Everton launch £13.5m bid for McCarthy

So according to the Daily Star, we are close to getting McCarthy for £13.5m. Has BK won the lottery or sold his Jenny for a few quid?

Colin - it's the Daily Star, mate!

That's why I wrote "according to the Daily Star", Kev.

Don't we have enough people to swing the ball over? Mid or striker would be OK.

Plums.

Laughable.
I can't see us bidding on anyone else.
If there's no outgoings I can see the only other incomings being loanees to be honest.

I can't see this being true. If it is true I hope we don't get him and spend that £13 mil more wisely elsewhere. The lad is a good player but you could get much better players for that amount.

Albert, maybe you're confusing McCarthy with McGeady? McCarthy plays centre midfield.

Felli out for £23.5m, McCarthy in for £13.5m, £10m for Bill/banks? May be true.

Can't quite see this one! He's a good player,at a good age but where did the price come from?It's not like there are clubs scrambling for his signing!
Probably

This is surely contingent on fellaini going.

£13m seems far too much when you think that Norwich got Fer for 4.5m. Though having said that McCarthy was excellent in the premier league last season with some of the best stats for passing completion and tackling, he is an excellent if not spectacular young player.

This is indicative of the inflated price for British players who have had a few decent games in the prem..

I hope it isn't true..

Agree with Derek we are not in a bidding war over this player so walk away from Whelan's crazy valuation
Why even deal with a prick who seriously proposed a minutes silence for Thatcher at Wembley?
He's away with the fairies and so, I suspect, is the lazy journo whose job is to halt the plummeting circulation figures for this comic

Is the Daily Star the one with a posed shot up a girl's skirt on the front cover every day?

How does anyone know what it says? I've never seen anyone read it.

Didn't think one read the Daily Star. I thought one looked at it?.
RM states he's taking the rest of preseason to fully evaluate what he has, then MAYBE strengthen..
Contingency for Fellaini perhaps but, the PSG lad is quality and half the price. The BS DS will have him moving to Fulham or Cardiff tomorrow.

Etienne Capoue is yet to move from Toulouse and apprently available for around £8-10m. He would be a better replacement for Fellaini, I think.

He's a very good DM player who can spread the ball around with both feet. I agree with the feeling that he'll only come to replace Fellaini. It was Owen Coyle who slapped the £20m price tag on him by all accounts.

#994 Sam, Please don't talk passing tackling stats, you sound like a kopite when they buy people like Henderson and Joe Allen!

He's a very good DM player who can spread the ball around with both feet.

Darron Gibson?

These kind of players, MaCarthy, McManaman and their over inflated prices, just make me think of the waste of money those over the road blew on players like Jordan Henderson.

There are much better options out there for these prices.

I wouldn't bother with either of them to be honest. If they're that good, why aren't other clubs trying to buy them? OK Spurs are apparently interested in McCarthy and that's possibly why the price is so high, but I don't rate him highly enough for anything close to £13.5m.

What has he done to earn that price tag? It's madness.

As for McManaman, good god no. Please don't let us blow any money on him.

Thats the same kind of money Strootman went for and would buy you Capoue. McCartney is not worth that much.

For £13 mill, we could have had Honda and Fer for that amount. Kinda sums it all up doesn´t it?

Ingl, for £13m we could buy thousands of Hondas. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Lol Colin :p

In my opinion very over-rated, pass completion stats mean nothing look at Joe Allen across the park, Anyone half decent can keep it simple in front of back four it's turning defence into attack what counts.

We need a new better version of Osman, someone with quality in the final third.

Leroy Fer looked a player can't believe he went for £4.3 million and we never came back in for him.

John Malone, the new better version of Osman is already on the books... Ross Barkley.

£13.1 million? Where the hell would Bill find that?

Can someone please tell Martinez that there are plays at clubs other than Wigan.

At which point will he remember that they were part of a team that went down?

I make no apologies for saying this but I would have McCarthy in my starting line-up before most of our squad. He's excellent and only going to improve when surrounded by better players.

