...that nothing much happened.

Last updated : 01 February 2007 By Ivor Bintold
The only good news to come on transfer deadline day was that we signed Manuel Fernandes on loan until the end of the season.

Which was hardly a massive surprise!

The not-so-good news was that we sold Mark Hughes to Northampton for an undisclosed fee.

Moyes will probably come in for a lot of stick over this, as managers often do when promising young players are offloaded.

But the truth is that, when Everton release young players, the manager that lets them go is usually vindicated.

For instance, players like Phil Jevons, Peter Clarke and Nick Chadwick, who were all very promising whilst at Everton, have hardly come back to haunt us.

There have been obvious exceptions to this rule, notably Gavin McCann, but even then, Walter Smith admitted that letting him go was a big mistake.

Whilst wingnut and the fat lad don't fall into that category.

Having said all that, it does seem like a strange decision to let Hughes go as Andy Holden was nothing but glowing in his appraisal of the young defender.

He said of Mark Hughes: "It's been a pleasure to have him about the place because he always had a smile on his face and always trained and played to the best of his ability. Even when I had senior players with me at reserve level, I kept Hughesy as my captain.

"That shows you how highly I regard him. We all wish him all the very best and I'm sure he'll do well at Northampton."

I'm sure everyone wishes him well...and I wonder if Fernandes can play full back?!