannot see them offering the funds we could get for him in say two years time.

But Charles we have the same bloke in charge of the whole shebang but even he would be a very brave soul to accept an offer if it came.

I agree with you, Paul (#806). As much as I would like Ross to stay at the club for all of his football career, the day will probably come when he will leave like all good players do... so either cough up £100 mill in full, none of this "part now, part later" crap, or leave the kid alone... or better still — produce some of your own English talent and save your money.

Mark #803

You may be new to the blue party but I think you have a real point. The "big boys" are scared of us. Sort of feels good doesn't it?

So Man City, who have let us have Gareth Barry, are now desperate to lure away Barkley to stop us challenging them for the title?

Bit of a stretch isn't it? Nobody is going to chuck tens of millions at us just to handicap our season. Simple facts are that good players will attract attention and the journos love / need to fill their pages with something 'sensational'.

Somebody may make an offer in January but if Ross isn't ready to swap the way he is feeling / progressing for a ridiculous pay slip and a lesser role elsewhere and the offer isn't too big to turn down then he will be still with us in February. I don't think he wants to go anywhere at the moment and I don't think anyone will offer the sort of cash that would be impossible to pass up.

Interestingly I saw on Ross's Facebook page that his "current" club is Everton. Kind of pissed me off a bit but then again maybe his agent set the account up/orchestrated it. Either way I don't think it's a reference to him making an imminent departure but may give some insight to his long term plans. Or maybe I'm over thinking it.

We should bring Rodwell back to understudy Barry. Also Martinez is likely to let Rodwell off the leash and let him drive forward from defence.

Everton are now reclaiming their position as one of the big clubs in England.

A koppite on the radio... "Wouldn't mind that Barkley lad."

Here we go again with Barkley as with Fellaini and Rooney. Soon you will have Ross parcelled up in shiny Xmas wrapping and a greetings tag.

A whisper about it happening creates a chink in our armour that gives Kim Ung Bill and his cronies a smell of money.

I don't know why we Evertonians don't just all target the journalist involved and batter him with criticism. Work as a team, for the pen is mightier than the sword!

This isn't really about Barkley. It's about the attitude that the tabloid "journalists" have that only the rich clubs are entitled to have quality players and the rest of the PL league exists as feeder clubs to simply hand over their best players whenever one of the cash clubs waves a big cheque under our nose.

Well if Everton, and other clubs, wish to improve this attitude has to end. We have to hold on to our better players regardless of the cost. Otherwise we and others will forever be nearly clubs. Nearly won a cup. Nearly made the top 4.

Frank

You are absolutely right - but I think it extends beyond the tabloids and is also the same story around Europe.

I was thinking the very same thing about Atletico Madrid the other day. They have now proven themselves to be right up there in La Liga, challenging the very best, yet they can't go a season without their star players being linked elsewhere. If you are not Real or Barca then you are simply not allowed top class players.

I've yet to see any journalist state that only the richest clubs should have the top players. Anyone who did would be shot down in flames.

There may be some out there who support a particular club and so write favourably about them even when they don't deserve it, and there may be some who are effectively making up stories based on who is currently most eye-catching rather than concrete information, but there is no group actively trying to make the smaller clubs give up their prize assets.

The players and their agents (and skint chairmen) can manage that all by themselves.

Si, then why do all the pundits trot out the well worn phrases such as If Everton lose x player(s) to injury their top 4 challenge will be over or players of such ability deserve to be plying their trade at the very top level.

It's very strange when a club like Everton who are financially challenged are constantly seen as unworthy of having a good team or good players when a club that has finished below them in the last couple of seasons, who are very much reliant upon one player and it could be argued have often relied on just one key player in the last decade are never seen in the same light.

The media have an agenda, whether that agenda is being set by agents, editors or big business I don't know, but it is an agenda that the hacks are happy to uphold or they have to peddle in order to keep their jobs.

I have said before that football often reflects attitudes that are at work in the broader society and imho that is exactly what is happening, you are nobody if you don't have cash - winning is the most important thing and those that are too big to fail are often bailed out or given a generous and sympathetic ride by the press.

If a monied team loses, it is often reported that it was because they did not perform, or were hampered by injury or the team that beat them were guilty of not playing fairly.

As long as people continue to buy the papers and buy into what they write there is little that anybody can do about these types of stories, I haven't purchased a newspaper for decades and I don't intend to start anytime soon, but enough people do buy them otherwise the advertisers wouldn't bother using them to sell their goods.

