Everton make approach for Fofana?

Brother of Wesley Fofana?

Is this for real? Gueida Fofana, the king of the slide rule threaded pass. Midfielder supreme. Now we're talking. Le jour de gloire est arrive.

Seriously, unless it's a loan, this talented lad will probably be too expensive.

Out of contract next season Harold, this is either agent talk to squeeze a deal, or Everton are looking cut price.

Thanks Ian. Just checked his value on the Olympique Lyon site and was pleasantly surprised. £4.2m. An ideal candidate for the Martinez strategy of bringing someone in at a reasonable price and getting them to perform above their market value.

Rumour or not. It's nice to have gone up a notch from Kerwyne Jones and the Dundee United lads. Vive La France. Allons BK. Quelle chance.

I always have nightmares of Magaye Gueye mark 2 when I hear the phrase 'French U21 '.
I don't know why but for whatever reason signing these kids just doesnt seem to ever have much impact on the team.

We were told when Gueye signed on about three years ago that we had just couped a 'flying winger with pace'.
Goodness me, if ever I get my hands on the clown who typed those words...so help me.

I do have more faith in Martinez than Moyes, who seemed to do little scouting and rather just buy off YouTube..Bily..Kroldrup..Van Der Alkie ect.

I have never heard of Fofana so know nothing about him.
But why do we need another defensive midfielder?
Even if Gibbo is crocked, we have Macca and Bazza.
Could see this one just being another Guilleme Plessis (remember him? 2005) not many do. Actually tore up his contract with a French club to join us but was hardly ever seen.

Jim. Sit down, have a nice cup of tea and try to get your mind off Gueye. He will not be with us forever. Think of Monsieur Distin and relax.

Yes, we do have Barry and McCarthy but where's the cover? There isn't any. With Gibson out of action the defensive midfield is our most vulnerable area.and an immediate replacement has to be top of our list. Yes. Repeat. Top of our list.

There it is, once again, the voice of reason from Sir Harold Mathews.

I agree with every point.

We do need back up but I don't know a lot about this guy other than he was in the French kids side right through from 16's to 21's but his record also suggests he scores and has got a few assists to his game too.

Cheers Kevin. I know how excited you get when BK gets his wallet out.

Young, strong, athletic, physical, can pass, tackle, good feet, he's quick and scores once in a while.

Jim Bennings, that's nonsense of the highest order. Moyes signed a few duds alright but to suggest he did his scouting on YouTube is complete nonsense.

He signed most of our current starting 11:

Howard, Jagielka, Coleman, Distin, Baines, Mirallas, Pienaar.

He also signed Cahill, Arteta, Lescott, Fellaini.

That's good enough to balance out a few bad buys for me.

But don't let reality hold you back from a little Moyes bashing.

I wouldn't say CM area was most in need of replenishment Harold. Barry, McCarthy & Ossie. We only have one out and out striker in Lukaku. Martinez obviously doesn't rate Vellios, so back-up us a must for me.

ps: I tried to find you on Twitter the other day, but no luck. What's your handle?

No offence to Ossie but he is getting on and is hardly a pass master. If true this is good news.

Oh, and Brian — Moyes did sign some good players but he did sign quite a few duds too that never even made it to the team.

I still think Ossie can do a job Jackie. Yes he drops the odd clanger, but he's still pretty capable of doing and job. No kone, Jela gone concerns me.

Darn it, didn't finish. Anyway, what I was going to say is that RM does seem to know more about players and seems to have a much better approach to the transfer window. More respect? I don't know but he seems to be in the know.

Never heard of him tbh but I've always said I expect Roberto to uncover some unknown gems in the TM.

Jack. My name as on TW.

Can't remember the interview and I don't know the reason, but late last year Martinez said he was not worried about striker situation. At the time I was impressed with his laid back confidence.

I like Ossie but he should never play DM again. Never. Not for Everton and I hope he never plays for anyone else. So I concur with Harold.

After that if we can find a real goal scorer, great, but I expect we will have to do without and win as a team i.e. 84-85 and 86-87 instead of 85-86 (with Lineker, we won nothing) ...

I don't get the idea of limiting our transfer activity to only those positions where we are most in need. People are assuming it is 'either / or... ', or that buying now will wreck our hopes for landing the likes of Lukaku in the summer (in the extremely unlikely event that he becomes available at a price we can afford).

Whilst a lot of us are limiting our thinking to what happens for the rest of this season, the manager presumably still has plans for bringing in players he thinks will improve his squad whenever they become available.

I don't know how many of the 10-15 players he is currently considering he would actually like to bring in, or how many we can actually afford, but I would be thrilled to see a couple of longer-term prospects as well as the striker we most urgently require.

If Harold reckons this lad is a cut above (potentially better than Barry?) then I hope we get him in as soon as possible.

Fofana has just signed a new 2-year deal with Lyon.

Fofana has extended his deal by 2½ yrs... Sky Sports.

Yea please. Let this be true.

Julian - We only have one striker. If he gets injured, then what? I can't find it conceivable that people would rather have CM cover (we have central midfielders), over a SECOND striker.

Inconceivable