Martinez committed to keeping Baines

If Fellaini does go and we can't get exactly the players we want I think it might be worth while keeping a reserve held back for January when players often crop up for cut prices. This is often the stage in a season where an extra player or two can give the team a lift and we could fix any obvious deficiencies in the team.

I have heard today that we are after McGeady for around £4m which sounds like a fair price for a player who could be a bit of a gamble, but on his day is excellent. Sinclair for £5m sounds like a bargain. Could we tempt Lescott back? Leroy Fer or Etienne Capoue look like a good replacement for Felli if he does go. McManaman and McCarthy both look decent players, but I think we would have to pay inflated prices for them at the moment. Figueroa or Alcaraz on a free would act as a replacement for Heitinga if he goes. Anyone know of any good keepers?

I think he is a top player, but Gibson and Osman looked strong together last year as a midfield duo and I think Marrtinez could get McCarthy for as much as £10m less than we would sell Fellaini for.

Baines is a different prospect. He is not for sale unless he asks to be sold. I know we have Oviedo, Garbutt and Bidwell; but none of them are ready. We need to keep Baines and if he does ask to go I think we need to insist on £25m+ for him.

Heitinga can go, as we have Duffy and now John Stones both making the right noises in the U21s.

I like McCarthy and McManaman but that's it from Wigan.

In other areas, no player is irreplaceable but the loss of both Baines and Fellaini would, I feel, do for any hopes we might harbour about an early return to the CL.

I think Fellaini's departure is a distinct possibility, but we should fight tooth and nail to keep Baines! I'm not convinced Moyes would be willing to pay a premium price for a 28-year--old defender. Van Persie last year was different as his goals won them the title. However good Baines is, he isn't going to have that same impact, so justifying a £20m+ fee would be much harder.

Besides, he seems very happy here, he is now a regular for England and the next few seasons look like they will be exciting. Why would he want to leave that environment?

I'm really excited about Martinez in charge of the quality we have at Everton. COYB

And to refer to his age as being a factor shows your way off because 28 years old is prime for a defender,

"I know what this football club means in terms of the families [it affects] and the passion, so I understand how honoured I am to have this position," he said.

"My message to fans is to get excited and get ready, because we need to be a strong team. And when I say team, that's from them to everyone else at the football club and, of course, the players.

"We need to compete against anything and against anyone. If we are really strong and really help each other, we are capable."

As Cannon said to Ball - you'll do for me Bobby.

As for our forwards we will see what happens, hope Martinez brings someone in, if he gets Jelavic firing on all cylinders again what will we all be saying then?

Felli is our best player, keep him (if possível)

In regard to Drew suggesting McGeady could be a potential incoming recruit for £4M, I sincerely hope that is just idle speculation, have watched the guy in every performance for Ireland and he is absolute shite – worse than Naismith shite. He has a few tricks but NO final ball, he literally never makes the right decisions and his shooting is the proverbial 'barn door, cannot hit'. I wouldn't take him on a free to sit on the bench; supposedly he plays better for his club, but who knows what the quality of the Russian league is like... similar to SPL?

............. I don't think so, its more about attitude than where he is from.
Bains is a nice guy, quiet unassuming, no large ego, and verbally much more committed. Plus relative for his position, we can say he is quiet probably the best left back in England (in the top 2 at least).
That's more the reason, nothing to do with nationality.

Baines is a different issue. It is up to us if we accept bids and we can put off potential suitors by standing our ground and quoting massive prices. This would only fail if Baines decided he wanted out and started kicking up a fuss, something he has never done before and does not seem to be in his character. I'm very optimistic about keeping our best player, though our second best may well be off!

Out of interest, is there a wild transfer speculation section of ToffeeWeb, so that I can indulge in some frivilous gossip without going off topic on other threads?

Must be nice for the lad to finally hear his manager come out and proclaim him the best left back in the country without adding the words "...after Ashley Cole" on the end.

Good job we have got a strong chairman.

We were linked a couple of seasons back with Georgi Wijnaldum, then at Feyenoord, PSV picked him up for 5mn Euro. £6-8mn could be enough to bring him over and he scored a cracker last night against Germany. £4mn towards a 22yr old who's arguably better than Drenthe and without the attitude or McGeady?!.

