Rumor Central

There are about 8 billion rumors surrounding a lot of our players. I am going to try and go through as many as possible. Just remember most of these are RUMORS, not reality.

- Many sources say that we are the likely destination of Jermaine Beckford from Leeds United via free transfer. Not official yet, but I love this move. If it happens, that is.

- Landon Donovan said he would love to come back to Everton. This obviously will not happen until the LA Galaxy have had their say. But it looks like we have the leg up on other clubs if they choose to transfer him.

- According to Goal.com and Mirror Football, contract talks to extend Mikel Arteta have stalled. Manchester United and Arsenal are both highly interested. This worries me a lot. I love Arteta and I think he is one of the most important players on our team. We need to keep him.

- We are being linked with Craig Bellamy of Manchester City, according to Goal.com and Dailymail.co.uk. This is a surprise. Supposedly, he is to cost 7 million pounds for the transfer and high weekly wages, so the only way we could sign him would be with a sale of players. I'm going to be honest, I have always hated Bellamy, but I can't deny that he's a pretty good striker. He would provide a spark whether its from the bench or starting, something Yakubu and Saha have failed to do consistently.

I'm going to go in depth in a future post, but I thought the only missing piece for Everton during the second half of the season was striker. Saha performed phenomenally, but was really streaky and disappeared near the end. Looks like we are really addressing that issue. I can't refrain from saying that I am scared, though. We were perfect at midfield and three major pieces can be taken away from us. As long as we keep at least two (preferably Arteta and Rodwell), I think we will be fine. As much as I love Pienaar, I think he is dispensable, especially if we get a good striker or two.