Cannon joins Preston on loan

I'm close to giving up...

All the talk when he was appointed was that Lampard would give youth a chance. What a joke!

Yes, Paul, I think Kenwright wants us relegated. I've thought that for a while now. I'm worried, to say the least.

Interesting that the club only sent him one tier down. A stern test going from U-21 kiddie-ball to the Championship.

Preston NE is in 10th place after 26 games, but only 2 points off 5th, 5 points off 3rd. And they're one of 10 clubs within 6 points of a play-off position!

So he's definitely going into a situation where results are expected right now.

Tom appears to have that self-confident, cocky attitude you expect of forwards. He certainly knows where the net is and how to drive a football into it.

Let's see what he can do out of the children's league and into the cutthroat end of professional football.

A stern test.

This is all so bonkers. Calvert-Lewin unreliable in fitness and form. Maupay rubbish, especially up front on his own which is never his game. Simms recalled but not used until the game is lost. Rondon, Dobbin and Cannon gone. Where are the goals going to come from?

In fact, I would be recalling the 2 full internationals that we have already got out on loan to try and dig us out of this mess.

I'm sure we'll hear all the usual, "he's not ready", "struggling team", etc but would Simms or Warrington have been any worse or less effective than Rondon and Davies have been?

I especially thought the pace of Dobbin could have been used in a wide position when we've played 4-3-3 but none of them have been given a real chance. I don't count Patterson as he cost us quite a few million.

I keep hoping that, once (if ever?) he's steadied things, then we'll see him play the youth like he did at Derby and Chelsea.

It's the hope that kills you!

I'm reminded of the passage in David Prentice's excellent book in which, on Deadline Day, Howard Kendall (Mk 3) tells him there is going to be a great new signing. He waits only to be told with great excitement that we'd re-signed Peter Beagrie.

I'm expecting our incomings this month to include Ross Barkley, Moise Kean and Bernie Wright… I really hope I'm wrong.

The Charity Club.

We need goals… we always bloody do!

Dobbin has scored 1 league goal in 23 appearances for Derby County.

Anybody who thinks at 20 he's suddenly become our saviour from relegation hasn't seen him enough. He should do fine at Preston. He's too good for the U21s and it would have been criminal to keep him here and only play him in the odd minutes off the bench.

Why people keep making excesses for Frank is what will get us relegated. Frank is the one who keeps playing Maupay and Rondon (when he was here) – the so-called seasoned professionals – even when they were playing crap.

Frank wants seasoned hacks before he plays youth. How can you tell how good a player could be unless you give them a decent run and back them?

Look at the top clubs: Man City, Man Utd and dare I say Liverpool give their promising youth players a good run and unearth some really good players. Other clubs who have had players represent there countries at youth level and go on to being good Premier League players.

Why is it we have promising youth players and some of those players have represented their countries at youth levels? Our players go to shit as soon as they get to 19 or 20 years of age because they know there's no future for them at Everton, because Everton don't encourage them or give them opportunity or support them.

Frank only uses them to fill up the bench and give them 10 minutes here or there so he can say he played some youth players.

If we were winning 75% of our games, then you would say okay, but we are not, we are getting humiliated most games, so how depressing would it be for those youth players sitting on the bench thinking "Fuck, I can't even get more than 10 minutes in this team."

Stop making excuses for Frank! He is a nice guy but a shit manager who is way out of his depth. He has brought in Coady, Tarkowski, Onana, Gana, Maupay, McNeil and Garner (for around £80M) and another 6 players who will see out their contracts at Everton due to their wages.…

And now we are supposed to be chasing Ings at 30 years of age — great fucking scouting. Yes, there has to be significant changes at the hierarchy, but Christ… Frank has to go.

For all the crap people give the board – and rightfully so – they still supported Frank in giving him close to £90M, if you include the two previous loans in Dele Alli and the Man Utd lad. Any other manager, we wouldn't be talking about the sack — they already would be!!!

