All quiet on the signing front

Now seems as good a time as any to bring Things & Stuff out of it's post Euros hibernation. It has to be said I'd hoped there'd be lots of Everton signings to get excited about...nope. Nothing to report really apart from the perplexing and slightly worrying departure of Andy Johnson. We'll see how good Yakubu looks without AJ's darting runs taking defenders away.

The only enternainment has been Nartin O'Neill's brilliant rebuffing you-know-who's attempts to land Gareth Barry. Seeing them publicly bleating about the price of the player they've just tapped up is fantastic. Pity more of us "small clubs" don't dig our feet in when the arrogant top four cartel try to cherry pick any player who gets into the England team.

Everton do need to bring in a central midfielder to replace Carsley...without that we may as well just give up. It's heartening to see Rodwell, Gosling, Yutkevicz(?) and Baxter doing well in pre-season but you can't just rely on them stepping up. You need experience in positions like central midfield and centre-forward. Youthfull exhuberance will only take you so far.

Interesting the Wyness has decided to jump ship. He divided Evertonians straight down the middle. You either love him or loathe him. In fairness Everton will look great on his CV, he came in in the wake of Trevor Birch leaving and has been in the position for a period of massively improved stability. The glaring bad points on the record will be the sour taste left over the Kirkby stadium move and the utterly pitiful state Everton's outsourced merchandising seems to be in at the moment. You try and get an Everton scarf in town. JJB seem to treat Everton as an inconvenient afterthought in it's Liverpool shops, God knows what it must be like in the rest of the country. I know we aren't particularly fashionable but when it's easier to find Celtic, Chelsea and Sunderland shirts in Liverpool than Everton ones you have to assume that the rest of the country must be utterly royal blue free.