Rich

Minus Parker who we sold for £7 million. So would actually be £1.8 million. Outrageously good business. And with the Owen compo means we are actually running a £8.2m profit so far. Not quite, by all reliable accounts that figure of £10M for Owen that was bandied about was "wide of the mark". I get what you and KaKa are saying though, we seem to be making big strides forward squad-wise and doing it in a conscientious way. Ish nice. Geremi would please me immensely as well, especially if him and the proposed Beye transfer meant the end of Stephen Carr at this football club. As others have said, a free transfer deal for someone with so much experience and versatility is fucking brilliant when you consider somebody (SP60'sH) was happy to pay £1M for Aaron Hughes to fill a similar sort of role!

You're right about that, like. Although I think the bigger picture is that people would worry about spending a lot on one player equating to spending less on "emergency areas". It would be nice if the "source" was right when he said Ashley would have a separate budget for "big signings", mind! If this is fact, which it probably isn't, and there is exactly £50M to spend then in my eyes it needs to be shared out between at least 3 more defenders and 1 more midfielder (if nobody else is to leave) and I'm sure that Allardyce is fully aware of that already. It certainly does seem to leave some wiggle room for a big name or two to come in. A lot hinges on Owen and Martins, who are two big names in their own right (moreso the former, of course) if one or both of them were to go then I'd fully expect us to bring in a massive signing to replace them and appease the supporters/improve the team. With the four senior strikers we have there isn't much room for a "mega buy" up front (which is the traditional area of spending big) unless one of them leaves in a season without European football and I'm not sure if you can spend crazy money on other areas of the park when you're not a Champions League - or even a UEFA Cup - team. I certainly wouldn't complain at spending big money on a top-class footballer for any position that was a vast improvement to the team though... until it went tits up... then I probably would. Hi Damien!

People should also bear in mind that Allardyce quite probably didn't quit Bolton based on a whim, he has always harboured ambitions to move higher up the ladder and has probably prepared himself for that. He doesn't seem like a bloke who would just work at one level and shut his eyes to goings on above and below him, especially where potential recruitments are involved. He paid big bucks for Anelka for Bolton and showed that he isn't averse to spending the money when it becomes available - the cost of Nic for them is absolutely gargantuan when you bear in mind the size of club that they are as well. Bolton spending what they did on Anelka was massive, basically. I'm sure he's well-positioned to do the same for us, although people are probably right when they say he'll already have a set list of targets that he's brought with him and that he's researched really thoroughly. That's not to say he doesn't have a bit of time to find out about players still, mind. There's still over 6 weeks until the season starts and his scouts/contacts are bound to have a lot of good information on more "well-known" players as well as "Bolton" players (Bolton being the 6th best team in the country, by the way, which I wouldn't turn my nose up at next season). It's a lot easier to buy somebody like Carlos Tevez when people have seen them on TV every week/who there will be dozens of videos on than to bring in an "obscure" player who goes on to be a success, as well. The foundations need to be there first of course and we're still crying out for experienced heads in the midfield and at the back.

What a cracking story to go to sleep on but people need to keep their feet on the ground as much as possible, IMO. One of the major things that could potentially cause massive problems for this new "era" is massively inflated fan expectations and I know that for some people it is avoidable, but I genuinely hope the majority of the support can keep their feet on the ground and allow Ashley/Allardyce/Mort/Shepherd and everyone else still at the club the time to make a proper job of this. People crying out for big money buys so soon are perfectly entitled to be overly excited (he's called Optimistic Nut for a reason, you know?) but personally I can't do anything but back Allardyce's decisions at the moment and I have to say I'm delighted with Viduka, Barton and Rozehnal in for Sibierski, Parker and Bramble so far. Baby steps and all that - it's all forward motion right now. We've got what we wanted: a new high-quality manager with a gameplan and a proposed team around him and a new chairman - not to mention apparent oodles of money, an 8,000 seat stadium expansion on the way, more development of the area around the stadium and a new set of shirts to kick it all off with. Things are looking fucking brilliant (at least until the first ball of the season is kicked, that is). Let's just see where the rollercoaster takes us this time and enjoy the ride over the summer. I understand that the wild speculation will only intensify now and that threads linking us with Adriano to Zidane are unvoidable, but I personally agree with the others who have said they hope Big Sam builds a SQUAD, not just a first team. Investment in quality young players is as essential as getting in the right sort of players with the right sort of attitudes - I can't help but think that Ashley will want to make his mark with at least one mega-signing, so I suppose/hope both sides of the debate will be appeased. I certainly wouldn't mind a big name coming in, as long as it wasn't to the detriment of other areas. As it stands we have an apparent senior squad of about 20, not all of whom want to stay/should be allowed to stay/are good enough to stay, there is still a hell of a lot of work to be done on the transfer front before August 31st (hopefully sooner than that this season!) Let's just wait and see what happens before we all go a bit mental and start saying we should be looking at better players than Habib Beye (how much do people actually know about him, anyway?) It's all good from where I sit, things simply cannot be as bad/disorganised/ridiculous as the last three seasons have been.

