Call me optimistic, stupid, crazy, whatever but I still think this deal is gonna happen.

Was interesting to see Peter Reid, an Evertonian saying let him go. He does not want to be there.  Get him out

Not sure I would have ever expected Lawro to come down on Everton's side anyway, tbh. ;)

Still good to hear.

Which fans cos you never show up at our place

Hope you manage to find time to attend by prising yourself away from a rival forum.

Hopefully, Fred Elliott will soon get the chop. [ See what I did there ;) ]

Edited August 29, 201510 yr by Droogba

For all those defending Marinez, this si what he has to say today:
 

 "It is no good just to think that because you have a Champions League budget you're going to click your fingers and get anything you want," said Martinez.

"Clearly we don't work like that."

 

No of course they don't. They don't have a Champions League budget, and more importantly they don't have a Champions League place. How Everton work is to metaphoricallt click their fingers at lower league clubs. Martinez is heavily critical of the transfer window encroaching beyond the start of the season, which is when Everton CHOOSE to do their business. Not forced but choose.

 

Even with the saga effectively over, he can't resist having a go. Since we first made our interest known, Martinez has been having little digs. And no he doesn't mention us by name, but "a Champions League budget" could hardly be clearer. It's actually truer to day that Martinez can't click his fingers to prevent one of his players putting in a transfer request. What he can do, and has done, is to turn down that transfer request.

 

Not once have we implied that we can "get anything we want". But throughout Martinez has played the victim card, ludicrously casting himself and Everton as the hero and ourselves as the villains of the piece.

Edited August 29, 201510 yr by fuqqueue

Let the ugly twat keep talking.

Jose will eat this nothing manager up to the point the poor guy will be head deep under water by the time we thump them.

Know your level Martinez

Call me optimistic, stupid, crazy, whatever but I still think this deal is gonna happen.

I'm ever the optimist and am hoping the legals will be busy over the extended weekend for an eleventh hour outcome. No harm and nothing to lose by hoping.

 

“I am not surprised by the [transfer] request because he is a young man who is under massive pressure from people and outside influences. What we need to do is give more value to contracts. We need to bring more seriousness to being part of a football club and to making sure that contracts are important.

 

For a young man under massive pressure he was terrific [against Barnsley]. I am repeating myself but it is wrong for the football authorities to allow the window to remain open when there are important games taking place. When there is an opportunity to go to Wembley and to win silverware that should be respected and we shouldn’t put our players under this massive pressure.

 

The situation with John is very clear. We care about him, we want to protect him and give him everything we can to allow him to enjoy his football during this tough period. We’ve got great ambition for John and it has clearly got to the point now where, in football as in life, money can’t buy everything. That’s going to be a very strong statement at Everton. We want to build a winning team and so we want to keep our best performers. John is a big part of our future.”

 

Roberto Martinez 26/8/15

 

The John Stones transfer saga is summed up in these three paragraphs. Perfectly pitched, then tossed into the public domain by the best pitcher and tosser football has to offer at the moment. Forensic analysis of the Martinez oratory reveals all you need to know about the man and his priorities. First sentence, mention nub of matter [the transfer request] proffer spurious reasons why it’s been made [inexperience of youth/massive pressure/outside influence beyond club’s control] now quickly on to what really matters. John Stones transfer request came as no surprise? Nah, not for Martinez, nothing to see here, he wants to get to the real story for him and his club in the second sentence - stress the valued contract, bringing with it all the ‘seriousness’ inherent in ‘being part of a football club’ like Everton, that is where the fault has to lie, where the difference between Chelsea bidding and Toffee rejection can be exploited. In effect, play the tapping-up card, with full effrontery as the perfect add-on.

 

Next, a cursory return nod in young Stones direction, if only to emphasise the ‘massive pressure’ point [by making it again and again] though it was more likely to have been a mere inconvenience, the lad’s plight seeming to get in the way of his second crusade of the night, namely football authorities and their allowance of window opening when games are being played - it’s disrespectful to our cup competitions, apparently. Oh, and just in case we’ve missed Roberto’s hook line of choice, it’s also a bringer of added ’massive pressure’ on players…really, who knew and how so? But sadly, these questions must remain unanswered, because Martinez has the loose wire feeding thoughts of John Stones to his brain suddenly reconnected and he jolts back to the real world to clarify ‘the situation with John’.

