Has been said in another thread, but why not try our luck with a swap deal with Victor. Change would do him good, change to a lower league especially.

Time must be up for the likes of Velios and Victor if Kone does come.

I'm willing to trust Martinez to get this one right. We do need some more youthful introductions, but up front is one position where we don't have the luxury of bringing someone on slowly. We need someone who is ready right now, so Kone may well just fit the bill in that respect.

Fred is the same age, yet he's a regular in the Brazil starting line-up and APPARENTLY he has a £2m buy out clause!!! I would take him over Kone any day of the week!!!

Alfred Finnbogason, 24, at Heerenveen, 24 goals in 31 games... just look at the goals he has scored on YouTube... they are top quality! According to Sky Sports, Heerenveen will listen to offers around £5M... He seems like a much better prospect to have than Kone!

We've missed out on Cornelius as he's signed for Cardiff. We probably can't afford Bony either... but the point I'm making is we can do more with £5M if we look elsewhere! There are bargains to be had out there!

Even if we played Mirallas up front and went in for Nacer Chadli to play right wing... he's 23, at Twente, in the last year of his contract... we should be able to get him on the cheap too. I would rather him than Kone!

We're too slow in the market and we will probably miss out on all these players!!

It's not often we get to spend £5M!!

Let's get real: Fellaini is gone; Heitinga is gone... and, although we don't like it, Baines is gone if the bid approaches £20M.

It wouldn't be as bad as people think either. A good manager could replace him and fill another position with quality for that. e.g. Izaguire AND Wanyama would cost that amount. We won't have a left back as good as Baines but he's still very good.

We will have money to spend this summer. Bony would be my choice as an immediate starter and if we want to take a chance on an up-and-coming striker, then Charlie Austin for £3M could be a steal. He's 23, natural goalscorer and he will improve further. I would bet on him being more Ricky Lambert than Jermaine Beckford. Either way it would be a low-risk gamble.

Bob Latchford, Yakubu, Gary Lineker — none of the three busted a gut defending but boy did they know where the net was... And for me, I'm more than happy to have a striker scoring more than tracking back and scoring half the goals.

This guy Kone worked wonders with McManaman and he could do the same for us. 10 years ago, 29/30 was old; today it isn't. This lad, an ambitious mobile athlete, will probably play past 35. Also, unlike Victor, Jelavic and Vellios, he is comfortable on the ball. Imagine. An Everton centre-forward who doesn't trip over.

Of course, he may not be the only striker we bring in. It's early days yet.

Martinez has this thing he calls his Footballing Principles and players who are unable to adapt will be replaced by players who can. It may take time but I feel sure he will eventually succeed.

Or what about Kaka who's available on a free?

Why is Big Vic getting hate? He is a good player, just is up there by himself every time he plays; give him a partner that is a good player and he will get us some goals.

To be fair I did get a reply from one of our Scouts who agreed he was an exciting prospect and said they were "monitoring his progress". He has since signed for VfB Stuttgart on a free transfer (I believe Nelson went to Blackburn on a free too). Will be interesting to see how Rojas gets on in Europe.

If he turns out to be as good as I think he will, we should contact the club again and point out that they could have saved a fortune on player transfers if they took their NZ scouts more seriously.

Borussia Dortmund,with €37 million from the sale of the lad who has gone to Bayern Munich, are being bombarded by agents. In fact, right now they are in talks with 30 to 40 players, most of whom are over-priced.

I think Kone upfront with Mirallas and maybe Honda behind, Peinaar, Coleman left and right with Gibson holding would be very interesting.

If Martinez fancies him then he should know a great deal more about him than we do. Wigan fans like him, so why not.

Martinez obviously really rates him and it appears that he can actually play a bit too. Would be great if he could get 10-15 goals (looking at his record Jamie I think 20 could be pushing it), but more importantly it would be fantastic if he could pair up with Jelly so he gets 15 too. Add Mirallas and hopefully Baines and Fellaini to the mix and really could have some goals in us.

At the end of the day, he's knocking on but is a ready made top flight striker, who obviously gets on with the manager, who the manager rates highly, who wants to come to us, who we need.

What do you want for £5m.....? Cristiano Ronaldo?

Has anyone read or heard Martinez say he is a building a team around this fella? Of course not!! We are one of the smallest squads in the league so need numbers — it's that simple.

Please, just for a change, say the following: "I wish the lad all the best and hope he does a job for us."

Kone said he wasn't prepared to play in the Championship, and asked for a move.

