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(Adds detail/quotes, changes dateline) LIVERPOOL, England July 4 (Reuters) - Everton completed the 2.5 million pounds ($3.78 million) signing of former England B defender Steve Watson from premier league rivals Aston Villa on Tuesday. He turned down Middlesbrough to join Everton on a five-year contract. Watson hopes the move will put him back in the England frame two years after his last call-up to the national squad. "I was in the squad three or four times before I joined Villa and once you have a taste of it you need more," he said. "I'm hoping once I can get regular football again I can push for a place.'' Everton manager Walter Smith also confirmed he had given Scottish international midfielder John Collins permission to talk to Fulham about the assistant manager's job at Craven Cottage.

-- Anonymous, July 04, 2000

Answers

Good luck to him, apart from against us.

-- Anonymous, July 04, 2000

Now that the Toffees have taken Pistone and Watto, it would be really nice to them to take DF back - #4mm would do nicely thank you.

-- Anonymous, July 04, 2000

Clarky,

Who would you like to partner Shearer? Dunc is obviously out of favour and Mpenza is not favoured by you. I'm not having a go, just interested as to who you think shoud play. ;+)

-- Anonymous, July 04, 2000

DB,

DF is "out of favour" only because he's always injured - you just cannot build a successful team around the Invisible Man. I have previously indicated on here that I don't favour a team pattern based on two less-than-mobile CF's, as I feel there is a tendency to get overrun in midfield against the better teams.
In an earlier post today I expressed some honest reservations about Mpenze because of his somewhat indifferent performances in Euro2000. However, I also said that Euro2000 provided a very high level against which to judge him, and I'm certainly not 'against' a player who I've never seen perform, either in the flesh or in the PL.

I believe that the support striker to AS ideally needs to be fast, tricky and mobile - someone with a bit of invention and cunning. Pedro Reincarnate would be my ideal, but sadly that's a pipedream, as is IMO the closest present approximation to Beardo, Dwight Yorke.
I campaigned on here last season for us to go after Robbie Keane - he fits the spec. pretty well, and at #6mm now looks an absolute snip. Matt Jansen, Michael Bridges and Georgie Kinkladze are other players I admire, but like Keane now seem appear to be unobtainable - and all arguably lack the blinding pace that BR appears to be looking for to compliment AS's power and physical presence.
Barcelona's Dani comes to mind - he is fast and mobile, but is almost certainly too expensive. Jao Pinto comes into the same category, but strikes me as a bit of a Big Time Charlie, and I'm not too keen on him for that reason.
So, put all that together and Mpenze might be a reasonable choice. He's fast, mobile and importantly, is available. I suspect he's a much better player than he looked in Euro 2000, but don't think he has the cunning/invention I'd be looking for in my ideal.
The only other alternative I can think of would be to go for someone like Luis Enrique, if available, to play as an attacking left-sided midfield player - from what I've seen this guy is quickish, skilful and 'smart'(ie. cunning). However, this would mean AS playing up front on his own, supported by both YKD and LE from midfield - a system I'm not too sure he would really relish.
Carl Cort's name is mentioned in the Ronnie today as another that BR is very interested in, with Mpenze being his first choice. I think Cort would play in the same vein, and same system, as DF, although he is rather more mobile and quicker. However, his signing would allow either him or DF to play alongside AS without needing to competely change the team pattern - and might work out quite well. CC is also fairly young, and it could be argued that he could be groomed as Shearer's ultimate successor. Hope this clarifies my thinking - or does it just confuse you further?

-- Anonymous, July 04, 2000

I think I know where your coming from! I just hope we have some balance this year and as yet I have seen nothing to suggest that we won't play the 4-3-1-2 that was played for a big part of last season. The problem being where to play Dyer.

-- Anonymous, July 04, 2000