Pranjic puts blame on Everton for failed move

So you went to the first team come to get you? Yeah, you really wanted to play for Everton.

Maybe we just didn't want him...

Sounds like a bit of a mercenary to me.

Did Moyes ever say he wanted him? I'm glad we didn't get the guy. Who needs clowns like this?

DM never publicly states who he wants. So you didn't get the move, quit whining. If he's this much of a pisser, we're better off without him.

We clearly wanted him, we tried to sign him in January and he wanted to come here.

Either we're looking for someone else or we don't have the money to pay for signing on fee/wages.

I could be wrong but I don't recall David Moyes ever coming out and stating publicly that he wanted Pranjic, who was a bit miffed when the deal apparently fell through back in January because Bayern wanted too much money for him. Perhaps that's what he's referring too... and Moyes since scrubbed him off the A-List.

By all accounts, it seems there has been no interest in him from Everton this summer, and it's mostly sour grapes from him. 31, and he's nearly 7 or 8 months older... I'm surprised we went for him to be honest. Makes you wonder if all this was blown up mostly in his own mind, from an initial inquiry that ended soon after the question, "How much?"

Although I'm sceptical about whether Moyes was interested, I have a client who used to be a football agent and he said "The only thing with Moyes is he never decides on a player... he waits 'n' waits... he's got a stack of players on his desk'... his words, but believable. I'm not sure he ever knows what he wants!

Well, Steve (#609), I've a feeling one of our correspondents has the perfect name for that!

Paul Ferry, the floor is yours!

It's quite odd that he has a stack of players on his desk, and what with those unlimited transfer funds, unlimited wage funds, free banking covenants, and not having to sell to buy. C'mon Davey crack on..... Wait a minute, keep on window shopping Davey.

Steve #609 well your "friend" who used to be a football agent wouldn't have a biased opinion would he..?? Fancy that, Moyes having the cheek to pile up those hundreds of players who are the next best thing and not spending OUR hard earned money on these 'gems'.

Moyesie's transfer record is regarded as among the best; he's cautious... but rightly so.

Steve, waits for what? He doesn't do the negotiating, he gives his list to the board and asks them to get his man. It's just so easy to perpetuate a myth, just repeat it again and again and every now and again add a mysterious source.

I remember a Preston Chairman or big wig on the board said that Moyes dithered and dithered over players. I remember just after finishing 4th he did the same thing over more than 5 players.I would like to think you learn from your mistakes...

Steve, if Moyes waits and waits according to you 'client' there must be a reason. His record in the transfer market on such a limited budget is incomparable. Shooting from the hip is seldom accurate.

Spot on, Tony. Transfers have been protracted way before Moyes.

Steve (609) - "who used to be a football agent". There's an opinion from a disinterested 3rd party. Ha.

If he thought an employee of a business was the one making financial decisions, no wonder "used to be" is part of how you described him.

Does anybody give a fuck about this tosser?

Hang on here - don't shoot the messenger! I just thought I share what I received. We could all be right here, I'm a big fan of Moyes's transfers, but was adding to the question - does he dawdle?

I get frustrated with much as the next fan, but it's not Moyes I get frustrated with in regards to transfers. Fingers crossed on Peanuts! Coyb

No great loss it would appear, however a couple of words in his statement seemed to resonate such as "I could have waited until the end of August but then Sporting knocked on my door and I knew right away that this is what I want". He is either talking about waiting till the end of August without a club or referring to Everton's policy of buying late. The one bit of transfer business that has been done is with Naismith, no fee upfront other than a probable signing on fee and not having to bother with negotiating with Rangers over a transfer fee. The Pienaar transfer speculation is now over a week old and still no sign of any deal being concluded. Kenwright is probably rummaging down the back of his sofa now as I type.

Let's face it, guys – he's on the wrong side of 31. IMO, he clearly wanted a move to Everton but that looked anything but assured so he felt the need to take a decent opportunity when it came lest he be left to rot on a contract he didn't want, somewhere he didn't want to be. It's not brain surgery, just requires a little common sense, a rather more plausible arguement than suggesting he's just a blood-thirsty mercenary with a personality disorder.

