ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

Dave
1 Posted 29/01/2008 at 14:43:31

For the same price i would prefer Bently. Technically his better. He scores goals and is prepared to have a shot from distance.

Stan Sheppard
2 Posted 29/01/2008 at 14:35:37

Tom I used to think of Downing in exactly the same terms however after watching him a few times he isn’t as bad as I first thought. His passing and crossing are good and he manages to knock in a few goals to boot however I totally agree that £9m is a hell of a lot of money to be paying for someone who doesn’t stand out in any particular department. In particular I think we need someone with pace and/or power.

Looking to other countries in Europe and South America has been productive for many of the most successful teams in the world yet the focus of the manager has been to buy British. Maybe this has been though having his hands burnt via VDM and Kroldrup. (although Beattie was also a disaster) For the majority I think DM has performed very well in the transfer market.

Therefore with the transfer window beginning to close if I had to go all FM and pick a few players I would go for the likes of Lisandro ’Licha’ López of FC Porto. I’ve watched him a few times and he?s a work horse with pace and power who can bang in his fair share of goals. Maybe we could get him and Lucho Gonzales! (I wish!) The injured Steven Appiah also springs to mind as does Nigel De Jong (Steven Pienaars mate from Ajax, now at Hamburg)

Nevertheless the odds are that we?ll sign no one until the summer.

Nick Wall
3 Posted 29/01/2008 at 15:00:14

I think it’s a very reasonable price : he may not be the best in the Prem, but he’s a quality left winger who’s been capped by England. Bear in mind this is a day on which £8.2m has been paid for Sissoko.

David Nicholls
4 Posted 29/01/2008 at 14:44:32

I agree, After initially being Impressed with Downing when he first burst on to the scene a few years back he’s struggled for consistency since and I have this nagging feeling that if we were to buy him it’s likely he would end up being a big money flop. I’d rather we go Bentley if he’s after a wideman, he really is looking a class act. I dont know if 9 mill would get him & I know he’s a bit of a gobshite but I quite like the fact he’s got a bit of arrogance about him, I know he’s not left sided but Arsenal often play with two right footed widemen to good effect.

Jason Broome
5 Posted 29/01/2008 at 14:58:44

DM has his heart set on Downing... Lord knows why!!!

If we have the money then we should be looking to invest in World-Class quality. I agree with Dave regarding Bentley. Everytime I see this kid play he impresses me.

Whatever happened to Arshavin?

Mark Griffiths
6 Posted 29/01/2008 at 15:12:48

Not at all convinced about Downing, and £9m!!! you must be joking, he looks like a slightly better version of kilbane!

I would love Arshavin or Bentley, sadly I feel even if their clubs would let thwm go, I fear you would have to add another 2-3m to that figure.

I just do not think we will get anybody now!

part of me thinks Moyes knows what he is doing and we will spend big in the summer and the other part of thinks we really need more bodies if we are to get in the top 6 and maybe win the uefa, if we get injuries then i can see postings a few months down the line along the lines of "Why did we not sign anybody!! What a chance missed.

I do not want sound negative and i am fully behind moyes and he has done a great job, but i do not want to waste an opportunity to push on and have the gretest season we have seen in a long time, but for all we know moyes could be trying his bollocks off tio get players in and nobody is available???

2 day left in the window, cannot see it.

Kieran Kinsella
7 Posted 29/01/2008 at 15:21:33

This story hasn’t even been reported in the mainstream media so it is probably BS whipped up by his agent to alert clubs to the fact he wants to leave Boro

Mark Cassin
8 Posted 29/01/2008 at 15:40:37

Sounds like a total waste of money to me. To buy Yakubu and bring in Pienaar and Fernandes on loan and then suddenly decide to bring in Downing doesn’t make sense. 3 Steps forward and 1 step back!

Would love to see Bentley sign for us but must be around 15mil for him...Diego from Werder?

Caron Jôs
9 Posted 29/01/2008 at 15:43:43

In Moyes We Trust.... End Of!

Ross Trotter
10 Posted 29/01/2008 at 15:49:09

I’d have bid for Hutton with £9 million.

Diego would probably cost more than £20 million.

chris keightley
11 Posted 29/01/2008 at 15:50:24

We have now shown a clear lack of ambition, we had to strenghthen, others have !! players going here and there,good players too !! everyone seems to be making signings even derby !! but we are sitting on our hands if we have 9 mill to spend or even half that, we need to use it to re-enforce midfield, otherwise all the good work in getting to 4th, and the last 32 of the uefa, will be for nothing, maybe kenwrights told moyes that he will be happy with a top 8 place because thats where we will end up !!!!

Dan Mckie
12 Posted 29/01/2008 at 16:12:07

Youve lost me Chris, I cant think of too many teams that have significantly strengthed? £9 mil for Downing is way too much, like someone else said, a younger and slightly better version of Kilbane! If quality players are not available then there is nothing Moyes can do!

