A couple of contracts to sort out, in Tarkowski, Garner & Mykolenko. I think all are out of contract in the summer if options aren't in place.

Draws become wins and losses become draws with a finisher. We all know that. And on the flip side if you don’t finish your chances a win can become a draw and a draw a loss.

We will create a lot of chances this season but will regret not having someone to tuck them away.

However, no top quality forward will want to drop out of Europe and into a team that has been surrounded by on and off the field chaos for the last few seasons.

Thats the puzzle that the recruitment team need to solve.

For me striker, right back and DM are the obvious holes but with garner and Tim both a year older and wiser I think we could make do with just RB and striker.

Who is anyone’s guess

My guess would be a right back and maybe another midfield player and that'll be it, tops.

With Chermiti allegedly going on loan though two strikers is just not enough. For any premier league team. You need four. Most teams have more than that.

I wouldn’t put money on either Beto or Barry getting double figures this season.

You say the traditional number 9 role is less used but any half decent one is worth 50m +. Most of the big signings of the window have been strikers?

delap, Jao pedro, Isak (when not if…) Gyokores, Etikite, Sesko, Cunha (even Mbuemo to a lesser extent…) strand Larson

Even Barry himself!

Every team needs a striker who can finish and ours look terrified one on one.

I'd stick with Beto as the No.9 for the time being with Barry given plenty of minutes from the bench/rotation/cups.

We all know Beto was awful against Leeds but the team was completely imbalanced. With the aforementioned 3 playing behind him and Myko offering L sided crossing, then Beto should have much better service to work with.

He's proven he can score goals given decent supply, we just can't lump the ball up to him with his back to goal. That's not his game.

With our much improved midfield options, we shouldn't be constantly lumping the ball regardless of who's playing.

If we keep Beto and Barry then why not Vardy as an experienced backup? They could both learn tons from a player like him.

Savona made 28 appearances in Serie A during his breakthrough season at Juve last year - but he is likely to cost upwards of £15m.

Which one do we want Robert?

Brownhill on a free is a good call. Another Ashley Young on loan to replace Patterson, and a goal poacher on loan to replace Chermiti.

Currently, we're the 3rd highest net spend in the Premier League behind Arsenal and Man Utd, so it would be a surprise if we spend any more unless we sell someone.

I was opposed to Vardy but the more I think about it, he'd make sense on a one-year deal while Chermiti is on loan.

Fred #13, there's a reason you never hear about Bowen. Hammers have enough problems without selling their best player, and we couldn't fit him under our PSR limits anyway.

A holding midfielder: only if they’re very clearly better than what we have, otherwise park that until next summer.

After that, it’s a case of can we loan/afford someone who definitely makes us better (so no Brownhill or Soucek). If not, hold fire. Of those recently linked, Aké and the Benfica midfielder look like they’d improve us, otherwise I don’t want to buy or sign for the sake of it. Save the money/PSR wiggle room for when we can extract value from the market.

Also, stop worrying about who’s in the ‘starting XI’ - it’s generally the ‘finishing XI’ who decide a result. We need 15/16 top quality players on the field every match, with different options in the forward positions.

Once Branthwaite is fit O,Brien will be moved over to play right back.

For me a striker is a must, cannot go into the season with just Barry and Beto.

Be nice if we got Mainoo, still owe them for Rooney.

We have lots of players to play in the 10 or 8 position, but only really Garner for the 6. Gana for me is better as an eight where he can win the ball and if he gives it away, it isn't catastrophic.

I think we can get by with Obrien and Coleman at right back, but the down side is its harder to break teams down. I would like a specialist in, as I think it would elevate our play, but decent ones seem in short supply.

Strikers. The three we have can't hold the ball up, and the link play is pretty poor. None of the 3 can play well in a two, which is a worry. That said I think both beto and Barry are better than the comments suggest. They've been around goals scored. They might be less pleasing on the eye than dcl, but do you want goals or nice hold up play?

Id like a striker in the Juminez style at Fulham. He always seems to score, link up the play and have a bit of class. He could play in a two. That type of player would take the team forward if you could get someone hitting their 30s on loan or a free. There must be someone in Europe that can do that.

Lets see where Moyes goes. I could equally see a front 4 of Grealish, Ndiaye, Dibbling Alcaraz - with Ndiaye playing as a false 9. Bowen played many games through the middle, but he did have pace.

Barry and Beto both know where it is too, but have extreme difficulty putting the ball there. However I believe we have also made enquiries for Ivanovic of Millwall. Kobbie Mainoo would be a coup too if we could pull that off.

Midfielder Florentino Luis (Benfica) looks like a decent punt if we could pull that off too. Not too many links to RB's though !

Even if we don't get one more, this has been a huge step forward.

Win league?

Nah.

Top 10.

V good chance

I want it NOW!

One thing I don't 100% understand is now that there is a definite competition for places - Evertonians are talking about loaning players out!?!?!?!?

Maybe the lack of competition in recent years has become ingrained in our mentality and we do not know what a good competitive squad looks like anymore!

1. A guy we've heard nothing about previously;

2. A final-day loan; and

3. Nobody to get excited about, just a depth piece.

The fact that we were in strongly for comparative mediocrities like Tete and Justin tells me there's just not much out there in the way of exciting, attacking right backs. Seems like that's one item that will simply have to wait for a future window.

