EVERTON today swooped to sign Portuguese wonderkid Manuel Fernandes on loan until the end of the season.
The 20-year-old, who has been at Portsmouth during the first half of the campaign and played against the Blues at Fratton Park last month, was due at Bellefield this morning to complete the formalities of passing a medical.
But as Everton welcomed a new face in, they waved goodbye to another member of their squad, as Simon Davies moved south to join Fulham after the two clubs finally agreed a deal, thought to be in the region of 3m.
Blues boss David Moyes had been reluctant to let Davies leave, but once he managed to secure the signing of Fernandes, who has been capped twice by Portugal and has Champions League experience, he would not stand in Davies' way.
Having started his career at Benfica, Fernandes moved to Portsmouth at the start of the current campaign on loan but was initially sidelined by a groin injury and did not make his debut until scoring in a Carling Cup win over Mansfield in September.
Benfica had stipulated in the terms of their arrangement that if he started three consecutive Premiership games, it would trigger a clause that stipulated they had to sign him for 12m but it is understood Fernandes fell out with manager Harry Redknapp.
That has allowed the Blues - who are thought to have an option to make his signing permanent in the summer - to move in and he will spend the next few days being acquainted with his new team-mates, and could make his debut in Saturday's friendly at Bournemouth.
For Davies, the move to Fulham brings an end to a disappointing spell on Merseyside but he signed off his 53-game career with a man-of-the-match performance in yesterday's 2-0 win over Wigan at the JJB Stadium.
Injuries and a loss of form disrupted his hopes of making an early impact following a 3.
5m move from Tottenham in May 2005 but Mikel Arteta insisted that Davies could leave Goodison with his head held high.
"Simon is all heart," said Arteta. "Maybe in Spain when there is speculation like that, you just don't see the clubs giving those players games.
But the manager put Simon in the team yesterday and he responded really well.
"He has got a really good attitude. Some days it might not be easy, especially when your head has got so many things running around it.
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