John Lloyd
13 Posted 29/01/2008 at 16:18:19

The speculation is ok, and also I would like to state that if I had to choose between Bentley & Downing I would choose Bentley.
But he has recently signed a big contract with blackburn & would cost a lot more than £9m!
The thing that has burned my head out is comparing him to Kilbane, who was no more than a workhorse.....got up & down all day but no quality at left mid or left back. Downing has shown for over 3/4 seasons now that his delivery from the left is second to none, he works hard and has been recognised by two england managers (ableit one was a pile of shite!).

He has international, european experience & plays in the premiership so it wouldnt be a shock to his system........

That is, as stated above, it isnt a big load of bull from his agent who has openly come out & stated that he is desperate to engineer a move away from riverside!!

Tom Rowe
14 Posted 29/01/2008 at 16:16:04

Chris: In response to that remark.. Are you suggesting that the crop of players that has got Everton thus far cannot continue and finish the season in the same position. I woudl suggest that that is quite harsh. Considering we started the season without Tim Cahill and have spent some time without AJ, losing players to the AFCON we have still come out trumps. We will be getting all of the AFCON players back sooner rather than later, Vaughan is back from injury, AJ is getting his match fitness back and the acquisition on Fernandes on loan, surely we re in a better position than we were at the start of the season? To say that the player that have got us this far aren?t good enough to me is very far wide of the mark.

Jay Wilson
15 Posted 29/01/2008 at 16:07:46

How can you say everyone has strengthened? No one of note has moved bar the constantly injured Woodgate and Anelka. Liverpool, Villa, West Ham, Arsenal, City, Newcastle, Blackburn are no stronger. There is no pont in signing players just for the sake of it. We’d all beat Moyes with the ’signed a donkey’ stick if he did that. We have a good side, 3 of our best players are likely to be back by the end of the week, we have Fernandes getting fit, Things will be fine.

Mark Cassin
16 Posted 29/01/2008 at 16:38:29

True DIego may cost 20mil but Ive no idea on the German transfer market--sometimes players go for peanuts like Rosicky.

Hutton would be a waste of money for us I think--or at least only a slight imprvement. We are best off waiting until summer and then signing a top notch midfielder rather than paying over the odds now.

Ian Ankers
17 Posted 29/01/2008 at 16:43:23

If you look at the archives of this very site, you will see alot of people moaning about the massive price tag we payed for a fat lazy striker from Middlesbrough! I for one think the Yak’s looking good money now and he’s fast losing that ’fat, lazy’ rep aswell and I think alot have had there opinions changed!!

I think Downing would be a good buy even at 9m, but it ain’t gonna happen anyway.....File under rumour with the other 10,00000 hopefulls!

chris keightley
18 Posted 29/01/2008 at 16:48:15

Tom yes i am saying that !!! in midfield we have come up short, great to see fernandes back but we will only see him back to any form in 2- 3 games, pienaar looked knackered in his last game for us and has now played 3 in a week or so great !! cahill suspended, arteta lacking a little spark, carsley has taken a dip in form maybe through tiredness, osman injured, yep your right we shouldent have strenghthened ffs.

Neil McKinney
19 Posted 29/01/2008 at 16:41:35

Apart from the argument about Downing’s quality (for the record I think he’s shite) another thing that bothers me about the concept of spending £9m on him is this.

If Downing comes to us for £9m and is a flop, the chance of us off-loading him for anywhere near that figure is slim. English players are not really marketable anywhere outside of Britain (unless they are amazing which Downing clearly is not). If we spent £9m on some dude from continental Europe and he flopped it would be easier to get rid for a decent return by just saying he didn’t settle in the Premiership. If Downing didn’t work out, we’d end up selling him for anywhere between £2m to £5m, to a weak EPL club or a Championship side, making a huge loss.

I know it’s a lot of speculation and assumption, but I don’t like the risk with Downing because I feel if it didn’t work out for him at EFC, he would become a bit of an albatross.

For £9m we must be able to do better and I don’t really think he is the kind of player we should be in the market for.

COYB!

Tom Campbell
20 Posted 29/01/2008 at 16:59:16

I will probably get laughed at for this, but what about Theo Walcott on loan for the rest of the season!??

Maybe im wrong

David Torley
21 Posted 29/01/2008 at 17:08:16

Isn’t Nugent available? After his dazzling spell at Pompey I can’t believe there isn’t a clamour for him to ’come home’.

Tom Rowe
22 Posted 29/01/2008 at 17:10:42

... and Moyes was to know that these players would get injured? The players utility players we bought in summer ie Jagielka were called upon have done a great job, and when Pienaar, Yobo and Yak come back and we get Osman fit again...who are you going to leave out?

Ron Leith
23 Posted 29/01/2008 at 17:51:29

Personally I think Downing is best bet as we need somebody to cross the ball. It is frustrating that we seem often to have no end product to our play. Arteta and Pienaar need some back up. AVM seems to be permanently crocked. The alternative would be Beckham or Giggs.

