Everton eye move for Maloney

No thanks. Better off sticking with Pienaar and bringing Larsson and Colbeck on frees from Sunderland.

Well he is not going to take us to the next level, but he would add a little depth. Not for more than £1m for me though.

Hope he tackles well. We need ball winners in the middle as well as playmakers. Having good depth is what it’s all about.

No more Wigan players please.

We could always rebuild the team that went down but 2 years older!!

We need quality more than quantity now that Lukaku, Barry and Delefeu have gone.

Jay,

I remember Neville Southall’s best ever game was playing for Wales against (I think) Italy and they were beat 5-1. The Italians thought he was outstanding as it should have been 15-1.

James McCarthy came from Wigan, Roubles and Alcaraz were always cover and Kone can’t be judged yet. Just don’t buy any injured players from Wigan.

Would like to see us get Leroy Fer from Norwich if possible.
He could partner McCarthy in midfield

£800k is the amount I saw posited by some website. If it really is that amount, then he would cost about as much as Vellios and be a lot more useful I should imagine.

I would love an early signing to set the tone. Maybe Barry or Colback on a freebie...

Really don’t see what Maloney would add to us apart from another player on the wage bill. We already have 5 attacking midfielders in the squad even after taking Delboy out - if we’re going to add another I would have hoped for a lot more quality.

If we’re looking to beef up the squad a bit in that position, I’d much rather see us bring in an untried hungry young player with potential, rather than a relatively average player who’s going to turn 32 next season. He may ’only’ cost about £1m but he’ll also be on at least £25-30k/week in wages on top. Could use that on a promising young player instead.

I would like to either see some ’magic’ brought into the AM role or an untried youngster, not another McFadden.... We need someone who’ll get you out of your seat and bring some excitement. Sadly I really cannot see Maloney doing that..

Then again... whatever Roberto wants....

I’ve always liked Maloney; if Roberto is going for him, I’m okay with it. Unfortunately, to me, it says, as suspected, Bill and the board aren’t going to open their wallets.

Mike #129 thats never a surprise from the biggest mingebag and worst chairman in the club’s history.

Fortunately for us and again no thanks to the BK and his hangers on I’m hoping Martinez’s wide ranging contacts within football can unearth a few loans to keep us going again, god knows the board certainly wont.

The only Wigan player we should be looking at is McManaman.

Maloney is a decent player and for that price would be a bargain. Macca would be a better option but I’d still prefer Redmond.

I’d like to think Roberto would be looking a bit further afield than his old stomping ground in this summer’s window. Let’s face it, apart from McCarthy, his other Wigan buys have hardly impressed, have they?

Then, they were relegated, weren’t they?

I would prefer RM to look at some younger options.... and, like Colin (138) and Paul (103), I think Redmond and Fer will be good signings. I remember thinking at the time that Norwich had signed the bargains of season with a combined fee of £7 million for Fer and Redmond.

Both players didn’t impress as much as I thought they would but I think under the guidance of Martinez both could shine. Only draw-back is, Norwich will be probably wanting more than £7 million.

What’s this obsession with Leroy Fer? He stunk the gaff out for Norwich last season and, for the money he cost, I counted my lucky stars that we ended up with McCarthy.

No thanks to Leroy Fer, he is not going to take us to the next level either. I’m glad we didn’t get him in all honesty, vastly overrated.

On another note, Belgium win again and are looking good, they could win the World Cup for me with the players they have, not saying they will but they look good.

Leroy Fer? No thanks. He has found his level now in the Championship. I took an interest in how he performed at Norwich and thank fuck his knee was acting up, allegedly.

Kone and Alcaraz have been injured so it’s a bit unfair to judge them on that.

As for Maloney, if the manager sees fit to sign him, then I think I will go with Martinez’s judgement than my own or others.

A 31-year-old ex-Wigan winger to replace Delboy... The stringz are tight but I think we could try harder here. To bolster the ranks I suppose but even then I just see him screwing up McGeady’s playing time.

Someone else mentioned it here already but I am still a fan of Leroy Fer. He’s obviously not injured and from what I saw at Norwich he has some skill and definitely some guts.

No-brainer as a squad player. I’ve been surprised that more Wigan players such as Maloney & McManaman haven’t been signed by other clubs before now, they’re both PL players for me. Maloney has a touch of class about him, & would be a handy player to have on call.