Well spotted as that was me. I am not ITK, I read the business sections of newspapers a well as the sport section & then start searching google. I found Mort & read what had been coming out of from the "Ashley Camp" & it seemed obvious that Mort would be in the running. My David Edgar signs a contract extension post was a ITK post though I respect your authoritah, for sure. Good call on this one. These days cannot come quickly enough Toon-wise at the minute - it's magic.

I agree that we should sell Carr... or keep him. Don't know enough of this Beye bloke to be plussed or non-plussed but at least he has some height about him and seems to be fairly versatile. Not exactly a spring chicken like, but probably still more pleasing than getting someone like Luke Young. I for one hope Solano isn't a first-team player next season - he was not as great at RB as people are making out, he was probably adequate but even that was a huge step-up. He did have a few very good games there though.

I laughed.

In fairness he did say IF Owen or Martins leaves.

Good stuff, I suppose. Like many I'm no expert on Rozehnal having only seen him a handful of times, but I trust that Allardyce has had his eye on him for a good while now and will have had him fully checked out for a good enough length of time. It's quite nice to be signing somebody who we don't have too many pre-conceptions about, let's hope he turns out to be another Sibierski-style success story - as opposed to a Damien Duffer - who has been nothing but disappointment after we expected so much from him. Hopefully the low fee for Rozehnal combined with not many people knowing much about him should allow him a relatively pressure-free start here as opposed to other players that we've bought/will buy. If he's an improvement on Bramble, Moore and Onyewu then we're making forward strides. That's what next season is all about, really. Getting rid of the dross/the stale/the disliked and hopefully replacing them with players who can take us to where we should be. If it's the first of 3/4 defenders then I'll be delighted, but it's obviously another thing that depends on Allardyce's formation plans and the futures of Carr/Babayaro and the future positions of Dyer/N'Zogbia, etc.

Have to agree with this and what Gemmill said earlier. Luque deserves some credit for keeping himself fit and trying to earn a place in the side when it was clear Roeder was never going to pick him, at the very least. My good grace can certainly extend to seeing what he can do under the new regime, I'd even allow Carr and Babayaro some shrift these days - especially the podgy Irishman after some of his performances towards the end of last season. Good times.

He's shit at being suspended, i'll give you that one. I think you have a fair point overall though. I'd agree with this as well. Fair play to Taylor for doing us and the country proud, but the media bollocks on these shores is marvellous to behold sometimes. You'd think the lad had just fucking pulled four squadmates out of a blazing inferno in Iraq the way they've gone on. Let's hope he keeps his feet on the ground after all of it - that's my main worry. I do think he's got a massive future if he keeps his head though, more potential than Huddlestone, but not by too much.

What KaKa says has passed through my mind as well... either Martins and Owen are both trying to engineer moves away from the club via their agents by having these details made public (the most likely outcome), or the club/manager don't want to keep a hold of them and are quite happy for these sort of things to be published in newspapers. I'm sure if we tried hard enough we could deny this, or we could have stopped the stories ourselves. Just the way Allardyce openly admitted Owen's clause AFTER Shepherd's denial didn't sit quite right with me (even though he was telling the truth) and now if we don't see a denial from NUFC about the Martins release clause then I'll be feeling a lot more cynical about the whole thing. Obviously I hope we keep the pair of them, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if they had to go/wanted to go - as £22M is hardly pocket change. It's not what they're worth like, the figure should be higher, but it's not too bad if they both go for that sort of money when you think of the players we could potentially replace them with. It would be a shame to break up such a potentially exciting quartet of strikers (Ameobi, Martins, Owen, Viduka) and I would be a fair bit more gutted if they both moved on to PL clubs and did brilliantly, though. But we'll see, I cannot predict what's in Sam's plans.

