All he did was keep another young lad of getting the chance to play for Everton, why did Moyes, or whoever sanctioned this, allow this to happen?

By the way did Everton receive any payments from Sporting Lisbon for letting this lad learn his trade at Everton?

“I was at Sporting Lisbon and there were different reasons I needed to leave at that time, Everton were willing to do a loan deal because I didn't want to leave Sporting for good, they were willing to see how things went and they were really good to me,” he reflected.

“I was there for half a season (2010-11) and then a full season (2011-12) and it went really well. I learned a lot there. It was quite an eye-opening experience for me, very different in many ways to Portugal and when I went back to Sporting, I was much better for it.”

Dier was a member of the same England Under-20 squad as Stones, Lundstram, Garbutt, Barkley and Kane. At the time, I thought Kane was poor but he turned out to be the best.

I remember the tackle on Tom Cleverley. It merited a red card.

As for Dier, considering he was schooled in the technical environment of Portuguese footy, the lad looks suspiciously like an old fashioned English yard-dog.

I have seen his famous "scissor" tackle several times, the first leg tripping the opponent and the other leg joining it in a snare. A very dangerous move, more akin to MMA than football. An above-average Premier League centre-back but nothing more.

Alderweireld and Vertonghan are superior and Eric is merely a defensive mid or a cover in case Vertonghan needs to go to left-back. He has also had his spats with his coaches (he needed a kick up the arse), perhaps suggestive that this feller was moved up the ranks due to nepotism, and was always expecting quick promotion.

Wasn't it rumoured at the time that he and Mustafi thought they should have been given more opportunity and this is the first time I've heard that his loan included him not playing in the 1st XI which would have required/triggered a transfer fee.

I can recall having the impression that his loan agreement with Sporting Lisbon prevented him from playing for the first team... but that may have only applied to the first spell, when his third-party 'owners' were a factor.

The puzzle for me in the second loan spell was him being 'promoted' to train with the first team by David Moyes, but Moyes himself pretty much saying he wasn't good enough to warrant a chance of actually playing for the first team – which makes it sound like he would have been allowed to but Moyes held him back and that was what grated for Dier.

Who knows? I thought it was of passing interest yesterday... Today? Not so much!

As a player I don’t rate him and there were better players at the club at his time at a Goodison, but it seems that he’s been masked and is now an average player whom is on the wane.

Now since then, a totally different story.

Not at all as my face to face conversations seem to be with a Checkout Chick every three days when the milk runs out. I've always appreciated the "Where are they now" articles and news of players out on loan and this falls under those banners.

Much appreciated.

I don't think Moyes would have done any better if he had more money to spend at the time. His record after leaving shows that.