OTF

They look thrilled. That really is horrible news about Barton, I guess it was foolish for any of us to believe that with a solid pre-season behind him we'd see anything but the Joey Barton who has stamped, fouled and sulked for us already.

Klasnic should actually be available for nothing now, having cancelled his contract with Nantes. If there's no other choice I wouldn't mind bringing him in, surely we could match Bolton's wages. ...Not likely to happen though with Hughton carrying on about all the depth we have up front

Thank God you ain't our manager anyway. Yeah, because having a strike force of (for example): Roque Santa Cruz, Andy Carroll, Peter Lovenkrands, Nile Ranger, Haris Vuckic with Kevin Nolan and Alan Smith ....is worse than having: Andy Carroll, Peter Lovenkrands, Shola Ameobi, Leon Best, Xisco, Nile Ranger, Haris Vuckic, and Kevin Nolan Santa Cruz doesn't have to be the player, but the point is clear. We have a list of supporting strikers, with noone standing out as an established proven premier league player. I'm pretty sure the FA won't cut us any exceptions that allow us to field 12 players because we have so many average forwards on our playing roster so the key is to improve our starting 11. The wages in total would be similar, it's the initial outlay that would need to be made available. An outlay that without question would be much much much less than the difference in income between a Championship and Premier League club, a difference that we seem to be in danger once again of discovering. The difference this time would be that we don't have a squad that we could sell off 30 million pounds worth of player like we did last time.

Agree 100% We're going to struggle to get goals. In the Championship for patches when our forwards were struggling to score we had Nolan, Guthrie and even Ryan Taylor chipping in, it's hard to see them being able to fill the void. Chris must be looking and thinking the same, but due to budget restraints he's going to have to try to get the best out of what we have, so all the noise we hear coming from him is to that effect. I'd much rather get rid of three guys on moderate wages to pickup one on a higher wage. If we had injury problems we have the likes of Ranger and Vuckic who could step up and do a job, gaining valuable experience in doing so. We also have Alan Smith who once upon a time was a striker.

Plenty of options up front Chris, sure, but how many of them are any good? None are really proven in the top league, Shola despite playing many many Premier League games. Xisco I don't think anyone is in a position to say whether he's any good. It's hard to judge Santander's use of him also, as like us when we had Rossi on loan he could be getting limited minutes simply because he's only there on loan and isn't part of the bigger picture. The problem is that we'd need to see him given a run in the side to see whether he's any good, and that plainly is not going to happen when he's already so far down a weak but lengthy pecking order. Selling him would be Best (him too) for all involved, but that's not likely to happen, so we'll have another name on our playing roster who probably won't add much to our chances of any sort of success this season.

I'm not going to bother with this, injuries, form and signings both now and mid-season bring too many variables into the mix. The only thing I'd say for sure is that the winner will be one of three sides, Chelsea, Manchester United or Arsenal, and that we'll be in the bottom half because we'll struggle to score goals and don't have the resolve or ability to hold out most premier league sides.

So we'll be able to wear them for most of our matches in the premierleague this season?

If the back four is Campbell, Coloccini, Ryan Taylor and Enrique then I'll be quite worried. Three of them are very slow. Their lack of pace will no doubt look to be exploited by everyone we come up against. Even with Simpson or Perch there we're not that much quicker, and with no real specialist defensive midfielder so shield our centre backs things could get pretty messy. To be fair Campbell probably is ok once he gets moving, it would just be changing direction and initial accelleration that he's poor at. I guess we have to hope that at the first available chance he clutters into opposing players and slows them down that way. Steven Taylor has looked pretty good for us at right back in the past. Going forward he's not great on the ball, but he does love to push into the opposing box and has a decent knack for chipping in with the odd goal. Unfortunately he's also far from express.

Plus it was only natural for people to be excessively pessimistic after being relegated... and in turn it's only naturalfor them to be excessively optimistic after being promoted as 'Champions'. I think we'll survive, but it will be a long long long way from pretty... and Dan Gosling won't have a say in it.