If we want a legacy midfielder who can warm the bench and do the odd job when called on Chelsea have just released Yossi Benayoun. We certainly don't need to pay out for squad cover!.

How about if fat-head released a preemptive statement along the lines of...

"I'm being asked about the possibility of Manchester Utd coming in for Everton players. There is no agreement in place with David Moyes to prevent such a thing, but I believe it won't happen. As you know David was here for 11 years and has a special link with the club. He has an incredible squad available to him at Utd and now has the finance to buy just about any player on the planet. He knows how important our players are to us and If I know him like I believe I do, I think he would keep this in mind when looking for new players"

Result?

Moyes looks like a twat, if comes for Baines/Fellaini - sorted.

Roberto says we are aiming for the Champions League

Bill says we will spend some money

Roberto says we want to keep our best players

Yawn Yawn

As usual, I don't believe half of what I read about us and funds available. proof will be be on deadline day... please 3 or 4 good signings and some of the youngsters given game time.

Now that SAF has effectively gone, I think Moyes will struggle with United. I think they don't have the quality of chelsea or city who are the only CL certs that I can see and I can imagine Moyes struggling to fill SAF's boots and deal with the ego's.

It remains to be seen who Moyes will sign, but I think that an average Man U squad has been carried by SAF for nearly 30 years. With a few decent signings of our own I actually see them more as competitors than a few other clubs in the league.

I still reckon a syphilitic chimp could have achieved most of what SAF did with the squads he had....and probably given better post-match interviews!.

Fellaini has been our most important player last 3 or 4 seasons. Leading scorer last season. And in his usual posn, CM, he dominates almost every other midfielder in Lqu.

It depresses me that people on here want to sell our best player, or second best for those of you who no nothing about football.

He is younger than Bains, and is probably the best holding midfielder in leaque, where as bains is the fourth best left back.

Both should stay!

Also, this non sense of sell him and buy two. We always end up with worse players.

Sold Rooney got Neville and Beattie

Sold lescott, got hieghtinga and billy

Sold arteta got Oviedo and no one

Why not sell the shite first hey? We've got plenty of that in our squad.

Imagine Arsenal win a trophy finish 4th, we finish 5th and they have arteta, Fellaini and Rooney in side.

If he can do it on Corrie..

It wouldn't prevent a bid from Chelsea, Arsenal or whoever. Once a bid comes in from another club then it would be seen as an uneven playing field if Moyes could not make a counter bid.

I've moved on from DM now (he's a rival manager) and wish the chairman would also forget about him (and by default also not make such a pre-emptive statement). BK made a ridiculous comment along the lines of "DM had me at 30seconds; it took RM at least 45seconds." I mean WTF???

Steven #900 - I think we've got more chance of top 4 than RS. We just need to convert draws to wins and hopefully RM can facilitate that via a more positive approach. The RS are no big shakes and have their own issues with some of their players retiring / past their best / never were up to much (Allen, Henderson, Downing). Then there's the issue of Suarez becoming a bigger and bigger negative for them. Personally I think referees will be alert to him next season. Finishing above the RS should be regarded as the norm for us now and no big deal. Their rivals are the Swanseas and Fulhams of this world. I'm more concerned about Spurs and Arsenal.

Eugene,
True,very true.

Fellaini has been our most important player last 3 or 4 seasons. Leading scorer last season. And in his usual posn, CM, he dominates almost every other midfielder in Lqu.

It depresses me that people on here want to sell our best player, or second best for those of you who no nothing about football.

He is younger than Bains, and is probably the best holding midfielder in leaque, where as bains is the fourth best left back.

Both should stay!

Also, this non sense of sell him and buy two. We always end up with worse players.

Sold Rooney got Neville and Beattie

Sold lescott, got hieghtinga and billy

Sold arteta got Oviedo and no one

Why not sell the shite first hey? We've got plenty of that in our squad.

Imagine Arsenal win a trophy finish 4th, we finish 5th and they have arteta, Fellaini and Rooney in side.

Do you even watch Baines?!

4th best left back?

Makes a lot of defensive errors?

