Everton Head Down Under (With Another Striker On Board)

David Moyes has been busy. While the business end of the World Cup gets underway in South Africa the Everton squad returned to pre-season training before boarding a flight to Australia with another new signing.

The ranks were swelled even further with the news that the £1.5m transfer of young French forward Magaye Gueye from Strasbourg had been completed.

Again much like Joao Silva not much is known about Gueye, other than he scored nine goals last season and has represented France at under-19,under-20 and under-21 levels.

Sometimes not knowing much about a player is exciting as you don't have any pre-set expectations. He could be the next Lionel Messi - he probably won't but you never know!!

Also in the news, Leighton Baines has signed a new five-year deal. The full-back, who in hindsight is lucky to have avoided three wasted weeks with the England squad, is the latest of a long list of players to commit their futures to the club.

Two who haven't though are Steven Pienaar and Mikel Arteta. The Pienaar saga is boring me now to be honest but the Arteta situation took a fresh twist this week when newspaper reports suggested that Arteta wanted to return to Spain in order to get the best healthcare possible for is child, Gabriel who is partially sighted.

Chairman Bil Kenwright has denied Gabriel is an issue in any contract negotations but re-itereated his hope that Mikel decides to stick with us. I sincerely hope that he does as he is without exargeration one of the most talented players in the division, certainly the best player at Everton. Players like that are very hard (and expensive to replace). It would have to take a huge offer for Everton to do business.

On the field Everton begin pre-season tour, of Australia this week. Games against Sydney FC, Melbourne Heart and Brisbane Roar will kick off the player's 2010/11 season preparations. Tim Cahill will play in two of those games.

Cahill is a legend back home in his own country and is one of the Socceroos most marketable assets - he already statrs in about half a dozen adverts down under!

The tour is an opportunity to cash in on Cahill's appeal and give Everton's sizeable support down under chance to see the players live, often for the first time.Our tours to the US in recent season's have been deemed successful and key to building team spirit, I have every confidence that this year will be no different.