Utd are apparently coming back in with a £16m bid.

Strikers come at a premium these days, no matter their age. Look at UTD spending big on a 29 year old Van Persie. We need to get out of this resale value mindset. If he comes for 3 or 4 years and scores at the rate he scored at Wigan at a minimum then he would be worth more than 5 Million. Lets put things into perspective. We spent £4.5 million on Pienaar last season.

Just remember that no matter what his age is, he is a proven PL striker who scored at a rate of 1 in 3 in a relegated side that couldn't score goals. He has scored at 1 in 3 all of his career. Not one of those sides was as good as we are now.

From a play point of view, a forward 3 of Mirallas, Jelly and Kone doesn't sound to bad does it. Kone is a hard worker,and importantly is full of pace. That should free up Jelly to play down the middle. If that is Martinez' plan then i, for one, am quite excited!

Not saying Kone is bad, I just prefer he didn't go back.

Dean, we are not like Man U who can afford to spend big on an older player who will turn things around and with all due respect Kone is no RVP. The fact that he is a player who relies in part on pace is another reason to maybe stay clear as his physical prowess is likely to decline after 31/32....though not if he is in as good as shape as Distin!

Score a derby winner and no-one will be arsed if he's 50. Van Persie hasn't done too badly, and he's a full 3 months older!

Ordinarily his age would bother me but this could be a signing for the short to mid term. The other thing in his favour is that Martinez knows him, knows his character and what he will bring to the dressing room, which are all very important. That was the case under Moyes and Martinez seems to be cut from the same cloth, as referenced by his 'we need players of the right character' comment. Ability is the primary concern, but at a club like Everton, it's important that we attract players with the right attitude. I think that is sometimes overlooked. Look at Royston Drenthe or Andy vd Meyde if you want examples of talented players with lousy attitudes and how that can affect the whole team adversely.

I think given our current financial state, we cannot realistically compete for 10m plus strikers, so Kone (for me) fits the bill nicely. I think he will be a very shrewd signing for us. He could play either as the lone striker, or as a partner to Vic or Jelavic. On Vic, I don't know why he still gets so much stick - his improvement last season was very obvious, and at times we saw glimpses of why Moyes persisted. If he continues such improvement this year, we could have a very handy player on our books - I think we will be pleasantly suprised by Vic this coming season.

Jelavic for me has many, many question marks hanging over him, i'd like to see him return to the form of two seasons ago, but have a nagging feeling that we've seen the best of him. Maybe RM can get the best out of him, here's hoping!!!

Everton FC struggling to find a relatively measly £5m to fund a transfer of an ordinary player from a championship team, where the EFC manager has connections and a good relationship - it sums us up doesn't it - we are a small club and there is no hiding away from that fact.

If the bid for Baines is upped to £16m he will leave the same with any other player on our books, it is so depressing and really sad to see our new manager struggling to improve the team, after only one full day in the hot-seat,. Welcome to Goodison Roberto , lots of luck will be required.

And stop believing everything written in the newspapers!!!

Kone looked decent enough at Wigan so would probably be a good addition to the squad. Jelavic could very well bang the goals in next season if we have a more attacking style, he can stay around the box instead of having to chase the ball down in the wings.

people who mention his age have a pt...and all you people arguing about soldado being 28 and van persie being 29 need some perspective. He is no where near as good and never will be, as his decent Wigan form proves. IMHO

We are Everton the fourth most succesful team in england, a solid top 6 or 7 team in the richest leaque in the world. 80m turnover, expected to increase by 20m-30m next season.

we should be buying negrado(15m),or lukaku(loan or 15m),or villa(10m), or Ba(7m). give one of these the 4m(80k per week) were allowed to increase our wage bill by according to the FFP rules witha bouness if they fire us into 4th spot.

we only need a top striker, alcaraz for cover, Redmond for the bench and a a reserve goalie. Their wages will be smallish and paid for by the departures of neville, hieghtinga, hitzlesperger, mucha etc

This is the season when the real Jelavic will rise like a phoenix from the ashes. 20+ goals from him with a new positive, focused, attacking approach.
He will need some support, though, so a new forward needed for that.
Kone would be fine for £2.5+ Naismith.

No more than 2 Wigan players, Roberto, as we can't afford McMananam either by the looks of it.

Looking forward to some new signings in next week or two in time for us to storm the U.S.A.

Martinez waited untill after 01 july to make an official approach for a player who already said he was leaving.

