Tantalising transfer sagas and deals that never materialised

He missed a home game to do so, such was his determination to sign a top class centre forward, as young Joe Royle was struggling for goals.

Joe played a blinder that day, and the signing never materialised. In later years it was suggested that Harry never went to Scotland, he stayed at home all day, but Joe got the message.

I recall the Liverpool Echo's Michael Charters producing an article urging the fans to get behind young Joe after a couple of frustrating goalless draws early in the 1968-69 season. Possibly Mr Catterick sowed the seeds of that article although he was never renowned for making positive use of the media.

Possibly the game in which Joe turned the tide in his favour was the 3-0 win in September ‘68 against Sheffield Wednesday. He capped off a fine performance with his first penalty in the second half at the Street End. He drilled his kick low and hard to the right of keeper Peter Springett, much to the delight of those of us standing behind that goal.

Thereafter, Joe shared the principal penalty-taking responsibility with Alan Ball. Both scored and missed a few in the next couple of years but the successful conversions boosted Joe's goals tally and probably his confidence as our main striker.

I stand to be corrected but did not Gerry Humphreys, in a rare outing, score an absolute pearler from the corner of the penalty area in that game?

Ranks alongside Vargas's goal for Hungary against Brazil as one of best goals ever at Goodison!

A couple of days later, the papers ran the story that Stein had decided to join Everton, but Catterick said "You don't get a second chance to sign for this club" and killed the move immediately.

Wasn't Muller's case a matter of him not realising his wages would be taxed? So he thought he was being quoted a wage net of taxes versus gross?

In hindsight, I don't think we missed much — he was over hyped, like his buddy Mirandinha.

Turns out he didn't realise he had to pay his own tax and the move fell through. It would have been interesting to see him play for Joe Royle a few months later and the famous Dogs of War!

The one signing we did make, after years of rumours, was John Collins. He was a decent player, but because we'd been linked with him for so long, I think we'd built him up in our minds to be some sort of World Beater who would dominate and create from midfield.

The reality was somewhat different.

Gerry's goal was also at the Street End. He was deputising for Johnny Morrissey which raises an interesting point about the penalty. If Morrissey had been playing, would Joe have been entrusted with the spot kick?

In the semi-final earlier that year at Old Trafford, it was the winger who, in the absence of Alan Ball, was handed the task just before half-time. Huge pressure but he squeezed it home, just!

It's interesting that most of the successful 80s team were unheard of signings or a couple that came through the youth system.

Different times, but they don't always have to be high profile.

One of our best in recent times has been Seamus Coleman. No-one saw that one coming.

Talking of which, and this is off track, but I keep my links and it is the 125th anniversary of the formation of the Irish Guards this year.

Their Regimental Mascot, an Irish Wolfhound, is called Seamus and they have just made a statue of him.

Always immaculate on parade, get him and the "Micks" to parade us and the two Seamus' onto the pitch. Liverpool, the city, has strong connections with the Irish Guards.

Manny Fernandes practically done, and then signed for Valencia.

Story of Everton not getting players over the line.

We then finally agreed a £5M deal with Fulham — only for him to fail his medical.

We did the same when he moved from Southampton to Blackburn.

That Gerry Humphreys goal was an absolute gem. I remember on ToffeeWeb when the posts were about the best goal fans had seen at Goodison. I put that Gerry Humphreys goal as one of the best I had seen at Goodison, and four or five fans also named that goal as a top-notch effort.

We had a bunch of those phantom bids under Kenwright when we offered less than other teams had already agreed.

Barry Ferguson to Blackburn, Kuyt to the RS, Owen to Newcastle.

Like night followed day, Kenwright would offer 40% less pay in increments over 10 years, then say "What can I do? I keep trying to spend the Arteta money but no one accepts our offers."

For some odd reason, Shilton threw the ball out straight to Gerry who belted it first time back into the net. 7-1 the final score!

At the time, I felt we were neck and neck with Spurs but that was (in my mind) when they pulled ahead. Great player.

Big hit at the World Cup, agreed to join and then backed out as he thought English football would be too hard.

Was Dembele the one we thought we had tied down then he refused to take Ronald Koeman's calls? I remember Spurs did similar with Kyle Naughton.

I thought it was just down to what Moyes said at his pressers recently.

My god this list could go on forever.

