Blues sweat on Lukaku ahead of opener

We have only got one striker, the midfield has no creativity and lacks balance, we have more injured players than any other club, we were lucky not to get done by three or four on Saturday, and we look no closer to bringing in reinforcements. The fans are somewhat apathetic to the tepid football on display; oh, and we are skint.

Still, despite an upturn in finances afforded by an increase in TV money, Stones to Chelsea / Man Utd / Man City has been a distraction.

Oh and then there are the rumours of James McCarthy being unhappy with the lack of new deal on offer and bids for KM, who is our secondary goal threat.

But other than that yeah, ready to rumble...... Well, ready to grumble.

We certainly are not ready, we only improved when we had a target man who was prepared to have a real go at the opposing players; Wayne is not our player and that is one thing we missed.

We had Duncan come on for a cameo and again improved things, but with him his playing 90 minutes are over.

Roberto does not look at the vote that’s taking place on ToffeeWeb where he would find out how many fans think we are ready. Oh, I wish we were ready...

Let's see what happens. Lukaku or not.

Expensive experienced replacement for Stones nailed on (Evans). No idea who else we have in mind but hopefully it’s another proper Striker in the £10-15m range and maybe a really shrewd loan signing to play in the hole, with a view to buy. I could actually see us getting the likes of Shaquiri on loan.

If the rumors of Jimmy & Kev putting pen to paper on new deals are true I would see that as a very good sign that something positive may be about to happen.

You made the right choice. Think I'll join you next year. I'm going to judge playing performances from Saturday onwards and transfer performance at the end of the window. I'll leave the speculation to the experts.

If we get Shaqiri, he will be on the bench all season. I watched him the few times he played for Inter last season and he was awful. He looked like a player who has forgotten what he can be good at -- beating a man and crossing.

Every time time he got the ball, he ran infield and into trouble; every time he didn’t have the ball, he wandered in field and was easily marked. He offered no width, no threat and was no use.

We could probably sum it all up half a dozen lines:
Roberto is crap (more than Moyes). Give him x more games.
Bill is crap (still): where's the money? where's the new ground? where's the new investor?
Osman et al are crap - get rid.
We're linked to x and y - sign them.
Why do we always leave it late in the transfer market.
Pres-season results crap.
This season will be crap. We're doomed.

Or contrary / self-moderated views. Have I missed anything?

The delusion among Everton management is catching.

Bill is "our best salesman".

Roberto is.. well just "phenomenal".

Crap.

Anyway, getting off the point here. My opinion is we’ll see Stones go and get in 2-3 significant signings and one loan of a talented player -- lost his way a bit -- type. Deadline day will be great this year.

How do you spell one big sigh, herrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhh?

On August 1st he gave a statement that, "From a medical point of view, he is fully fit". He followed that up with a comment that I find more confusing: "It is just a case of making sure we give him a good introduction to work with the group, because he has not had a chance to do that yet."

Another one of his quotes I find strange is in an interview with the Daily Mail, in 2012, he is alleged to have said. "I always believe every injury can be avoided plus, I don’t believe in soft-tissue injuries. If you get a soft-tissue injury playing football, a mistake has been made."

As Mr Martinez is in charge, as the fitness programmer at Everton, with the amount of pre-season injuries, maybe he should have a good at what is wrong, as prevention is sometimes easier than the problem.

Could be a bluff I guess, mind games with the mighty Watford....

If he's not 100% please do not risk him. Last thing we need is Rom being out for 1-2 months!

I guess that means we will move onto prolific striker No 2. With 1 goal in 2 years, we make as well player Hibbert at No 9 for what Kone offers.

Hibbert is out for 10 weeks.

Can someone please explain how Stoke City are eyeing up better talent, have got better contacts at Barcelona, and are spending more money than Everton FC!

If it turns out Lukaku has indeed suffered a hamstring injury and he has tried to kid us knowing only Kone waits in the wings, then I will be severely pissed off.

My Spanish is shit.

Another reason to keep his mouth shut is perhaps due to the fact that he's not wanting to tell Watford et al that they don't need to train for their game with us with players X, Y & Z in their mindsets, instead they can focus on other tactics and have a better chance of beating us.

I know many of us feel like we "know our stuff", but I am hedging my bets that half of you getting angry don't really know how to manage a football team half as well as you'd like to think you do. Give the man a break; the season hasn't even begun yet!