Mike Allison
24 Posted 29/01/2008 at 17:58:56

Downing does ’fit the bill’ in that he’s English, a good pro, works hard and creates and scores goals. Any use of the word ’rubbish’ or ’shite’ is ridiculous, he’s a limited player, and I wouldn’t pay £9M for him, but he has a lot of good qualities. In fact all he lacks for a winger is serious pace. He also plays in the only position we do not genuinely have covered in our own squad at the moment.

I would look to bring in a left sided player, but at that price, would move on from Downing. I’d also buy Giles Barnes from Derby County, not to play on the left though.

Mike Dayton
25 Posted 29/01/2008 at 17:58:36

Hope it never happens.

9 million is a lot of money to us. No way is he worth that.

Bradley in a year will be another of Moyes shrewd deals. what this space.

Neil Pearse
26 Posted 29/01/2008 at 18:21:35

Two questions here need to be separated. First: is £9M a ’fair’ price in the current market for Downing? Second: is Downing a player who would significantly strengthen our squad at Everton? For me the answers are: clearly yes; probably no.

Clearly yes: like it or not, £9M is not a huge amount in the current market. If Bentley continues the way he is currently doing, he would likely command a price of around £15M in the summer (isn’t that what ManU paid for Carrick, and Bentley is arguably better). Downing has an excellent left foot, takes very good set pieces, and scores some goals. In 2008, that’s getting on for £10M. (To keep frightening ourselves, I would say that in the summer our very own Joleon Lescott would have a market value of around £20M.)

Probably not for us: like many, I think the main priority is a midfield replacement for Carsley (unless Moyes thinks that he can groom Manny into that role). Second it would be better to get a wide player with much more pace than Downing. A Young, Lennon or SWP would do more for us I think. Although they would cost more than £9M I fear...

Peter Grealey
27 Posted 29/01/2008 at 19:03:41

I agree Mike, i also think Bradley would be a quality signing. All this talk about Downing is BS we don’t need him. Pienaar is available in the summer for 2 million so any wide player we bring in would only be cover. The positions that need strengthening the most are right back and a ball winning centre mid which is why Bradley fits the bill perfectly. As for the comment made by Chris saying we’re lacking ambition, i find it laughable. How can you say that when in the last window we broke our record transfer fee AGAIN on Yak and were also willing to pay double figures for fernandes. Moyes has always stated that he won’t spend just for the sake of it, so if we haven’t brought anybody in it means the right player isn’t available at the right price. We’re in 4th place looking down on the redshite and in the last 32 of the UEFA cup, stop being so negative.

Jason Broome
28 Posted 29/01/2008 at 19:54:47

Anyone arriving at Goodison needs to be so good that they either inspire our best to improve, or threaten to put them on the bench...

Downing isn’t that player. I would rather watch Pienaar or Arteta (who both command the last third of the park) than Downing (who looks good in a poor side)!

And I must stress that we have no left wingers in the England squad, and Downing still can’t make the team!

DM got lucky today. Thank God!

Dave Southword
29 Posted 29/01/2008 at 20:32:48

I trust Moyes’ judgment more than you lot.

Terry Maddock
30 Posted 29/01/2008 at 20:35:08

Am I just thick? Who is Bradley?

Steve Jones
31 Posted 29/01/2008 at 21:20:10

The rumour about Downing was to go to Spurs anyway, who are starting to collect midfiellders again !

they can have him.

Cindy Cole
32 Posted 30/01/2008 at 01:06:28

If it?s true that Arshavin has expressed a desire to play in the EPL, and if it?s true that he has designs on Everton, then I?d go for him. He is sheer class, tenacious, has excellent ball control, can execute a cross, scores some wonder goals, has bags of experience at both club and international level, and comes with a host of football accolades. He would also add an extra dimension to our play. Now would be the time to sign him whilst the Russian season is in recess. For me, he?s the only name we?ve been linked with during this window that I could get excited about.

Lyndon Lloyd
Editorial Team
33 Posted 30/01/2008 at 05:50:04

Terry, "Bradley" is Michael Bradley, the 20 year-old Yank we were linked with over the weekend who plays for Herenveen.

And, Cindy, I'm with you regarding Arshavin but I suspect it's going to be a bidding war in the summer if we are even interested. Shame we couldn't grab him this month, though, when no one else was prepared to make a bid...

Nelly Blythe
34 Posted 30/01/2008 at 10:25:30

For all of you banging the drum about this Bradley fella being a quality siging.... How many of you have actually seen the lad play ???... FFS get a grip.So he?s scored a few goals in the Dutch league ? big deal. I can think of another ?quality? player (not!) who did that a couple of years ago... Kuyt. Thank fuck he turned us down.
Let?s try and sign players of established quality and not just some kid who the media say we want. Until you?ve actually seen someone play, how can you assess if he has quality ??