Everton News Roundup

Since I've been lazy and haven't posted in a while, I've missed a couple of stories over the last week. Nothing life changing, but nonetheless important.

1) Jermaine Beckford has officially signed a 4-year contract with the club. We knew it was going to happen, we were just waiting for the "official" news.

2) Manchester City is interested in John Heitinga. The reported bid will reportedly be around 9 million pounds even though he is on a 4-year contract with Everton. Heitinga's response to City's interest is a little disconcerting.

"Manchester City have ambition, and I am open to the idea of joining a big club. I hear things said here, there, and everywhere about a move for me, although there is nothing definite yet."

"But I still have a four year contract, without a fixed-buyout clause, so I'm trying to establish myself at Everton. "

It seems that he is always open to joining a bigger club, but he will honor his contract and will only go if the two parties reach an agreement (unlike Lescott and many others). Source: Goal.com

3) Striker Victor Anichebe did not make Nigeria's World Cup roster after they trimmed players to their final 23-man squad. The reasoning behind Nigeria dropping Anichebe seems due to "serious injury", even though Everton is disputing this as misinformation. Everton claim that Anichebe only suffered a minor shin bruise.

I don't know what to believe, this whole situation seems a little bizzare. It makes it even weirder because Anichebe had been performing very well in the tune-ups right before the final squad was named.

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.

Steven Pienaar wins Player of the Year (and other news)

- Steven Pienaar won Everton player of the year. Leighton Baines was voted as the "players' player of the year" (I know it sounds weird, but I took it right out of BBC Sport). Jack Rodwell was named young player of the year.

- Marouane Fellaini seems to be ahead of schedule in his injury rehab. According to Everton's website, Fellaini is targeting to be back July or August, just in time for the pre-season campaign.

- This rumor came out a couple of days ago on goal.com. Supposedly Moyes wants to get Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha (reportedly for £3.75 million). I think this is a good move, he is a very good young defender but he does have a lot of injury problems. One thing Everton is lacking is depth. The club's players have a propensity to getting injured, and this would be nice insurance.

-Everton's women squad beat Arsenal to win the Women's FA Cup for the first time. Nice to see the club achieving something, even if it is the women's team.