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We don't need additions?
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I can see where they're coming from, having such a good second half of the season. Everyone wondering 'what if?', had we not started so badly! But we should always look to keep building when we can, and it could always happen again as we still have a small squad just less players chatting with Baz in the Physio room. But we will always get injuries, they happen and that's why if you can you make your squad as strong as possible... like in the summer!
I believe firstly an attacking right midfielder such as Landon Donovan who had a fabulous impact allowing us to be dangerous from both sides or someone with similar characteristics.
Secondly a striker! Now I'm a fan of both the Yak and Saha, but they both have reputations to drift and blow hot and cold. I would love to get someone like Romelu Lukaku of Anderlecht who is the Belgium version of Rooney, but bigger, maybe more like Drogba! I would be happy to blow what we have on this guy as only 16/17 years of age and is league top scorer and looks to have great attributes. I'm sure he is well known with the big teams but would love some young, hungry raw talent again upfront.
Save money and keep Senderos for back-up as he's a good bench warmer (but better than having to do what happened last season and play full backs at centre back) as long as his wages aren't too much. And if a full back can be found and snook in under Harry Redknapp's nose, that would be useful too... but to say we don't need any new players is short-sighted.
Martin Clark, Posted 11/04/2010 at 11:56:26
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I agree that our priority must be to keep Pienaar and I would only consider selling Rodwell if his head was turned and we could get silly money, but I would like up to consider selling Yobo and Cahill. Others who I wish were surplus to needs: Vaughan and Anichebe.
I hate to sell players, but if we have no investment and we have other options in those positions, I think we should consider it.
Wonder how much you would for Yobo and Cahilll. Maybe so little it wouldn't be worth it?
I'm thinking of Pickering, Royle. Latchford, Ferguson, Lineker, Sharp et al, who can be counted on to score a hatfull of headed goals each season. Every time the ball is swung high into the middle there is a chance of a goal from our central striker.
I can see his losing one of the non-first chioce centre backs; perhaps Yobo. I'd like to see us get a back up to Baines.
We'll be top six again with that, and in with our strongest shout of top 4 since the 80s. Of course injuries will always happen Martin, but we should expect that 2009 was a special case and we'll not have so many again — assuming the law of averages.
ps: Does anyone know whether Pompey are in Europe or does it go to 7th in the League? Ok, should be a separate thread, but you could say euro qualification will require slightly bigger squad.
I would rather have none in, none out than have the last minute fiascoes which are becoming an all too regular part of an Everton pre-season.
Get Beckford (or similar) early — get them scoring 10 pre-season goals, as someone like Darren Bent seems to do every year and we can kick on from there.
I can't remember the last time I felt that we were truely ready for a new season. We have a great opportunity to do things right this year. To screw it up yet again would be gross mis-management in my opinion and we would all have every right to seriously question those responsible.
We all knew that we needed a right sided attacking player and Donavan's spell here merely confirmed this. The only other player we have who offers us any balance on the right is Victor and he is always injured.
Our priority in the summer should be to keep hold of Pienaar and anyone else who attracts interest. Also to sign Donavan. If money needs to be raised to fund the purchase of Donavan then so be it — players to consider selling are Yobo, Vaughan, Ruddy, Hibbert — these sales would probably fund Donavan.
We have one of the most threadbare squads in the Prem and to suggest we sell 3-4 players to fund the acquisition of an average player is just brainless.
This coming season represents a golden opportunity, but it will be squandered if we stand still. We have to sacrifice one of the players other clubs would pay a lot of money for, one we could do without.
The answer may be unpalatable, but its staring everyone in the face.
We are crying out for a pacey class striker, before we even start about buying some natural wide players.
The comments from Neville may as well have been said by Black Bill or his lapdog as it's the same old story, surprised they actually admit it before the early bird for a change instead of the usual bullshit trotted out... unless they finally acknowledge they have done that trick to death. I don't expect any new signings unless we sell.
Ageing players? Yobo is 29. Crocks, yes Vaughan is injury prone which is why I advocate selling him and there is enough evidence of interest from Championship sides to suggest a reasonable fee could be gained (£2-3M). Yobo would still command a fee in the region of £5M and Hibbert, surely surplus to requirements with Coleman coming through... and certainly not ageing, would comfortably be sold to a lower Premier League side for a fee of £3-4M.
As such the sale of those 3 players would bring in about £10M (in my opinion) which would comfortably fund Donavan plus probably a bit more.
Regarding the squad depth, Coleman would replace Hibbert, Donavan would replace Vaughan. Look at signing Beckford and Ledley on free transfers to bolster the squad, promote Duffy as 4th choice CB and promote Garbutt as LB cover.
And as for your comment that Donavan is average? Did you not watch us before during and after his loan — if you think his contribution was average then I wouldn't want to work for you.
You write... "We have to sacrifice one of the players other clubs would pay a lot of money for, one we could do without. The answer may be unpalatable, but its staring everyone in the face."
So who would command a lot of money, but concurrently not be missed?
Donovan could be bought for £5-6 million, according to many reports. For upfront, The Yak will come right. Hopefully, Pienaar will re-sign; otherwise, his sale will need to be followed by an excellent replacement.
If, as you rightly point out, Vaughan is injury prone, so what on earth makes you think somebody would pay £3Mn for him? — we`d be lucky to get 3 grand at the moment... And £9M for Hibbert and Yobo? Are you serious? Kenwright would be lucky if he got £4M for the lot of them.
And as for Coleman replacing Hibbert in our squad, wtf? They are both our players now, so if we sell one we reduce our numbers, whatever way you dress it up
Robert: Moyes stated yesterday that Donovan is OUT of our price range. And given Pienaar's contract situation, how much do you think we will get for him? We`d get about as much as we will get for Vaughan.
