The Mail Bag
First three Evertonians out...
Comments (32)
... , 3 (or 4 or 5) remaining.
With the first group completing play, the first three Boys in Blue are done at the World Cup. My rankings:
Pienaar – 5
I predicted beforehand that South Africa would become the first host team to fail to make the second round, amarket value and generate big-money bids from CL teams. And that’s how it turned out. The Pocket Rocnd that Pienaar would do little to enhance his ket was every bit as commanding against France as he usually is for Everton, but he did little of note in the first two games and never came close to making the impact he makes for us. I think Moyes’s gamble of not re-signing him before the WC has paid off.
Yobo – 4
We saw the Yobo we all know as he captained Nigeria – some great tackles, excellent positioning and otherwise intelligent play marred by ugly blunders at the rate of about one per game. He abandoned his mark in game one and headed a clearance directly into an attacker’s chest in game two, yielding unnecessary scoring chances both times. And it’s an ominous sign that he came off at half-time in the biggest game of his life. That said, I don’t think Nigeria’s elimination was in any way his fault – he did his best. Let’s just hope he’s healthy again by September.
Yakubu – 3
What can you say? Three minutes after one of the worst misses in tournament history, he tucked away the penalty with absolute composure. Overall, it wasn’t good. The Yak was definitely fitter and more mobile during the World Cup than he was during the EPL season, and he showed some nice touches. But the old explosiveness was nowhere to be seen.
Every time he was 50-50 with a defender for the ball, he got outrun. We saw all we needed to see in minute 58 against the Koreans... first he couldn’t reach a perfect pass from Etuhu, and then he was presented an open chance and was hopelessly slow on the ball, losing out meekly to a faster defender. He was put clean through in game 2 and had it saved by the keeper. That’s not the Yak we knew. And it never will be again.
Still in the tournament: Heitinga, Cahill and Howard, plus Donovan and Mucha (who aren't Blues yet, but will be). Go get 'em, boys.
Mike Gaynes, Posted 22/06/2010 at 21:22:31
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If someone offers £5m I'd bite their hands off!!
That said, I think your estimate of his market value is unfortunately closer to accurate than Andy's.
We've already been offered £7M, Sean, so I'm not going to appoint you my official negotiator anytime soon.
He will never be the player he was... cash in, use the money for a quick, right sided midfielder.
Yobo: we've seen the best (and worst) of Joe... mobile but error prone. I feel we have moved on from him; get a few mill off Newcastle or the like and again re-invest on better quality, easier said than done I know.
Pienaar: good player, but if his heart is not in it, I don't see the point in him hanging around for a year, going through the motions. Re-sign, or we cash in and go and find another couple of profitable gems.
I know it's the predominant opinion here that Pienaar's quest for a new deal means his heart won't be in it for Everton, but I won't jump to that conclusion. None of us has ever seen him have a single lazy moment on the pitch. He's always been a tremendously motivated and passionate player, and I won't believe his heart isn't in it until we actually see it. And I don't think we will. I am 100% for keeping him.
Yobo has had so much to do in all of the games he has played and has stood out as Nigeria's best defender, but he is prone to the odd calamity moment.
In terms of sales, I would take anything upwards of £9M for Yak, as I think we could replace him with better and younger for that money. Pienaar is a £15M player at least and if we don't get that (and can't get him to sign), I say keep him and let him see his contract out.
The problem with that is that we are not in a position financially where we could turn down any kind of offer of around £10-12M for a player (however good) with only 1 year left on his contract. Especially if we want to bring anyone in this summer.
I hope myself that he signs, but if not, we should take any offer of £10M+.
And today's miss by the Yak has convinced me that we should take anything over £7M for him, and get someone else in.
With regards to The Yak, he's been playing on the world stage, so fairly sure nobody's going to be saying "Let's get that guy, the one who just missed"... But if anyone can sell a player at a premium, it seems to be David Moyes.
Poor old Solemn must be gutted that he didn't get asked along to do a heap of adverts pretending to live in a caravan, get body painted for Pepsi, or have a teamtalk from Ian Botham — perhaps they could have made them up as The Munsters... him, Tevez, Avram Grant and Davina Mcoll's mum or something.
I'm just happy for the Argentinean strikers who got his goal.
I don't think there was any gamble. You're suggesting that no offer was made. My understanding is there was, and it wasn't accepted.
I see what you're saying, he could've signed him up on an inflated salary prior to the World Cup, but I still don't think that was ever an option, for budget reasons.
The miss last night was horrendous, no doubt, but shit happens. He took his eye off the ball, but then showed good compose a couple of minutes later to tuck away the penalty.
Not many obvious replacements, but would be tempted by Connor Whickham at Ipswich who looked awesome for England in the U17s Euro Champs. Or possibly Jozy Altidore, who only scored one goal for Hull last season but just looks a right handful (though possibly no more so than Vic).
What odds Moyes waiting to see how good Beckford and Joao Silva are before maybe showing Yak the door?