Hey, this does look alright so far like. I was hoping we'd have a canny away strip so that I could actually get one this season. Are we still having a 3rd kit? Well out of touch with the news at the minute, especially on stuff like this.

That was torture. Scott Carson makes me weep. "Whoooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.... COLLAPSE TO ONE SIDE!" And repeat. I suppose he did save one like. Eventually.

Tbf, no one had a fucking clue what Roeder was gonna do next. I'm sure there were numerous times in the season where I got the line-up and players spot-on, despite some consternation from a certain Yorkshireman at certain times. I also don't doubt that plenty of other people knew Roeder's "game" as well. It was always 4-4-2, it was always his favourites. The only real shock I can recall was the team after he left, away to Watford. He was as fucking dull in his team selection/tactics as he was in his interviews. Anything but unpredictable.

3-5-2 would be my pick, like, if we're going with what we've got and if we're that intent on change. Not sure if it could ever be made to work effectively in the Premiership or with our particular players, but it'd be interesting at the very least. I suppose a lot hinges on whether Martins and Owen are wanted here/want to stay, I cannot see either being as effective in a "Diouf" role as they would be up front alongside Viduka (who might get injured anyway). As you say, it's nice to be able to wonder though, rather than just know exactly what the team/formation is going to be as we did for much of last season. The way Shak describes things is exactly how I see it, like, and I think it would work fantastically well, especially when you consider that there's Dyer, Butt, Milner and N'Zogbia capable of acting as "cover" for the proposed three, depending on what he does with the "Dyer as a wingback/fullback" scenario that he and McLaren seem to be brewing and whether N'Zogbia will even be here. If the four strikers stay and we do sign this mammoth midfielder, then I'd consider us fairly well sorted out in the front areas, leaving the minor factor of either signing a whole new back-four or moving N'Zogbia/Dyer to be wingbacks and getting in a few centre-halves for this newfangled 3-5-2 disaster-in-waiting that is now making me grin. None of us know what will happen like and things will probably turn out completely differently to what we expect, but it's fairly fun to speculate with some optimism again.

...And because when you do make a post, you'll get some job knockey picking one line out of it and taking about three hours of your life because you simply cannot face being proven wrong after such effort in the first place Drives me mad that like. You write a great long post and one line gets picked out. Anyhow, top post that initial one, Rich. It's the best way to wind someone up, like On a different score, I've seen you mention the 4-3-3 formation and I've now seen Shak allude to it, while when I was away I read papers claiming we'd play 4-4-2, 3-5-2 (which really excited me and made Papa Lazaru weep, I'm sure), 4-5-1 as well. Then there was Allardyce saying he wants "two players for every position" in regards to the forwards, which made me think that we'd be playing two up top. Has this debate been done elsewhere while I've been away? Because if it has I'd happily take it to the appropriate thread as it's something I fancy discussing. It's undoutable to me that a midfield three of Butt, Emre and Barton would be exciting (whereas Diarra, Emre and Barton would be jizz-worthy), but where do Martins, Owen, Viduka and Milner fit in to that? Four players, who if they stay should by rights be starters. Then there's a massive earner like Dyer to take into account who will seemingly be out in the cold. It's interesting to note the proposed formation when we're talking defensive midfielders though, because there's a huge difference between playing the Makelele role and playing the Roy Keane role - although there are, of course, players capable of doing both. Is it all just speculation at the minute 4-3-3 wise? I just can't fathom how he'll work it with Owen and Martins here.

My Mam is already on her way jmc, don't worry about it. ...Err... this thread was about defensive midfielders, wasn't it? I'm going to be typically boring and say I'll be happy with whatever Allardyce brings in as he's yet to have the chance to make me doubt him, but I still hope we add a "proper" defensive midfielder to the squad who is more powerful than anything else. Obviously we're not going to sign a Vieira and I wouldn't be overly keen on getting some unproven youngster and hoying him in there, but players like Appiah, Diarra and even Bouba Diop would probably be very, very good if used the right way and in the right circumstances. If they can compete in the air and pass a ball to an acceptable standard (I will not be happy with Amady Faye mk II) then they'll be an asset here. Despite my dislike for him, I couldn't be too unhappy if Butt was allowed to be the main man there next season though because at times last season he was absolutely outstanding. He's still too slow, small and old for me to be fully convinced about him, like, and his short-range passing is utterly rubbish. We still "need" another defensive midfielder at some point in the near future though, even if Rozenhal does come. Two players "competing" for every position is ambitious, especially in a season where we'll only have about 40-45 games (and that's being optimistic cup wise!) but it's definitely what we should be aiming to have if the money is there for it. However, if we're being sensible, the notion of Rozenhal being cover for Butt at times is a good one and it's hard to disagree with. It might be too soon to expect to have direct competition from 22 capable players in every position on the park.