DK, Mainoo would be a coup indeed, but it would only be possible as a loan, and United would only do that if they planned to bring him back -- but Amorim apparently doesn't rate the kid at all. So by all press accounts Mainoo is reluctantly looking at permanent transfers or loan-to-buys to the likes of Real Madrid, Atletico, Bayern, Juve, Inter. Ah, well.

Our problem is we have no service from the flanks and that is partly because we have no real full backs. Much as I like Myko, he has been hopeless going forward and you can't expect O'Brien, a CH to do that and he doesn't.

My priorities are therefore Ake (in an ideal world, also covering for Jarrod and for that matter DM)) and a good dynamic right back. Almost anything would be an improvement. The rest can wait, unless the view is Chermiti won't make it, in which case, we will need a third body there.

Why we would want to loan out Armstrong when he is on the cusp of breaking through perplexes me. I also believe he is more versatile than people think. He might end up being someone we can't keep in a few years so let's enjoy him while we can.

Im not sure our BBC can see us through the season.

I also don't understand why Moyes would send Armstrong out on loan, he was our best player last night, and well capable of coming off the bench and make a difference in the Premier League this season; for a young player he's skilful and physically strong.

no service from the flanks - I think that is what Grealish and Dibbling were brought in for - I think there is more to their game than cutting in - Grealish already has 2 assists! I think overlapping full backs is an issue, but I also think that Mykolenko is better at overlapping these days - though right back is an issue. That said, I see a lot of interchangeability in this team - and that is a massive upgrade.

I suspect it will be loans or possibly freebies but would love a move for Juanlu Sanchez. Florentino Luis is off to Burnley.

Given we can't realistically buy a striker of the highest quality, the cheapest option is to buy/loan the players who can feed the ones we've got. Even our strikers will score goals if we do.

Myko, bless him, really isn't going to cut it when we play a team we need to be more offensive against. He'll do when we play the better teams and have a more defensive shape.

I’m not convinced there is a necessity for specifically a defensive midfielder as we have enough decent enough midfielders to give a serviceable spine to the team even in the absence of Gana. Someone like Nathan Ake on loan would be fine.

Sorting out a better option at right-back has to be the key concern.

I doubt there is any striker who would be guaranteed goals either still available at a price we can afford or desperate enough to try somewhere on loan. At his age Jamie Vardy would be a strange one to stake the mortgage on.

Kobbie Mainoo won’t be looking for a permanent transfer to the likes of us even if we could afford him (extremely unlikely), and I’d also be surprised if he’d come on loan. I don’t think he would be making that decision in the same frame of mind as Jack Grealish.

Btw, Si, I agree that Ake would be a useful signing but its unlikely as we'd have to buy him. You can't have 2 loans from the same club. We already have Grealish.

I liked the links to Luis from Benfica today but it looks like Burnley have beaten us to that deal.

Any other’s of his ‘type’ potentially available?

That makes the signing fee for Thierno Barry look like a good deal.

Piss poor management from Utd and an unhappy player is not a good thing. Would they let him come to us though? I doubt it.

Mind you, we're unlikely to be fighting it out for relegation like Utd so why not!

He did sort of allude to us still trying to bring players in, but as someone said above I'd guess at loans rather than high value permanent deals. We've likely spent the lions share of our kitty already

But...Hayden Hackney from Boro? £10m the baby journo suggests.

Your opinions? I suspect more informed than mine.

City loaned Grealish to us because they don't see us as a danger to them but we very well might take points off Chelsea, Arsenal, the Reds, Spurs.

I doubt Utd will lend us Mainoo because we might finish above them with him in the side.

John McFarlene Snr has been in touch with Bill and still keeping well.

What we want to try and do is set up a group WhatsApp for those that meet up, so that if we sort any future meet-ups on here, we can also message in a group app for any last minute changes, or some who might be in town to grab a drink before or after the game.

It also gives us a chance to keep up with John McFarlene Snr

I’ve set a brief one up but just to get people in the group, if someone knows how to set one up and can do this can transfer the numbers across to a group they can set up.

Be nice to have a WhatsApp group to keep in touch with the regulars now that we have moved stadiums and lost our usual Harlech meet up.

He's more of a baby Kovacic - good at wriggling forward with the ball and not losing it - not anything like Gana or Garner defensively.

If we're looking for Gana cover / replacement, he's not what we need.

Worth noting that, although people may be right to say Amorim's opinion counts for nothing, FBref says Mainoo's most similar high profile player is Connor Gallagher - great player, but not a 6.

And exactly the reason he isn't getting a game at Utd because he plays similarly to Fernandes.

I did wonder the same thing reading people on here thinking he's a defensive player - I think this is because people mistake box-to-box midfielders as defensive players, which technically they're not.

He's also played as a number 10 for Utd but being a box-to-box player primarily makes him an attacking midfielder not a defensive one.

https://www.capology.com/club/everton/salaries/

Needs some adjustment of 9m maybe for KDH, Dib and Barry but

Surely some wiggle room for a couple more signings?

Everton wage bill is more like 170m

Way over 60m

https://images.gc.evertonfcservices.co.uk/cbc58dc0-0e11-11f0-9e6e-1963689d7c36.pdf

I am only thinking of first team playing squad wages.