Martinez quashes Eto'o speculation

He may have drifted lately in terms of performance but heÂ’s still had and hopefully will have a say in helping the team out.

IÂ’d keep him on until the summer.

We have had time to consider options and we undoubtedly need a top quality keeper to replace TH in the medium to long term so I would have expected more urgency than "If we donÂ’t find someone we will have to hope that youth develops a bit quicker".

At least Gibson is getting pre-season training - more than the rest of the squad got!!

Surely not ?

TH was supposed to be out for 4-6 weeks... 2 weeks ago. Now we're told he won't be back for another 5-7 weeks. So basically the guy's out until March. That suddenly makes getting another GK a higher priority than getting a decent winger. However, I'd look to bring in an old experienced GK who's kicking his heals on a bench somewhere (Friedal from Spurs?) and wait until the summer to get a proper long term replacement for TH.

Given Robles a proper chance to stake a claim and use the £50k/week to get a decent winger in this month.

Still its a valid point. It's a waste of a space in the squad and gives us nothing. He's been injured for so long now that if he hasn't made a meaningful recovery by the end of the season, I agree, the club should look to just reach a deal and move on. Even if his wages are insured for injury, it prevents the manager from signing someone else who'll contribute.

Everton in their wisdom however gave him a looooonnngggg contract when he arrived and it's still got another season after this one to run. Apparently he's made just 9 appearances since August 2013 and a total of 50 in the 3 seasons he's been with us so far....

It's beyond a joke now although I'd love to have a fit Gibson in our MF.

Distin, Alcaraz and Gibson should all be moved off the wage bill come the summer.

Roberto has got to do done serious squad pruning in the summer and I wouldn't be to bothered to see the back of Gibson, Alcaraz, Pienaar, Distin, Eto'o, Atsu which would cut the wage bill by around £200,000 per week.

Martinez will then have one less square peg to shoehorn into a round hole. He has been a world class player, has being the oppropriate word. Let him go and use the saved wages assist in buying Marshall and hopefully Delboy.

As a result of the expected poor league finish, the club will earn around 5-10 million less relative to last season. Also the lack of European football next season will add a further 10-12 million to the deficit. The only way the club can make up the 15-22 million loss is to sell a player or 2.

We need all the help we can get this season, thanks to RM's failure to address our defensive issues and an older, cool head can only be a good thing, even if it's only in the form of helping to hold the ball up if we need to close a game out, or in terms of his behind the scenes support to the aforementioned younger squad members who must benefit from being around a player of his stature in the game.

So long as he is played as a forward, he must stay.

Maybe if he played in his correct position, we wouldn't all be worried about him leaving us!

All the games I have seen him in on tv he usually pops up with a goal inside the goal area and not often from long range. He is the type of player that with his close control inside the area make defenders nervous about tackling and his positional sense inside the area is something that just comes natural.

He may be past his best but he is still the best in his position at the club. I just wish that Martinez would not continue to play players in their wrong positions just to justify him bringing them to the club.