Report: Everton in talks with Cleverley

Another sideways backward player who always looks for the safe pass, possibly the last thing we need. But looking at RMs style with Besic,Barry and now possibly Cleverley who would want to play up front waiting for any of these to play a forward pass.

Cleverley has talent and a lot to prove, as well as having played in a variety of midfield roles in different formations. This also looks like it’s more than just a silly season rumour, so the idea that Evertonians would be getting on a player’s back at the first opportunity with a nasty ’told-you-so’ type attitude really worries me.

More bogeymen under the bed...

I’d be doing my nut if I thought we were wasting another £7 million on a relatively uninspiring central midfielder but as people say, for free he’s a England international (not that it actually means much these day’s) and it’s always possible he could find form, when you consider our midfield is hardly dynamic at present.

I say just get it done and dusted as soon as possible one way or another, let’s not have it drag on like the Gareth Barry saga last summer.

All I will say though is I hope this isn’t the "creative Number 10" that Martinez has been talking about.

For what it’s worth, I’d rather we not sign him either. Maybe Ross is leaving?

I’m sure RM was praised for having access to the Spanish market but that doesn’t seem to be happening? There must be good players to be had in Holland, Portugal etc. We can’t go shopping in Harrods therefore need to be looking for bargains in Lidls!

Conclude this one asap, Roberto.

Having been brought down to earth with a massive bang suddenly the love affair is back on.

’Free’ is promoting a youngster to the first team - and even then you’d probably have to increase his wage.

In fact, it’s likely that the wages will be higher with a Bosman - exactly because there is no transfer fee.

Then we’ll wonder in a years time why we can’t shell out £3million on a prospect - it’s because Clevz is raking in enough to use up a senior wage slot and then some.

I hope we get him, on a free? Phenomenal bit of business.
Hopefully he is the ’plus maybe one more’.

His birds fit into what?

(Didn’t even know he kept birds.)

I think it’s an often overlooked plus.

I haven’t seen enough of him to pass judgement but I do wonder how Martinez sees all these central players fitting in.

I mean we’re not in Europe next year and he seems to play Barry every week so when do they all play, and that’s even allowing for Gibson only playing maybe a quarter of the season.

I’m not sure where Martinez’s scouts are in Spain really, since the promising early capture of Gerard Deulofeu we have done nothing there.

It's worth remembering though that Martinez has basically lived and worked in Britain, mainly Northern England, since 1995 so should he really have that much knowledge of the continent?

Most of Martinez’s forays into Europe have been a letdown thus far.

I’m amazed we never get any technically gifted South American players here at Everton, like Chilean’s etc..
Nothing on the Stracq but even though he was a trier he made Brian Deane look like Pele.

We need better scouts all over.

I haven’t seen enough of him to jump on the ’Cleverley is crap’ bandwagon though...

In my humble opinion, Cleverly is just not good enough, he certainly wont improve us, especially if, as some think, he is coming to replace McCarthy. When we got hammered by Villa the other week and a lot of people were saying how great Cleverly and Grealish were. I did state at the time that playing against us is no barometer to how good a player is. On Saturday against a proper team they were showed up to be exactly what they are... average. He is certainly no better than anything we have so with money being scarce I wouldn’t want to waste any on Cleverly.

Like others, I would like to see us take a punt on some unknown, although as others have alluded to, our scouting network seems to have dried up.

And as for comparing Cleverly with Arteta and Pienaar......FFS....really????

Shouldnt be relied on for goals but not according to others on TW
Barkley
Lennon - ok, a winger and didn’t probably play as many as Cleverley so maybe not the best comparison
Osman
McGeady
Barry

Granted not all are/have been renowned for their goalscoring exploits and I’m no way saying 3 goals a season for a midfielder is acceptable but interesting non the less

His signings have been total shit or overpaid for. He is rapidly turning us into Wigan which appears to be his level. He wouldn’t know a top 4 player if it stared him in the face.

