20 Jan 2014 14:27:01
I think DM likes to tell a few porkies. "we know we need some new players but we won't panic buy"

Can someone please tell me what Fellaini was?

I would guess at a £27m panic buy. If that muppet Ed Woodward can justify £27m as value for money for the wig, then surely bid's in the region of £35-£45m for top quality proven midfielders is acceptable.

However, there are cheaper options always knocking about, Luiz Gustavo, went for around £10m, Strootman £17m, that's the same amount of money as for the wig, for one deep lying cm and one box to box, who would have improved the team.

Like a lot of people on here, I pay for 6 season tickets at OT year in year out, all I want is to be entertained for my money. I'm not ar**d about winning the league every year, I like walking away thinking 'what a match that was'

In the past the next game couldn't come quick enough, the crowd were always up for it, now, you can sense the nerves, the singha is going flat, the pies are tasting crap and some people are using their scarves to hang off the door frame of the toilets.

1.) 20 Jan 2014
Fellaini was NOT a panic buy. Moyes was chasing him the whole way through the transfer window. The only reason it went through at the last minute is because we thought we could get him for less than £22m. As it happened we were wrong.

2.) 20 Jan 2014
I accept your point on us pursuing him throughout the summer sticking in stupid joint bids for him and Baines, but, it was obvious that we did not value him at £27m or even at his reported £23.5m release clause (which had expired) therefore instead of walking away, we panicked and coughed up the cash as we had run out of time to pursue other targets.

3.) 20 Jan 2014
City bought a lot of players in the previous summer for probably too much. It generally happen when you don't do your main business early and leave it to last day. Just like everything it comes down to how motivated the buyer is and how smart the seller is. Berbatov rings a bell if I may say.

4.) 20 Jan 2014
I honestly believe that we intended on signing him no matter what and were just waiting for Everton to crack and settle for one of our stupid offers. The fact that they didn't is what lead us to pay the extra money.

5.) 20 Jan 2014
Moyes just wanted half the Everton team! Fellani was a terrible buy, Coleman or Baines, or Jags but Fellani? Come on! withe the quality of years gone by, Keane, Ince, Robson, Scholes, 27 million of a donkey like fellani?? Unbelievable! And it took him all summer to get him! LOL Please god Fergie can have some influence in the signing of players this year, until he learns how to manage a massive club!

6.) 20 Jan 2014
Shamlik

Baines is the best left back in the league and given how many goals we are conceding from Evra's side he would have made a massive difference.

Coleman at the moment is by far the better player than rafael in terms of consistency, so I would have no complaints if we had them.

Kind of arrogant to dismiss players because they play for a smaller club.

7.) 20 Jan 2014
I am very confident that you will all eat your words about Fellaini. He came to us after the season had started with the entire expectations of the transfer window put on him. He had no pre season and time to settle in with us, and walked straight into a minefield. Give the guy some time to settle and get properly fit, add in some new players and a settled team and he will be a valuable player for us.

8.) 20 Jan 2014
Redseven is spot on. The reason Moyes is now despised by so many Evertonians is because of the way he disrespected his former employers by pursuing Baines and Fellaini with insulting, derisory offers throughout the summer. He then tried the "I think that EFC are holding back their careers" tactic as a means of unsettling them both.
Fellaini was the only one to crack, submitting a written transfer request with only a few hours to go. He cost you a further 4 million or so because your club were greedy and thought Everton would accept a lower offer was his get out clause had expired in July.

I hope this hasn't offended anyone on this site, but I thought it only right to defend redseven who is factually correct.
By the way, please do not consider coming in for Ross Berklay or Seamus Coleman. Neither is for sale and we don't want a repeat of last summer which has soured relations between the two clubs.

9.) 20 Jan 2014
Imo we would have been better off buying McCarthy for £ 13 million rather than buying Fellaini for over twice that .
We would then have had £ 14 million to spend on a cb or lb

10.) 20 Jan 2014
Daveyboy, I posted this a few days ago, and agree with you in principle that we tried, and failed, to land Fellaini on the cheap. But it was Ed Woodward and the "money men" who made the offers. When will people come to understand that football managers do not do the negotiations for players. If that is the reason why so many Everton fan despise David Moyes, as you put it, then they need to find a more valid reason for their feelings.
Oh, and Fellaini didn't crack, as you call it. He merely wanted to push the deal through because he wanted to play for a bigger club, the same reason as Roberto Martinez went to yourselves.

11.) 20 Jan 2014
Betty - Moyes does not deal with the money but if Fellaini and Fabregas were the only two players Moyes could come up with to improve our midfield there is something wrong there.

For starters; Fellaini was and is not what we need. The fact that he was earmarked at all is bad enough. The fact that far better players were ignored because Moyes was adamant that Fellaini was the answer to all of our problems is unforgivable.

12.) 20 Jan 2014
Redseven, but that was not the point of my post ( which was basically agreeing with your!). The point was that Moyes doesn't do the nagotiations. As for the rest of your post, are you sure he only earmarked Fellaini and Fabregas? Herrera? DeRossi? Khedira? Bale? There are probably more but the truth is we don't KNOW who Moyes wanted in the summer. Most of it is fed to us by the media, buy I can almost guarantee you that there will be players that we are interested in that we, nor the madia know about.

13.) 20 Jan 2014
Betty - He may well have earmarked more than three players. I'm not sure there has been any real confirmation of any of the players you mentioned apart from Herrera - but that (as well as all of the rumours) came at the eleventh hour.

If he'd got his head screwed on he would have questioned whether the bids for Cesc and the joint bid for Fellaini and Baines (which was ridiculous) were ever likely to succeed. He worked at Everton for some time and should have known how much it would take to pry the players away if it was at all possible.

He could have either insisted on the board paying that or moved on to other targets. At the very least we would have gotten the Coentrao deal through on time that way.

He could have also questioned whether it would be worth bringing Fellaini in on deadline day for a few million saved (which was all we were ever likely to save by allowing his clause to lapse) or having him in a month earlier in order to have more time to acclimatise to life at the club.

14.) 20 Jan 2014
Problem is he bought fellaini but by Moyes s own admission, he wanted to play him in a date naive midfield roll, while fellaini excelled at everton when he played a more forward roll. So what was the thinking behind that.
I know we've not seen a lot of fellaini, but he didn't seem too comfortable as a defensive midfielder.