Leon Osman
Seamus Coleman
Anthony Gordon
Antonee Robinson (who we sold too soon)
Calvert-Lewin (loaned out by Sheffield Utd before we signed him)
Josh Bowler (may yet come back to haunt us)
Adam Forshaw

Lose Maupay and/or Calvert-Lewin to an injury and we are in trouble with only Simms available. There has to be a proper plan to get a useful body in (a striker) and so that's good news.

Dele Alli on the way back?

Pre-season perhaps? ;)

Imagine him coming into the team now and not doing well; he would be crucified. Finished before he had even started.

If he was that good, we'd know about it by now. Let him do his Preston stint in a relatively stress-free environment and see how he does.

Any takers?

Good luck, Tom. They say the Championship is a big step up from League One; if Preston have taken you, their manager must fancy your chances.

You beat me to it. It's clearly a cunning plan to have him ready for next season when we will be visiting Preston and elsewhere in the Championship.

According to the various newsreels, we are currently in well advanced negotiations to buy at least 7 strikers from age 19 to 32 and from near obscurity to complete obscurity. Our Saviour(s) is on the way. Fear not and hold your resolve.

Hoping the Villarreal lad is a goer and a striker that has pace.

Not to mention Beskitas owe us around £2M if they send him back early, which they won't do.

As a Premier League player – or just over the remainder of this season?

No wonder they can't displace our stuttering first squad strikers, they haven't been given a chance. Tom Cannon was so close to scoring against Wolves the other night, he wasn't even considered against Brighton(?). Yet Brighton had a teenager (Evan Ferguson) who almost destroyed us on his own!

I have always supported Frank, who comes across as a lovely but naive fellow, but sorry that doesn't make him a good manager or tactician, and for all his hitherto use of youth in previous appointments, where has that gone? I am very quickly, not only becoming anxious for our future, but losing patience and support for Frank too.

Brighton threw in 18-year-old Evan Ferguson – a revelation?

Of course, with few reliable options, we might have hedged our bets and given them both a shot, but realistically Cannon wasn't going to play much.

A Championship club like Preston that is close enough to home (for him, his family, and James Vaughan our Club Nanny!) and is chasing a place in the promotion playoffs (2 points away as of the timing of this post)? Perfect loan setting for Cannon to blossom IMHO!

Just rewind to how a similar setting with Blackpool made a young Seamus Coleman's bones: he helped Blackpool winning the Playoffs and got to the Premier League. Without having gone to the mattresses and through the trenches, Seamus would have been a lot less ready to get into Moyes's team right away in the subsequent season (the rest is history).

Anyone knows how good their manager Ryan Lowe is and what kind of playing style he employs at Preston? If he favours a progressive style, like Ian Holloway did back then with Blackpool, it will be an extra bonus for Cannon's development.

Simms is further ahead. If we get another striker in, don't be surprised if he heads back to Sunderland though.

Simms has been brought back to replace Rondon. Maupay and Calvert-Lewin are to be the main strikers. Maupay was the new striker brought in. I can't see another striker brought in.

Throughout the internet, Frank's rigidity and the club’s transfer policy are taking a battering. I think a decision was taken what was needed in the Summer and Frank was to implement a playing formula in training what was to be played on the pitch.

This is being implemented week-in & week-out and is reflected in the same play on the pitch whether it works are not, with like-for-like late subs to see games out, apparently replacing tired players.

Transfering a new a striker in will be more a response to fan pressure, rather than wanting to bring one in, or feeling the need to.

You can have so many subs nowadays where's the harm in having him on the bench and bringing him on if we are losing with 10 mins to go. Which would be every fucking game. That would get him some experience.

I was with Ryan Lowe, for a very sad occasion not so long ago, and knowing him like I do, then I’m sure his team will try and play football the right way, and although he’s a red, I think he would love to manage Everton one day!