...And because when you do make a post, you'll get some job knockey picking one line out of it and taking about three hours of your life because you simply cannot face being proven wrong after such effort in the first place

Perhaps not so much last term (even with the fairly sizeable/powerful bunch of Howard, Anichebe, Yobo, Lescott and Beattie - plus the bite of Carsley in there when you played us - compared to Newcastle having Given, Taylor, Ramage, Sibierski and Huntington as our "big lads" and Emre as our "bite") but howay man - for seasons Everton have kicked the s**** out of us and beaten us with direct football down at Goodison. Your lot are hardly Dancing on Ice, are they? I might have got the completely wrong impression of you's like, but I've always associated Everton with being a big, powerful team since we've been in the Premiership - especially when compared to the teams we've took down to your place recently. Never said it was a bad thing and it's worked for you against us for the past 5 seasons or something, since Acuna's finest moment at least, so I don't see the problem. Aren't Everton "physical" these days? I know you play some good stuff down there now and that the front six could hardly be classed as monsters for the vast majority of the time when everyone's fit (would be something like Johnson, Arteta, Cahill, Osman, Carsley and Fernandes last term, aye?), but even with that being said you still make our lot look like pussy cats. And Leon Osman is bigger/as big as about four or five of our eight midfielders anyway... seriously. We don't play particularly good football, no, that's one of my gripes with Moyes. We usually play quite defensively. However, that doesn't necessarily mean we're a dirty team or a big and powerful side. Liverpool play the same shitty defensive football as us and have two tall strikers (which we lack) and a player like Sissoko in midfield but you wouldn't talk about them in the same way because of their media image. You're being taken in by media bollocks if you think we are a big and powerful side or a particularly dirty one. The entire squad is full of short players apart from the centre backs and keeper. The only athletic players we have are Yobo, Lescott and Anichebe. The only players I'd say have a physical presence are Carsley, Vaughan and Anichebe. Carsley can be quite cynical but that's his job as a DM, he's no worse than Nicky Butt for example. Leon Osman isn't bigger than anyone btw. He's about 4ft and couldn't punch his way out of a wet paper bag. Give me some credit here mate. If anything, I've been taken in by what I've seen of Everton for myself over the past years, both in person and on Sky/BBC and my own perception has been that you've had a big, strong team and played particularly "strong" football for the vast majority of the time. Much like us with the shite football save for our "entertaining" years, which have been more intermittant than constant if we're being honest. Whenever I've seen us down at Goodison since the 01/02 season we've been battled to death and cheated on more than one occasion, but that could be bias talking. Last season I was really impressed with some of the performances I saw from your lot and the likes of Neville and Arteta are players I'd actually love at Newcastle if they could do what they do for you down there, both are miles better than what we have in their roles. If you noticed, an' all, I did in a roundabout way say that last season there'd been a definite shift towards a more "refined" style of play from Everton as well, but prior to that you surely cannot tell me that you've been all peaches and cream? As for physical players: no mention of Cahill or Beattie in there? Two fairly stocky/powerful lads, by all accounts - Andy Johnson is hardly a pushover either, despite his media portrait at times. Then there's Neville/Hibbert/Valente/Naysmith who are all bigger than our fullbacks by an inch or two a piece. An inch makes the world of difference, apparently. I think the fact you see your current squad as being "small" says it all about previous years, as well As for Liverpool, Crouch is the obvious beanpole and Sissoko is fairly massive, but I'm fairly sure Kuyt is smaller than Anichebe and about the same size as Beattie (probably smaller actually and less beef on him as well) so that "two big strikers that we don't have" thing doesn't wash. Liverpool have never been particularly cynical/dirty when I've seen them play either, if memory serves, especially against us - whereas Everton most certainly have. Even just last season Anichebe bullied the bollocks off us. I'm wasn't picking this out as a fault or having a dig, as I've said I'd love it if we had more brawn about us than we do, but I can't think of too many more teams who've played a more constantly bullish style of football than Everton in my admittedly fairly few years watching football. I'd like to think I'm not a media sheep, but obviously I don't see as much of Everton as you do and I'm not in as good a position to comment (save for the lack of the unavoidable bias that we all have to our teams). But it would be interesting to see other people's perceptions on this, if anyone can be arsed. As for Leon Osman, he really is bigger than more than half of our midfielders

