He's played in the Premier League for over 8 years, so Hughton will at least have been aware of him for a while and watched him play against clubs he's been involved with. He's not joining on the back of a single scout watching a couple of games. Solid signing for me, he's helped Everton in relegation scraps before, and knows the league well. There won't be a language issue, and hopefully it won't take him long to get up to speed. And if he's no good then he's gone come the summer.
Todays the big day then, I dont hold much expectation of us bringing anyone else is who is going to make any difference. In fact I dont think this window is going to make any difference to our first 11 in terms of strength. I realise we have strengthened the squad which was probably needed though. I hope that other clubs panic buy or bring in the wrong sorts of players. Holtby at Fulham would worry me but it doesnt resolve their leaky defence. If Hughton could get Holtby on loan here for the rest of the season I would go nuts.
So it looks like Palace might also get Scott Dann and have had a bid accepted for Joe Ledley. I wouldnt have mind Ledley coming here. West Ham are in talks for Pablo Armero who I thought was a good player and not sure why he would want to go to them? I hope we arent being left behind in this window!!
It would appear that CH is happy with his strikers: as somebody has put it this morning on another website "Elmander offers little and hasn't scored, Becchio hasn't played and RvW is struggling - dread to think what would make CH unhappy". Very unlikely to see another striker come in unless, of course, Becchio is taken on loan and/or RvW moves on with a late bid.
You don´t seriously expect, or wish for, Ricky to move on today, surely? - I can imagine the sort of universal approval that would get Hughton on here, with him then having to scrap around to find a replacement with only 10 hours left. My hope is that there is some truth in the Holtby rumour, and if so, that would do me nicely.
i guess all will be revealed soon. looking at the bottom half, i don't see many teams that have strenghened significantly yet compared to us. have stoke (apart from odemwingie!) or WBA bought anyone significant? and edit, we'll be doing well not to lose any of our players today
Charlie Wyett has said that he expects Holtby to join Fulham though we did have an interest in him. He also reckons there will be no more activity at Norwich in this window.
Fee for Joe Ledley aooears to be around £800,000 from what I have seen?!?! contract running out in the summer, I cant believe we havent been in for him if that figure is correct.
