The Mail Bag
Striker signed soon?
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With the impending sale of AJ to Fulham only hours away, it begs the question, Is a replacement striker very close to being unvieled?
I know it's well documented that Moutinho is the top target and that substantial bids have already been placed, but, Moutinho is a midfielder.
Since the rumours first started about AJ, only to be quashed by the club and more recently Keith "Bullshit" Wyness insisting no deal was on the cards, we now discover that by the end of today AJ will be a Fulham player.
One thing that I am clinging to regarding this sale is that Moyes himself has insisted that he needs at least 6 new players and that AJ would not be sold unless a replacement was lined up.
AJ is as good as sold so who is on thier way in?
Is it Bent? Unlikely given that Tottenham are in the shit themselves for forwards. What about Millito? Again, unlikely given that Tottenham are in the shit for forwards and will probably be snapping him up.
I can't think of any other name that has been linked to us in a forward position other than the two I have mentioned above?
One thing is for sure though, our squad is down to its bare bones and I don't think for one minute that AJ would be allowed to leave unless something is as good as done in terms of his replacement.
Yak is our only recognised striker now. Vaughan is still unreliable in terms of his injury record and Victor is an impact sub at best which adds more fuel to the fire, in my opinion, that something is in the offing.
There are three weeks to go before kick off but a hell of a lot can happen in one week let alone three. Sunderland bid for, spoke to and have signed two of four players from Tottenham all in the space of a week so I am certain that this sale will kick start our summer spending.
A striker, defensive midfielder, Moutinho and another centre midfielder, with a back up 'keeper and right back and I think we will be just fine.
Obviously, a lot will depend on who the names are but I TRUST MOYES enough to know that they will be the names we want and need.
We know that the sales of AJ £10.5m rising to £13) and Faddy £5.75m) as well as the likes of Carsley and a few others off the wage bill means that money is there. The amounts accumulated from the above is also seperate to anything that was pledged to Moyes originally, so my estimates are something approaching £40m is available to spend.
If it isn't then something seriously stinks.
Benn Chambers, Posted 29/07/2008 at 13:25:39
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Howard - Neville, Yobo, Lescott, Baines - Arteta, Topal, Moutinho, Pienaar - Milito, Yakubu.
Subs: Turner (A.N.Other), Jagielka, Valente, Fernandes, Osman, Cahill, Vaughan.
LM - Pienaar / Fernandes
DM - Topal / Rodwell
CM - Moutinho / Gosling
AM - Cahill / Osman
RM - Arteta / VDM
This to me looks like a very good young midfield both in terms of 1st choice and also squad players. I understand that the Fernandes deal along with Moutinho and Topal have yet to be concluded though it does seem probable that they will all go through as negotiations have been made public and Moyes has said he wants Fernandes.
In my opinion this would be the best midfield we have had since we had Limpar and Kanchelskis on the wings along with Parkinson in the centre, if not better..I'm puzzled by some of the 'doom and gloom' on here as it's seems like we are surely looking at 'riding the wave' this season :)
Great goalkeeper/defence/midfield and attack and all young players to boot. If the 3 signings mooted all come off I think this could be a very exciting Everton side -- fingers crossed.
Say what you want about him, he’s got a scoring record of more than a goal every 2 games for the last 7 years (as well as 27 in 49 Brazil caps). Did well for Sao Paulo earlier this year until unfortunately head-butting an opponent and having a difference of opinion with a photographer - Brazilian Duncan Ferguson?!...
Moyes had a pretty good relationship with Mourinho (didn’t he recommend Valente?) and he’s not going to displace Ibrahimovic, Cruz, Balotelli or Crespo from the Inter team.
Cue swords at dawn between KW and DM with BK refereeing.
Looks like Mouthino(if we’re lucky) plus ANO and a few loan players again then.
Will we always be the nearly men?
LM - Pienaar / Fernandes
DM - Topal / Rodwell
CM - Moutinho / Gosling
AM - Cahill / Osman
RM - Arteta / VDM
I’ll never quite understand the eternal pie in the sky speculation. That’s two players we haven’t signed who may or may not fit into our system and adjust to the Premiership, two youngsters who may not make the step up, one player permanently injured and one regularly injured, a couple of small but easily pushed over players, Arteta and a possible return loan deal. We need consistancy as well as talent and I’m just not seeing it until we sign more than one top class midfielder....
LM - Pienaar / Iniesta
DM - Gerrard / rodwell
CM - Kaka / Gosling
AM - Messi / Cahill
RM - Arteta / Ronaldo
There, told you.
If the AJ sales goes through, we are going to need to bring in at least 2 strikers (among other players obviously). One player who has gone quietly under the rader is Pavel Pogrebnyak. He plays for Zenit and is a physical centre forward who can finish. He was top scorer in last season’s Uefa Cup but missed the final through suspension.
He is also Russia’s 1st choice centre forward ahead of Roman Pavlychenko. However, he got an injury in their last warm up game and had to withdraw from their Euro 2008 squad. Missing those 2 high profile events has meant he has gone relatively unnoticed as I don’t remember anyone being linked to him all Summer yet several clubs have been linked to Pavelchenko.
When he played at Goodison, I remember thinking he was like Big Dunc but quicker and hoepfully less injury prone and more reliable!! He was charging in to defenders and had a really good touch. He has a very good scoring record and is still only 24.]
See his wikipedia link and you tube video below: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavel_Pogrebnyak http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDF01noeN44
Jutkiewicz has, according to the squad list on the club website.
http://evertonfc.com/match/everton-squad.html
http://www.evertonfc.com/news/archive/squad-number-changes.html
Basically, I think that we are going to be playing 4-5-1 for most of the season so to spend a bit of money on a replacement when we need to strengthen midfield seems a bit pointless.
Who/what would you prefer, A big name big money signing, a gamble in the championship, cheap(er) foreign player, a loan or someone else...
Somebody suggested David Nugent for £2m the other day and was shot down. I personally think that would be a good move, lad is quick knows where the goal is and works his socks off, he showed promise in the championship and that would leave us with £10m to spare and a player similar to AJ who could actually come good at Everton and fulfil the potential he showed at Preston.This would allow the kids a chance to progress and not waste much money if Nugent was on the bench for most of the time.
My personal preference would be something like that or a loan deal. I wouldnt complain if we got Milito for £6m either, just interested what everyone elses take on the matter is.
Can we assume that the AJ money is available and is not being used to fund the possible Moutinho signing and also try and avoid the stadiumdebate and slagging of BK KW, all those matters can be covered in another post, heres hoping that by the weekend I will be talking about how we have made a couple of great signings...
What is consistent is they all hate Moyes.
Hes a right back!
An additional midfielder, who is also quite young and I think should be looked at by Moyes is Petter Andersson from Hammarby. Looks a player going the right way and like most Scandinavians should have no problems settling in England.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjyhmj_Tfag
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And Moyes can insist all he likes on five to six players but if the money's not there for the calibre of player he wants, the money's not there. Which is probably partially why his contract remains unsigned...