Why on earth would Barkley move in a World Cup year when he is getting regular games for a team aiming for the Champions League? I love his Twitter response. Hopefully signing a new contract will put these rumours to be for now, and if we qualify for the Champions League there will be even less reason to look elsewhere for top level football.

Clubs will no doubt make offers in January. Our club will say he's not for sale. The player will say he doesn't want to leave. The newspapers will still print utter bollocks. And we'll still be in with a chance of a Champions League spot.

Come May, all the talk will hopefully be about who's coming to play in the Champions League with Ross next season.

COYB

For me it ruined Rooney going to united, it changed the type of player he was, yes he is great but he lost that creative edge after he went there. I think Barkley looks at Rooney and doesn't say I wish, I think he knows what he wants and it isn't a move to united. Why can't we have a Gerrard type player who would never dream of playing for anybody else? I think some of us sell Everton short, but it's not your fault it's all you know. Things are changing, Ross knows it and there is nowhere else he would rather be to win things.

There were a lot on here saying that Moyes knew he was getting the United job up to a year before it came to pass.

The conspiracy theorist in me wants to say Moyes knew if he could keep Barkley out of the side until he left he could pick him up on the cheap when he moved on.

Couldn't be, could it? He would have gone for him in the summer surely.

Drew, Moyes kept him out of the side for years because he's overly conservative and wants the finished article before they get selected for the first team.

If Ross does end up leaving(and I really do hope he stays with us for his entire career) the only place he should end up being sold is abroad.

To sell a talent like him to one of your peers is a bit silly. Now that we have a positive, forward thinking manager who is able to take the club to the next level and compete with the top 4, I think all bets are off as regards our "rightful place".

Why would Ross swap his boyhood club, which is on the up, competing near the top of the league, for a mid-table side managed by a manager who let him rot in the reserves for the best part of 2 years because he made a mistake on the football pitch a few times while he was trying to learn his trade?

If any further persuasion were needed, I think Fellaini will serve as a good example to any player from our club that they move at their peril.

@Si

I never said they stated it but they do imply it. For instance the moment any of our players get capped for their country, particularly England, they are immediately "earmarked" for transfer to a rich club hence the speculation around Barkley. So we end up not wanting our players to get capped because we think it encourages transfer speculation and turns the players heads.

Look at what happened to Spurs with Gareth Bale. Their best player by a mile. The transfer speculation around him went on for two seasons until in the end he went to Real Madrid no doubt upsetting their fans in the process. I would also say that for all the money they received and spent on other players Spurs are actually worse off now. Their chances of a top 4 spot have been considerably reduced and the club is currently in managerless chaos. I would put a lot of that down to the press encouraging transfer speculation to the point of hysteria.

Lets look at how the RS are terrified of losing Suarez. Their one world class player. Yet they are not the "big club" they used to be and bigger richer clubs are circling and will use the press to unsettle Suarez if they don't or even if they do make the top 4.

The fact is the only football reporting the papers do is transfer speculation. What player from a poorer club is going to one of the richer ones. It is relentless and puts managers at the poorer clubs at a disadvantage because they forever fending off questions about their best players leaving the club. It also stops the player concentrating on the club he is playing for instead of daydreaming about the club he constantly linked with in the press. It also doesn't help when the managers at richer clubs do nothing to quash the speculation and in some cases positively encourage it.

If it was up to me there would only be a summer transfer window and if you didn't get the players you want then it's tough luck. I doubt it would stop the transfer speculation entirely but at least the fans would know the squad they started the season with would be the squad they will end it with and not have to worry about losing crucial players half way through the season that simply bolster the strength of the richer clubs and undermine the efforts of the less rich clubs to achieve success.

Yeah I'd go with that Wayne @ 189

Think it's time to take advantage of this optimism and positive momentum and get a few of the bright lights signed up on long term deals.

If big money comes in, we can technically make the Lukaku and Deulofeu moves permanent, depending on the money. Other than that, I expect Barkley to stay for both football and money reasons. How much can he expect his future earnings to be when he only gets to warm the bench for other teams? How many "bigger" teams actually need him? I'm sure he knows that. So far, I like the loyalty shown by the players, so the money had better be as big as the talk before the poachers start asking.

I didn't think it was possible to love Barkley anymore than I already did but then he goes and quotes The Sopranos! The best show ever made.

What a guy! ONCE A BLUE ALWAYS A BLUE

Add to this, the gretest mind in English football, Sciknote Owen has waded in on his blog! Total tosser!