Palace match West Ham interest in Jelavic

Just listened to the podcast of Martinez being interviewed by various fan sites (why weren't ToffeeWeb there?). Reading between the lines, RM doesn't think Jelavic is his type of player; I agree, but I would like to keep him until the end of the season, then let him go.

I don't think £3 to 4 million will be enough to buy another striker that can come on and potentially score us a goal. Jelavic has struggled in the last 12 months but put him as the target man with the service that Baines, Oviedo, Coleman and Barkley give him and I think we will see him score.

I'm with Andy on this one. Jelavic is our only other striker. What happens if Lukaku picks up an injury as Vellios apparently does not feature in RM's plans? Jelly seems to have rediscovered his scoring touch and if he can bag a goal a game I don't care how many penalties he misses!

Jermaine Defoe would be a good signing if we lose Jelavic, proven goal scorer and could turn a tight game coming off the bench.

We must not forget he was the messiah when he came initially and lukaku is only on loan. I think we should be giving him more opportunities to build his confidence back while Lukaku is still with us. Don't forget that Lukaku also goes through lean spells. I would rotate both of them in starting line up. Nothing like a bit of active competition.

Spot on, Tony. I think RM is playing nice when he says Jelavic can leave because he wants more game time to improve his chances of playing in the World Cup. What he means is that he doesn't rate him. Fair enough, but I still think he can do a job for us this season. Kone is out injured and we don't have another recognised striker in the squad, so we should keep him. Who knows, he might bang a few in and surprise RM and be kept around for next season.

Don't see the point in selling Jelavic unless we get a bid of £6 million plus and have got somebody else lined up.

Me personally, if we sold him, I would attempt to buy Jay Rodriguez of Southampton for about £12 million.

I wonder how much RM rates Vellios. Might not be much but could be worth considering. Jelavic is obviously not more than a bench player in our foreseeable future so I kind of discount his performance. It's more of long term planning imo. RM will not let him go at the moment, so I suspect Jelavic will feature, at least at Norwich.

Dennis, long term planning, generally means short term compromise. Jelavic is not that bad to have around in the short term.

Neil (#156): that's exactly what I think, too.

We still have Vellios. Don't see any reason why he can't cover Lukaku should the need arise.

Mirallas can play striker,

Andy, exactly. I like Jela's workrate, but unfortunately I can't see how we can adjust to his style that well. I think RM is planning ahead with or without Jela. Fortunately for all parties, Jela said or hinted that he will stay to fight for his place. Definitely worthwhile to see what happens. Too bad there's only 1-2 games to decide all this before the window closes.

Tony. If he can bag a goal a game he'll be worth more than £50m.

I like the lad but prefer he went elsewhere.

Sorry, but £3.5m just isn't enough. If Victor is worth £6m, Danny graham went for £5m, Cameron Jerome £4m, Steven fletcher £12m etc, then Jelavic is worth £6m plus all day long.

The style might need to be adapted, but he will score goals for someone. Jelavic and Heitinga wouldn't be cheap, but they would be massive players to keep a villa, west ham, Norwich or a palace in the league, and that is worth a fortune.

As always, I agree with Harold but I also agree with Ian Bennett, £3.5M is not enough. The next two games will confirm or deny whether his scoring boots are back and should tip the balance.

£3.5m is a bargain for somebody and not nearly enough. It's not like he has had a serious injury.

Perhaps the sales are to raise cash to sign Lukaku permanently. If we only get a loan replacent or none at all, that would be my takeaway.

I don't think Martinez rates Vellios that high. Didn't he publicly announce the other week that he tried to send him out on loan and the Greek refused? Plus when we've had a full squad of fit players, he never made it into a match-day squad.

Kristian, yes I remember that. Sad though.
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/Roberto-Martinez-says-apostolos-vellios-6298620

I wish Vellios can wake up and go on loan this window! I have high expectations for him!

We have three league games and a cup game before the end of the transfer window. If Jelavic plays in the Norwich and West Brom games and scores, I can't see him going anywhere. If he does nothing, then that still gives eleven days, the West Brom game is the 20th, to sell him.

The goals he scored against QPR, regardless of the fact that they are a Championship side, were the goals of a player with confidence. I do hope he gets to play against Norwich and scores as I do think he is a quality player if things are going right for him.

Paul Holmes #145, Defoe is deffo off to Toronto in the MLS, been a done deal for weeks now. Around £6m fee, and he's getting £90k/week are the reported figures. Say what you like about Tottenham, but they always manage to do well out of transfers. I'd say Adebayor is the notable exception, but even he's started scoring now.

Agree with others – £3.5m seems cheap for Jelavic, and I can't believe he won't regain his touch somewhere. His one-touch finishing in his rich early spell suggests to me he's not getting the same opportunities – fair enough he's missed a load – but those saying he's been sussed out by defenders are wide of the mark IMO.

