Lennon thrilled to be back at Everton

A good addition... and several steps up from McGeady.

It did happen for him at Spurs. He was first choice for 4 or 5 years, but his form dipped 3 seasons ago, and Pochettino has booted him out of the first team squad, making him train with the youth players.

Barry, he doesn't look after himself, drinks, smokes cigars and causes trouble in nightclubs. This will be his last PL contract. I expect him to play okay for the first 4 to 6 games, then be a major disappointment.

Still thought Charlie Austin would have been a great signing.

We are growing stronger every season despite the elusive "No 10" Do we have a homegrown one? The youth has impressed pre-season and in the first few games, maybe there is someone undiscovered. (I resisted the impulse to italicize that in case I left myself open to "flack"... oooops!)

Let's hope we shaft Jose on Saturday COYB !

His energy, enthusiasm, workrate and speed will help us considerably as it did last year.

All the sour grapes posters should explain what he did wrong when he was here on loan which is the only time we can judge how good he is going to be for Everton.

I am more concerned about Lukaku and the lack of options together with a total lack of goals from MF.

Tie that in to Roberto's tactics and you have a recipe for disaster.

If it had been left to some around here we would never have signed Peter Reid. Too old, too injured, not glamorous enough. Yet he turned out to be one of the best midfield players we ever had.

Did Fellaini really make us any better? Is Lukaku the best striker we've ever had because he's certainly the most expensive. Almost all of the better signing we've had in the last twenty years have been relatively cheap. Arteta, Pienaar, Cahill, Baines, Martyn, Lescott and now Stones were not marquee signings yet they improved the team far more than any costly signings we managed to make.

I would sooner have practical, experienced signings than expensive luxury players any day.

Marquee signings never seem to quite do it for us. Beattie, anyone ....??

Welcome back, Aaron, good to have you in the squad.

He is only still young in terms of reaching his peak, let's hope he does the bizz...

Come on Len Non......

I'm seeing a trend with Roberto which worries me a bit. In days gone by it used to be the best 11 plus a couple of utility 'play anywhere' guys on the bench. Nowadays it's the squad game with more in-depth analysis of playing to neutralize the opposition.

Unless you subscribe to the Sin Miedo philosphy which served us well in 2013-14, but was abandoned in 2014-15 in favour of praising the opposition before the game.

Whichever way you look at it, the times have changed and life isn't simple anymore, but we do have the best squad I can remember and some young guns to make the breakthrough this season; Galloway and Dowell look likely but Ledson has gone into hibernation...

I say we all chip in on a good box of stogies for Pienaar and a decent bottle of Scotch for McGeady.

It used to be a case of having a couple of good players and a lot of average/poor players.

Looking at the current squad, we have 3 exceptional defenders, 1 exceptional DM, 1 potentially world class playmaker, 1 exceptional winger, 1 potentially exceptional winger, 1 arguably bordering on world class striker. And the other players are good. My opinion, but beats the days of Rideout, Barlow and Parkinson. I think during the 90s, you could count the great players on one hand with a couple of fingers missing.

Signing Lennon would have been our marque player only ten years ago. I think it's good that we have ambitions for "better" players, however we cannot forget where we've been. I only started supporting Everton in 1990, so have no knowledge of the glory years, so seeing the current squad is exciting.

As for going into work half cut, I'm sure many of us here have been guilty of that at least once in our careers. We all do stupid stuff from time to time. I just hope he doesn't team up with Gibson as a drinking buddy!

I have seen comments from Spurs fans reminiscing about the Lennon-Van Der Vart-Bale trio, so they're not all haters. Sometimes in life things get stale and we need a new challenge to kick start us. Last season we gave that opportunity to Aaron and he in turn helped kick start a spluttering Everton. Now he's back and he seems genuinely pleased to be here. I don't expect him to set the Premier League on fire but I do think he will be a very valuable member of our squad and will make the £4.5m seem like very good business.

Best of luck to him!

This team is the best we've had in years, starting 11 and bench look very strong, just afraid that if some of our core players get injured we'll get well stretched. Fingers crossed.

We'd need to buy McGeady a fucking distillery before he becomes a footballer.

Frank @16 excellent reference to Reidy, and you cpuld also for the benefit of the "Low Price = No Value" types, I'm sure that you could also could have added:
Andy Gray, probably crocked has been, 𧶲k.
Trevor Steven, unproven Burnley 19-year-old prospect 𧷤k.
Kevin Sheedy, out of favour Liverpool reserve team, 3 first team appearances, 𧴜k.
Alan Harper, Liverpool reserves, no first team appearances, 𧴜k.
Neville Southall, ex binman at Bury 𧵎k.

Just to put that bunch into context, they cost 𨀼k, Gary Lineker (the leading goalscorer in the country) in the same era cost Everton 𧿘k.

Since they didn't 'cost much then clearly it's no surprise that none of that lot ever amounted to anything, is it?

I hope he can steer clear of injuries as it is amazing how new players coming to Everton just start to make an impression then get seriously injured such as Oviedo, Deulofeu and now Cleverley, to name just 3 in the last 2 seasons.

He did get in a bit of a fracas in a club and was pictured with a cigar.

And who the hell cares! Is a cigar once every 12 months going to affect a player? If anything, I hope he waltzes past Ivanovic with one in his mouth next week.

He's a good player to have back, even if I thought another right winger wasn't essential. I just hope we get to see plenty of Deulofeu and Mirallas.

Full marks sir, I couldn't put it better, we live in hope, WELCOME BACK!

As much as I think Martinez is tactically inept at times, as a Manager, players he's worked with over the years are always quite keen to reunite. A players perspective on the Manger's ability must impact their decision when agreeing to a transfer. On the flip side to that, 75% of all first team/squad player transfers conducted by Roberto at Everton are footballers he's already managed at some point.