Also always been a huge fan of Yobo but ship out for £5-6m and bring in that Ogbonna chap we're linked with in Daily Mail today. Know nothing about him but he's Italian U21, tall and quick. He'll do.
Agree with Tony. Minimum transfer dealings bring stability, the only thing we've got going for us in the transfer market.
Stability to the first team core of course is vital, but in reality Yobo and Yakubu were fringe players last year. I can't agree that we should ever stop trying to improve the players at our disposal.
Get shut of Yak? — that leaves a free signing, an older Saha, an injury plagued player and Anchovy... yep, no problem, get rid of a player who is a natural goalscorer who has probably had some great pre-season training at altitude getting him back on the road to fitness after an terrible injury.
Wasn't it Souness the other day talking about altitude training an him being the fittest 34-year-old in his squad when they came back from the World Cup and started his normal season?
By all rights the Yak's career should have been over (it might now be after the miss) but to get shut because he hasn't set the world alight since having an injury that would have seen him off a few years ago is a bit off.
Sorry, waffled on a bit there but the crux of the post is that we need to build our squad not just get shut at the chance of a couple of million quid.
Does no-one remember Moyes saying Yakubu could take well over 6 months to regain his match fitness? Surely we owe it to him and ourselves to give him one more season to see if he can regain form before rushing into selling him at a major loss.
I did see the game yesterday and he was poor at times including the miss, but in the Argentina game I thought he looked back to his best at times with excellent distribution, setting up some good chances, putting himself about and turning defenders. He needs us to get behind him, not get on the bandwagon to get rid of him. So who do all you Yakubu critics suggest we sign with this £5 million who will socre more goals than him? Haha.
Yak WAS a natural scorer. In the last two seasons, he has 11 goals in 46 appearances. Not enough for someone whose all-round game contribution is fairly little when not scoring. I know he's had an injury but still he was deemed fit enough to play.
I think this may possibly be the last window where we could maybe get over £8m for him and i would be relying on Moyes to get the best out of that by signing someone who can add to what we have up top.
I do however think he will stay and I hope that he proves me wrong.
Plus, he appears to have not recovered that zip and bit of drive to get past the last man to score that he used to have. He may be looking leaner and fitter, but he is like a poor man's post-injury Alan Shearer — needs it on a plate, reduced influence on the team play etc. As for the inferior players comment above, nonsense — the Nigerians looked far more capable than a lot of teams.
The £8 million figure was probably ill-judged, going off the 'rumours' doing the rounds. However, if we skillfully negotiated with the Hammers that kind of figure, well, I think we've established a lot of people would be happy.
As for replacements — this is where scouting comes in. If Moyes unearthed the new Daren Bent from the lower leagues for the £3.5 million Charlton paid for him I would be happy. Plus, The Yak didn't just appear in English football, he got scouted 30 years back when he was just 21. Sorry, that was cheap. My voice is of a man who has been let down by my hero (and really it isn't Yak's fault; he had a bad injury).
I'd love it if he came back as good as he was, but I can't see it now. Those 6 months that Moyes stated have long been and gone...
The guy who could only manage 1 goal for Hull last season? Big Vic managed that, and he was injured for most of the season.
I would rather keep The Yak, I feel he might come on for having a proper pre-season under his belt.
Joseph Yobo (can't get in our team), Dan Shittu and Dixon Etuhu. Surely all unarguably inferior players. Plus Lukman Haruna (who's no Mikel Arteta), that guy who got sent off (who's no Pienaar) and a player so bad he's called 'Oh Dear!'.
Sorry, got a bit silly with that last one, but the point stands.
I'd also defend the Yak's 'casual' approach to goalscoring. Lots of chances are missed by snatching at a ball and players tensing up. A more and more common shout on the football pitch, including from the ex-pro I work with, is 'relax' when in possession or through on goal. The Yak has this quality naturally, and it's part of why he's been (and hopefully still is) a natural out-and-out goalscorer.
Granted individually they may not be great shakes, but the Nigerian team still played well against Greece until the carding and they created chances last night. Kanu, despite his years, is still a class act with undeniable ability. Obefami Martins has a good bit of talent as does their goalscorer.
You could argue that we have Tony Hibbert and Phil Neville in our team who aren't Mikel Arteta. I think the point is he still has some decent players around him creating chances. Plus, at Everton, he HAS the quality players you name around him and he still isn't pulling up trees.
As I say, it does pain me to say it, but sorry Mike, my stance is he may best be sold. But of course, it is just my opinion and we could argue it until we are blue in the face...
Oh, I quite liked that 'Oh Dear' lad, thought maybe Moyesie should take a punt on him... ;)
Now, after watching him more closely in our group, I think he has been outstanding, in fact I'd say he's as good a player as anyone else out there...
Unfortunately, for that reason, I don't think we will see him in our shirt again... I hope I'm wrong.
Rooney was talked about in the £80mill bracket but at the World Cup he's looked nowhere near that.
Going back to Pienaar, hopefully his performances have put off any potential bidders.
He wont trouble Howard at all .
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1 Posted 22/06/2010 at 22:34:13
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