Martinez eyeing Norwegian midfielder

I think we should go after Keisuke Honda of CSKA Moscow, his contract is running out and he wants to move on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSV1c6_Q_4g

However the current crop of Norway´s u-21 have done very well in the euros(Beating England on the way to the semi-final) and Johansen has gotten great reviews from his performances in the tournament. I guess you guys can check him out for yourselves tonight as Norway play Spain in the semi-finals tonight.

Hmmm, I wonder who that might be Al?

This is a load of old shite, I reckon.

Shhhhh, be careful what you say Ross (854),

We got on these boards a certain ...............

Guys, do you think the fact that Royston Drenthe is about to sign for Reading, that "a certain" will go support the Royals?

Possibly... and if Mr Drenthe has knocked the clubs, cars, drugs, & scrubbers on the head, changed his ways and starts banging goals in for Reading next season, we can no doubt look forward to..

"I FUCKIN' TOLD YOU, MOYES, YOU FUCKIN' BELLEND, HE WAS OUR BEST PLAYER BY A FUCKING MILE AND NOW FUCKING READING HAVE GOT HIM FOR FUCK ALL AND IF THEY GET PROMOTED HE IS BOUND TO SCORE AGAINST US!" ...type stuff.

Was Bjorn the one who said that he was giving up supporting us because Bill appointed Bobby M? If so, no loss mate...

Vegard Forren was supposed to be the best defender in Norway, but he is not even getting games for Southampton. I think he is getting sick of it. I would rather Everton get Forren than Johansen.

He's a tough bruiser that Jimmy Drenthe fella.

He threatened me on line once, on here .....

Said if I came to Oslo he would beat the shit out of me.

So, just be a little more careful, please.

I like over 90 per cent of you all.

Forren than Johansen? I would rather have neither.

We clearly need more diversity on here, chaps.

Though we do have a Doddese on here, I suppose. That ticks
another box.

Yeah, we non-Scandinavian-female-Doddese need to be more constructive and purposeful to recruit outside our demographic.

Scarlett ?

Martinez should sign Leroy Fer ASAP before someone else does; him and Barkley together... our future will be bright!

Either of them would be good if Fellaini goes but if not then do we need another CM with Gibson, Fella, Ossie and hopefully Barkley and Francisco Junior playing more? If Fella stays then I think striker is the priority.

Gibson has excellent positioning as well as a superb range of passing and football intelligence.

Jelavic (last season) and Anichebe are simply not good enough at getting the ball in the back of the net.

If Capoue would cost £12-15 million, i'm thinking we could buy Nacer Chadli and Leroy Fer for the same price from FC Twente, get both of them for £12-15 mil.

He's tall, skillful and rapid. Could maybe be the next Thierry Henry... or then again he could be the next Jo.

I think he would suit Martinez's system well and could be that 15-20 goal striker we need.

Monaco have new wealthy Arab owners with the same kind of money to splash like Man City. The even bigger attraction for players is, they don't have to pay any tax in Monaco, no need for them to fiddle a few thousand on off-shore accounts and bonuses

Brian, cast your mind back to the begining of last season, Gibson had lost weight, was very mobile and looked a world class act. If we can get that same Gibson back, we've got one hell of a player!

The truth is that no Norwegian player ever dominated one of the top European leagues the way some Swedes and Danes have, e.g., Patrick Andersson in Germany and Ibrahimovic/Laudrup in Italy. You Norwegians still have a long way to go; no Norwegian is good enough for Everton.

Didn't their u21's qualify out their group recently?

Did Englands?

Wonder which nation is developing the better youngsters.

The last thing I want are a bunch of Norwegian and Danish flops. The only Norwegians I have seen do reasonably well in the PL is Steffen Iversen and John Carew.

I agree David, our u21 performances were unforgivable, but that doesn't make Norway better than us. If Albania qualify for the World Cup, shall we buy their players?

I agree Belgian certainly looks like the way to go. Lots of promising players from there.

However Norway isn't a footballing backwater. Its not a power house either of course.

And if England don't qualify for the WC under Woy , does that mean we shouldn't sign Englishmen?

Are you saying only players from countries who qualify for world cups should be signed?
That would have ruled out George Best and Ryan Giggs then.

Oops, that's more than a couple of points!

Even nations like Turkey and Greece are far ahead of Norway.

As for the U21 championship: Norway were lucky with group draw. I wonder if the groups were drawn as they were because someone was trying to do the host nation a favour.

