It seems that with every new transfer there is an innovative way of convoluting and reconstructing what boils down to one thing - the selling club getting as much lolly as possible.

We're all aware of sell-on clauses and appearance-related sums relating to both club and international starts, but I read with interest this morning Everton's audacious attempt to land Portuguese star Joao Moutinho from Sporting Lisbon.

The Toffeemen had assembled £11.8million bid for the 21-year-old midfielder who is desperate for a move away from the club. Now back in the day this would have been a straight yes/no affair, but things are all so different in 2008.

Firstly, the club turned down the offer, but did so via a public statement confirming that they didn't want the player to leave ... so quite why you'd broadcast that clubs were bidding on him is beyond the realms of reason. Or could it be a not-so-discrete PR exercise to raise the player's price even further? Oh listen to the cynic in me ..

In addition, the Merseysiders added in further wonga to the deal should they make it to the Champions League - a token empty gesture there then.

To confuse matters though, Moutinho has a buy-out clause in his contract that would be activated should anyone slap an offer of £19.7million on the table. No problem. But then, someone put it into his deal that this can only be exercised before June 15th of each year.

And then even if that happened, the club confirms that "certain requirements have to be met before any deal can go through" - no doubt, rolling six sixes on a dice, and kissing a Chinaman on the head whilst reciting the middle section of James Joyce's Ulysses through an upturned traffic cone - at dawn.

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