Moyes made his approach before Martinez even starting working for us.Why even metion it? Do you still love him that much? Do you have to defend everything he does? Did he make any mistakes in your eyes? Ever? Or is he God?

And can we stop the sickening 'Martinez' footballing principles' rubbish. It makes us sound like Liverpool supporters (Rodgers and his 'project' spring to mind). Last year Everton played the kind of football Wigan could only dream of. That Martinez tried to play good football with a side that wasn't up to it isn't a badge of honour. It's a surrender - one that draws compliments from the big boys because they were good enough to roll over for them.

He's now got a side capable of better football than he served up at Wigan. So I don't see why Kone is going to get us playing to Martinez' principles.

I 'd prefer "we're a big-time club with a small-time Board"

Maybe we'll pay a bit more on instalments and depending on appearances.

If Martinez knows and rates him, he is actually less of a risk than a lot of others.

Maybe Naismith can join Weir at Sheffield United !

And I'm not sure I'd describe him as 'the right character', even Lambert didn't think so and they were up against relegation.

On the other hand we could all stop looking into one transfer so much. Strikers fall into two categories - the world class ones that cost megabucks - and everyone else. Frankly only one from the first group would improve us and we're obviously not going to get one of them Benteke being the only quality striker of late that has moved for reasonable money (and he's only had one season so who knows). Everyone else in the other group isn't good enough for Everton and the way modern systems seem to work managers appear to realise this as they ask their strikers to do pretty much everything apart from score which is usually left to the often more talented midfielders.

We need someone in though so we can go and waste 10 mill on grant Holt or Darren Bent or perhaps on some promising striker from the continent who could still turn out to be rubbish or we could spend half of that on a premier league player that the manager knows who will probably do quite well for us and at this end of the market 'quite well' is all you're going to get. Maybe for once we actually do have a bit of money and are getting some players in early. Its not the worst transfer deal I've ever seen.

maybe your right regarding finances and Martinez's preference. But Kone is a squad player at best for a team wanting european football. Swansea have Michu and have bid10m for a striker. West brom want lukaku again and even west ham are paying 15m for a Carrol.

I told Liverpool fans last year that if you carry on buying mid table players like downing, allen etc you will end up mid table

well if you buy relgated players you will end up.....

pass me another pill

I'm not saying this logic should be applied in every case of course but it should at least be considered. For me Kone is not quite worth £5m at his age. He's only had one season in the Premiership and though he did look decent I just think there could be better, younger options out there.

It's a very safe transfer move for Martinez, and doesn't seem very ambitious... I don't think it's gonna be the push we need to qualify for Europe! And I don't think it's particularly looking after our finances as there are better players for value.

Give Martinez a chance Tony J, isn't that what you were moaning at the MOB for, nonsencical reasons for hating him?

We are getting left behind in the transfer Market again!

Kone £5 Million you must be on Crack!

there is a big market out there and the likes on Swansea and Norwich are out spending us !!!

Everton are a fucking Joke.

I think Kone could do a good job at Everton. Would like to see him in a front two with Jelavic. This could take some of the pressure off Jela and both could prosper as a result.

I hate this time of the year though where we all turn into managers and start wheeling and dealing. Roll on August.

You obviously don't buy a player with the sole intention of selling him but you look to buy assets that will be sound investment. Look at Spurs, they have consistently bought young players at decent prices that have developed. They now have a very strong young side with several players worth considerably more than what they were bought for. If Paulinho joins them as looks likely that looks like another very sensible purchase.

Kone is better than Jelavic and Anichebe at the moment, and he's versatile in not just scoring goals as a lone striker, but like Ajay said, I think a front 3 with Kone, Mirallas and a hopefully in form Jelavic looks mouth watering.

Fact is at the moment, we can't afford Bony, Gomis or Aubeyamang - that is clear. And Kone is proven in the league, with a great reputation, who's had 30 international caps and has moved for over 10 million in the past

I think it's a good signing and him and Alcaraz signing for this week is a good start. Just hopefully it continues with hopefully a keeper, tough tackling midfielder and creative midfielder, then that would be an excellent transfer window.

I don't buy into this 'Martinez way of great football' because we played as an attractive brand of football last season as the best. It was all too infrequent though. I watched Wigan last season and at times they were atrocious, others brilliant. We will be less defensive though and I would expect to see more goals scored than we are used to seeing.

"And can we stop the sickening 'Martinez' footballing principles' rubbish. It makes us sound like Liverpool supporters (Rodgers and his 'project' spring to mind)."

