ToffeeWeb - Season 2009-10

The Mail Bag

Ever Banega - No longer an option

I read Sid Lowe's Spanish football Blog on the Guardian site with interest this week as he was raving about how much of a reformed character Ever Banega is this season. The guy now seems to be Valencia's best performer and may break into the Argentina World Cup squad... so it looks like he will no longer be an option for Everton in the Summer.

Here's some recent footage of him against Real Madrid last month:

While no DM apologist, I do see this as a positive sign that our scouts and Moyes have a good eye for up-and-coming talent in the market... if only we paid in cash rather than "try before you buy" and could entice them to come to Goodison more often.
Glen Anderson, Huyton Posted 09/02/2010 at 21:17:42

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Matt Traynor
1 Posted 10/02/2010 at 05:53:17

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We’ve had a long list of these "failures" in the last couple of years, and many of them players that would undoubtedly move us away from a particular brand of football that we too often regress into.

I don’t blame Moyes / the scouts for unearthing these. But if we’re potless, why offer deals that under-price the player, or a loan if the club are desperate for cash?

Sam Higgins
2 Posted 10/02/2010 at 10:21:59

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He isn't an option because he never was a fucking option in the first place. All fart and no shit was the Banega story like most of our transfer targets.

Shaun Brennan
3 Posted 10/02/2010 at 10:44:23

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Has Ever Banaga ever heard of Everton? Correct me if I’m wrong but the soundbites were comming from his agent and not the player?

Ciarán McGlone
4 Posted 10/02/2010 at 11:00:24

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And this is good news?

Less convincing than an Allistair Campbell tear...

Christian Yandell
5 Posted 10/02/2010 at 13:49:35

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To be fair, we did get a work permit for the lad. So surely we did actually have a deal in place?

You do not pay for lawyers and club reps along with the manager to attend a hearing unless you had agreement that the player would come? So I am asuming either the player or club reneged on the deal.

Valencia have a long history of underhand dealing. Fernandes anyone?

As for his form somehow being proof that all is well with our transfer policy at GP... that is a bit much.

Sean McKenna
6 Posted 10/02/2010 at 16:09:44

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Oh haha, remember Moyes's comments on the lad, we will sign him on loan and if he is any good we will sign him permanently, hardly an glowing report from the Ginger One. Remember, guys Moyes doesn't do flair players.

Glen Anderson
7 Posted 10/02/2010 at 17:46:01

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The point of the article is that Moyes has a history of going back and looking at players who he could not get in the previous transfer window. We’ve all called him a ditherer... he does appear to do long term research on his targets.

We did get a WP for this guy (thanks for the reminder Christian). I personally don’t think it was all bullshit, but it looks like we won’t follow up now as Banega’s talent has come good.

So no, Ciarán, not good news for us. However, better news than Banega turning out to be shite and we still go after him in the Summer. I’m simply letting the TW community know that the player’s talent has come through, that Moyes was right to try to get him but let’s now rule him out of discussions as a follow up in the next window.

Matt Traynor
8 Posted 11/02/2010 at 03:35:25

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Glen, one area I don’t agree with regarding Moyes’s transfer "strategy" is his persistent pursuing of some players. It felt like we chased Simon Davies for 3 seasons, when in that time we could see he wasn’t a solution to our problems, and had "peaked" at Spurs.

The Work Permit one was strange. Maybe the player’s agent was acting up. But I also remember the close season of BK’s utterance of how he’d seen the list of targets, and we would be surprised.

We got no-one, and we weren’t surprised.

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