Price is a bit high but when you consider how many years we could have him for and possibly be future captain then it's not too bad at all.

Get him, he's quality and has been for last 2 seasons

Watford have just bought seven, that's SEVEN, players from Udinese. Crikey, it's all the rage. Will Roberto try to equal that?

If we count ex-Wigan players then he's in with a chance. Robles (Athletic Madrid), Alcaraz (out of contract), Kone (Wigan); add to that McCarthy, Macamanmanaman and Sean Maloney and we're nearly there. Diame (West Ham) would do it, now that we've cooled on Moses (Chelsea).

Let's hope Whatshisname doesn't try and buy seven of our players! No, hold on... that's not such a bad idea. Naismith, Heitinga, Hibbo (sorry, mate, you've had your time), Gueye, Anichebe (unlucky, Vic), Fellaini (as long as its for big bucks) and Naismith again. Special deal: seven players for a quadrillion pounds. Bargain.

So Watford have bought seven players from the club that is owned by the same person/people that own Watford. Remember that thread a few weeks ago about managing two team in the FM games so you can manipulate the transfers from one to another......

First of all, this story has got to be a load of Bollocks! Where have we suddenly got £13.5m from? Unless we are about to sell Baines or Fellaini, there's no chance.

I don't think the transfer fee is as unrealistic as some are trying to suggest on here, especially when you look at what Sunderland paid for Jarvis and Fletcher. The unfortunate reality is – if we buy players who have played well in the PL, we are always going to pay over the odds.

It's funny how us Evertonians think that our own players like Fellaini are worth £30m, then we think players like McCarthey are only worth £6m.

In my opinion, we are better off shopping abroad where we can get more value for our money.

We could give them big Vic and a million quid, plus Gueye as a sweetener.

I know, Andrew, it does seem wrong, doesn't it. They've just changed the rules to prevent Watford having 43 loans players, as they did last season, but it's still OK to buy players from, er... yourself.

I hope to god we're not onto something here. I mean, does Dave Whelan secretly own Everton? O M (as they say) G!

I make no apologies for saying this but I would have McCarthy in my starting line-up before most of our squad. He's excellent and only going to improve when surrounded by better players.

---------------------

Well he'd hardly improve here then - if you think he's better than most of what we've got!

The old adage of 'worth' being commensurate with what someone's willing to pay is very valid... but if we pay that price for him then we are fools.

I would love to get him but that price is a bit too steep IMO. Saying that, I think he's the best player to come out of the emerald isle since a certain Roy Keane so it could end up being a bargain.

Ciaran
any good economist (few of them as there are) would tell you that adage is bullshit...The old adage of 'worth' being commensurate with what someone's willing to pay is very valid.

It's not what you're willing to pay: it's what you're willing and able to pay. The first adage is fantasy, the second is cold, hard, economic reality.

I'd prefer the American lad that is at Bolton, his name escapes me, but with Gibosn and hopefully Felli in the team he could do the Ossie role a lot better than the little fella is capable of these days.

Also if I was RM I wouldn't splash all the cash available this window I would save some back for January in case of an emergency.

Stuart Holden, Patrick?

Stuart Holden I think Patrick. Good player coming back from injury.

McCarthy I think will be a better player though. If we could get him for 8m plus add ons I would be very happy. He's extremely comfortable on the ball, very accurate in his passing and terrier like in regaining posession.

Can I point out, once again, that the mutually beneficial and smart arrangement that Watford have with Udinese and Granada is not nearly as questionable as the PL practice of loaning out players to your own competitors. Udinese and Granada do not compete with Watford for any competition, the players Watford have signed on permanent deals are now loyal to Watford only. Everton’s fate depends upon results of fixtures where players employed by an elite few clubs are playing for several clubs in the league, now that is dodgy. Teams do not compete on a level playing field in lots of different ways, but it’s much easier to pick on Watford than to identify where the current system really is bent.

It all comes down to good business dealing. Fella may go and if he does then money will be available to replace him with a classy midfielder.