I got the the impression he wanted to come here last summer, so at least there’ll be one player who wants to play for Martinez!

I’ll judge him on what he does on the pitch. If Martinez plays him put of position in an unbalanced team, he’s got no chance.

Then of course there was the work permit for a certain Ever Banega about 6 year’s ago, who actually has turned out as a pretty decent player from what I see.

Who can forget Muller and that woefully ill-advised red blazer??

Jo... the less said the better.

I recall a guy named Rodrigo, who Moyes brought here on loan in his first year, he looked pretty decent until as per usual he suffered a season ending injury in August.

Can anyone remember any others?

I’d love to think we could find a new technician playmaker from that part of the world as they seem to possess a similar hunger, workrate and love of just playing football as British players only much more supremely gifted.

Just found that Riquelme was at Villarreal at that time he was "seen at Speke Airport"...

So maybe he was.

Are any of the other top six sides (who we are expected to be competing with) picking up a large percentage of their squad on free, or nominal fee signings?

Osman, Pienaar, Hibbert, Alcaraz, Distin and Howard are all either going, or on their way out. Most of them will be replaced with free agents, or players out of favour elsewhere.

The manager may not want these players if he had a choice, but let’s give a free pass to the bunch of incompetent fools who have led us to stagnation on an epic scale? No wonder Kenwright, Woods, Earl & Green are laughing.

Less said the better though...

He was Ecuadorian, yes, and the goal was against Standard Liege , a cracking volley in an eventually doomed draw.

A bit of a non-entity other than that.

Just uninspiring, middle of the road. Those signings wouldn’t add any quality or excitement to the squad. Don’t get me wrong Lennon did well, but would I pay £6-8m for him? No.

As for Cleverley, in the Cup final he was awful and was essentially a safe crab, something RM obviously likes.

In my view, Cleverly is a decent enough player who, in the right environment and circumstances might just have much more to offer. We are not talking about a huge risk here.

It is noticeable that our only good foreign lads were bought by Moyes – Cahill, Pienaar, Arteta – I’d say Dacourt was the only decent one before them.

I’d possibly add Materazzi to the successes, maybe not at Everton but he certainly made good winning the World Cup in 2006; he was classy but nobody stayed long at Everton in the late 90s.

I’d most definitely include Kanchelskis as a major success, even though again it was short-lived; we saw the best of him and sold him for a profit.

Limpar?? Yes, because he played a huge part winning the 1995 FA Cup.

On a free, a young midfielder with a dozen international caps, and a player that Sir Alex considered so shite, he played him in over 30 games during his final season in charge?

But yeah, he’s shite because, well he just is, and because he played a few games for Wigan, and because we’re Everton and we should be signing a squad of world beaters for £30m a pop.

Reality check needed for some I think.

’Of all the thousands of Brazilians in world football, we signed the only one who can’t dribble.’

Forgot about them, Jim. Areed, Materazzi could have been good had he stayed and of course the two wingers were very good on their day.

I remember watching Li Tie on his home debut and he looked class but then quickly went downhill. Radzinski was another who didn’t do badly (we can go on all night with this!!) and I thought Pistone was a good player when he was fully fit (but wasn’t very often).

It seems that Martinez at Swansea, Wigan and Everton, Brenda across the park and Sherwood at Villa, have all found out that it is essential to surround yourself with people you can trust, and that includes players. Alcaraz, Kone and McGeady may not be the best in the world but, unlike one or two team-mates, they never down tools. McCarthy will run till he drops. So will Besic. So too, I suspect, will Cleverley.

Martinez has suffered heavy defeats. Brenda and Sherwood have now had a taste of it. Players with big reputations dropping their shoulders and giving up. Players who are not proud of the shirt. "If only players came with their character stamped on the forehead", mused Big Sam after his team took a walloping.

So, with this in mind, I’m prepared to let Martinez get on with it whilst realizing some acquisitions are not wholly his idea. The Lukaku investment scenario had "upstairs" written all over it and Martinez has never attempted to give the lad the kind of service he thrives on. In Europe perhaps but not in the League. Strange days indeed.

