ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

Anichebe and Vaughan

In Vaughan and Anichebe we have two of the best young strikers in the country, their goals-to-games ratios are very good and they both seem very hungry to play and work very hard. We have two great young strikers who we need to get behind and who need to be nurtured into the game, which Moyes is doing very well. We need to keep hold of these two as they have the potential to be very good.

I can see anichebe being used as an impact player in the last 15 minutes a lot more from now on, the way he shrugged off the challenge against Nurenburg to score his goal was amazing. Everton have once again provided evidence of a very succesful youth academy, we seem to produce brilliant strikers. Also Jose Baxter is a very good prospect.
Connor Davies, Southampton Posted 09/11/2007 at 12:02:10

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Anto Doran
1 Posted 09/11/2007 at 13:59:03

why did we buy Yakubu???? good striker, yes ok maybe, but wasted when we already talented youth coming thru

Luke Brooks
2 Posted 09/11/2007 at 14:02:06

The Yak is improving all the time and will be worth every penny if his presence means we compete in all 4 competitions

patty
3 Posted 09/11/2007 at 14:04:30

We were down to the bare bones as far as strikers were concerned, at the time of Yakubu’s purchase, you may remember, through injuries and only had Beattie to fall back on - enough said!! Fair play he is making his mark in the Championship where he looks like a race-horse compared to cart horses - perhaps he has found his niche. Anyway as we have been playing 3 times a week, it doesn’t harm, does it, to be carrying some extra players be they strikers or whatever position.

Harry Shaw
4 Posted 09/11/2007 at 14:07:27

Unless Everton reach each of the Carling, FA and UEFA cup finals, the regularity of games will slow down.

How will Moyes keep 5 strikers happy? As much as I love McFadden, maybe a sale to one of Celtic or Rangers for £11million plus would be good business.

Steve Guy
5 Posted 09/11/2007 at 14:09:21

Point worth making here is that both these talents have developed under Moyes and his softly softly approach has worked well for both. Other youngsters are also knocking on the first team door, some of whom will make the transition and some not; but I don’t believe anyone should now doubt Moyes’ ability to bring players through and get the best from them. Are you listening Shrek & your supporting cast ?

Dutch Schaffaer
6 Posted 09/11/2007 at 14:14:33

I don’t like Yakabu but I can understand why Moyes felt the need to bring in another striker. You simply cannot rely on Vaughan because of all his injuries.

Injuries limit his usefulness to the odd cameos, you can’t really say he’s apart of the squad because we see him so rarely.

I agree he’s a fine player but what’s the point of a Rolls Royce if its always in the garage?

Mark Hill
7 Posted 09/11/2007 at 14:08:59

WE needed Yak, no question. Vaughan and Anichebe are great prospects for us, but they are not yet ready to do it week in week out for us. The end of last and the start of this season was a struggle for Anichebe, Vaughan has his injury worries, so the addition of Yakubu, compliments what we have already for definite. His performance alone last night (whilst not world beating or class by any stretch) enabled Moyes to use his subs to great effect.
I might be sticking my neck out here, but i think Big tits got a lot of unfair flack, yes he didn’t score buckets, he seemed to struggle at Everton. But look at previous strikers employed during Moryes tenure.....who out of any of them scored over 10 - 15 goals a season (that expected of Beats)??? The only other thing I would say is where Beattie has played with wingers -(Sheff Utd / Southampton and to some exptent Blackburn) he scored regularly and usually scored near the 20 mark for the season.....just a thought...!!!!

Mark Hill
8 Posted 09/11/2007 at 14:21:42

Sorry but McFadden, we will be lucky to get £3mill for him. He just isn’t consistent enough, and i am sorry but John Spencer (remember him) scored shed loads up in scotland, he didn’t cost bugger all...!!

Dutch Schaffer
9 Posted 09/11/2007 at 14:19:09

Harry Shaw I think the sale of McFadden for £11 million would be called good business. In fact I think it would be considered deal of decade.

Lets be honest who in their right mind is going to pay £11 million for a striker who has only scored 17 times in 4 years???

£11 million for McFadden, thats a laugh. I’d take £5 million and be greatful.

Gareth Hughes
10 Posted 09/11/2007 at 14:27:01

Its great that we have 4 really good strikers, two of which are homegrown. Baxter could be the best of the lot. Two questions though; first, why is James McFadden still at the club. He is a jst not good enough and not needed now. Second, why is it that our youth sytem only produces quality strikeers. We are crying out for our own Steven Gerrard or Fabregas, but we have simply not produced anyone in that mould. Think about it. Every player who has made it in the last 15 years has been a striker. Branch, Jeffers, Cadamarteri, Rooney, Vaughan, Anichebe. ONly Hibberet and Osman, both very average, have bucked the trend. Disappointing and strange

Simon Reason
11 Posted 09/11/2007 at 14:30:07

I hope the Yak will prove to be a good signing. Vic’s post-match comments illustrate the positive influence a top-class striker can have on our young strikers.

however, I agree that five strikers in the squad looks one heavy to me, especially as we are playing 451 (to good effect). I think we’d all hope that it McFadden will be the one to go

Dutch Schaffaer
12 Posted 09/11/2007 at 14:34:25

Gareth Hughes Osman and Hibbert are very good players while Gavin McCann, Michael Ball and especially Richard Dunne have gone on to have decent careers elsewhere.