I'm 100% with you on that. The words "football" and "philosophy" should not go together. Just find a way to win whether it's passing, direct whatever. I don't care. But trying to fit everything into a "philosophy" is complete garbage. I can't stand the sound of BR coming out with that kind of crap as it makes him sound even more pompous than usual. Let's hope RM stops it.

My post has nothing at all to do with Moyes. I just don't buy into this "footballing principles" shite being bandied about.

The same principles that meant he couldn't change his football and got his team relegated. You have to bend and move with the wind, not stay rigid and think/hope everything will be all hunky dory in the end.

Principles schminciples, pass the ball to your own player and get your shot on target, that's all the principles I need a manager and player to have.

If he brings Kone in and he bombs, he has to shoulder any blame. If he sets the place on fire, Martinez will be hailed a hero.

They are now linking us with young Tom Ince.

http://i3.dailyrecord.co.uk/incoming/article1878429.ece/ALTERNATES/s1023/David-Moyes-1878429.jpg

I agree we were very creative last season and Jelavic should certainly have bagged alot more goals. However, I still think that Jelavic could come good under Martinez. I could be completely wrong but I just get the impression that Jelavic's personality is quite sensitive isn't typical of a striker. I don't see him as a selfish big time charlie that arrogantly struts about and would always back himself to bag the winner. So when the goals dried up his confidence was shot to pieces. I really think last season he needed an arm around him and being told how good he can be and for all Moyes's undoubted talents, (I was always one of his biggest fans) the arm around aproach just wasn't in his nature. Maybe Roberto's friendlier man-management style will pay off for Jela.

I still think there is the chance that come late August there will be a few loan deals coming in. The likes of Moses or Lukaku when they find out there not in chelsea,s plans..

There going to be lots of disruption, new manager, new players, new assistant, coaches etc, will Fellaini, Leighton still be here?
There's at least 7 teams in the prem. with more spending power than us at the moment maybe more.

We need to show some patience this season and give Martinez time to organise the team & the club to how he wants it, its not going happen immediately.

As far as Kones concered he scored 13 goals in an inferior team while spending approx. 2 months away playing in the African Cup.
13 likely would have been 20 with a full season.
The managers not going to bring him here if he thought he would be a flop, same applies to Alcaraz.

Like I said in other posts Chadli £8.5m its a no brainer, I watch alot of Dutch footy
on my laptop and this kid is superb..

I am sorry but that's a load of rubbish, let's take a look at strikers under Moyes shall we....

Johnson, Yakubu, Jelavic all of whom were ruined by Moyes and his approach, we as a club actually coached the ability to score out of our frontmen.

Poor old Jelavic was always out wide or deep last season whereas before he wasn't and he was scoring goals, the amount of times I shouted about him being a striker and not midfielder, he was left doubting his ability and without decent service by the "coaching" team Moyes installed.

I will bet anything that if Jelavic stays he will flourish under RM and I am gonna go down the bookies and stick a tenner (i'm skint or it would be more) on Manure finishing without honours next term (barring the Charity Shield or whatever they're calling it this week)........

Spot on, the players we need now are ones who can get us into the league positions where we make the most money, once we're there we can then move for players from the next level.

It's called progression folks, personally I think Kone is good business, if he can link up with Jelavic and Mirallas then we could be deadly going forward now Moyes and his cronies have slung there hooks.....

Well Bobby surprised us with this up-and-coming swoop.

We were all counting on one of the 3 M's but the window starts rolling with the funny hair fella and a freebie whose combined age equals the number of regicides who signed Charles I's death warrant in January 1649.

5m sponds Kone - 5m sponds Kev

Another probing hmmmmm .......

Let's not assume that Kone is our marquee striker signing this summer. Let's not. Let's give Bobby a big bag of slack. it's Friends reunited right?

The big one/s is/are on the way lads and lasses. Hold on tight in the rollercoaster summer/window.

I have a friend who is knobbing this brunette girl who works at Richard Dodd's healthy eggs factory - It's in the Yolks Folks (that's Doddy's brain working overtime) - whose former mother-in-law works in hospitality in the Exec boxes at the Old Lady and there will be ELEVEN, count them, ELEVEN new signings walking in through the door.

Eleven. That's a new team FFS

We are more likely to slip a couple of places in the league this season, but obviously we all hope to do better than last season.