The lad's biggest hindrance has been over expectations on his shoulders. After Alex Ferguson's comments in regards to him being potentially England's best midfielder, the Old Trafford faithful were expecting a new Beckham, Ronaldo etc. He's not that type of player.

Add to that the decline in Man Utd's fortunes, the fans did what they do at all clubs all over the world. He became a scapegoat. Then more people who’ve not really watched him play jump on the bandwagon, which resulted in the ridiculous petition for the World Cup squad.

If we do sign the lad, give him a chance. You may end up pleasantly surprised.

I’d class the likes of Valente, Bilyaletdinov, Van Der Meyde, Royston "Red Bull" Drenthe all in the category of "what might have been".

They all had sublime talent or were at the wrong stage of their careers when at Everton and if they had shown their best, then we could have had a mighty decent side.

The thing that all these players lack though is goals. That’s the trick. If Martinez can bring in someone who can score or create a lot of goals, then we’ll have something to get excited about. What is Riquelme doing these days?

As for ’his running off the ball’, we’ve got quite enough of those experts, thank you!

We’re a mid-table club with ideas above our station because we were quite good 30 years ago. People need to realise it and stop torturing themselves with ’yer istory’.

Everton are not a big club anymore, those days are long gone, the ship has sailed, start bailing.

I have seen him many times and he is just average with no pace. I saw him do nothing in the Cup Final on Saturday.

Gibson is a much better player when he’s fit as is Pienaar. Wouldn’t begin to compare him to Besic, McCarthy or Barkley.

"On 12 October 2012, playing against San Marino in a World Cup qualifier, Cleverley made 165 touches during the game, the highest ever recorded for an England player".

Martinez would sign him on that stat alone!

He’s not Lampard but neither has anyone in our team for the last 15 years been. He is not far short of being very good and, with our coach’s record of improving players, I think ...err ... Our new coach at Christmas will get the best from him.

Do you reckon we could have a midfield five at some point of : Cleverley (left) Besic (right) Barry, McCarthey and Gibson in the middle?

When will we sign a player that I haven’t heard of? Surely with all the dosh we spend on scouting, we should be picking up a few unheard of gems.

I hate Martinez after last season, but he is our manager. He doesn’t have the funds like the Redshite to waste.

So, if we do get Tom Cleverley, give the lad a chance. Who knows... Martinez could be the genius some believe he is.

We have had, for a number of years, a squad that is too small to compete on all fronts. Hence last season we struggled with the Europa League games, and bombed out of the domestic cups somewhat earlier than we would’ve liked.

It’s a fine balance, having a big squad and rotating some players. We’re also losing some at the end of their contracts, and have a couple of perma-crocks, plus some who aren’t getting younger and will need replacing.

If Cleverly’s the only main signing, I’d be worried. But if he’s one of several; no biggie.

My only concern is him being one of the ’3 or 4’ we are intending to sign... I believed it to be CB, two wingers and a ’Number 10’. He doesn’t fit any of those areas.

Personally, I would bring him in and sell Gibson; as much as I rate him, he costs much more per available game than Cleverley would. But we still need those ’3 or 4’ as well.... (plus a keeper & striker – but don’t get me started).

Some say that he’s no improvement to what we have. Well, we at least need bodies and back-ups (Barry won’t last too much longer).

Like McGeady, we probably won’t be spending too much, and if it doesn’t work out, the transfer kitty is not too affected.

Some would argue that with free transfers, there is a the hidden signing on fees and higher wages. Well, that’s part of the package for everyone who’s a free agent.

Looking at the amount of stick that Lukaku is taking (many arguing that we blew the whole transfer budget on one player), it will be better off for everyone involved that nobody gets stuck with a huge transfer fee.

Unfortunately, for the big club that we are, we will be shopping for basement bargains for a good while more to come.