I do agree with you though, its time we had a midfielder as good as Rooney come through the ranks.

Iain Thomson
13 Posted 09/11/2007 at 14:52:40

In addition to the ANC 2 of our strikers are teenagers, they show tremendous promise but the reality is they are young lads. There are plenty of players in the lower leagues who burst onto the scene at top level in a blaze of glory and it just ended up not working out.

Im probably more of a MacFadden fan than most here as I feel hes had a bit of a raw deal being played in wide midefield for ages and never really getting a decent run up front. Im not sure how he can become consistent when he doesnt play. AJ and Beatie were given game after game to get through scoring droughts the same cant be said for MacFadden.

The whole old firm will buy him for big money is fantasy. The days of huge old firm spending are over. If he was availale im sure there are plenty of teams who would make a move, but nobody offers big money for a player who clearly isnt really rated that much by his manager, so 2 or 3 million maybe.

I think our strikers area nice blend as all a little diffeent and give Moyes options in terms of how he wants forward line to play. If we get upset when that spanish bloke says we are a small team why would we want to reduce our squad size when we want to be competing on 4 fronts, doesnt make sense to me. Big clubs have big squads

Simon Reason
14 Posted 09/11/2007 at 15:14:18

I agree that we dont necessarily want to reduce the size of our squad but I dont think McFadden necessarily offers enough to be a fifth striker in a team that generally plays one up front.

I’d rather put his fee and wages towards an extra midfielder, where we dont have such strenth in depth, although granted this may not happen in Jan

patty
15 Posted 09/11/2007 at 15:58:34

Listen up gang..... if we could get 4.5 million for Beattie on his performances for Everton and I take the point about playing better with wingers, but he did miss an awful lot of sitters too, then we could get a fair bit for Fadders I reckon especially if he were going back over the border.

Neil Pearse
16 Posted 09/11/2007 at 16:16:13

I think Yakubu had a very good game last night, and he is now settling in well. Of our other strikers, all except Anichebe tend to pick up injuries, so we need a few.

Having said that, I think McFadden does not fit well into a Moyes team, we can afford to let him go in January (I expect £6M will be closer to the mark), and we can then put that money towards the quality midfielder(s) we need.

Alan Instone
17 Posted 09/11/2007 at 16:30:44

I think both of them are being groomed to sell on just as happened with Rooney.Pity that Anichebe took the silly option of becoming a Nigerian-particularly as he had never been near the place-as The Big Boys would see him as more attracive without all that African Nations nonsense.But the two of them should earn us about £15M if sold at the right time.Clearly Moyes sees Yak and AJ as the future.

Paddy Johnson
18 Posted 09/11/2007 at 16:36:07

Moyes is the greatest manager who ever walked the earth. Under him, Everton will win every competition they ever enter and certainly wont lose again this season.
Mad?No,just missing Doddy is all.
Don?t you all get carried away!

Dave Roberts
19 Posted 09/11/2007 at 17:26:16

Everton’s determination (or otherwise) to keep hold of Anichebe and Vaughan will be the measure of the club’s ambition. It would be a dastardly day indeed if the club decided to cash in. It would be something the club would live to regret because there would be a supporter reaction primed by the Rooney business which the club could not live with.

My own view is that we are not that kind of a club anymore. We have enough going for us to keep players with us (Arteta, Johnson, Peinaar wants to stay ...grab him for fuck’s sake!..) and to attract other players. I believe the club’s philosophy has changed and we are heading for better times. Moyes asked for 5 years to bring in a youthful squad with prospects and in all fairness to him, whatever our criticisms, he has done just that. The result of the Chelsea game may dampen our optimism somewhat, but that is not the point....we are now a force to be reckoned with and Moyes has to be congratulated for achieving that with limited cash resources.

Well done Everton. I am proud to support you and I sniff better times ahead.( I have at least one Kopite workmate who is beginning to get a bit nervous!)

Peter Singer
20 Posted 09/11/2007 at 19:20:07

Connor, if you watch it very closely, he didn’t shrug off a challenge, he actually put in one. And that’s even more brilliant of him.

James Elworthy
21 Posted 09/11/2007 at 19:34:25

With the ANC coming up meaning the loss of the Yak and Anichebe coupled with the injury proneness of AJ and Vaughan we could end up with Faddy as the only fit striker in January so we cant offload him even if we wanted to until the end of the season