Bookies favour Goodison switch for Cleverley

No, if he's not good enough for Man Utd's midfield then he certainly isn't good enough for ours!

6mil is an absolute steal for most premier league players of his age. Let the hate towards him due to his recent form continue if it means we ar ein with a shot to land him for next to nothing. Theres clearly potential and if anyone can get it out of him and turn him into a top class player its Martinez.

Really!! Do we need more United rejects, however good they might be deemed by others.

Martinez had him on loan at Wigan so obviously knows the lad well, if he wants to bring him on board then that's fine with me.

Yeah let's never buy a player who's ever had a run of poor form.

There's no chance of someone coming to Everton and flourishing under Martinez's coaching. I mean, if Moyes can't get the best of out someone then there's no hope.

And as for players who leave Man United, they definitely can't be successful at Goodison.

Logic meltdown.

I'll go with Roberto's judgement anytime. If he thinks the lad is class, he's class.

Mike Allison

Glad you admit to a logic meltdown. I have seen nothing anywhere to suggest that RM thinks he is good enough for us, but you carry on imagining these things, it keeps our rumour mill turning and increases the blood pressure, well yours anyway by the look of it!!

These rumours started before Moyes left, now the new guy in more or less sorted, he may wish to hang on until at least Jan to see what happens... never gave me a big wow factor but Roberto may know a bit more than me... on this occasion.

Well there's nothing concrete but..let's say it was true and we HAD bought him.

Are people really going to 'do a Dean' (!!!).

Can I suggest that unless Roberto Martinez buys someone with no feet or "I FUCKING HATE EVERTON ME" tattooed on their forehead, let's just trust him to buy/loan the players thinks will do a job for us.

(I know, I know, crazy talk).

A really piss poor player. I would be fuming if we signed him for £2m never mind £8m.

Manc colleagues telling me today that Roberto is off to Spurs and Moysey is on his way back to us.

Please, please, tell me they are winding me up !

Do not think we need another McCarthy-type midfielder. We need a younger Arteta-type midfielder.

Here you go Dean...

I don't think the link worked but if you want to find out what Martinez really thinks of Cleverley just google 'Martinez on Cleverley' and read the guardian article Dean, I think it answers your #089 post.

Kevin Rowlands
The link is not working for me, so please enlighten me.As I said, I have seen nothing to suggest that this player is on the radar. For me I want to see some real flare that the spanish links RM has can provide, noy some player who is struggling at United of all teams. Maybe you don't get the United "B" team jibes round your way and I am sure that Eugene gets no jibes as he lives in outer nowhere on his broom stick.

Thanks Kev. I see the article was around the time Cleverly was being battered by fans, but Roberto certainly thinks quite a bit of him from that article. As I said, just sick of the united cast offs the press label us with. The radio is worse, if you listen to talk sport we should not even be in the premier league. (Liverpool loving shite fans and broadcasters).

Didn't he play left mid for Wigan when he was on loan there? Remember he looked head and shoulders above anyone in that team at the time.

Can't imagine Pienaar will feature much next season, so that may be the plan for Cleverley? The whole Utd side were below par this season (thanks David) so I wouldn't judge him on the past 12 months alone. Fergie seemed to rate him, so that should be good enough to give the lad a chance.

I met up with a Utd fan friend of mine for the last day of the season. He rated Cleverly very highly and felt that the chance of club, especially under Martinez, would do wonders for Cleverly.

Truth is once them daft Mancs decide your 'not good enough for them' nothing the lad does on the field will change their mind. This one has a lot of similarities to the Gibson situation there, constant dog's abuse to the point where both had to close their Twitter accounts (Gibson re-opened his after he joined us).

Personally, I think he'd be a very good signing; there is a great little player in there... Let's be honest, apart from the unfortunate injuries, Gibson has been great for us;, so will Cleverley IMHO.

It would be a gamble buying him. I'd like to see a loan deal (yes, another one!) with the option to buy if it works out. Because I'm not a great fan of Cleverley, but part of me wonders what he'd be like in a Martinez midfield, as opposed to a Moyes midfield. I think a short passing style might just suit him.

United's midfield was crap last season, no balance at all. And I think Cleverley is the type who would suffer the most – a bit like Osman has at times for us over the years. He is not the best of athletes, so he needs the team to be playing well to show what he can do. But it would be a gamble.

At £6m I wouldn't mind, anything near £10m though and I would swerve it.

Prefer if we went back for "another Wigan old boy" in McManaman.

RM has already stated with being in the Europa League it's more about quantity than quality. Thus we're already seeing the pitfalls of being in Europe. If we were just challenging for domestic honours than we could maybe afford to go for better players.

Why would you care that people say we sign Man Utd cast-offs?

Are you 12 and the playground banter is too much for you?

We sign players and improve them, we've done it many times and it is to our credit. Cleverley is a talented player and we might get him relatively cheap.

Or we might not, I can't say I'm all that arsed but the knee-jerk negativity just seems ridiculous.

Well said Mike.

With the right coaching, Cleverley could easily fit into the Barry role.

But, we haven't had much success bringing in players from Man Utd...