 

Not that it needs clarification for Roberto - quite frankly it’s all very clear and all about Everton caring, Everton protecting, Everton giving everything, Everton having great ambition for him. It is indeed a ’very strong statement at Everton’, unerringly all about Everton, the player denied his transfer and cast aside on the periphery of career-changing events. Mind you, it was only to be expected, bearing in mind John’s tender age and inexperience in matters so complicated - do I want to go to Chelsea? Do I want to stay at Everton? Little wonder he needs help in confusing times like these, albeit they are uncannily similar to the confusing times he had back at Barnsley immediately before he left, when we can only assume parental control played its part [ultimately] in getting him into the state he’s in today. 

 

And that state is a pretty miserable one by all accounts, just when ‘three cheers for Scouser support’ should have been the cry, in the wake of a glowing future mapped out for him by a fatherly Martinez. Instead it was he who cried at their party time in Barnsley after shipping verbal abuse at the ground, followed by a distressing and totally unforeseen ‘filling up’ at a petrol station on the way home. Yet the irony in all this is that he was really leaving his true home and going back to further acrimony, the whole sorry mess culminating in some hasty suitcase-packing and a night spent hotel-bound, the nearest equivalent to a safe house to be found at such short notice.

 

Of course, Everton would have the world at large believe this tale of misery to be the fault of…well, who exactly? Surely Chelsea, or any other club for that matter, are entitled to bid when the transfer window is open, Everton are entitled to reject said bid and those that follow, while John Stones, in the light of events unfolding, is entitled to put in a transfer request during the procedure as an expression of his own wishes. So clearly [yes clearly, Roberto] the breakdown of [what should have been] a standard negotiation process cannot be lain at any person or club’s door, but responsibility for the exacerbated situation Stones now finds himself in must surely fall on his current club. 

 

Everton, vicariously via the derisory comments of their manager about our club, saw fit to stoke the fires of acrimony from the outset and the flames have subsequently been fanned by so-called supporters targeting everybody concerned at various stages in the process. John Stones is caught up in a vindictive aftermath and in the last few weeks will have learnt an awful lot about football and its fans. 

.

He talks about Stones like he's a little kid, he may only be 21 but he's an adult and if he wants to go should be allowed to.

I'll be interested to see how Stones plays for Everton this weekend.

If he's crap and/or there's a load of vitriol from the stands towards him then this move could still happen.

Rumours were that Everton were trying to negotiate the sell on clause from Barnsley. Why would they do that if they weren't interested in selling him?

Why would they do that if they weren't interested in selling him?

The rumours were false?

Rumours were that Everton were trying to negotiate the sell on clause from Barnsley. Why would they do that if they weren't interested in selling him?

Probably going to Man Utd most likely. Martinez hates Chelsea.

Why can't we just dig some dirt on their chairman and force them to sell :-/

Probably going to Man Utd most likely. Martinez hates Chelsea.

That's why he put in a TR when Chelsea wanted him then...

f**k John stones and f**k Everton let's get 3 points today

Does Roberto remember when Jose got Paul Lambert sacked with a press conference? Careful Roberto

Becoming painfully evident why we chased the lad so hard, don't be surprised to see one last ridiculous bid.

Becoming painfully evident why we chased the lad so hard, don't be surprised to see one last ridiculous bid.

 

Makes you wonder why the hell we started so late. What have we been waiting for, to see just how bad our defense can be before we make a bid ?

£55m??

Price went up another 10m after today's performance.

Pathetic starting bids from us a few weeks back. We should have gone in hard for him straight off the bat. To be fair, the problem is not necessarily central defence but more that we're playing with 3 in defence due to ivan, that he's making it hard for everyone else.

Bidding £30m for a 21 year old centre back with around 40 games is pathetic now?

Maybe it was ?30m? :)