KaKa

Coubury, You've absolutely made my day!!! Even when Sunderland were linked with him I was hoping it was a mixup and it was actually us after him as he ticks all the right boxes as far as our recent recruitment goes. I like Enrique but he can probably afford to be brought along a bit slower. It will be a good competition between the two. Taiwo is a physical specimen and bombs down that left side like a man posessed. His left foot is an absolute cannon as well. Sunderland have no right to sign such a player. Lets hope he signs for us and joins his pal Martins. Coloccini and Taiwo?! Plus Derdiyok?! I will be in 7th Heaven.

Is this the guy with dreads people thought was Gomis?!!! God give me strength. What a let down.

afar are you responsible for that tacky footylatest article then?

Diggin the Big Will drama. Can I get a link please? Regarding Smith ... I reckon the fact we are allowing him to leave for only £2 million should mean that Everton really ought to be able to afford his wages. We know he isn't worth 2 pence but still in a day and age where Chopra was worth £5 million we could have easily asked that much for Smith. Everton just trying to scrounge even more money I think. I really hope this works out in the end.

Definitely better than the away kit.

He's a 29 year old midget! WE ARE NOT SIGNING HIM!!! Dave be a man and close this filthy thread.

What a ridiculous thread? We are not signing Healy guys!

Yeah, he'll just kick and thrash out at it aimlessly.

The only thing Carroll has done is not break into the Preston team and gotten kicked off an England team. Seems like he is an absolute joker. Our four strikers shoul be Owen, Martins, Viduka and a guy like Derdiyok. When Viduka retires or moves on in a couple of seasons we can see if Carroll is ready then. He can then be a backup then.

The sale of both Smith and Ameobi will probably net us around £5 million. This is the price we have apparently been quoted for Derdiyok. Young, affordable talent, who will be good enough to fill in for Viduka, but also won't be adverse to not playing when Viduka is fit and in good form.

Sill maintain he will do well for Everton. Everton made Phil Neville and Carsley look respectable. It's a good signing for them it really is. But it's an excellent sale for us. Sometimes it works well for everyone.

David Moyes, the manager, has stepped up his efforts to sign João Moutinho and Stéphane Mbia. Talks were continuing with Sporting Lisbon over Moutinho, the Portugal midfield player, yesterday while Everton hope to reach a £5 million agreement with Rennes for Mbia, the Cameroon midfield player. With Andrew Johnson set to complete his move to Fulham today, Moyes is close to signing Alan Smith for £3 million from Newcastle United and wants Diego Milito, the Real Zaragoza and Argentina striker. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/everton/article4474579.ece In the Times we trust ... I think Smithy is definitely gone. Has to agree terms with Everton as well as him maybe trying to get a loyalty bonus off us, so no way Kev was going to put it out there until completion. He's gone. Gone. Gone. I refuse to believe any different.

He absolutely has to go. However, I think he will fit in better at Everton and actually do well for them. The rest of their team is so solid that they can afford to have him in there running around and cauing a bit of havoc for the opposition, albeit in a headless chicken sort of fashion. He can do all the hard running which Yakubu doesn't really do enough of. He'll probably even score some goals as he won't really be under pressure to do so there, with Yak, Arteta and Cahill. Moyes would love him for the player he is i.e. the supposed 100% commitment, hard man act as moyes is just that sort of manager. On the other hand Keegan, who loves the beautiful game, just doesn't quite have enough to work with when it comes to Smith. I think it's a good deal for both clubs tbh.

Maybe he was expecting his assets to be released? Maybe all his money is being channelled to his defence legal team?? If he was asked if he wanted Jo or a good lawyer, I could hazard a guess at the answer. Actually the Times claimed they only made a £4 million downpayment on Jo and the rest of the money is staggered over a few years.

Owen (the injuries aren't quirky anymore) and Smith out. Saviola and Baptista in.

Maybe we need to just continue the Argentine theme and get Saviola in instead. He would be tasty just behind a front two of Martins and Viduka. We need Owen badly. If he is going to continue to miss so much of the season through injury, it is going to have a huge effect on our chances of success.

So ... Michael Owen is likely to miss the start of the new season it turns out, due to yet more injury problems. We know when he is available he can produce the goods, but are we doing the right thing in giving this guy a brand new hefty contract considering how fragile he is? Is this the sensible thing to do?

