ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

Beattie

If proof were needed that the newspapers made up their stories, then check this out. They say that:

Everton are asking £4M for Beattie - given Nugent is worth £6M then Beattie must be worth oooooooh at least the price of a half-eaten jelly baby infected with hepatitis, and
Everton have rejected an enquiry of £2.5m for Beattie from Blackburn... half-eaten jelly baby, hello?!?

Surely there can be no truth in this because Moyes and co would have bit their hands off, wouldn't they? Mind you after the glaring own goals of FSF, King's Dock, Tescos etc etc, who knows.
Mark Wynne, Bury St Edmunds Posted 16/07/2007 at 10:10:25

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Comments

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Roy Coyne
1 Posted 16/07/2007 at 13:59:03

Mark just because Beattie has not set goodison alight dose not mean we should give him away . Our squad is too small now and if clubs rate him high enough to bid then we should hold out for sufficent funds for a replacement

Wayne Smith
2 Posted 16/07/2007 at 14:03:43

He is a huge personality in the squad, thats why he is worth keeping, if we do sell,t hen he?ll bring that to another club, worth more than 2.5 easily. Proven prem striker, nugent 6 mill bt 4 mill at least.

Rob Prince
3 Posted 16/07/2007 at 15:00:43

I agree with Roy.If in the current market a young unproven striker from a lower division (Nugent) is worth 6 million pounds then James Beattie who is an established premiership striker with plenty of goals under his belt (albeit for Southampton) and still young enough to have at least 4 years in him should be "valued" correctly. He has undoubted potential and as Wayne says, is supposed to wield ploenty of influence with the players in a positive way. I am all for keeping him anyway, and I feel his experience will be very important next year. I wouldn´t see him for any less then 4 mill.

Malcom Senter
4 Posted 16/07/2007 at 16:53:43

Any manager daft enough to pay £4M for Beattie should not be in the job!The fact that he was once capable of sticking the ball in the net in no way determines his present value.If you used the same criteria about the useless VdM he’d be worth three times that amount.I’d give the pair of away to save the wages-said to be a combined 60K per bloody week!

Brian Waring
5 Posted 16/07/2007 at 16:55:25

Wayne,you don’t keep a player at the club and pay him £30+ grand a week just for his personality.Beattie is there for one reason only,and that is to score goals,and as you know he doesn’t do that.So come on lads get a grip,we are already carrying shandy Andy,we can do without carrying Beattie as well this coming season.And don’t say "you never know this could be his year"Because, how long have we been saying that for?I think £3.5 - £4m would be a fair price for him.

Brian Waring
6 Posted 16/07/2007 at 17:20:45

Sorry lads.I actually meant to say £3m-£3.5m would be a decent price for him.I nearly collapsed when I realised I had put £4m. At the end of the day,clubs may look at him and say "it could be a gamble paying £4m for a striker who hasn’t done anything for a couple of years"

Peter Singer
7 Posted 16/07/2007 at 19:17:31

It would do good both to us and Beattie if he went elsewhere. I accept he’s a good lad and as such he deserves to get another chance under another manager in another system.

And we badly need the money saved on his salary.

I admit it’s only speculation but I think the reason behind us not signing anyone is not the lack of funds to pay a decent transfer fee but the tightness of the wage bill.

Steve Williams
8 Posted 16/07/2007 at 20:05:32

Exactly Peter- whatever the shortcomings of Bill Kenwrights leadership, the squad has been built up under a certain wage structure. There’s no reason that Everton could not sign a Bosman transfer and pay 60/75k wages but the implications of such a deal are then quadrupled for the other 4 top earning players at the club under their parity clauses, so 75k a week becomes 155k per week just for the sake of adding one mega star earner to the squad. On the other side of the coin, you would be surprised how many players would accept less than that offered elsewhere to sign for Everton if they were transfer targets.

Karl Jones
9 Posted 16/07/2007 at 20:12:19

For all Beatties failings last season, he is still capable of hitting a run of form/goalscoring.There is no other premiership club that would sell one of there strikers for 2-4 million so why should we? who would we sign for that amount?
We should be looking desperately to sign a leftback, not reducing the squad still further.

Steve Pugh
10 Posted 17/07/2007 at 07:44:17

One bad season does not a striker destroy. Those of you that have written off the big man need to compare his first season with AJ last season and then start panicking. Either that or shut up and let him get his form back. BT is a proven striker with a good record for club and country. Worth £3m less than Nugent, no way. What about £13.5m less than Bent? In the current silly climate I think we should ask about £9m.