I’ve exposed him now, but I get the feeling that he loves to see young scouse kids, doing well, so I’m certain Tom Cannon, will get loads of encouragement off his new manager, and I hope they both do really well🤞

Playing regularly for a first team, against experienced professionals at a decent level. For most u21s league 1, league 2 is a great platform. It's not just about them being at another club or playing half a dozen games at a higher level, its about improving mentally, physically and understanding the game and having to adapt.

Hopefully 2 season's of loans will enable a better assessment of a players game, not warming our bench or youth football.

Using Mo Kean as an example. Its clear he has ability and can score goals. But his attitude and work ethic is appalling. That was clear at PSG and remains so back at Juve. I'm glad a quick decision to flog him was made.

The worry is, if a players is not wanted by Everton we fail to get a good fee. Juve it appears are skint so I've no ideas what chance we have of getting our £25-£30M?

At the moment our strikers are not performing and, as you say, players like Cannon need game time — so why not at Everton?

Give him or Simms a starting place in front of Maupay, Calvert-Lewin. Why does it have to be through a loan to the Championship or League One.

Why are Cannon and Simms not the answer?

The forwards we have are not the answer now and they never will be (IMHO) so, unless we get a Kevin Campbell type signing this window, then the likes of Cannon and Simms have to play a big part.

He's still raw, still developing, imo not ready to lead a Premier league line. He's not athletic and isn't going to be closing down defenders so Frank would have to change style or tactics and adapt to the players strengths.

I can’t see that happening.

Cannon is behind Simms in development and Broadhead not considered good enough so was sold.

Yes they need to be given a chance but its about levels. It they can't show in training they are good enough against a poor Premier league squad, it doesn't give me hope for them this season.

Hopefully 2 quality, experienced, incoming player's will help us get over the line.

I may be old fashioned or to simplistic but a team with Dom and Simms as striker's need plenty of good quality crosses.

Why is Lampard so averse to giving our best young players the chance to shine? And why are the club and some fans so suspicious of giving youth its chance?

Plenty of other clubs have no hesitation in letting their best young talents play but we seem to prefer playing the experienced pros who let us down every week, simply because they have more games behind them.

Why is someone who has played 100 games badly a better choice than a young player just starting out? At least we might get a nice surprise with the young player.

We will never know if the best youngsters like Cannon will make it in the first team until we actually give them a chance to prove it.

He might actually get us the goals we're crying out for right now, but we'll never know with him out on loan. Him and Simms are surely worth a run of games than the non-scoring Maupay who gets picked each week.

What's the point of the academy if all you do is produce players to loan out, who never get a chance to play in the first team? Especially with the situation we're in currently and how bad our first-team squad is overall.

There was no urgency about getting a Central Attacker after getting Maupay, even when Calvert Lewin was injuried.Rondon appeared to be back up.Those involved in decided what was required decided this was sufficient.

When Rondon left, Simms was brought back from Sunderland , in what looks to be, as his replacement. With Calvert Lewin back, what was acceptable in the Summer is back in place.

I agree with you that this is not the answer, but there appears not to be a big hurry to sign a forward of the calibre that you correctly say is required.There maybe a loan deal done, but Everton 's transfer policy seen to be dictated by those that are dealing with the Premier League Profit and Sustainability rules.

Whilst the Manager may have a input into what he thinks he requires, the sourcing of players and deciding on the content of the transfer appears to be in other hands.

Cannon's loan and the loan out policy in general appear to be decided in this text, to reduce wages %.Simms is probably a improvement on Rondon,at least he can score, Robson was a lead the line player, who rarely scored in any team he recently played for.

Is he (they?) injured and is Cannon a replacement, cover or only off the bench when either chasing the game or it is sewn up one way or the other, a sort of insurance for their final push for the playoffs?

So much to know before shouting how good this will be in his development.

Their GF is only 24 in 26, which isn't.

Thinking young Cannon can add some firepower.

It does suggest that they don't have a lot of confidence in their existing permanent strikers to get goals, but that's a lot of competition for the striker places; let's hope Cannon can get regular game time.