BG

Your point was the difference between us and United isn't about the quality of the players. I disagree on that.

Except it is: swap Aurelio for Evra, Kuyt for any of Rooney, Tevez, Ronaldo, even Nani and this season's Carra for Ferdinand or Vidic and things would be rather different. We have, as Rafa has said, a good core of players now. But what is around that core is a long way from the standard required.

You can take the boy out of Ukraine...

In other news, Kaizer will no longer be posting stats and Ant will no longer be writing attention seeking posts.

I would say there are too many attention seekers on here... some of whom change their opinion every five minutes and talk rubbish most of the time.

a) It's a correlation but is it significant statistically and is it a causal correlation? b) Can you do the same analysis for Riise and Voronin?

Kendall would make you captain for that kind of behaviour.

Reminds me of Jaws from the Bond films.

I'd happily run Everton into the ground for much less than 30k a week.

Cheap, quick and efficient

Amanda says its looking like 49% Times

They'll build it so big it will literally cast a shadow over the Knowsley Tesco Bowl.

Hopefully you're right that we're not just a typical buy. I suspect we're not, for various reasons. Recently I've spent some time in that region working with banks etc. I think some of the things that are hard to get a handle on out there until you see them for yourself are the scale of the ambition, how fast things move and the the importance of pride. The best example I can give is that the Empire State building was built almost a century ago and is about 400m tall. Since then there have been about 10 buildings built which are taller, but the tallest of them is about 450m. In Dubai they are currently building a skyscraper which is already 600m tall and will be over 800m tall when finished. Seeing this going on and not to be out-done, the Saudis have just begun building one which will be 1600m tall... I really, really hope we are not a typical buy for DIC. Dubai Holdings (parent company of DIC) certainly have objectives which reach a long way beyond a good return on investment.

The full article (which needs password) states that: negoatiations between DIC and GG advisers are set to resume today but that DIC are unlikely to do a deal unless confident that they can get full control.

I can't see the sense in that for GG. It leaves him with a minority stake which will be harder to sell.

Latest from Kay - sounds more hopeful... Times

If he was duped it suggests he was way, way out of his depth. A bit of basic research on Hicks' background would have prevented all of this.

That's a worrying article from Oliver Kay whom I have long thought of as one of the best sources on here, not least as it seems he has a source which is not Rafa, is senior at the club and is now not great fans of the Americans - which leaves not too many serious options.

The idea that your level is the same as ours is utterly laughable. You have won nothing for over a decade and have had two really good seasons in that time (one of which is this). Granted in the other really outstanding season you had you finished above us in the league. The tragedy from your perspective though is that the one time you've finished above us in the league in the last 20 years we still made you look like the small-time club that you, always have been and always will be.

The post that annoyed you was expressed in strong terms though frankly given the farce that was the process of selling the club and the seeming lack of any proper research on the backgrounds of TH and GG I think it's fairly understandable that there is frustration with Moores and Parry.

29,999GBP per week too much.

Why did we pay 14m for Cisse, why did Ferguson pay the guts of 30m for Veron, why did Wenger pay 17m for Reyes etc etc? If it was that obvious that Fernando was about to become the player he now is the fee would not have been 20m and there would have been serious competition from several champions league clubs. Rafa deserves great credit for picking Torres. I'd have taken Eto or Villa over him last season in a heartbeat and my memory on here is that most other posters would have done so too. Everyone could see Torres had talent, few anticipated that he would become as good as he now is. If you don't believe that go and look at the Spanish coverage on Torres this season - most people there are amazed at his progression.

That's not actually true. I'm prepared to admit I doubted his signing having seen him twice in the flesh and a lot on TV it was obvious he was very talented but not that obvious he would be perfect here. It's a great credit to Rafa that Torres has performed so well becuase it wasn't actually obvious that he was as awesome as he has become in the premiership - and if it was no-one would have waited so long and been unprepared to pay £20m. Do you think Wenger, Ferguson and Mourinho wouldn't have paid that for the player he is now if it had been that obvious? I'm delighted I've been proven wrong though.

That sounds quite a lot like Xabi's last 18 months to me.

Passes well under pressure, picks out good passes that get attacks going, tackles fine, gets around the opposition's box, good athlete. I'd take that in a midfielder for starters.