Martinez: Transfer business done until January

If the last three signings were the main targets then we are in trouble. There seemed like there was a lot of options out there, but we didn't jump on the opportunities quick enough. It just doesn't seem like £20 million spent wisely for a club that is watching every penny.

It would have also been a statement of intent to combat the Stones saga and show that we are serious about challenging the top sides. Just like we did when we signed Lukaku.

It's all well and good saying we want to keep the likes of Stones, Barkley and Lukaku but, if we don't show some ambition beyond that, what is the point?

I sincerely hope the prove me wrong.

Couldn't have said it better

(OK, McGeady out).

I see us finishing somewhere between 9th and 12th with the current squad.

As for the names we apparently missed ...well did they want to come?

Every transfer window ends up like this and not necessarily because we did bad business; just that others have more money.

It may be that other signings turn out to be crap but to assume it is is a real "glass half-empty" mindset and we do have a good record of finding cheap gems.

I tend to agree with first post.

Seems like we were unable or unwilling to get our main targets and ended up with no playmaker and overpaying for a CB who represents a risk at the least.

Difficult to know what was attempted behind the scenes. But surely Ayew and Payet in particularly should have had the carpet rolled out for them. Or Cabaye.

We are still woefully short of creativity from the middle of the park and I wouldn't bet on first choice Barry/MCCarthy assisting or scoring more than a handful of goals between them this season.

Gibson and "staying fit" shouldn't even be in the same sentence anymore.

The guy is a proven injury prone player, you can't get more than five or six matches from him and expect anything more.
I think when he did play last season we got a bit carried away, it was possibly due to how bad our midfield was, but Gibson didn't do anything great in the league games he featured in, he had one good game in Europe v Young Boys.

The fact we a even considering him as useful tells us where we are as a club, he should be farmed to somewhere like Blackburn or Bolton.

The amount of decent midfielders we missed out on during the summer was alarming and spending only real sizeable cash on a relatively unknown central defender is a risk in more ways than one but we are familiar with this being the Everton way now.

What does frustrate me is this unbearable fascination with this 'Barcelona-esk' formation, do any managers actually have the balls to revert back to 4-4-2 or whatever to enable us to utilise the players we do have to their optimum potential!?

Rom & Ross or Kev up front with Del Boy and Lennon/Kev running the lines with Cleverly and Macca in the middle of the park bossing the game sounds delicious to me.

Instead we insist on this fractured combination of "Oh yeah, Arouna do you mind sort of playing inside left but a bit up front when we hoof it!? Ross do you mind stagnating in this forward/middle slightly off centre no man's land role which we know you love!?"

Argh, Cabaye would have been a dream move, but alas we either weren't prepared enough (seems like a Martinez trait) or we weren't prepared to invest, either way we are left wondering every year, what the hell is going on?

Let's beat Chelsea with a Stones back post header in the 97th minute and I'm sure we'll be ok.

Otherwise you have to pay inflated fees and wages. We are not in London, and probably won't win a cup, and we don't compete at the top of the pay scale.

Let's hope the South America and prove worthy Blues.

Also, I believe the club were under the illusion that the Yarmelenko deal was tied up. Maybe by his agent?

How different would the window have looked if that deal had gone through as planned?

We needed a centre-half; we got one. Yes, he is an unknown but that is not always a bad thing is it?

Deulofeu and Cleverley are genuine first team players who do strengthen the starting team. I'm not Martinez biggest fan but even I would not blame him for not foreseeing Cleverley's injury.

The biggest positives to take from the previous windows are we are bringing players in at the right age group rather than in previous windows were Alcaraz, Barry and Kone were bought. Another massive positive is the fact we kept suitors away from a number of our main men, namely Stones, Coleman, McCarthy and McGeady (OK, messing about the last one).

We now have a good young spine with three solid pros to help them out; if two of them step it up, we will be a good team this season. For me Jags is always good, he's a great captain and a true leader. Howard has shown signs of improvement; Barry must do the same... if not, McCarthy needs to step up and take more responsibility in the centre of the park.

With Stones, Lukaku, Barkley, Deulofeu and McCarthy, we have some really top youngsters. Keep them fit and in form and we could be going places this season, especially once we get Baines back (still some time off, I know). At the minute we have to try to be positive, Chelsea this weekend is a tough task but pretty soon the games become easier and we could sneak up on a few teams.

Interestingly, the papers are reporting that Stones is requesting a £38m release clause if he signs a new contract. That would be senseless from the club's perspective and I hope we tell Stones and his agent to shut up and just play. He still has some making up to do after handing in the transfer request, regardless of the pressure he was under.

Why give him a new contract if it allows a club to swoop in for him in January and trigger the release clause? We have him on a contract for 4 more years where we can name our price, so what exactly is the point of a new contract? Yes, he deserves a pay rise, but it has to come without a release clause, unless it's something ridiculous like £60m.

I am currently making a cider press so I, for one, will be able to handle the truth.

His heart is still not with Everton if it's true about the request of a clause in a new contract.

I believe we are stronger than the RS, Spurs, Man Utd and the like. Champions League here we come! Roberto will lead the way.

COYB

Only at Everton could you see this being true, 4.5 years left on his current deal and there talk of a contract release fee for a few £m more than what we’ve turned down.

For me, offer him a deal, no problem with that, but if any clause has to be added, it’s 㿞M + add ons

Welcome to Goodison! If a team or player are having a bad run, it's always us that breaks that bad run.

Come on blues, let's change this for once: 2-0 to the Blues.

For me, the most important factor was keeping the existing team intact. We got rid of two of the deadwood players in Alcaraz and Distin and brought in seven, including Deulofeu for peanuts.

I think Ramiro will prove to be a success and Cleverley looks like a useful addition. Lennon will work his socks off and add pace and drive. Holgate could turn out to be the next Stones and Leandro is the wildcard.

Nowhere near a disaster but it is disappointing that we missed out on the Number 10 we do still need. At least Ross seems to be back to his best.

Believe me, if I had the power I would swap Stones for Eric Dier tomorrow and play the big Spurs roughneck in the Barry position. Apart from crippling Cleverley, this monster of a lad played some really good stuff and dominated the middle of the park. So much so, that Spurs put a video on You Tube entitled "Eric Dier versus Everton". Am I right in thinking this lad was once a young Blue?

Okay, maybe Stones will turn into a super centre back and captain Everton and England but I won't be around to see it. Selfish I know but I want to see us flying high right now. Since losing Distin and Fellaini we are flimsy in the extreme but we do have lots of pace up front and need to make it count. Against Chelsea for starters. They are mighty slow at the back.

Dier was never officially a blue, but here as a youth loan from Sporting, in what was a very bizarre deal. He was here for about a 1 1/2 years and didn't get anywhere near the 1st team. If I recall within a few months of returning to Portugal, he was in Sporting's first team as a starter. We basically developed him for free and sent him back to his team a better player, and I don't believe we had a clause to buy him in the future. He was here at around the same time as Mustafi, who is a World Cup winner and has gone on to make a number of multi-million pound transfers, but we released on a free.

The first is just not quite good enough. Just like on the pitch we lacked that final piece of the jigsaw, the killer pass, that little bit of extra class. A Yarmolenko, Kagawa type signing that would have given us a buzz and sent out a message of intent.

The more cynical view is that again like on the pitch when poor team selection, poor substitutions and God awful, drab, dire, boring negative tactics hold us back, we have been sold short