We'd get good money for Pienaar, certainly more than £2-3M; — final year of contract or not. We'd get £15M if he had two years as only rich teams could snare him; so cut 30%-ish.
And I don't think Donovan will be out of our price range if we sell a couple of fringe players, no matter what Moyes says to the press.
He`s not coming.
Could be just first season jitters; however, he could also be a Forlan... But he's a footballer I like.
Can't see Beckford doing much. He's already at his level.
1. Yobo is a 29-year-old international centre back, he is national captain and has 8 years Premier League experience, he also has 4 years left on his contract. Based on what prices have been paid for other CBs he would easily command a fee in the region of £5M.
2. Hibbert is a 28-year-old right back with nearly 10 years Premier League experience. He is an excellent defender who cannot attack, we may have moved on from that type of player but there are many PL teams who would welcome a defender like Hibbert (ie, any team in the bottom half of the table). Again, based on what has been paid recently for PL full backs, a fee of £3-4M is not unreasonable to expect.
3. Vaughan; I accept that maybe there could be a problem with selling him due to his injury problems. However, the clubs were queuing up to take him on loan, Derby, Leicester to name just two. It's not as if I suggested some massive fee, I said £2-3M and I still believe that to be possible if not as assured as the above.
Also, Coleman is currently on loan so not part of our squad at present. Would Moyes be looking to sit both Coleman and Hibbert on the bench at the same time? I think not.
My posting was to suggest who could be sold to raise cash for transfers without it drastically affecting the current squad and I believe my suggestions to be valid even if you don't. I would far prefer we looked at selling these players than a Rodwell or Jagielka.
Neville hasn't got many miles left on the clock, if you sold Hibbert, you'd get next to nothing for him and you would leave the club with one untried right back, hardly forward thinking.
If could get £12 million for Yobo, Hibbert and Vaughan, I suggest you apply to Kenwright for a job. You`d get a start tomorrow.
A genuine goal threat plus a Right winger would really enhance the team. Both with PACE!
Up front I think the Yak can come good again and Saha is still a class act (despite recent poor form), that said another forward would be nice. Cover at LB would also be good, not sure who would play there if Baines was to be injured, maybe Pip as he player there in his early Utd and England career.
My Priorities:
1, Right sided winger/forward (Can I dream of Messi!?!).
2, Another right sided midfielder as the first will probably get injured knowing our luck.
3, Striker with pace.
4, LB cover.
You make a reasonable point regarding cover at right back but we need to move on from the non-footballing full backs and I still think it is worth sacrificing someone like Hibbert to raise money. We don't need more than two players in this position and when Neville stops playing then signing another full back can be a priority, but that is not the case now.
Anyway, we will just have to wait and see what happens in the summer — probably nothing as per usual but it will be interesting to see which one of us is right regarding valuations is any are sold....
The squad — fully fit and all available — is a strong one (top 4? — possibly), but that's the problem isn't it, fit and available. As we know, it rarely happens that way. So....
Top drawer ready-made cover for Arteta and Baines, for example, could they be persuaded to come to GP to play that role, would be prohibitively expensive. So ....
Youth policy? To get top4 or better? No.
So this is where we get back to Seamus. Non-league players (excuse me please all Irish readers), already tough enough with good potential, strong enough to step up if needed either to bridge a gap or as impact subs — this is a possibility for our squad next year.
I'm sure that Moyes tries to find them anyway, but until we get serious European money or the big spenders/debtors implode, this may be our only way forward.
EFC has a great reputation for having team spirit, maybe a reason for this is that players like Phil Neville say they have confidence in their team mates.
And, one more thing... Arteta coming back WAS like having a new signing! It galvanised the team and gave us a dimension back that we'd missed and tried to compensate for. Thereby giving us a supreme passer of the ball after Peanuts had taken on the responsibility of a playmaker. Maybe when the big Fella and Gosling come back that a similar positive impact will be felt.
Keep talking the team up Phil, it's great to hear your confidence in the team!
Offer Rodwell on loan. I've said it enough that it's getting a little depressing that few agree with me. It's not about MLS is a lower league. No kidding. Wages are suppressed. Of course it's a lower league.
But the only great (and charismatic) American player, Landon, finally was given a fair shot by whom? Mr Moyes and EFC. Cool-looking blue shirts by the way. Very cool looking blue shirts. Might go over well in a country of 300+ million who love nothing better than buying cool-looking blue sports jerseys.
America's on the verge of a soccer explosion. Toffee fans are indifferent fair enough. But no internationally famous club has tried to make America its own. Not ManU, Real Madrid, none have. Stupid almost beyond belief, except it's so. Come on EFC, the US is there for the taking.
EFC has a certain cache because of how well Donovan was treated. I can't over-emphasize this.
Now EFC has young Roddy, the youngster Americans saw lifting Donovan to the fans in his last game at Goodison. There's a general agreement that he's worth keeping and for sure he has that something indefinable. The crowd loves him. Moyes, Arena, anyone else can't teach that.
Where am I going? To LA Galaxy with Roddy on loan. First, he's played little enough this season. Sit him down until training camp? Why? He's not tired. He's 19 for God's sake. People in the US know EFC now because of LD. Send the kid over to play, Galaxy will give him the big LA-style build-up. "Hey look, that kid who lifted Landon in England" "They say he's the next Rooney". Is that the the sound of cash registers ringing in ToffeeLand.
Yes he has to produce on the pitch. He's the goods though. Galaxy would be a good atmosphere for him. Couple of months, he's back in the Goodison fold, no worse for wear and game-fit. Donovan wants back to EFC, blue jersey sales on the rise, etc.
Were's the downside? There's money in America for EFC. A bunch of it.
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1 Posted 12/04/2010 at 00:13:47
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