I suppose there will be lot's of speculation by the media where RM and Wigan are concerned.

Gibson is solid but can get injured.

Osman and Pienaar have their moments but are far too inconsistent these days.

Barkley, Oviedo and Gueye don't seem to fit the bill and may never.

Holden at Bolton is capable but coming back after a long injury but McCarthy at the right price could be the answer.

Ross, my issue with the Udinese/Watford relationship is that it could be construed to give Watford an unfair advantage to improve their team to enable them to gain promotion to the EPL and from there comes the huge financial benefits that come to both them and their owner.

Watford simply became a nursery club for Udinese and it will almost certainly end in tears. No doubt successful players may be bought back by Udinese in a couple of years. All very strange and obviously gives Watford an advantage over opponents

Mccarthy is an excellent player and the pick of the bunch at Wigan. If he arrives then it looks like we're assuming Fellaini will go when the right offer comes in. I've no problems with the individual players we've got from Wigan as they're the pick of the bunch in positions we need and all strengthen our squad. We need more and preferably from somewhere else.

Impossible to say with even qualified certainty that Oviedo and Barkley 'don't fit the bill and may never'. They're both young and inexperienced. I accept that Gueye is probably not going to make the grade and will probably be back in France by the start of the season. Shame really as he had his moments.

This is bullshit. He is not worth/we won't pay 13million for him. He is a good young player, and maybe if we sold Fellaini, 5million for him would be a pretty decent shout. Thiago only went for 21...Cazorla for 16. It's a joke.

I don't believe it for one moment.

I think Robles and Kone were decent buys.. buy from the way the Media represent Wigan player's potential prices, one would have managed Wigan had finished 4th, not 18th. MacMan for 15mil? Maloney for 8? McCarthy for 13? how much for Gomez and Beausejour I wonder?

With the way this league has developed, by which I mean, moved away from a more physical style to a gradually more fluid 'European' one, I think it makes far more sense to look abroad. Palace signed a promising Spanish under 21 international for under 2 million this week..Swansea got a hardly unknown Michu, had who managed 15? from a midfield position in La Liga during the season before for just over 2million. I think buying from Holland, Portugal, Spain, France, Germany etc makes so much more sense.

Jim, sad but true. Our young talent are being priced out of the game. There are probably lots of decent, young, British talent languishing in reserve teams or on the bench but try buying them and exorbitant sums of money are asked for.

I love the logic of players not good enough for the Udinese first team squad (5th in serie A) giving Watford and advantage, when Everton’s (6th in PL) brightest young prospect couldn’t get in the Leeds team. Fine to object to this in principle but you are missing the point regarding the opportunities for corruption of the loan system that is allowed in England.

No to McCarthy at that price, there is far better value to be had for much less than £15M. But it's just newspaper rubbish in any case.

I suppose the difference is in depth of squad Ross, not league placing. Italy's under 21 team were superb in the Euros this year, and they were made up of tons of players from Serie B (mainly loans from bigger clubs), who will likely become, to varying degrees, important to their Serie A sides. Similarly, Chelsea, who only finished three places above us last season, were able to send the likes of Lakuku, De Bruyne, Wallace and Courtois on loan, all of whom would probaly have made our first team, with the possible exception of Wallace. I think we have a real squad issue at this club...and need to start bringing more players in from abroad at the age of 16/17, to beef out the youngsters. It's a great strategy, and one of the benefits we have as an English player in view of the lure of the Premier League and some countries laws re. youth contracts.

Jim Knightley

I totally agree that there's better value abroad, but McCarthy is a top talent IMO, and is heading right for the top. I wouldn't be totally devastated if we sold Fellaini for £24m and Heitinga for £3m, then signed McCarthy for £13.5m. I think McCarthy's value would double with a couple of good seasons at Everton. With money left over from selling Fellaini and Heitinga, we could buy another midfielder and striker.

Sorry for slipping into FM mode, this story is probably a load of bollox anyway, and I would rather us shop abroad

Our new manager`s vision appears to extend no further than Wigan.
And they were relegated.

