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I'm not upset. I'm just making the point that at Everton, the manager makes the transfer decisions. All of them. He's said, publically and on several occasions, that's the only demand he makes of his chairman. You were making the point that the manager has no ability to block a transfer when you...

Not every club runs it's transfer dealings in identical ways. In recent years, the European model with a "director of football" who looks after transfers has become increasingly popular; at other clubs there are board members who essentially do a "director of football" job even though that isn't...

Can, actually. You obviously believe the standard media line that Everton achieve consecutive top 6 finishes with terrible players through a combination of trying really really hard and voodoo magic. Osman and Neville,in particular, are players who get moved to different positions every week...

What were the effects of Villa not selling Barry to Liverpool, selling only when he had 12 months left on his contract? Was there a single young player who thought "better not sign for them"? Does Delph have no ambition? Berbatov was angling for a move 13 months before Spurs finally relented...

That was my impression of him too. It's a bloody good foot though. Yeah, playing him in front of Baines would be terrible, because if you take away Baines' attacking threat he's a below average left back. It would probably never, ever work for him at Everton. Yet I'd still be happy if I heard...

I've been a big fan of Petrov since he joined you, but am I right in saying he's left wing only? Would he be able to play right wing (cutting in and shooting), in the same way Young plays left wing at Villa? The reason I ask is that the Baines/Pienaar left wing partnership has been great for us...

The notlob "palindrome" reference is a Monty Python joke. Heathens.

At the start of last season, Everton had nine outfield players fit who had started a top flight game. Our subs bench contained six kids. That's six, because we couldn't find a seventh. Our midfield line on opening day was Valente (a left back), Rodwell (a 17 year old who had played centre back...

I think Lazio didn't have an option to buy, they had a period of exclusive negotiations. There was no fee agreed from the outset. I totally agree that in these cases, there's nothing Everton could do. I'm going to leave this here, since without seeing the contact I have no idea which type of...

OK, I suppose that all of that could be true. It's just that I've never heard of such a deal happening. I've never heard of a club taking a player on loan, having an agreed fee, wanting to exercise it (and the player wanting to go) but his parent club refusing. I have heard dozens of examples...

That's fine, nothing wrong with doubting the (often wrong) sports media. I don't claim to have any inside info, I'm just pointing out that these "loans with an option to buy" are pretty common, especially with Everton, and especially in cases where his old club have basically given up on him...

What do you base that on? What is the point of agreeing a fee in advance if one side can back out? What is the difference between having the fee in the loan agreement and not bothering at all? You may as well put a clause in there saying we can sign Robinho for 20p, unless City decide not to...

I don't know if that's true or not (do you have a link?) but even if it is, we have agreed to take on most of his wages. He's on what, £60k a week? So if you didn't loan him out, you'd be paying him £3m this year. It's not like anybody else will take on his wages. Taking on £2m+ in wages and...

EFC fan again - I'm trying to stay out of these arguments due the bile flying around, but in the hope of defusing at least one: according to reports, Everton do indeed have the right to exercise an option on Jo, IF the player agrees. If Jo wants to stay at City there's nothing Everton can do...

Obviously this wouldn't happen, but playing along, Rodwell would play there - he's a CB playing in midfield. No chance Fellaini drops back just because he's tall(at this point I have a horrid flashback to Walter Smith using Alex Nyarko as defensive cover....arghhhh). We'll bring in another CB...

I think at this stage most people expect it to happen, but that's as much due to the expectance that City will pay whatever it takes. Moyes is certainly capable of just saying no if he doesn't like the offer. All this talk of "what's the point of keeping an unhappy player" is pretty crazy...

Re: Lescott update I have no issue with it, I was just pointing it out in case you were under the impression that you were giving information out safely.

Re: Lescott update All of whom have been either in pre season training, or at the training ground getting treatment. Except if they were playing in an international U19 competition, obviously.

Re: Lescott update You know, there's a slight issue with passing on stuff from an Everton first teamer but leaving him nameless - there's only about 15 of them, so if you provide any information at all it does make it slightly easy to work out who it is. Number of Everton players who have...

Tell you what, don't judge Everton fans by the minority who go onto another teams board to start fights, and I promise not to judge all City fans by the type who will call for Hughes' head if City aren't top of the league at the end of September. I even met a sensible Newcastle fan once. He was...