..and tell me why he's supposed to be stoutly loyal to Everton? They picked him up as a 17 year old (turning 18 in one month) on a 2 and a half year deal, it's not like he came through their youth ranks from a youngster, and it's not like he's anything close to a local. He was given a run in Cup competitions but barely got a look in in the League, even with a lengthy injury list. He would not have got to play in his preferred position at the club, being behind many well established players, and one young player in Jack Rodwell. Everton fans will try to paint the picture that he didn't sign because he wanted more money, but I'd say it would be much more to do with wanting to play in his preferred position. If he stayed around there his development was likely to stagnate with the potential for him to play even less first team football now that they have a number of key players returned from injury. Do that for two years and you could easily find yourself in the football wilderness. These days if you're not reasonably well established by your early 20s then you're likely to be not much more than a utility journeyman.

...If Simpson, Perch and Steve Taylor are all out at the start of the season does this mean we're going to have to endure Ryan Taylor at right back?

No chance of this happening, no doubt still being linked because the supposed journalists completely missed the comments from Hughton to the contrary regarding our interest in him. Gone back to their old habits of chucking our name in there when randomly speculating, oh joy. I'm sure when we have a few more barren transfer periods they'll move on and use Tottenham or the like instead.

Not convinced, but I'd say he deserves a chance to prove himself. It was not so long ago that we played Peter Ramage in the Premier League, I'd have to say that Williamson is better than Ramage (though Ramage always tried hard). It's never good going into a season with someone who is unproven, particularly so when they're likely to be partnering someone who can potentially lose interest and confidence like we saw with Coloccini in his first premier league season. Neither are particularly quick at all, and quite slow in terms of acceleration so that's always a cause for big concern in probably the fastest league in the world. Sol Campbell won't help in that respect. It's lucky we've got Enrique to inject a little pace into our back four, as Taylor himself is not at all quick.

The one good thing is that it should be easy for him to stay fit and keep his touch throughout his layoff. Williamson is decent but we definitely need more depth in central defence. I don't really think that Campbell is the answer, but he'd be better than nothing.

Leazes, everyone feels the same in regards to ambition. We're not agreeing with you as such because your opinion in relation to ambition is an easy conclusion to reach. Unlike you however we're trying to find some direction and answers to the current predicament, something you've never done in realistic terms. You're the equivalent of a politician who's entire campaign is pointing out the shortcomings of the alternative rather than having any policies of your own.

It would be an amazing bit of business if he went for anywhere near 30 mill. He's a good hard working player but I don't think even Man City would pay that amount of money for him. Though they're very different players I wouldn't have the value of Milner any higher than Adam Johnson who is also a year younger.

Done nothing for us in black and white, but it's a sign of the predicament at the club that people (myself included) still see some potential in him. I could come up with some form of argument to discount his poor form for us as a result of his injury problems and off-field distractions enough so that I could see some promise for him this season, however chances are it's all just some form of misplaced pre-season optimism that will come crashing to the ground after seeing Barton play a few matches. Hope not though!

That's brilliant. Love it.

To be fair I've watched a fair few Liverpool games in which Kuyt has played and I'm still not sure whether he's any good, or just tries hard.

I just hope that he can keep his temper in check on the numerous occassion throughout the season where things aren't going our way. The right motivation and attitude is a start, but doesn't matter if he sees red constantly and makes brash challenges as a result. A lengthy spell with him in his preferred midfield position would be nice. It's horrible to see him played out wide.

I wonder if a player has ever signed somewhere and come out saying that the ground/area is a shithole and that he's looking forward to away matches just to get away from it. Other than Sunderland signings obviously. Now that Gosling is officially signed we have to forget about him until he returns from injury. I wonder how different a player he is to Guthrie.

I thought he was fantastic against Bolton first game of the season. Arguably the best player on the pitch. Didn't he pick up a knock and just drift out of the first team picture once Fat Sam left? A similar thing happened to Cacapa - looked immense, got a bad injury about 30 seconds in against Portsmouth, got blamed for the goals and never recovered physically or mentally. It may have been a knock or minor injury that did take him out of the team early on. I know he was then played out of position in midfield and openly lamented that not long before he was moved on. Technically he was more capable than the average defender, but was a little panicked under pressure and liked to overplay things a little.

If Gosling! signs, as a show of self discipline Kevin! should leave the Board! AND If Gosling doesn't sign, in compassion for our suffering Kevin! should leave the board. The number of times that halfwits derail threads is bewildering. The end result is that the few meaningful posts become lost in the piles of shite.

There's plenty of worse players you could pick up for 1 million or more. Him with Anton Ferdinand would be... interesting though, with both prone to the odd error. Could be like a Boumsong Bramble reunion.