I thought he was superb in his loan at Wigan and if Martinez can get him playing like that again then he will be a snip at £6m.

So, let's get this quite clear... young international midfielder, currently playing for one of the world's biggest and most successful teams... but he isn't even worth as much as Gerviniho?

Now, I am not advocating buying the lad, but just struggling to deal with the mentality that because a player may not currently be required at one club he wont be good enough for us. Did you consider Barry, Pienaar, Arteta, Howard or Gibson not good enough? The lad has had a bad year, but in fairness only one or two other players in his team could say they played well.

McCarthy's signing wasn't thought much of initially. If that's what Bobby can do with a relegated midfielder, what could he do with a champion?

I would prefer we get hold of Holtby, but Cleverly would be a decent investment for me. Perhaps away from the constant pressure of Old Trafford he would be able to fulfil the potential Roberto sees in him.

I think there's a fine player in there, and maybe good for Europe especially, given his style of play. The comparison to Osman is a fair one, maverick warts and all. I would say Yes, for a reasonable fee.

Not for me; slow, no apparent shooting ability, and hopeless in front of goal. When he first come through, people were having a wankfest over him because he could pass the ball five yards sideways; we need more than that if we're to progress further.

I'm with Mike Allison and agree with the sarcasm of his first post!

Given Bobby had him at Wigan and has had a year to have a look at our squad, I would think he would only be bringing in players to improve the starting eleven.

RM can't do any wrong in my eyes at the moment.

Yes, I am also with Mike Allison on this. We do need another McCarthy type player for the simple reason that we only have one at the moment and we need proper cover in every position.

Having said that, I have never seen much of Cleverly so not sure he is exactly like McCarthy but a decent central midfielder is needed for the squad depth. We can certainly benefit from a fire sale at Man Utd, and mostly ex-Utd players have done well for us.

We need cover, end of. If we had a midfield of Barry McCarthy Gibson Osman and Cleverly next year I would consider we had enough CMs to rotate, which would lessen the chance of injury. Obviously also helps us compete in more competitions. I think the likelihood of getting him for £6-8m is low though, given all the extra cash that will be floating around this summer, and the fact that English player's seem to be at a premium at the moment.

Hasn't proved himself to be a world beater at Man Utd but I think there is a good player in there and if anyone can help him find it, Martinez can.

I've never seen him play well so it's hard to trust Martinez on this one. Everytime I've seen him play, he has looked really poor.

Lots of players have poor seasons and Man Utd have had shedloads of players who have been in and out of their team but played regularly for others. This includes Cleverley, Hernandez, Young, Nani, Welbeck, Smalling, Evans etc. The same can be said of other top teams with big squads.

I would rather we went for those type of players than discards from lower teams. Perhaps Mr Martinez has a few surprise gems awaiting in the wings. I am sure that he has already earmarked the players he covets. Let us just see what fish he is able to net as he seems a decent angler!

Roberto has said that he aims to get in 7-8 extra players to allow us to compete in Europe and to cover the inevitable injuries. I wouldn't expect all of them to be better than what we already have, just more numbers of similar quality. If we can get Cleverly at a sensible price, I see him as fitting this criteria.

Relax lads.

Trust and back Roberto’s judgement.

Can't be all that bad if he regularly gets in the England squad!!

Ooops, I forgot. He plays for Manchester United!!

I work with a few Mancs. They tell me he is awful and would drive him to Goodison Park themselves.

I think he'd be a good signing. Roberto can get more out of players than most managers out there and he'd fit the bill in terms of age and at £6M price, too.

We've had "cast-offs" in the past like Arteta, Pienaar, Howard, Kanchelskis etc, who've all done well for us.

If we can take advantage of Man Utd's instability and poach some players who can improve our squad for a good price, then why not? Agent Moyes strikes again!

I've watched this lad many times. Wigan and Watford if I remember correctly. I thought he was a very good prospect. I think under Bobby this boy will become a cracker.

I don't pay much attention to the rumours but I don't like to see "Sky Sports Understands":

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11671/9322553/transfer-news-manchester-united-interested-in-everton-midfielder-james-mccarthy

Shane, I too get pissed off reading all that crap, but I can't understand, if we ARE supposed to be offering new contracts to Seamus, McCarthy, Stones etc., why it should take so long. Why it's not a case of "Here, Seamus, a cracking new contract, sign here."

We are supposed to have been offering these upgraded contacts for a few months now, is Bill waiting to see just how much he can cream for them or what? Get on with it, before the "Too good to refuse" offer comes along. I still wake up crying from Alan Ball's departure.

The laziest of journalism. McCarthy is clearly Martinez's man and will not be leaving Goodison any time in the near future unless a quite preposterous offer is made which I think is highly unlikely.

If we can get Cleverly for £6m meanwhile, I think that would prove tremendous value as he is at a low ebb right now but is capable of much better than his form last season suggests.

Interesting thread, never seen so many people get excited about Tom Cleverley.... which kind of says it all.

I agree with the general theme of trust RM in these things, as long as it is the RM who brought in McCarthy, Barry, Deulofeu and Lukaku. If it is the RM who brought in Robles, Alcaraz and Kone I am more nervous.