Questions soon to be answered as Goodison hierachy return
DAVID MOYES is apparently back at his desk this week, so once he's cleared out a load of e-mails and watered his parched plants we might begin to get more of a definite idea of where his real targets lie in the transfer market.
Every summer is filled with rumours and whispers but this one seems to have been particularly bad, with the uncertainty fuelled by the fact that the manager himself hasn't signed a new contract yet and the future of the proposed new ground seems to be somewhat in the balance.
With regards to the first point, Moyes's contract, the fact that we appear to be on the verge of recruiting him a new assistant, in the shape of Newcastle United's Steve Round, gives a fair indication that they are confident their man is going to be in situ for the start of the new season.
No club would be short- sighted enough to appoint a coach and then have to give him the bullet before the summer's over when a new manager brings in his own people, surely?
One of football's idiosyncrasies is that no one outside of the game ever really knows what these coaches and assistant managers actually do.
Sam Allardyce, for instance, had a bigger entourage than Sugar Ray Robinson when he first arrived at St James' Park, and it's apparently cost the Geordies a fortune to get rid of half of them. Apparently they had so many fitness coaches that at one point they could afford to send a couple of them down to work with Joey Barton when he was having his clearly-not-very- effective therapy in some clinic or other.
And staying up in the North East, what about Terry McDermott?
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There are quite a few rumours that he has survived for so long up at Newcastle, while managers come and go, simply because everyone thinks he's a good laugh to have around the place. As one Gallowgate End regular said recently, "Where is the safest place to be in the event of a nuclear war? Sat next to Terry Mac."
As for the whole ground move situation, it seemed slightly odd that Everton have released a statement saying that Moyes' transfer funds won't be affected by the government's delay in making a decision over whether the plans will be called in or not.
The declaration appears to have been made in order to quell rumours and whispers, but if the club start trying to refute every bit of gossip that takes hold on the internet then they will end up having little time to do anything else.
The whole debate around the ground move itself appears to be growing increasingly rancorous, what with some shareholders now petitioning for an EGM.
In fairness to them, many of the questions they raise, particularly regarding the seemingly inadequate transport links and how Everton will raise their portion of the finance - especially given the problems they now have with the Bellefield land - are extremely pertinent and demand answers.
You have to wonder though whether the accusatory nature of their literature, and the frankly weak references to the ill-conceived Scotland Road 'loop' site, really represent the best way to try and open up reasonable dialogue with the Goodison decision- makers.
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