Some of the comments aimed at the player are ludicrous. 'Whining' and 'mercenary' – how do you get that from what is written unless it is just a case of retaliation because he is supposedly having a go at our club / manager? It is just him giving his version of events / point of view and is nothing to get worked up over.

The real problem is the same as always: poor communication from the club leaves everyone guessing (and the suspicion is that that is exactly the reason for it). The club could have denied any current interest and if he was being considered but the club were waiting to see who else they could get (he obviously dropped down the pecking-order when Pienaar became a potentially viable proposition), or we need to reduce the wage bill before we can sign more players and he was left in limbo, then I don't blame him from looking after his own interests first.

The player was a free agent, therefore the deal should have been as straight-forward as Naismith's (assuming that the club were at all interested), barring haggling over personal terms, and he has simply exercised his right to sign for another club rather than hang around.

We all understand that the availability of funds may be a rate-limiting factor in the recruitment of players but, if we are losing out on players who could benefit us because club officials are not acting quickly enough, then all Evertonians should be concerned. The quotes attributed to Pranjic may not be true but, unless the club actually makes a statement to counter them, they will simply add to the impression that we are often slow to act (through choice or necessity) in the transfer market.

I agree Si, to an extent. Again, once he doesn't sign he's a mercenary or a so-and-so. Who cares? Maybe we were in for him, maybe we weren't. For whatever reason we didn't go for him in the end and he took the next best opportunity. Nothing to see here.

And as for Moyes dithering, there's a balance I suppose between "splashing" the few pence he has and making as sure as possible that the player meets our needs. Then of course maybe it's due to us having to wait on the wage savings of the likes of Yobo before we can do a damn thing.

Si, no offence meant but I think that's an extremely naive viewpoint.

The club can't come out and comment on all transfer speculation as much as it would be nice for the fans. It doesn't happen at any other club and it never will. If they were interested but waiting on Pienaar first, for example, then telling him he's second choice might scupper the whole thing. Similarly saying we'd desperately like to sign him gives him carte blanche to ask for whatever he wants and makes us look stupid if it doesn't come off.

I agree with Michael Kenrick, I would imagine this was an enquiry about a player who we were mildly interested in and his agent and himself have used it to try to engineer a move here or somewhere else. Players say things like that all the time, by all accounts Nuno Gomes saying we tried to sign him was met with puzzlement all round.

Si Cooper 660... so am I not allowed to give my point of view then? I'm not getting worked up over it as the club didn't appear to come out in this window and say they were looking to sign him so nothing to get worked up over – just merely stating my point of view going from what he's reportedly said.

Thanks MK.

Ha confirmation that Bali Hi Barry was right all the time about Dithering Davey:

'He never decides on a player... he waits 'n' waits... he's got a stack of players on his desk'

There's at least two D words in that lot. 'Desk-bound'? 'Desk-comfy'? 'Desk-decider'? 'Decideless'? 'Desk-fullintrayemptyouttray'? 'Desk-warmer'?

Have we had 'doddering' yet PB?

This coming season might be the best 'D season' ever.
I'm very optimistic about season 2012-13.

Over to the former Dutch colonies.

Jimmy, I am not saying the club should do anything, simply pointing out the problems generated by not being prepared to comment on such statements. I don't expect the club to comment on all transfer speculation at all, but there are obvious occasions where it would probably enhance their reputation. Clubs put down spurious rumours all the time, and a player will be well aware of whether a club is showing interest in him or not (or whether it has cooled), so there is very little to be gained in most circumstances from a media silence.

Deserved or not, EFC/David Moyes are perceived by many fans as 'dithering' over potential signings and missing out all too often. There may be wholly practicable reasons for this or there may be an element of indecisiveness that is a factor. What is apparently true is that we were close to signing the player in December, yet when he became available on a free transfer (no such thing, I know) is it likely that we had lost all interest in him? In a case like this, all the silence from the club actually says is that they are hedging their bets and a denial of interest would have been wholly appropriate if it were true.

