From Jim Johnson : Fellaini and other Merseyside stories
Hi Myles
Regarding Wenger’s unwillingness to go above 20 million, a mate of mine here on Merseyside who is an Everton season ticket holder suggested to me that the actual reason why no-one has yet activated Fellani’s 23/24 million release clause is that it is only valid until mid August. Apparently we can then expect a bidding war when a move should be finalised.
If Fellani doesn’t move apparently a new clause comes into operation in time for the next transfer window in January.
It’s all a bit perplexing, but might be an indicator as to why Moyes hasn’t gone back for him. Perhaps he knows this and is waiting and Arsene knows this and is making a statement of intent with his derisory initial bid?
Either way, all this transfer nothingness on the back pages has overshadowed the death of a true football legend, one Dave Hickson, the original cannonball kid and one of only two players to turn out for all three Merseyside clubs, Everton, Liverpool and Tranmere Rovers.
I met him as a very small boy with my dad whilst watching my older brother play one Saturday morning. My dad chatting to Dave and his friend (who was in a wheelchair) as if they were old friends. Afterwards I ask who the two men were.
He said: “The man standing up was one of the greatest strikers who ever played the game. The one sitting in the wheelchair was the greatest of them all.”
I met Dave Hickson and Dixie Dean on the same day!
Dave Hickson famously said “I’d break bones for the clubs I played for but I’d have died for Everton.”
Can you imagine any player saying that these days?
Myles says :
Fascinating, Jim.
Man United have not signed a powerhouse midfielder yet. This could explain it.
Before my dad was a draughtsman with Ferranti and a senior production engineer with British Aerospace, he was a monumental mason who came over from Ireland and worked in Liverpool.
He laid the foyer of the Adelphi Hotel, which I never saw and which might have been changed since the Thirties.
Dad said that, “Dixie Dean could head the ball harder than most men could kick it.â€
He reckoned the best right winger he ever saw was Scottish: “Gordon Smith could do everything that Stanley Matthews could do – and score goals.”
From Berni : Fellaini
I’m an Evertonian season ticket holder and Fellaini’s release clause does end on the 16th of August.
If it gets to that date, it only works in Everton’s favour as we do not need to sell.
He has a long contract at the club and we will not accept anything under £30 million during that time.
Clubs willing to get him at the cheapest price possible this summer need to get him while the release clause is active. Otherwise they will pay through the roof.