Just because Norway have had a good Euro Under-21 tournament we are suddenly linked with most of them.

I'm not saying we should only sign players from countries that qualify for the world cup, people are saying that Norway are a developing football nation but they're not if you compare them to the likes of Belgium or Holland. The fact that they are below Iceland and Albania in the World Cup qualifying proves that.

We could go on naming good players from Norway who have played in the PL: Ronny Johnson, Henning Berg, Erik Bakke, Tore Andre Flo and Egil Ostenstdtt( not sure about some of the spellings)

This is a silly debate anyway, if you ask me. Norwegians aren't born shit footballers

Mark: Rosenborg's accomplishments are trifles compared to what IFK Goteborg and Malmo FF have achieved in Europe.

Memo to the lads who are trying to get us to call the manager Bobby.....Grow up.!

What is the christian name of the last three FA Cup winning managers?

http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/leaked-pictures-is-these-images-of-the-new-2013-14-everton-home-shirt/

Bobby Mancini
Bobby Di Matteo
Bobby Martinez

And yes Ross, if I had the choice, I would prefer to buy players from the Nations you've mentioned.

Is there really any need to get wound up about a lack of transfers mid June? The players are on holiday and very few transfers tend to happen at this time. A month from now and still no incomings then you may begin to have a point.

I would rather Martinez has a couple of weeks with the squad to assess where we need new recruits, where we don't, and where we can trim a player from the wage bill.

I'm suppose this is only daily mail bollocks, but if it's not, I think he would be a great signing for Everton. He would probably cost approx 2 million pounds.

The club needs to be sold, we know that... but I feel our ground is a big problem to buyers.

The odd game game in the spotlight at International level has to be taken with a pinch of salt. This lad has talent like many others but so does Ross Barkley who is struggling to get a consistent run. Hopefully things will change for Barkley.

We have to expect many media rumours this Summer now that we have a new gaffer.

Personally, I don't think there are any players in Norway that's good enough for the premier league at the moment. But I think Johansen is one of the very few that could be good enough. And unless there has been some radical changens in Everton's finances, the players have to be quite cheap. So I think there could be worse gambles than to buy him and then perhaps loan him out for a season. (It worked for Seamus Coleman...)

Regarding your (and others) other points: I know that Norway are not a world football superpower, thank you. Our senior team stinks, yes, I think so too. And there is at least ten years since Rosenborg beat Real Madrid, Milan and Borussia Dortmund in the CL. But still, we have a more than decent U21-side at the moment, and for us plucky little minnows, that's enough to make us optimistic, you see. We're not used to suddenly having a lot of talented players in the same age group (one of the last times that happened. Stability is not an option because there is simply not enough players to choose from.

Short history lesson as well, Philby: Norway played their first World Cup in 1938. Lost 2-1 to Italy, AET.

Still, I leave it there. Of course there are more talented players in the Belgian or Dutch league than in the Norwegian/Swedish/Danish. And it's quite usual that talents from the Scandinavian leagues go to a club Belgium or Netherlands, and if they are good enough, they move on to Germany, Spain, Italy - even England.

For what it's worth, Bryan King, who seems to be a scout for Everton - I don't know anything about him, was on Norwegian television saying that he'd followed Johansen all year, also in this link (in Norwegian): http://www.nrk.no/sport/fotball/bekrefter-johansen-interesse-1.11076936

But for the record, I'd prefer that Barkley get a good run.

The Italy match, btw, is a legendary one in Norwegian football lore as Norway was denied a perfectly good goal in the 90th minute that would have won the game. (The anger and indignation of the radio commentator is as intense as the guy with "your boys took a hell of a beating"). But the ref wouldn't have any of it. Italy went on to be world champions. And yes, the qualification wasn't the toughest. But it must have been a good team for it's time, the core of it bronze medalists from the 1936 olympics.

However, Bobby is doing a moonlighter with ESPN in Brazil, he maybe will make it a bit of a scouting mission (on our behalf) — El Dorado and all that! Who does he play for? I can hear it now!

Just think George Weah and Dwight Yorke, and there are plenty more around.

Most people are judging this lad because he is Norwegian, Liverpool are about to spend £20million on an Armenian.

I think we should go for Fer, but this young lad from the U-21 team has shown he has got ability.

Perhaps it is wise to spend a little less money on a younger midfielder then Fer.

I think we should just buy him and get it over with, go for one of the two.