Whatever, I don’t think we’ll be in market to sign Messi or Ronaldo, do you!

A big no thanks. Too old and not good enough for the level we are trying to get to.

Do we seriously expect to get into the top 4 with signings like this?! Redmond I would take in a heartbeat and that is the age we should be looking at — not the over-30 ex-Wigan brigade.

Swansea have just bagged another gem of a forward in Castaignos for £6.5m. We need to pull the finger out!

Fer and Redmond?

Players from a team that got relegated?

Have you lost your mind?

Enough of the Wigan rejects already.

A decent player, but, as been mentioned a few times; he's no spring chicken. You shouldn't worry too much though. Although he's the right age for a Roberto transfer, there's not much chance RM will make an offer.....he's not injured.

Just an observation of a trend, that I hope doesn't extend into this window.

Lack of imagination on here. Maloney would not be signed as a player to take us to the next level or even to be in the first XI necessarily but rather as a very experienced and handy squad player for what will hopefully be a long and full season.

There aren't many youngsters in his position ready to step up (the likes of Green and Kennedy will need another couple of years) and £800k plus £25k a week is peanuts for a decent if not spectacular Premier League performer.

We need to bulk up the squad a bit as well as buy players to push the first team forward. For me he falls into the former category and is very affordable plus the gaffer knows him well. The likes of Fer and Redmond would likely cost 7 times as much at least.

Seven times as much, Sam, but won't need replacing in two years time.

He would be a very good squad player and cost next to nothing. It's a no-brainer for me and some people seem to have no imagination – and who has RM signed who was crocked??

Raymond Fox - your admiration of all these PL standard Wigan players seems to overlook that they were in a team that got relegated.

Who are you blaming for that relegation? Surely not their manager at the time !

I'm not too concerned who Bobby wants as I trust he knows what he needs. My biggest worry is that we miss out on some players because Bill won't pay the wages until the last minute, or Bobby's World Cup media commitments hinder negotiations.

Castaignos is anything but a gem. Price will be about right for a striker that will get maximum 10 PL goals a season.

How many of our strikers got 10 goals though rob? None. West Ham have also got Zarate on a free and look like they are getting Vossen too. Both capable of goals for little money.

He's not the sort of quality I like us being linked to. Please let it be a rumour and nothing else.

These rumors to me enforce the type of players that Blue Bill is willing to provide funds for. We have a core of youth players that should be used rather than Wigan cast offs.

Sam 187 - I don't think people are having a lack of imagination as such.....its more a case of we have 5 AMs already (not including Naismith btw) so if we want another AM we'd ideally get someone with a touch of real class about him rather than someone just to 'push the first team' players and beef up the squad - we already have Pienaar, Osman and McGeady for that - at least I hope Pienaar, Osman and McGeady will be the ones pushing Mirallas, Barkley, + a new buy for the 3 first choice AM places next season....

Personally I feel we have enough 'bodies' for the AM places but not the required quality for the level we're aiming for (i.e. to open up defences with that final ball and score some goals). Maloney for that price would be a no brainer......if we didn't already have Pienaar, Osman and McGeady....its buying someone who wont really add any 'magic' (not to mention the fact he'll be 32 next season).

Rumours may be bollocks anyway.

Denis 222, the trouble is that 5 AMCs isn't that many when we play 3 in our formation and will hopefully be playing 2 games a week quite a lot. It only takes an injury or two and we look light in that area. I agree with the hope that we also add a higher quality AMC to feature heavily in the first team but given you want 2-3 players to cover every position I would say 7 AMCs to cover 3 is about right and Maloney can play in any if those 3 with some talent, for little cost and act as a solid back up.

James, that doesn't mean we should be satisfied with buying a striker not good enough to score more than 10 goals.
I thought we wanted to look up and improve? Would we be happier signing a very average striker in June instead of waiting for a better striker in July, early (or probably late) August?

There's no point in spending money early and getting stuck with an average striker to take the place in the team of anyone else. If needed, I would be very, very confident that both Kone and Naismith are capable of scoring more goals given the same minutes on the pitch as Castaignos. And those two won't cost us anything, leaving the fee for Castaignos in the bank which can partly fund a top striker if and when we can find one.

Last summer there were people on here calling out for Luuk de Jong and he managed half a season each with top flight clubs in Germany and England without scoring a single goal. Good strikers cost money and there have been an awful lot found wanting by the Premier League.