Agree also Vellios seems to lack both the aptitude and the ability to succeed at this level, and don't see the point in persevering with him. Also agree with those who advocate for Mirallas to be given a go up front. He clearly wants to have a go, and if he can recapture the form he showed at Olympiakos before we signed him, it's a win all round.

I'd love for Drew #321 to be right – although he's raw as sushi right now, I think Lukaku could become an awesome player in the right set up, under the right guidance – hopefully he sees that too.

Note it says an initial £3.5M. This may indicate that the final fee would be more if they want the deal to become permanent. This would allow Nikica to get some regular first team football and hopefully get on the goal trail again with the World Cup in view. If he gets his confidence back then he can either sign permanently at the end of the season for an improved fee or return to us with a new found confidence.

I agree that £3.5M won't buy us a proven goalscorer, but we do have Fellaini/Anichebe money left, plus whatever we get for Heitinga, so we could afford to spend big on a new striker. The Icelandic lad from Herenveen looks quality!

Matt Traynor (#407) — Tottenham do well out of transfers????

Shurely not. They have a lad they signed for £30M in the summer who has yet to start a game and now wants to leave. I can't imagine us ever doing that. They constantly buy too many players, under use them, they fall in value (or off the radar completely) and are sold quietly for a massive loss.

Jelavic is one of the biggest disappointments that I can remember in my near 40 years of supporting Everton. Not because he is a donkey like some of the players we've had in the past (Bakayoko, Mitch Ward, Claus Thomsen etc.) but more because of the player that I thought we had during his first half-season and the comparison of what he is now. I honestly believed we had a £30M striker at one point and was wary of anybody taking him off us like I am now with Barkley.

We'd waited decades to have a forward that would regularly find the back of the net and not just against poor teams. I'd argue the last player in that mould was Lineker. Cottee used to go on runs of 2 and 3 goals, usually against weaker teams but was never really a consistent goalscorer. Similarly with Yakubu, Andy Johnson etc. Beardsley had a season where he notched a lot of goals in the 90s but he was much more than a goalscorer and ended up doing everything in a poor Everton team. Jelavic was a player who took opportunities and won games.

I don't know what happened to him during the pre-season before last but his confidence was shot to pieces last season and he looked a completely different player. Each week I will him to come on and score but every time he gets a sniff, you can pretty much predict the outcome. The QPR game was great and he took his goals really well but I'm not sure he will rediscover that finishing touch he had in his initial period. I really hope he proves me wrong because I would love him to stay but the thought of selling him for £3.5m just seems such a let-down when I think back to what I would have valued him at in the summer of 2012.

To sell Jelavic for less then 5 million makes no sense.

You all assume he will be played in the coming matches, I think Martinez would rather play Lukaku or Mirallas.

Also Martinez does have a right to sell because Jelavic failed us big when he got his chance.

RM does not judge a striker on goals, but how well he contributes, so it seems like there is a 50-50 chance of Jelavic staying if he performs when given his next chance perhaps at Norwich.

Matt, spurns are below average in the market. They have a decent team, but they pretty much wasted the opportunity of the lifetime selling Bale. If we ever sell Barkley (touch wood, hope it never happens), the first thing I'm looking for is a bigger stadium. You can buy or develop youth players that play better than their team for less than 25m!

Jimmy, surely that's why 5m is the bare min RM spoke about. I do have the same sentiment on how RM assess Jela. If we bring in one of those wonderkid strikers and keep Jela, our team will be set for the rest of the season!

Craig, seriously? I know he's not the best striker we can get, but we need to be realistic. After we got rid of Beatie, AJ, Yakubu (I still can't believe we did that!), who else can we get? We're a graveyard for strikers, and that might still be the case right now. I just hope Jela gets his midas touch back because I believe that while he's not as good as Beatie and Yakubu, both who I rate highly, he is a worthwhile bench player to have. I'm not going to pay 50m for a striker and have him either (a) misfire like Torres or (b) go downhill like Villa. 50m needs to be gained back through success on the pitch!

Breaking new on Sky, Hull agree fee with Everton for Jelavic!!

I don't understand the lad wanting to play for Hull City - does it say how much the fee may be?

SSN just says we have agreed a fee and talk between Jelavic will get under way in the next few days. Wonder if he will do a 'Johnny' and realise Hull aren't for him.....that would be funny.

Myers has said that there will be an announcement on the official site about Jelavic. I think it must be around £4 million.

That means that plus the £12-£13 million remaining from the Fellaini money. Therefore, we should have £16 million to spend, or a similar figure.

That's what I was thinking Kunai. We always seem to have problems offloading our unwanted players. Remember Yobo?

He's unlikely to be in tomorrow's squad then.

Does this mean Martinez has his eye on a new forward?