Overall, it is unfair to attack a player just for saying he wasn't prepared to wait for an offer that may never come when he had concrete ones on the table, especially when we can't know if he is telling porkies or not unless the club choose to comment in this instance (not that they necessarily should).

Pete, where did I say that you are not allowed to have an opinion or comment on it. It is just that I think that that reaction is over the top on this occasion and I have tried to explain why I think that is so. I also happen to think that our club has the ability to clarify these situations, should they choose to do so, which would at least enable us to save the vitriol for those we know fully deserve it.

He's 31?
I'm over it already!

Si,

As part of your dissertation on this topic, you ask, "when he became available on a free transfer, is it likely that we had lost all interest in him?" I think the answer must be a resounding "Yes". That actually would explain the entire story.

No need whatsoever for the club to say anything... although if you'd been watching, you will have noticed that the local rags, in their role as trained lapdogs, did indicate early on in this replay of the Pranjic saga that there indeed was no interest from the Club.

I feel a big part of the reason we are talking about this is because we have a player here who has actually been open and upfront about the failed transfer process: that in itself is incredibly rare... and I believe a negative factor if you think about how closed-lipped David Moyes is about such things.

Go back to 1 February 2012, the day after the transfer window closed, and one Danijel Pranjic goes public with rage over Bayern Munich 'blocking' his move to Everton. If there had been any real interest, I suspect that was the point where all interest from Everton FC stopped dead (if not before, as I've said above). All speculation, I know... but I think this version fits the facts, with no need whatsoever for the Club to dignify his nonsense with a response.

[ps: Can you try to help us out here when you're typing in your posts: when you press the Enter or Return key at the end of a paragraph... hit it again just one more time before you carry on with the next paragraph? That way, it inserts an empty line. Cheers!]

Pranjic is a very good player first of all. The fact we didn't go for him suggests the Pienaar deal will be done.

Free transfers are not free so its no surprise he won't be coming here. At 31 a player of his class would still command a hefty wage which we can't afford.

I was more disappointed to see Clyne sign for Southampton. Great young prospect and would have solved our RB problems.

"Everton wanted me and I wanted to join them – that's why I joined Sporting" ... What the fuck? What a load of bollocks.

But it IS all speculation Michael, abetted by the club's decision to remain silent (I believe no interest was reported rather than interest was actually denied, but people have suggested the club should keep schtum to maintain a bargaining position) and therefore there is no reason to lay into Pranjic for saying what he has. That was the only reason I got into this thread in the first place.

Other than that, I just added that without a freedom of information policy from the club on such matters (not advocating, just commenting) it is always going to be the case that some people are going to see the glass as half full in regard to our transfer activity, and they shouldn't be attacked for that either as it is a genuine concern for those of us who would like to see the club move forward in the immediate future (rather than simply accepting the status quo whilst hoping for a big-money investor to come and sweep our troubles away).

I guess we were interested in Pranjic in December but did not complete because Bayern blocked it. We were then able to get Pienaar on loan who was excellent. We now hope to get Pienaar on a permanent deal so cannot afford/do not want both players. If the Pienaar deal had fallen through we might have gone back to Pranjic but, understandably, he could not remain without a club on the off-chance that we would sign him. This is a bit of a non-story.

The bloke didn't want to wait until the end of August – just on the off chance that Everton would sign him. He didn't want to waste a pre season? Can you really blame him if he signs for another club?

Mercenary!! A whiner!!! Maybe he didn't want to be without a club – perhaps he wanted to ensure his career was still viable, perhaps he wanted to make sure that he was still in employment as a footballer? Have some of you considered that?

Would any of us in the same situation hang around waiting for an offer from one specific club? Or, when there is no offer from that club, would we look at other offers?