Maloney, Fer, Redmond, McManaman... are we trying to build a team to keep us in the Premier League or do we want a team to get us in the top four? None of those four are good enough for the Blues; we will be going backwards buying them.

Malcolm, yes Wigan were relegated on the last game of the season mainly in my eyes because they were otherwise engaged in winning the FA cup.
Even so it doesn't follow that all Wigan players are lacking quality, I seem to remember them giving us a tonking at home the like of which I've not seen before.

As Sam has also said we wouldn't be sticking Maloney in our 1st team line up, I see him as chiefly a Europa player.

As for as buying players to get into the top 4, were then talking serious money, which is in short supply at Everton!

We as fans can't have it both ways, the top clubs are apparently embarking on a spending spree reportedly Arsenal £100m, Man United £220m whilst the others will spend as much as is necessary to boost their squads.

It is frustrating and it is not an ideal situation but it is the reality that Everton have faced for almost the entire Premier League era.

Everton will have to do the usual wheeling and dealing to bring extra bodies in to fight on four fronts. The fact that it doesn't look like we will lose any of our better talents means that we will have something to build on and the main area we need to bolster is the striking position.

If we manage to keep our better players due to increased salaries it won't leave a bundle of cash over to buy new players so it's going to have to be players that Roberto can trust to perform as and when he needs them and a couple of promising youngsters who will hopefully fulfill their potential whilst at Everton.

Hopefully those players who contributed little last season or had their season curtailed due to injury will be raring to go in the coming season. Kone, Gibson and Oviedo can if 100% fit be useful players for the Blues and if a couple of youngsters such as Garbutt can make the step up then that will also help.

Cheer up there's only another 3 months of the transfer window to go but I don't believe we will see many headline grabbing moves at Goodison this season much the same as any of the last dozen or so seasons.

Patrick
As you rightly say that clubs in and around us will be spending big money in the summer transfer window. I think it will be very difficult for us to be able to finish as high as this season, and on our limited budjet how do we replace Barry and Lukaku and to a lesser extent Deulofeu.

There was some speculation at the end of the season that if Lukaku went as now seems likely we would probably move for either Bony or Remy. But if either play well in the upcoming World Cup they will also be out of our price range. My other worry is with many of our rivals threatening to spend big I would not be surprised if bids for Barkley,Coleman and Stones come flooding in. I think if we thought last years summer window was worrying I think this one may be more so.

After reading today's quotes by Lukaku it appears all hope on that front is lost. He called Jose a good coach so it appears he's ready to kiss Moanlot's butt. You can't blame him because obviously Chelsea can pay him weekly wages that nobody but City can match.

Some clubs may be spending hundreds of millions, but with the new TV deal, all premier league clubs are now quite rich compared to foreign clubs.

We can pay a lot more in wages than many italian, dutch, french and spanish clubs....and that means there are a lot of players to choose from. Anyone we buy from a premier league rival is going to be appropriately overpriced, but anyone from a foreign league is probably more affordable than ever.

I would be worried if this was anything more than paper-talk. We need people to take us into the top 4 and I don't think Maloney is one of them.

Last year we were linked with Fernando of Porto. He looks like he's going to City, but that is the kind of player who will improve us. The only player I'd have from wigan is McManaman, and I suspect Whelan might want a fortune. Better value abroad.

Don't buy anymore ex Wigan players cos they got relegated, let's buy Norwich players instead.....

Sam 225 - understand where you're coming from but we actually already have 2 per position for the AMC roles if you factor in Naismith and a (hopefully) exciting replacment for Delboy. Also it'll be interesting to see where Oviedo fits in next season on a regular basis as I think he could also do a job as one of the AMs if Baines is playing LB.

I won't cry if we get Maloney but I won't exactly be overwhelmed either. I cannot see him being a regular starter so would rather spend the money on someone who might turn into something special (or special obviously) - if he does come in I hope he's not the replacement for Delboys position.

One of the weaker points from last season was our lack of creativity and goals from midfield, just cannot see Maloney being the answer to this......anyway, probably bollocks.

Let's face it, we are likely to lose two players of real quality in Barry and Lukaku yet the talk is of replacing them with Wigan's cast -offs !