Aaron Lennon - Everton (Loan)
Ramiro Funes Mori - No
Tom Cleverly - Wigan
Gerrard Deulofeu - Everton (Loan)
Samuel Eto'o - No
Romelu Lukaku - Everton (Loan)
Gareth's Barry - Everton (Loan)
Aiden McGeady - No
James McCarthy - Wigan
Joel Robles - Wigan
Antolin Alcaraz - Wigan
Arouna Kone - Wigan

His presence will however, allow Coleman to blast forward which cannot hurt the team's chances. For the price an okay pick-up. Plus, he wants to be here. How bad can that really be?

If he exceeds my expectations I'll send him some cigars myself.

Tony-42....well put. Money doesn't always buy you success. And great players can be found on the cheap.

Jack-46....this is what I have been thinking, these players want to play for the manager. They want to play for Everton, I think that should say enough on a players ambition. They want to play for us, and they know what we are like.

I would rather have a player like Lennon who is proven, wants to play for Everton, and is happy to be here. Than some of the players from the past who just showed up for a pay check. But I cant blame them since Everton were willing to pay them. So welcome home Aaron.(Once Everton has touched you)

As for Lennon himself, welcome back, works tirelessly, links up well with Coleman. Not a bad player but where does this leave Deulofeu? I'm assuming he will be subbed on, Lennon off I should imagine.

Timothy, do you take any notice of the crap that appears on some blogs or Twitter? Blimey, mate, I think I'd look elsewhere for my info. Any "fact" that begins with "apparently" and then goes on to slag some player off is usually made up, reconstituted rubbish from some wannabe journo who seeks to elevate his status amongst his followers to that of a guy who is REALLY in the know.

Personally I'm glad Lennon has returned. He is energetic, talented and gives Coleman plenty of cover so that he can express his attacking play. And he wants to be here.

Joe Ainsworth @46

Funny!

Regardless of the couple of half-decent showings last season, this is a poor buy and a backwards step. Instead of off-loading wasters like Darren Gibson, we are adding another no-mark. I just don't get the reasoning behind this signing?

Every single comment says the same thing, that Levy should have gotten rid of Lamela (who we were reportedly after) and should not have sold Lennon.

The overwhelming majority of comments were thanking Lennon and wishing him well at EFC. All saying what a tremendous player he has been for them over the past 10 years.

As for his alleged indiscretions (smoking, drinking, clubbing etc), I seem to recall a certain Duncan Ferguson, who came to us with a real 'bad guy' image and is now a living Everton legend.

So far we have managed to avoid major scandals; players like Albert Dunlop and Tony Kay were a couple of exceptions, as is the recent conviction of Darren Gibson, so Lennon's so-called bad habits bear no comparison.

Steve Schofield, you can get all the 'Glory Days' on DVD, take a look.

ps: The Greatest Everton and England player in history drank like a fish and smoked like a chimney; his name?? William Ralph Dean.

Tony, although I disagree with your comments re Lennon, you're bang on the money about getting shut of dead wood. Gibson, for me, has pissed on his chips and should never wear our shirt again. This is the opportunity to off load him at no cost. I'm pretty sure that his recent drink driving stuff would allow us to cancel his contract. On his day he can be superb, but that's only once or twice a season when he's fit.

Smoking, anyone else remember the great Roy Vernon dropping his ciggie butt as he ran onto the pitch?

Anyone could have come in during that period in time and looked good. Remember when Baines said it took Lennon's arrival for the players to 'embarrass us into working harder'? That's how bad it was last season.

His crossing is poor, his best days are far behind him, he doesn't provide anything we don't already have, what's the point in signing yet another right winger when Martinez doesn't use any or if we're lucky, uses one?

Look at Mirallas and Deulofeu barely getting any game time as it is, and people reacted like we'd signed Messi when Deulofeu signed, now it looks like he'll get even less opportunities.

We don't need him, it's a signing that smacks of desperation, and sums up Martinez's lack of imagination or nous in the transfer market.

Another safe, predictable and disappointing signing, leaving our squad even more unbalanced.

What's the point in paying £4.5m for a player with almost no re sale value, someone we don't need, that doesn't provide any extra dimension, or doesn't even suit the 'Wingerless' system our manager uses?

Desperation. A desperate panic buy.

Welcome back, mate.

Will this also give Mirallas the chance to partner his fellow Belgian?

Let us hope RM is brave enough to experiment, because good times may be ahead.

I never said it was a FACT, nor do I use Twitter or Facebook for that matter. Their loss is our gain. Whether he turned up to train drunk or not, I can't prove one way or the other, obviously; it came from a Spurs fans forum similar to here, hence the use of the word 'apparently'. You clearly skimmed over my post quickly.

Timothy Blanshard @ 10 wrote:
Personally I think he's going to continue to show HE IS NO WAY PAST IT as he's proved already. Maybe he didn't want to play for Not So Hotspur anymore.

Welcome back Aaron good luck mate.

Timothy, I wasn't having a pop at you, my comments were jokingly having a pop at Twitter and the like. Incidentally , I don't use Twitter, Facebook or any other medium to let people know what I had for breakfast or when I last went for a slash.

Ray #58. He owes us and he has the ability to repay. His behaviour has been appalling but I believe it could be a defining moment for him.

I also remember my friend and I, as schoolboys, ringing him up to congratulate him on the win the previous Saturday! His number was in the phone book... we also rang Gordon West! His number was in as well!

This ages us, but wasn't it a different world!

What will be annoying is if any of them arrive injured or, for whatever reason, are never seen in action. Roberto has form in that direction so I trust he will have done his homework this time round!