Why would they want to sell him? Just signed Ben Haim so Richards at right back? Richards in midfield probably. Ben Haim and Dunne at the back. New, proper right back instead of playing a rotating collection of centre backs there. That wouldn't make any sense, they've got money to burn out of their arse and they're selling one of their best players because they got Ben Haim? And they're going to push their best defender into midfield... They haven't got money to burn at all. Thaksin has hardly spent f*** all and Jo, his only big signing, is costing them buttons in the short term, paid on the drip over several years. Richards has played midfield before- they need a defensive midfielder and don't have the money to buy anyone good. Edit- and why would Ben Haim leave Chelsea's bench for City's? He'll be going there to play every week. Apparently Corluka all agreed at £6.8m subject to a medical. Irrespective of whether City have got money or not, I'm surprised they would be selling a good player they got last summer at a loss for no good reason. He has proved himself able in the Premier League after all. Kicking off in the City forums......................... Absolutely brilliant purchase for Tottenham. I love Corluka's game. An unbelievable sale by City in the first place, but it is further compounded by that ridiculous price! I wouldn't sell Corluka for less than £10 million. H ecame into the league and was quality from day one, he is a young first team player for his country, and he is unbeleivably versatile! He played at centre back, right back and entre midfield for City last year and never looked out of place in any of those positions. Complete madness. Could never quite say for sure if Hughes was a quality coach or another royal rumble football man (a la Allardyce) who happened upon a few quality players. Well he just sold Corluka and brought in Tal Ben Haim, so I know what I'm leaning more towards! Imagine if we had signed Corluka and Coloccini! Amazing signing for Spurs. He definitely has to be in the first team too, so maybe king will come off the bench or one of them might even play at DM. Wow ... absolutely stunned by this.

If we could get a young LB and RB in the Bassong mold that would be alright.

Interesting stuff from Keegan. Very telling that he thinks so highly of Guthrie, as he says players of the quality of Gutierrez and Guthrie, so Guthrie might be straight into the first team. I would really prefer him to Butt at the moment, so I'd be cool with that. I also hope that of the three top quality newcomers he hopes to have in, it will be Coloccini with a midfielder and striker, as Dave said. However, I'm a bit worried that a left back might be included in the three. At the moment, I would much rather just bring in a young backup left back and have a top midfielder and Striker come in along with Coloccini.

Very encouraged byt he fact that every new player that has been brought in so far, look s like they have something about them. Very discouraged by the lack of improvement or progress being made by other members of the team who seem to be stuck in the same place of delivering average to poor performances.

I'm worn out. Maybe I shouldn't have posted so soon after the game, but I am just tired off watching the two of them. They say Milner stays behind at practice everyday and his crossing is at the best exactly the same. In actuality it is worse. Taylor makes all the gestures, yells at people, acts like he cares, but he doesn't actually defend well at all, which is what he is expected to do. I just don't enjoy watching these guys play the game. Newcastle is too big for these guys. They shouldn't be anywhere near the first team of the club, and hopefully if recrutiment goes well this will be the case.

Careful, they've played two or three pre-season games. Let's not get carried away. It's just how lowly I rate Taylor and Milner. I don't see flashes of anything in them that makes me think hang on a minute there might be something there. I just don't. I understand where your coming from as far as not getting carried away, but I already see so much more promise in these two new signings. Guthrie clearly has so much composure and thought behind his play, somethng Milner it seems will just never get. Bassong at the very worst is at least a very good athlete who knows how to use his body to defend effectively, Taylor despit his physique still doesn't seem like he can even do that much. I'm just really frustrated with both Milner and Taylor at the minute, and perhaps I'm over reacting, but they really are dissapointing. I feel annoyed that we have given these guys brand new contracts because I'm not sure they deserve them, as they haven't really performed on the pitch for us yet.

Milner really seems to have gone backwards, maybe he has half an eye on leaving or summat. Hmmmm ... honestly I've never really seen what people see in the guy. I love his dedication and commitment, but he is very average. I really feel he is more of a championship standard player. Could never see him being a first team player in the premier league.

Taylor and Milner are just unbelievably poor. I'm glad more people are beginning to see this. These guys cost us games at both ends of the pitch. They are consistently poor and at their very best are very average. It's ridiculous. I couldn't be happier about Bassong and Guthrie. Two players who have barely cost a couple of million and they are already standing out in our team and are showing that they will definitely be an improvement on a lot of the layers we already have. Huge credit to the recruitment team for Bassong and Guthrie who a lot were so worried about. Looking very promising for those two young guys. Honestly, the performances of Bassong and Guthrie have pretty much shown that with a couple of million we could easily replace Taylor and Milner with better quality and it's embarrassing. Especially as those two with all their unjustified hype could probably net us at least £10 million. It's a joke.