Saudi club want Doucouré to replace Henderson

Tell them they have to buy the whole club.

If they want a direct replacement for Henderson, players of similar ability to him are two a penny in the lower leagues. (Although most of those in the lower leagues would have higher morals than Henderson and would not move there.)

Doucouré would be a huge upgrade on Henderson, not a replacement.

Come back in the summer with £50M.

Hear! Hear! Craig.
Failing that, sell them Dele!

They can have Dele Keane and Calvert-lewin.

And Onana!

I think a lot hinges on what this Profitability and Sustainability (which is dragging out) outcome is, and, have we any money to spend?

This is what pisses me off every Transfer Window, it is open for nearly 5 weeks, and longer in the summer. Very little happens apart from the odd move (other clubs) then it is a mad rush on the final day. (Why?)

It may be we have to sell some to lower our figures. Of course in reality, we can't really afford to let anyone go without replacements, then they have to settle in.

Personally I have resigned myself to just wanting and accepting Premier League survival, and then rebuilding next season.

Derek, it is called negotiation.

Forest are saying they sold Johnson late because they made an extra £10m by waiting for deadline day.

So sellers are hoping that buyers get desperate and offer more
Buyer hope sellers get desperate and accept any offer.

They can't have Doucoure, but we can do them a cracking deal on Mason Holgate.

Why can't a Saudi buy us and our stadium, for fuck's sake?

Doucoure is just about our most important player in forward areas, and boy, do we miss him when he is out injured?

We need him in the team, as he is vital to the system the manager uses, and he is even more effective away from home, where defences tend to be a bit more confident playing out from the back.

We may have to take the hit in the summer when his contract is up, but in my mind, he is far too valuable to the fight to stay up to sell now.

Danjuma could play the same role in my humble opinion

20 million and you can have him

Seems very unlikely unless they pay £20m+ and we have a replacement lined up who can hit the ground running.

Tell them they can have him but they have to take the club as well, all our probs solved in one transfer window, who would ever have thought it.😀

Tell them they can have him but they have to take the club as well, all our probs solved in one transfer window, who would ever have thought it.😀

P K, say what?

From a business point of view (my interpretation) is Doucoure is 31 now, so a decent offer would have to be considered, and possibly get some younger talent in with the fee. Just this season alone he has missed a few games through injury too, so not exactly a model of consistency.

Sam and Derek have the best points. It would have to be a substantial although as Derek says P&L with ownership in limbo could force us to sell even if the figure isn’t as what we are seeking

If there is any truth in this and they do want him, then they will get him. We are in no position to refuse a decent offer.

Do one, Stevie Gobshite.

They could save some money and replace Henderson with a fucking Ikea wardrobe.

We should make a point of not selling him cuz it’s Steve deadhard he would never do us any favours, he was an awkward twat with the Patterson deal, kept knocking us back until we paid over the odds, karma back to him now

Slippy Steve was at Villa when we signed Patterson. He joined them in November 2021, Nathan signed in January 2022 just after we sold Digne to Villa
But I agree he is a twat

Brian #22

You're being a bit rough on Ikea wardrobes.

Guilty Brendan. 🤣

Would be very surprised if Doucoure ended up playing for a coward. £15 million a year the coward gets!! Absolute Joke!!

James Hughes,

I think Nick is referencing the window prior when we were linked with Patterson and crease head said we'd have to pay way more than the rumored price even though Patterson couldn't get a look in with his team of journeymen and rejects.

I'm assuming based on headlines Demarai Gray hasn't proven to be the hero Gerrard was looking for.

They can fuck off unless they want to pay enough to sort any PSR issues for the next 10 years.

Just 9 days left of the transfer window and so far it's been very quiet, January is normally a very difficult time to buy or sell players.

Seeing how important Doucouré is, I can't see any way Everton would agree any deal for him. Normally I would sell any player at 31 but he is so important both in goals and our style of play that, even at 31, for Everton he is unsellable in this window.

Rumour has it that Everton are considering ending Danjuma's loan deal early, and letting him do a deal with Lyon.

While Dyche has done a good job, the one department that he hasn't shone is in his transfer deals. He has brought in Beto and Chermiti, both bought, and Harrison and Danjuma, bith on loan deals, and Young on a free.

But the two players he has bought have had very little playing time, so it looks as if Dyche has more faith in Harrison and Young. For a club with little or no money to spend, was it wise to bring in Beto and Chermiti given how little he has played them?

Also, Godfrey seems surplus to Dyche's requirements so wouldn't it be prudent to move him on given reports that other clubs are looking at him?

When does his contract expire?

Didn't he sign a 1-year extension at the end of last season so could run out this time?

Brian @31,

I've been thinking about Chermitti. Think there are studies that suggest that first-team game time, especially between the ages of 18-21 is crucial for development. So we are doing him no favours by keeping him on our bench. Think he's only had 46 minutes in the league this season.

He'd be much better served by a loan back to Portugal or maybe even League One if we could find someone who would definitely play him. Last season, he managed almost 1,000 minutes for Sporting and bagged a few goals. That's what the lad needs, otherwise the £8M we spent on him will have been wasted. We could include a recall clause in case Calvert-Lewinand Beto both get injured.

Sam 33

Totally agree about how important that playing time for the 18 to 21 age group is. As you suggest by having so little playing time we should have loaned Chermetti back to Sporting for 6 months. Also Sean Dyche seems very reluctant to give much game time to Dobbin, and I havent seen anything to suggest that we are trying to create a culture were youngsters do see a pathway to first team football. Both Liverpool and City seem to give more minutes to their young players than we do, and you could argue seeing they are chasing trophies you would think they would be more reluctant to give youngsters some game time.

The other thing that frustrates me about Sean Dyche is something many on here comment about, which is is use of substitutions. I know someone on ToffeeWeb posted that they had spoken to Ian Woan about this and Woan said that Dyche believes that the side he picks is the one to win a game. But I am sure all managers pick the team they believe will win them the game, but they are also well aware that for a myriad of reasons that the side you start with might not be having the impact you had hoped for. Most managers say the game is more demanding than ever on the players and that's another reason why the amount of substitutions allowed has gone up. But as if to highlight Sean Dyches reluctance to make substitutions last week Palace made 5 changes before we made one. I don't know if anyone has the stats but I would wager a fair sum that Sean Dyche makes fewer substitutions than most other teams in the Premier league.

Doucoure definitely has to be kept, he's the only one capable of scoring regularly.

I'd be open to moving Godfrey on.

From what I've seen of Matt Riley at Celtic, I'd be looking at him. Good in the air, good on the deck, scores and assists. He looks a good buy for someone.

I wouldn't even sell Gerrard my used undies – let alone our top scorer in January.

If we sold Doucoure now, I honestly believe we'd get relegated, yes that much a statement I'll make.

There's nobody else in this squad, and I include the strikers in this, capable of scoring enough goals to get us enough points.

Jim, I think its very unlikely we'll sell Doucoure; but if we did it would surely only happen if Dyche was happy with the replacement that was lined up. That replacement would have to bring a serious goal threat with him. But I really don't see it happening.

I don't either Sam, it would be an absolute insane offer but then again we know the money they possess.

More likely a deal could be struck up in summer but again, it would have to be serious money and we'd need a proper goal threat coming in.

If Doucouré going out for top money had cleared the way for us to bring in someone like Brereton Diaz it wouldn't have bothered me. I like the player but don't see him as irreplaceable.

If there are no decent replacements on the horizon then I'm perfectly happy for him to stay. Don't think he necessarily guarantees us goals though.