Perhaps not so much last term (even with the fairly sizeable/powerful bunch of Howard, Anichebe, Yobo, Lescott and Beattie - plus the bite of Carsley in there when you played us - compared to Newcastle having Given, Taylor, Ramage, Sibierski and Huntington as our "big lads" and Emre as our "bite") but howay man - for seasons Everton have kicked the shite out of us and beaten us with direct football down at Goodison. Your lot are hardly Dancing on Ice, are they? I might have got the completely wrong impression of you's like, but I've always associated Everton with being a big, powerful team since we've been in the Premiership - especially when compared to the teams we've took down to your place recently. Never said it was a bad thing and it's worked for you against us for the past 5 seasons or something, since Acuna's finest moment at least, so I don't see the problem. Aren't Everton "physical" these days? I know you play some good stuff down there now and that the front six could hardly be classed as monsters for the vast majority of the time when everyone's fit (would be something like Johnson, Arteta, Cahill, Osman, Carsley and Fernandes last term, aye?), but even with that being said you still make our lot look like pussy cats. And Leon Osman is bigger/as big as about four or five of our eight midfielders anyway... seriously.

I know that story from EatSleep is probably rubbish but the likes of Diarra would be a perfect addition because we are crying out for some height in the centre of the park and he certainly has "Allardyce" written all over him (no tattoo jokes please). I know people want us to play attractive football and perhaps aren't keen on us signing "big lads" because of a perceived lack of that sort of ability for them, but having somebody capable of winning the battle in the middle of the park on the deck and in the air would be a massive boon for the more "flair" style players in our line-up and would probably enable us to play better football in the grand scheme of things. It would also be magic to see us not getting bullied to death every term by the likes of Bolton, Everton and the other "physical" teams in the league. In my eyes, we only have three central midfielders at this club at the moment in Barton, Butt and Emre and none of them have any physical presence about them - plus I'm not overly enamoured with Butt being an automatic starter anyway, so signing a bloke like Diarra would thrill me. You could obviously vouch for Dyer being in there and perhaps he might flourish in this proposed 4-3-3 thing that people are predicting we'll play (can't see it myself unless Martins and Owen both leave), but either way we're still short in the middle of the park. We do need another defensive midfielder whether Butt stays or goes if Big Sam's "two players for every position" thing is to be upheld and I reckon it'd be ideal if we signed a lad who can play a bit and would also offer us an option from set pieces at both ends of the field - something we've missed really badly since Speed left. I'm not sure how happy I'd be heading into the season with a small 'keeper, two proposed 5'9" fullbacks like Sagna and Baines and a dwarf-like midfield ahead of them. I know height isn't the be-all and end-all, but it's a fairly important factor in our league and it's been a major achilles heel for us for years now. I'm like a broken record with this, but I'm determined to see us sign some powerful players. Amady Faye did not count by the way, because he was utter toss. Another thing with Diarra is that he's a winner and that's the sort of mentality we look like we're after.

Fucking brilliant if true. The Smoggies shan't be chuffed. Let's just hope he does the business for us if it does happen.

I'd still try and squeeze more money out of them, but if they won't budge then I wouldn't hesitate at taking £8.5M for a player who'd probably want to go anyway.

It was worth a try, the one you got is better than the one we ended up keeping, at least he was when he was here. That's true enough. He's a tryer, Hughes, and a nice, model pro style bloke, but he just makes the same mistakes over and over again. Stands off his man far too long, lets people start to go past him, sticks a leg out hopefully, gets away with it most of the time, but when he doesn't ..... Got a run out towards the end of the season after not getting a game for months, did precisely the above and we got punished by a goal within 20 mins of starting the game. Aaron Hughes all over. Was probably never really good enough for us, either, despite some outstanding performances. He has simply never changed his style of play since day one and will never be a success at a club with big aspirations. If we'd have had better fullbacks in the Robson era things could have been even better. The stand-off approach of his used to drive me crackers as well . He's like the ultimate soft-shite nice guy on the pitch. Defenders shouldn't be like that. Shame though, because as you say he's a model pro sort of a bloke. Fairly average like, but probably not a bad lad to have in a dressing room. Saying that, nobody's perfect and he did have his moments for us, but what you've just described there is Aaron Hughes all over and you'll find posts saying that about him going back years if they're still on the 'net.