Phil we have signed one Wigan player, one from Spain a free agent and got a Barcelona lad on loan and who is confirming this so called bid? Some glammed up Daily Sport rag.

Paul over the next few months this site is going to be toxic with those who it appears were more fans of Moyes than they were Everton going up against those who will monitor DM's every utterance at Man U to counter-argue.

The new season can't start soon enough, but I hope the decline in submissions to this site and the disappearance of a number of regular contributors is more symptomatic of it being the summer, with other sports, rather than any longer term malaise. (I do also think that certain issues have been discussed to death, which may be part of it).

If we can only scrape together enough money for one more signing it should be for this lad. In Fellaini and Gibson we have a strong central-midfield pair, but there is nobody else who plays there as their natural position. It is the one area we need to strengthen in. There will be injuries and suspensions and I don't want to see Osman dropping back into the centre, McCarthy would give us strength in depth in the centre as well as adding quality. £12m sounds a fair price, but I'm not sure we have that to spend. Time will tell.

if fellaini is worth 24 mill the McCarthy is surely worth 13.5 mill. Fellaini is not twice the player McCarthy is
It also shows what happens if we sell either Fellaini or Baines, the first 10mill is for the banks and the rest can be spent. Even though our wage bill has decreased and we have extra revenue from sky wankers, we still have to put that 10mill aside each season

No.

We can leave paying £15M for slightly above average centre mids to our neighbours. We should be in the market for upcoming players in the sub £5M bracket.

McCarthy may become a good premier league centre mid, but he's not of the £15M standard. If we got him, would he be an automatic selection ahead of gibson and fellaini? No? For £15M he bloody well should be!

Look at Gibson FFS, people raving about him and we picked him up for £500,000. There are probably loads of players like him at richer clubs with their massive squads that can't even get a game, or at foreign clubs in cheaper leagues which we can pick up for peanuts.

I'm late on this thread but McCarthy is a class act. He will plat defensive midfield and stop us conceding sloppy goals like we did last season. Can pay for him by selling Heitenga. Last piece of jigsaw is a young footballing centre half to cover our ageing duo.

Doesn't make sense. We wouldn't pay Celtic £13ml for Wanyama.

Martinez certainly rates the lad. He personally scouted him as a youngster at Hamilton before bringing him south for less than £2ml.

McCarthy also rates Martinez. After the Cup Final he declared Martinez " A tactical genius."

One thing is certain. Martinez is only interested in players who will fit perfectly into his strict system of play without complaint.
They might be cheap. They might be expensive. Who can tell. Their worth to him is something only he knows.

Please god NO!

No, no, no, no more relegated Wigan players.

Camel's back in danger of being broken here!

The value of something is what it is worth to you.

I bought my property at way over the standard rate because it was perfect for me. 3 minutes walk from my best friends, close to my work, an acre of land to play with in a lovely neighborhood.

Roberto is building a team in his image. He has already chosen and trained a group of players he is confident with. McCarthy could be the catalyst that makes the team click and be successful in a way the Felli might not. He could be worth a lot more to Roberto than a £25 million valued player. He could be the lynchpin for Everton success for the next 10 years.

Or maybe not, but I stand by the logic and hope we get what we really need.

Paul 102# excellent

Wayne Smith @097, well said. While it's horrible that we always have to first think 'how skint are we this transfer window?' before we do anything, there's no reason why we can't take the approach that there are quality bargains to be had. How many players at Chelsea or Man Utd have rotted away in the reserves and then moved to what have become bigger and better things for them career wise.

If we had the money to spend, then yes, we could go the 'it's an investment' route. We did it with Fellaini. I think McCarthy has shown the potential to be the type of player you could invest that type of money in. It's why City spent £15M on Rodwell.

I like him, and I think he'd do a good job. The fee looks steep, and as pointed out by others you can get better value in the foreign leagues. Pretty irrelevant until we sell Naismith for £20m in any case.

