Fight Like Lions

How late are they going to leave this announcement? I presume there is a deadline set by the Football League?

Hurry up and go, we've got other things to focus on!

Chill out guys, you do know it's entirely possible for a tweet to be sent when a phone is in your pocket. Probably had no knowledge of it until he started trending

Let's hope it does complete today then if there really is a time limit to the release clause. We don't want to be stuck with yet another player that doesn't want to be here. No other club will come in higher than £7.1m, we're pulling down Evertons pants as it is!

I'd like to see RDM have a look at Adam Henley (Blackburn RB). Only just turned 22 with good experience in the championship, including a spell with Gestede in the same team where he had no issue supplying him with good quality crosses. Seems to have a lot of potential and going into the last year of his contract.

Probably already mentioned somewhere but free streaming available on the official site for this- you will need to be logged in to see it.

I think it's natural to be concerned with the opening game of the season nearly upon us. Having said that I'm putting my trust in Tony to deliver because up until now I've seen no reason to doubt him. We do know that RDM wanted to trim the squad to around 25 players so I believe it's more a case of needing to shift some players to free up space rather than needing to sell to find new purchases.

Couldn't care less about him going, lazy player who always looks like a yellow card waiting to happen when things don't go his way on the pitch. Would genuinely rather see someone like Gary Gardner in his place playing for the shirt week in, week out. Hopefully the £7m can be put to some use immediately to strengthen other areas of the squad.

Villa cash cannot be redeemed for this fixture.... Only reason I would have gone. No idea what to spend it on now.

Not in the first round I'm afraid. We can only draw someone from the unseeded South list. Seeded North vs Unseeded North and Seeded South vs Unseeded South.

His personal problems are certainly staking up behind the scenes. The house sale was a forced move after he split up with his girlfriend (mother to 2 of his children). He's sold it to fund putting a roof over their heads and release cash to buy somewhere for himself. In the meantime his young niece is seriously ill and Gabby's brother and girlfriend want to take her to Lourdes. The £5,000 cost is being sought through a crowdfunding campaign. Crazy when you imagine Gabby earns that in a day. By all account the little girl was very seriously ill while Gabby was living it up in Dubai. I can't imagine family relations are particularly strong at the moment.

If Bruce ends up here it proves we've finally found the bottom of the barrel to scrape. The only way we could possibly sink any lower is if that clown Mick McCarthy is in our dug out next season.

It's unfair to call him fat but he's not very well conditioned for a professional footballer. Injuries or not, there's no excuse for that with the staff and facilities available to him. Would take several weeks of hard graft to put that right now, so it's very much a case of 'you get what you see' with him. It's his mental attitude that will determine how good he is between now and the rest of the season. We must pin all our hopes on him wanting to prove a few people wrong.

I bet Pep has never heard of him, so he'll either rot in the reserves and take the £££ or be forced into a move. Probably end up at Stoke, which is about the right level for him.

It would be a nice twist of fate if we beat Newcastle in our last home game to send them down with us. Then we can hold a joint relegation party at FT. West Brom aren't out of it yet either. They can come and join us too.

So the only player we are still being linked with is Ravel Morrison. Talk about final nail in the coffin...

I think it will be very interesting what he says about Gestede today. No news out of the club since he limped off holding his hamstring. If we find out early next week he's out for 4-6 weeks and we've not purchased another striker I imagine there will be uproar.

Sadly IF Benteke was to come back on loan Hutton would go straight back into the team. We haven't got anybody else who can cross the ball at the moment.

Should be going for Jordan Rhodes now, proven in the championship and might also help us get a bit more from Gestede too.

It's frustrating that we didn't source a striker at the start of the window. With a proven finisher we could arguably be 4 points better off now. In hindsight, Leicester and WBA were both winnable games had we somebody on the pitch to put the ball in the net. Ayew looks good but badly needs support in the final third. If Sinclair isn't the right option for Garde then let's sell him and get somebody else in. Gestede will probably be out for a couple of weeks and Kozak isn't anywhere close to finding any form. It's so obvious it's ridiculous!

Well at least it's not another 'story' about him being a naughty boy. Even if it was true, so what??? I imagine this goes on in every dressing room around the country at 3.45pm on a Saturday! Surprised Jack felt the need to comment on it tbh.

Amazed he wasn't subbed at HT he was that bad. Flagged offside he continued after the whistle to go around Foster and hit the post when faced with an empty net! Afraid he's not the answer to our striker problem despite many of us wishing he might have been.

It's like a competition between him and Bacuna to hit the corner flag from 30 yards out. Woeful shooting but otherwise was impressed with him today.

All of this and N'Zogbia is still here...ffs

Presumably with the departure of Joe Cole we have freed up one place in the 25 man squad list. Anybody know the rules about permitted changes to this list? Could the likes of Gabby be dropped from the squad list if we aren't able to sell him or are we stuck with the original choices. Seems that if we can't make changes then we have no choice but to sell in order to buy.