You must be watching a completely different player!

He's a bird in the hand so to speak

Even on an off day he's 'a presence' and on a good day, opposition players simply don't know what to do with him.

Also, without him in the side, we look a lot smaller and less of a physical threat.

Obviously if it was silly money and it could ALL be spent, I might think a little differently, but I'd trust Jeffrey Archer more than you know who.

Pack it in. I don't want to know about Moyes or United -I want only Everon News please.

Having just looked at the released players list, I think we could pick up some bargains. Why not go for Turnbull as Number 2? Malouda and Arshavin anyone?

With the Fellaini money (if sold of course) and extra TV money, I would like Negredo, Lescott back, Capoue and McManaman.

ps: I fairly new on here so be gentle!!!!

You never know with Fellaini what he will do.

But he's not as good as cole defensivesly. Hes not as strong as evra either. They're also both better in air and just as skill full and energetic. There's nothing in it what so ever. But they overall just shade it for me.

My pt being anyway, which you over look, is that Fellaini is far more important. He's a CM for a start, runs the game from midfield and scores more goals.

People even criticise his attitude, but his work rate bar the Wigan debacle is fantastic.

Lets praise the two of them hey? And talk about keeping them both!

I've posted before about fellaini and why I think he should be got rid of, so I wont go over the numerous reasons again; he's a good player but certainly not irreplaceable(very, very few defensive midfielders are)...especially not at £75k / week.

The fact he's our leading scorer with a paltry 12 goals is more a damnation on the lack of quality in other areas of the pitch and perhaps our style of play at times, rather than anything to do with Fellaini's brilliance. It highlights why perhaps we do need to use his exit as a means to bring the rest of the squad upto a higher standard.

Alan, your memory seems a little tinted with shite. You forget to mention the good players we got with the lescott, arteta and rooney money. Maybe not all of them were bought immediately after those players were sold, but the fact is the club still benefitted from about £60M of transfer fees from the loss of just 3 players, which has effectively bought most of the current squad.

Even some of the shite you mention aren't actually that bad. Heitinga for example was player of the season, previously. Oviedo hasn't actually been given a chance to show how good he is.

Baines will be a key part of the way that Martinez re-shapes the team so a lot of the success or otherwise that happens over the next season or two will be contingent on whether he's there or not. Oveido, of course, might flourish under a manager with more latin qualities so the world doesnt end if Baines goes but its more assured short term.

"contingent"

But Arteta is playing champ lqu, Rooney has won champ lqu. And barring Bains, Fellini is the only player capable of playing champs lqu in our squad

You have just said being our top scorer didn't matter.

12 goals from midfield not good enough hey? Why do top clubs want him then?

By the way Fellaini started for Belgium tonight, dembele and hazard where on the bench.

I bet you can't wait to see Osman and Gibson look slow a weak and get overrun next season.

Also, it will be harder for Bains and Coleman to get forward playing wing back without having someone to overlap. And harder again as they won't have Fellaini getting a grip of midfield. A player who always takes the ball, and keeps it, no matter if marked, or if the pass into him is awkward to control or he's marked. He is one one quality player.

We're would have finished with Arteta, Rooney, Rodwell, and Lescott in squad last season?

Who excites you as much as Rooney did?

If I could only buy one player with the funds available it would have to be McCarthy to take over from Osman. Think about a midfield of Fellaini, McCarthy and Gibson and Pienaar, with Mirallas and Jelavic up front and Coleman and Baines bombing down the wings. Can't wait for the new season!

For me I think we need a GK first and foremost. Some people mentioning a striker but I got a feeling that Jelavic will score more next season. I don't like the suggestion of signing Darren Bent; he's a substitute in a side that was fighting relegation! Yes, I know Benteke was their main striker but still, his appearance rate was awful.

Buy McCarthy from Reading as a good goalkeeper for now if not the future.

Alcarez on a free is worth a shout as cover for Distin

Fer and McCarthy from Wigan – we should be able to get both these for £18-20M.

Negredo or Soldado would be icing on the cake... £15-20M

All this seems possible.

I do hope Moyes is going to respect the club now he has left and not do what SAF did and unsettle players via the media.