Now that's fine if ambition is limited to a top half place but to echo last season's finish, we have to replace like for like. But has BK the balls to spend the money to do so?

That's all it is though Malcolm, talk.

It's too easy to link us with Wigan players. I wouldn't worry about who we're supposedly getting in. They're very often wrong.

Malcolm - where is this money coming from? Like you I want Everton to compete in the top end of the market but it's impossible - so we have to deal in the second-tier of players or lower and hope we grab a bargain - It's always been like that, it will continue to be like that for the foreseeable future.

Ridiculous to keep pretending that Everton is poverty stricken, Patrick. All Prem clubs have had a massive uplift in their incomes. Our income is in the top half dozen in the league and our signings should reflect this.

Is it really Malcolm? In relation to our major competitors then we are poverty stricken - when did we last splurge £20m on an unproven midfielder or £35m on a forward or £20m on a Goalkeeper because as we keep being compared to our neighbours they are the sort of figure that they have spent in the last few years and that is only a fraction. We might splurge circa £15m on a single buy but it will cost us one of our prized assets before it happens - so yes we are poverty stricken. Not my fault but that's the way it is.

Partick 289 - to be fair I also don't think you can call us poor now. We will never have as much money as the likes of Chelsea, Man City and Man Utd but, compared to leagues throughout Europe, we're one of the richest given the massive TV payout recently. Last season, we were somewhere around the top 30 richest clubs in the world; with the 70% increase in TV money for Premier League clubs, we'll probably now be around the top 20.

Including the profit on player sales from last summer, we must have at least £30-40m available to spend this summer. That is obviously not in the same park as the billionaire owned clubs but if spent wisely (and am trusting Roberto here) should hopefully mean we can bring in 2-3 high quality players from the continent. The likes of Benteke, Ba, Remi and Michu all cost less than £10m each when they were first signed, so here's hoping.

Will keep this short in terms of "past it", "too old"... all I will say is Andy Gray, enough said.

Patrick (289), we are not rich in terms of our Premier League peers, but we are rich in terms of most foreign clubs.

£5M or £10M buys a better quality of player if you shop in Greece, Turkey, Italy, Spain, France, Holland, Belgium, than it does if you're looking for someone from a PL rival.

We'll never be spending £30M on a player like Man Utd or Chelsea or Man City, but that doesn't mean that we have to buy players like Maloney. There is a middle ground.

Okay, for months now, it's been "not for me", "no thanks", "too old" etc. So for a little bit of lightheartedness, let's say all our expertise was listened to and none of the following happened because the football club listened to us instead.

Kendall out; we insist Kendall goes – why are we buying a goalkeeper from Bury? An ex-binman and not played at the top level, you have to be joking... Peter Reid? he's too old, big risk with his previous injury.

Kevin Sheedy and Alan Harper?? No thanks, they cannot even get in our rival's first team.

Andy Gray??? Our club are better than a player past his best; no thanks.

Trevor Steven? He might be okay at lower-level Burnley but no thank you.

Peter Beardsley? Another Reds reject, no thanks.

Tim Cahill? He's not Premier League material, no thanks.

Arteta, can't even cut it at Rangers, not for me.

Tim Howard, cannot even get into the Man Utd team, better goalies out there.

Jagielka, no thanks he was relegated with Sheff Utd.

What are Everton playing at, letting Fellaini go for £27 million and buying McCarthy? Way over-priced at £13 million.

Gareth Barry? Too slow, no thank you.

So the point I am making is never dismiss a player for being too old or from a lower team, until they give us cause to after they have played for the club.

Every player deserves a chance, let's still have opinions but don't slate a player before he's even kicked a ball for us.

He's been good so far, has Roberto; let's trust his judgement in a player.

Brave of you to admit you were wrong on all those, Brian. Have you thought of taking up scouting?

Brian, most of those were over 20 years ago. The game has moved on dramatically both technically and physically. The top 4 of the Premier League is light years away from the majority of Championship players.

There is only one explanation for why Wigan flirted with and were ultimately relegated. The players were not good enough. Now, while McCarthy (young and upcoming) has been a success, it is fair to say the jury is still out on Robles, Alcatraz and Kone – let alone a 32-year-old Maloney.

We need to replace Lukaku, Barry and Deulofeu with equally good or better players just to stand still.

Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Man Utd, Stoke City, Swansea City, Tottenham are the only clubs out of the 46 who have managed to avoid being relegated.