But possibly Zouma and Gbamin are two really significant ones. Had Zouma been secured and Gbamin (a quality player) stayed fit, the wheels would have stayed on longer for Silva and Moshiri. We might now all be on here calling for him to be sacked after failing to get us above 8th place … what might have been.

Think James Rodriguez in his prime only 10 times better.

I loved Hagi too … but only when he played for Romania. He seemed to earn a big money move after every international tournament, then did nothing until the next one.

The one club he finally delivered for was Galatassary of all teams. Not sure if he was a Romanian nationalist or a lazy git but his club careeer was woeful compared with his international performances.

Steaua Bucharest were pretty good at that time. That USA '94 performance was next level though. What a left foot!!

I remember the Stan Cauliflower transfer two horse race between us and them. If I recall, we matched them and I thought we had a chance.

At least we got Kanchelskis.

Both Scott Parker and Emre 'the rat' Belozoglu were whisked away from under our noses. Both better midfielders than we had, if only the former was proper class.

Roughly the same time as the Ravenelli farce, we were heavily linked to Swiss playmaker Ciriaco Sforza, who for some bizarre reason chose to return to Kaiserslautern from Inter Milan. This was in the Johnson era, and we were being linked with Andy Gray as manager!

We also had a bid accepted on Aaron Ramsey at Cardiff who ultimately joined Arsenal for the same agreed price. Can't think why.

Collymore was fantastic for Forest for 2 seasons, and he did well for Liverpool in his first year there. But, it was a lucky escape for us overall as we all know what happened to his career.

It's sad to think that it's been 30 years since we signed a genuinely top class player in the peak of his career. Kanchelskis is still the best player I've ever seen for us.

I always think of that era that Limpar didn't get the recognition he deserved. Less impactful than the Ukranian / Russian, and even though we probably got him past his best, I could still see the quality, skill, and I enjoyed watching him play for us.

The 3-2 victory over Argentina has been one of my favorite football memories. Gonna raise a glass to Georghe right now.

Everton were in pole position to sign him in '96, but because Leeds showed greater desire to land him, he instead signed for them.

We got him in 2003 and he was great, but we could have had him many years earlier at his peak.

I have lost count of the number of players linked with us by various outlets, and you know 95% are in the minds of the writer and the club never had any link with the player.

The other thing with the summer window is that our season is 2 weeks old before the window closes.

I would love it if each club could only sign 1 player per window, maybe then the clubs who can buy their way to success would have to get buy on players from their own academy.

Brought in as backup for Richard Wright. He must have contained the smile on his face at that one!

Best Everton keeper I've seen since Southall, although Pickford may challenge him for Neville's number two in the Hall of Fame over time.

Limpar and Kanchelskis as wing-backs against Boro on Boxing Day '95 was a sight to behold! With the Dogs of War in the middle, we absolutely battered them 4-0.

One of my stand-out memories from the Joe Royle era.

The Brazil - Hungary match was probably one of the best seen at Goodison. The Vargas goal was the pick of a number of memorable moments.

The complete game is available on YouTube; abit grainy but well worth a watch.

And wasn't there a problem in signing Joey Yobo a second time and the Torre Andre Flo debacle?

According to the (urban) legend, after the game, they all went into Billy Bullshitters office to sign the contract. Apparently, no one had a pen on them and after an hour of fruitless searching (Bill kept them all distracted in the meantime with his Boys Pen stories), Manny and his entourage stormed out in disgust. Kenshite followed them crying, “You haven't heard my Cannonball Kid tales yet”.

A mate of my younger brother still swears to this day that he saw Riquelme in Lime Street Station buying a copy of Teach Yerself Scouse.

Archie went to Derby and enjoyed success there then Forest. We continued the early '70s spiral of the team not getting out of 2nd gear, selling Alan Ball then Harry Catterick's illness really taking hold.

I think he eventually signed for Sunderland and was absolutely rubbish.

Pretty sure, in the end, it was all his agent just creating rumours to get him a better contract.

That's rubbish, everyone knows it's "Lern Yerself Scouse".

A season at West Ham after leaving Goodison, he signs for Villa, before he decided he didn't like it after 2 weeks and not making an appearance, he's back at Goodison.

I remember my parents and I went to Goodison in 2006 to see us play Spurs but we couldn't get in.

We lost anyway.

Yes, Nigel Martyn was helped along to Leeds by Johnson and his sidekick Cliff Finch, remember him?