What to do with a problem like Manuel? Not only is David Moyes's Everton contract currently perilously unsigned, but he doesn’t even know how much money he’ll have to spend this summer.

Most journos reckon that Moyes will have between 20 and 40 million quid to spend, but that is a pretty large spread. Moyes has remained elusively non-committal over making Manuel Fernandes’ loan move permanent, and surely much of this has to do with the fact that, as yet, he doesn’t know what his transfer budget is, nor does he really know what kind of player he'll be buying.

There are two sides to Manuel Fernandes; the player we saw perform against Newcastle aswell as last season at Goodison when facing Arsenal and Manchester United – but on occasion we are also forced to endure the mute shuffling of an out-of-form Fernandes – the difference between a player when he is up and when he is down is usually large, but with Manny it is a gaping chasm.

'It is interesting to note that when Fernandes first arrived at Goodison on loan from Benfica last season, he was only part-owned by the Portuguese club'


There can be little doubt that if Fernandes can improve his consistency (and his lack of stability may have been a big factor), he could be the pulse of Everton – a calm Fernandes has a brilliant array of passes, and can instantaneously switch gears and attack. Another dimension to his game was visible at the weekend, when he excelled from set-pieces, continually lobbing almost unplayable grenades into the Newcastle United area.

Everton fans had only just recovered from the shell-shock of losing Fernandes to Valencia, when the Mestalla club imploded in a jealous mess of finger-pointing and barrel-scrapingly abysmal on-field performances. We were given a second chance to bring back Manny, but on his return, he seemed punch drunk – and even Moyes alluded to the fact that the Portuguese starlet needed some stability in his life.

It is interesting to note that when Fernandes first arrived at Goodison on loan from Benfica last season, he was only part-owned by the Portuguese club. The other portion of his ownership was controlled by a “third party” – something that was cited for the huge amount of time it took for Everton to structure the initial deal to permanently bring him to Goodison, and which gave Valencia the time to swoop for him in the first place.

The most notorious “third party owned” players in the UK are, obviously, Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano, initially signing for West Ham in an unfathomable (and ultimately illegal) deal with Kia Joorabchian. Whereas Tevez started slowly, he soon progressed at West Ham, but the same wasn’t true of Mascherano, though, and Fernandes’ career in England has stuttered up until now. If we can get a good deal for Fernandes, and by “good” I mean about £8 million, then we shouldn’t hesitate in buying him.

This week, captain Phil Neville spoke out about the need for Everton to buy a special player, someone who can bring that little bit of magic to Everton’s performances against the Big Four. You only have to look back to the Everton – Manchester United game at Goodison last season to realise that he could be playing for us already.