Ian Bennett - £20m for Naismith? Is that you joking, or did you mean someone else? Baines or Fellaini maybe

Mark - yes mate, sadly I don't think we'll get £20m for Naismith, or sign RVP for a pound. Real life is not FM.

Mark
I think you'll find it is possible to get £20 million for Naismith, offer him to Liverpool. They seem to like paying ludicrous prices for useless players don't they?

The more I think about it the more I believe McCarthy would be a decent replacement for Fellaini. I love the big man but I think macca suits the Martinez style better by maintaining a quicker pass rhythm than Fella who prefers to run with the ball. Plus the £10m left over could get us two more decent players in to strengthen the squad even further.

Yes Ross, they certainly do. Although, I don't think Brenda is as much of a mug as their king Kenny was..... but still, there's no excuse for spending vast sums of money on sub-standed players like Joe Allen, gives us all a good laugh though

Better to loan Rodwell — he's further down the pecking line with Fernandinho and Navas.

James Marshall (#15), Why would you not want McManaman? I'm just curious to know why you would be so against this player.

For me, he is the first choice of player that I would want from Wigan. McCarthy and McManaman are both good players and I would be happy if we could get both of them but, then again, I would be happy If Martinez just gets the chance to spend all the money If we do sell Fellaini.

Richard #302 - how about because he ran to the corner of the Park End and Main Stand and cupped his ear when he scored against us in the Cup? I've no problem him celebrating a goal but to do that as an Evertonian told me all I needed to know - he's bad news, not interested.

Mike the lad had just had the biggest moment of his career, what do you want him to do?

Andrew, would you have done the same??? I thought not, the guy forgot all his love for us that day and thought it was a great idea to try and make a point that he had moved on and was in a better place....

Let him rot there, if I had scored against my beloved blues, I would have been respectful, so would everyone of us...

Ah..... I see where you're coming from Mike, well at least he didn't blow a raspberry, could've ended in tears.

Looks like our shadow club, Spurs, are prepared to pay up to £20m to add to their star-studded bench. They can have him if that's the case.

I think we should start making over-inflated dummy bids for player to send Spurs scampering off to buy silly money for average players. Oh hold on, that is their transfer policy anyway.

Steve, I said before we should just rent our scouting system to spurs and save us all a lot of grief. £10m a year sounds about right to me.

What about Kondogbia from Seville. Looks a real enforcer type if we need a Fellaini replacement. Or Capoue.

Steve@ 357, thanks for answering your own question for me. My actual answer is I have no issue with any player celebrating a goal against any club, especially when he moved on at 16 so doesn't really have any history. If I had ever played and scored against Everton, then yes, I would have celebrated it.

Would you have kissed the badge of the team you were playing for Andrew like Shrek did?

Matt Traynor spot on mate. Too many people are already building their case comparison of what Moyes will be doing at United an what Martinez is doing here. Its about time the Moyes lovers stopped dragging us down an criticising Martinez every supposed target. I don't think the man is that stupid he'd buy the whole Wigan team but if theres a player there or anywhere that can benefit us then why not. I myself am not sure about McCarthey being able to perform well in front of 40 thousand home fans on a regular basis but hes certainly a good player and has looked good on each occassion we've played them. At the moment I wouldnt believe a word of any rumour, Martinez seems to have done business pretty quickly so far without long standing rumours so i'm sure he knows what we need even we lose players

Paul, what does Moyes have to do with. Isn't it possible that some people just have doubts about Martinez?

I was a 'Moyes-lover' but I'm excited by what RM is trying to do.

Don't just assume that people will make their judgements on Martinez based on their feelings about the previous incumbent.

Ross, to me celebrating a goal and kissing the badge are two very different things. Although they all come down to Sky era bullshit where everything the players do is over analysed to the nth degree and turned into non stories just to keep the football soap opera bandwagon rolling.

Sam- at no point did I name individuals and my judgement is not an assumption, you only have to read through comments to realise a lot of fans have no time for Martinez already or cant wait to criticise. Obviously there will Moyes lovers who are excited by Martinez but the majority aren't.