Milan make contact with Barcelona over Deulofeu

Instead of a team that may or may not resign him?

Milan don't want to pay £20m so they speak to Barca to say 'Why not exercise your buy back clause for £12m and then sell him to us for £16m?'

Barca make £4m profit for doing nothing and Milan save £4m on what Everton are asking.

Seems sensible. Martin must be in the know on the contract details

And as far as I can tell they can't just buy him for the ressies, they would have to give him first team football of some sort. So the stories being put out by lazy journos are a non-starter.

Even after they've had him for the year, should they buy him back, we receive a chunk of the sell on fee.

I personally don't see Deulofeu commanding more than £10 million so I doubt Barcelona will buy him back. Then again, different people are in charge now. They may think he still has potential.

No. He must be part of the first team squad for a full year. If Barcelona sell him after that, Everton get a huge whack of any profit made.

Barcelona's definition of successful might be a little higher than most BTW.

Put our club back years but did do some good things as well that get overlooked.

The undoubted experience that Del will have gained, in Italian football, may have brought him on a bit more.

The lad always wanted to play for us, and us only, in the Prem, and let's be fair, didn't force a move away, he just wanted regular football.

I would love to have him back, hopefully, we will be involved in European Football, (probably Europa) next season so will need a deeper squad, with experience of Continental style, step up young Del!

The ONLY good thing Bobby Brown Shoes done was to fuck off. Still cannot believe a no-mark gets a team relegated and Everton appoint him as manager, you wouldn't see that in a comedy series. But Welcome to EFC.

And I've long been an admirer of Deulofeu and thought it was ridiculous when he was loaned out.

What Deulofeu needs is games, not 10 minutes cameos. He will struggle maybe for the first couple but once he finds his feet he will be one of the best players in the league. I'm hoping that we haven't missed the boat with him, I really am.

I don't suppose there are too many Twebbers who are fortunate to make a living from football as players, coaches etc. But we've all seen 100s or 1000s of footballers either live or on TV, so we all would like to think that we know the difference between the good the bad, the honest triers the lazy bastards etc.

And IMHO, Deulofeu is a good, or has the potential to be as good as I've seen. Obviously Koeman doesn't share my view so what do I know; but he wouldn't be the first manager (the not so special one's done it a few times) to misjudge a player and ship them out.

Deulofeu – I don't understand Koeman letting him go, the lad is a genius. Everton just don't have his football intelligence to keep up with him. Del likes fast football, ie Barca, Milan... rather than the sluggard pace of our still largely very average Everton.

There are many players who should have went before Del. I agree Del didn't have enough actual playing time, the European league football is keeper kicks the ball off... 20 seconds later... goal to Barca.

If anything, Deulofeu is more suited to a slower pace where he has more space and less need to be fit, hence things going well at AC Milan...

In those 10 games he has only been subbed out twice, late in the game, which rather challenges the charges some make that he can't last 90 minutes.

Two goals, 3 assists in those games. Running at the defence against Palermo this weekend, he won the free kick from which Milan scored directly for their 1st goal. He scored their 4th, again running at the defence who foolishly backed off and he curled a delightful 'out to in' shot around two defenders and the keeper.

Recently called up for Spain against France, coming on as sub he helped settle the game: within 30 seconds on entering the game, he won the penalty for Spain's 1st and then scored their second in only his second appearance for the national side.

In a couple of days, he turns 23. It looks as if Koeman doesn't fancy him.

Nobody currently at Everton offers what Gerard does.

I'd keep him at Everton as long as possible AND be playing him every week.

As you say, it doesn't look like Koeman fancies him, although to be honest he hasn't taken the chance to really impress the manager, but again he hasn't been given the role of a playmaker. He may get another chance at Goodison, even if it odds against that at the moment.

I say largely because a lot of his highlighted play shows him running at defences centrally from where he is winning free kicks, creating chances and scoring.

We could rue letting him go too easily and too cheaply IMO.

Barcelona could take him back and I'd be a bit gutted if they do but that would leave a sweetener to the Martinez era with £10 million for Gerry, £8M for Cleverley and Niasse doing well and likely to recoup some of his fee.

After that he was gone.

Very talented player that Prem opposition worked out they could easily muscle off the ball. Unless he builds strength & uses it, I can't see him having a future in England.

Anyway, I'll trust in Koeman to make the right decision. He knows the player far better than I do... and he knows quite a lot more about football!

Lucky he wasn't stripped of his locker!

The top 4 play fast Premier League football. I was watching La Liga recently and the pace of their football was immensely rapid, sophisticated, and the attempts/ shots at goal were just as rapid. I have viewed nothing like this even including the Premier League's top 4/ 6.

There was a Spanish player giving his all time top 10 players who he has played with, or players he rated highly, on Sky Sports, and there were some top names. Deulofeu was considered one of them.

AC Milan Forum

The majority of them like him and want to sign him at the end of the season but there are a few that are not so sure, especially regarding his goal return and final ball.

When reading the posts, I couldn't help but think how we first reacted to him when he first came on loan to us and how excited we were that we had such a young talented Barcelona prospect playing for us.

There is no doubt that, since the first day he went to Milan, that he upped his effort and you could tell by his body language he really wanted to be there and play for such a big club. This point alone I believe is HUGE in that I think Geri is quite a temperamental player who if things aren't going his way he is very quick to throw his arms up in the air and his toys out of the pram.

He saw this as a fresh start in a new country where nobody knew him that well. Also, it was exciting moving to a new country where the people are all football crazy. No disrespect to Liverpool but I'd imagine it's much more pleasant for a young Spaniard to live in Milan than it is in Northwest England.

If you watch some of his performances/highlights on YouTube playing for Milan he certainly does seem to be working much harder and even getting back to defend which he just wouldn't really do for Koeman. I think Koeman wanted to keep him as a super-sub or a bit part player but Geri wanted away himself as he didn't like our style of football and that hard work and graft was appreciated more in England than skill and flair.

In a way he's a bit like Mirallas in that when Kev takes the notion to work hard and play he's quite the player but too often then he couldn't be bothered or gets frustrated and gives up. Kev however is much more likely to score you goals whereas Geri, despite having more skill, seems to continually be slow to shoot, or when he does it doesn't seem to be with much urgency.

Personally, I would like to see him come back to us as I think he has developed a bit since his move there but I just think the lad no longer is motivated to play for us and, with his girlfriend having a baby, I think he will want to stay in Italy or maybe go back to Barca to be near their families. He probably feels he has done well there and the fans rate him so he feels loved again.

Milan look like they are also bound for the Europa League this year so who knows he could be playing against us next year with a point to prove.