Seeing as Wigan are a club who only entered the Football League in 1978 and have hardly been at the forefront of English Football, it is hardly surprising that they were relegated.

Isn't it about time that those who don't see Martinez as the solution to Everton's problems find something more original to beat the guy with? You've all made your point Bobby Dazzler was in charge of a relegated club and yes he has signed some players from his former employees – get over it!!!

Brian's point is a very valid one, no matter how many years back his examples are from. We are all only interested amateurs who have no idea of what happens behind the scenes that is why the clubs pay big money for managers to make decisions or get the best out of any given scenario, else they would just put everything to a vote on the internet.

Fabregas, top four ambition. Maloney, top 10 ambition....

That said, I'll put this one down to rumour and I trust what Bobby is doing.

Jay Harris (424)

"We need to replace Lukaku, Barry and Deulofeu with equally good or better players just to stand still."

Spot on.

Jay, yes a lot were over 20 years ago, but back then Everton gambled and it paid off big time and I'm pretty certain even back then, allowing Kendall more time, signing Reid, Gray, Harper and Sheedy would have been scoffed at by some Blues... Even up to last season people questioned Barry's speed and age, McCarthy coming from Wigan.

The top four can pay millions for players, sadly the once Mersey Millionaires cannot... and so we have to have faith in our manager in bringing in players he has belief in.

I honestly believe some just cannot be pleased on here, if we had a billionaire and bought Messi, some would say nah too small for me, Cristian Ronaldo nah too many step overs for my liking, because no matter who our club get linked with, some experts on here have already decided they know everything about the player and not good enough for Everton.

Most is lazy paper talk; let's just see who Bobby brings in then give the player a chance before we condemn the player.

Every time I see something like this I can't help but think, "Kenwright, why don't you just fuck off?"

By PL standards Maloney is a fringe player, kind of not bad not good tricky on the ball without being exceptional. He can provide temporary injury cover and that is a sum total of his contribution.

When he first appeared on the scene, he showed glimpses of star quality but it never materialized. Perhaps his progress was cut short when early in his career he suffered a cruciate ligament injury. After that setback, he never quite fulfilled his potential.

In light of our revitalized optimism, it is disappointing that Roberto should consider Shaun a suitable as even as a stop gap. I thought we were at a different level but apparently not.

No no no and no again. Maloney wouldn't be considered by any team in the top eight from last season except us. FFS where the ambition gone? This has Billy written all over it.

Just to stay still we will need to replace Lukaku, Barry and Deulofeu with even more quality as Man Utd and Spurs will be spending decent money this summer. Maloney... FFS — do me a favour, he has found his level in the Championship.

God help some should we should sign grandad Barry then if age is a problem

There are people who will come on here and be negative about any potential signing, most of it is ridiculous and I agree with the gist of Brian's post. You can find something to not like about anyone, there is no perfect player out there, and if there were we wouldn't be able to afford them.

What matters is can the player add something to Everton, and are they of an age where we can view their signing as a positive long term step, as we can realistically expect them to develop and become better players in their time with us?

In the case of players like Rodwell, Cleverly, Welbeck, Nathan Redmond and many others who have been rejected out of hand on this website, I think the answer is yes, and we would do well to sign any of them.

In the case of Shaun Maloney I think the answer is no.

On a more general point, some posters seem to be suggesting that a player who suffers relegation must automatically be ruled out, this is so self-evidently ridiculous its hard to actually put forward a simple argument to refute it until you know their reasoning. Surely it can't be as simple as "relegated teams aren't very good so every single individual in them, even the 21 year old wingers, can't be any good". Is it?

Who do these people think we should be signing? Many of them are the same people who think we shouldn't sign anyone from teams above us if that player couldn't get into their team on a regular basis ("if he's not good enough for them, he's not good enough for us" is a favourite line). We also can't sign anyone who's ever had a run of bad form, even if played out of position. And of course if anyone has ever suffered an injury then they're no good to us.

It seems we can only sign top class experienced internationals who have been in form all season and aren't too old. But we don't want Lukaku because his first touch isn't good enough.

Good luck recruiting guys, any suggestions?

There is something to be said for signing players with a sell-on value. At least in such cases we could recover or make a profit if things do not work out for the best.

Old geezers usually carry injuries they manage to disguise until their final pay day contract is signed.