EVERY summer, Juan Roman Riquelme is spotted walking through John Lennon Airport. Each July he is seen strolling down Lord Street eating fish and chips from the Lobster Pot and then dancing in Pop World later that night.

The truth is, it never is the Argentinean and never was.

Riquelme was once at Goodison Park – but that was whilst playing for Villarreal against Everton in a 2005 Champions League qualifier and not for a press conference to announce his signing.

It has become a running joke amongst Evertonians that this will finally be the summer the Blues land the former Barcelona midfielder.

‘Everton sign Riquelme’ was even announced on the club website once in 2007 – but this was just a technical error and hastily taken down.

Every club have the same players who are continually linked with them, even if there is absolutely no grain of truth in it whatsoever.

Riquelme is on a sizeable list of names put on the Blues’ transfer rumour mill each summer but rarely are any of them headed in the direction of Merseyside.

There is an unquenchable thirst for gossip and tittle tattle in the post-season months and often the football void is filled with nonsense. Roberto Martinez has been in the Everton hot seat for a week and already been linked with at least 10 players.

Some will be in the manager’s thoughts, most won’t, but nevertheless the list is there and will continue to grow as the weeks go by.

From Wigan players Arouna Kone and James McCarthy to Benfica’s Eduardo Salvio, the rumours keep coming.

There will be a new one tomorrow no doubt and if the club had to field questions on each and every story then there would be little time for anything else.

Robbie Keane must surely rank as the player linked most with Everton in their history yet he has never once donned the Royal Blue shirt despite the countless stories telling us he would do.

Naturally, strikers stir up the most conjecture and though it is believed that David Moyes did consider offering Michael Owen a contract at one point before deciding against it, the former England man’s name kept being put with Everton’s.

There was a period not so long ago when every transfer window would see Kevin Doyle ‘on his way to Goodison’ or Damien Duff ‘being lined up’. Depending on who you listen to, Shaun Wright-Phillips met the manager at Finch Farm and Rafael Van Der Vaart was interested in joining the club when he wanted out at Real Madrid. Of course, the pair never stepped out at Goodison for the home side.

Joe Hart, Momo Sissoko, Paul Ince and even Ian Rush in the late 1980s are just a few of the others that cropped up over the seasons.

But there have been times when the interest was real and the players have been at Everton’s training ground.

Fabrizio Ravanelli made it to Bellfield but talks broke down whilst Craig Bellamy met with Moyes twice in 2005 before changing his mind about joining the club.

In one case, a press conference was called when Everton thought they had their man. It was September 1994 and manager Mike Walker believed he had snared Brazilian World Cup striker Muller from Sao Paolo.

After his work permit was cleared, Muller arrived at Goodison to meet the media only to leave half an hour later, so the story goes.

Muller, it is said, baulked at the idea of having to pay tax on his £20,000 a week wages and turned around and walked away on the deal.

Hopefully there will be no last minute U-turns on Martinez this summer – although he can do little to stop the rumour mill from whizzing along at full pelt.