IMO Baines will go. Jose wants him at Chelsea and MU will try to increase the bid. Moyes has made clear of his intentions for Baines and Evra's already looking for another club(Monaco). Fellaini not getting much attention, but could be a last minute sell.

RM needs to realise Bill is giving him nothing and he needs to sell to buy. He needs to be bold and decide NOW because we need to move on to bigger and better.

I have a feeling that something's gonna happen along the lines of the Fellaini signing, I don't know who, how or when but I just cannot shake the feeling.

Onwards and upwards.

Up the Workers

IHHFB

There seems to be plenty of cash to splash in South Wales this summer

Yeah where is all that Welsh sponds waterfall coming from?

Did I hear somewhere that the Redbirds have 60 million in their war chest?

The Gaffer - Ince - said that Thomas - he calls him Thomas (as in Thomas make your bed this instant - is on the way to Cardiff, there is a substantial offer on the table.

But yep no deal has been done and dusted.

I would like him at The Old Lady

Another of Moyes' irritating "I'll sign you but I won't play you even though the player currently in that position is half dead" signings.

I do think though that we could do with moving Anichebe on in order to offset the Kone fee and use that money for perhaps Honda, I do like Anichebe when he's not rolling around on the floor and puching the grass because he fell over again but he does that more than anything else.

I once said that he spends so much time on the grass he should take a tent to the game, which got a laugh of two.

On a more serious note, I really am looking forward to seeing how our younger players fare now that Moyes isn't there to stifle them.

Could we finally see him turn into the true midfield powerhouse that word of mouth would have us believe he can be....????

Jelavic 2012/13 season:

Total shots: 72
Shots on target: 31
Conversion Ratio: 8%

It's a complete myth to suggest he didn't score, as he was not in position.

It will be interesting to see what excuses will be rolled out for him this season. Perhaps it will be that Moyes completely destroyed him and he was unable to recover. My own personal view will always be, he looks exactly like what you would expect from a 5 million pound striker.

Back on topic, Kone is not the answer. But I hope Martinez recognises that our weakness is chance conversion, and spends most of what he has available to get a striker like Benteke, Lukaku or even Hernandez from United.

As for young Ince. I don't know too much about him. Could be a BK red herring. He'll be laying false trails all over the place.

Some fair points there.
You have to say Jelavic did a lot more tracking back and defensive covering than the previous half season?
I honestly think he has not got the engine to do the defensive work, and finish as well as previously, when he gets in scoring positions.

That one was for Dan

Added bonus is the manager knows him and he choose us.Good luck to the lad.

Him choosing?

We ought to sing from the rooftops coz Kone apparently chose us?

Cue fireworks, streams of streamers, 1000 vestal virgins marching in procession.

Forgive me, this double deal feels to me like Hull City or Reading, not a breath of fresh air for a newly vibrant club

I know, I know, there will be more to come in due course. Sell Felli. Sell Felli, I say.

Fingers crossed, this is Bobby swiping one or two of his pie-eater faves but I wish it were one or two of the 3 Ms.

Fingers crossed that there will be more sparkling deals in the weeks ahead, and I think that there will be.

But please forgive me for not getting excited about these Hull City level deals.

Please keep the faith mate, for once in the few years the club actually has some positivity around it.....

Moyes going could prove to be the best thing that has happened to us since he came in, he clearly thought he was bigger than the club deserved and his attitude since November absolutely stunk the ground out, he took the piss out of a loyal fanbase and whether you like him or not, an extremely loyal chairman.

I wouldn't like to see Baines go but my thoughts on Fellaini are somewhat different, he did a lot of damage to his standing and reputation with the fans that I personally know and can speak for with his behaviour during and after the Wigan humiliation and to see him go for £23 or so million would not break our hearts.

As I said in my post earlier, if Baines goes perhaps we will finally get to see what Oviedo and possibly Garbutt really have in their lockers.

Kone is someone that Martinez knows he can get the best out of, he knows that if we play with an attacking mentality instead of the sit back and nick one attitude we had under Moyes and Round then he will score, as will Jelavic and if he gets us into Europe off the back of goals from a 29 year old striker who cost £5 million you won't find me complaining.

Free, wages only and experienced in the Premier League and European leagues.

Welcome to Goodison mate....

We have a small squad so for all we know Martinez could just bringing in a few squad players to bulk up the squad with proven prem players that he knows well and can do a job when needed before taking a risk on a few unknowns/more expensive players - we don't know his budget all we can do is guess - just give the guy a chance.

Well said and is your house bigger on the inside than it is on the outside...?