I say we go for it, and keep the gunpowder dry for other signings.

He’s no world beater and I don’t think he offers the creativity that we desperately need but he’s not a bad player and not significantly worse than Barry or maybe even McCarthy who we paid £13M for.

I have no problem bringing him in so long as we get other players who are going to actually push us forward and add some incision and movement in the final third.

I think Cleverley has been unlucky in the clubs and managers he has had. He was clearly developing well under Fergie and also Martinez. He was the scapegoat for Man Utd under Moyes and then played under Lambert at Villa who were one of the most negative and poorly set-up sides for most of the season. He started scoring under Sherwood who played a more attacking style at Villa and clearly he won Sherwood over.

I think he has to be worth a punt; if he doesn’t settle in after a season, move him on for half a million to a promoted side as he is still only young. I agree with others who say he is a replacement for Ossie.

Another bonus is that he stays fit having played 30 games for villa in a tough season so he is not another Gibbo or Kone.

I can’t help thinking that at least one of Gibson, McCarthy, Besic, Barry, Barkley or Pienaar will be leaving if Cleverley comes in. These players are all on longish contracts? Only McCarthy would be really in demand by other clubs from that list unless someone wants to take a chance on Ross.

We may be pleasantly surprised.

Will he excite us? No.

Should we sign him? No.

I just listened to Martinez on the Official Site. Said we had found all the people we would like to sign and, with no International summer tournaments, things should be more straightforward. Some will come in early, some will come very late.

He’s no spring chicken but he isn't mid to late thirties either. If it doesn’t work out, then we sell him for a small profit, à la Jermaine Beckford.

I love the way our club is run – it makes everything so dull and exciting all at the same time.

As I recall, Robles, Alcaraz, Kone and McCarthy (and about a dozen coaches and trainers) moved to Everton AFTER their club was relegated not BEFORE.

Of course, they did win that bloody cup we hear so much about. So that explains why the whole mob are here!

Nothing against Tom, but is this as good as it gets this summer?

Ross did it once in that dreadful game against Spurs the other week and gave Mirallas a golden chance that he wasted. It was the only time we remotely looked like scoring all match.

If Cleverley can do that, then welcome. If not, we are left with only Osman and Pienaar who can do it, but they are fast running out of time... or Ross, but Ross seems all confused when I see him play these days. Maybe he doesn’t get what Martinez is trying to do? Then again, I don’t either!

Cleverley does not play defence-splitting passes. I don’t just say that as a subjective thing: look at the stats. His proportion of key passes are not great, and he has managed 2 assists in 3 seasons of league football (67 starts). It’s a pathetic representation of his inability to play the deadly pass.

I’m completely with Karl – I claimed earlier in the season that Osman or Pienaar would improve us markedly because our style of football necessitates one or more creative midfielders. Having genuinely talented passers would make us look a lot less impotent than we have appeared. It’s Martinez's fault of course: why has he not brought in another creative presence? Or why has he continued to play in a certain way in the absence of those creative players?

I want Martinez gone, but I’m resigned to him getting a second chance. If he does not purchase a creative midfielder in the summer then that second chance should expire. Our whole style of play depends on it.

Every good football team in the world should have a creative midfielder. Chelsea have Fab and Hazard, Man City have Silva and Nasri, Arsenal have Ozil, Caz (and others) and Man Utd have Di Maria and Mata. Liverpool have Coutinho and Lallana, Spurs have Eriksen, Southampton have Tadic, Swansea have Sigurdsson and Stoke have Bojan (more attacking, but works as a creative spark).

The only team in the top 10 to not have one is Palace, and their game is based utterly around pace and power. They have also stuttered in several easy home games against Pardew because of that lack of creativity.

We need to find some, because it will not come from Barkley. Mirallas is our best bet, and he is too slow to find a pass and too direct. We need someone like Eriksen who can find a pass and dictate the speed of the play. He is also capable of playing from the left. We cannot rely on a 34-year-old and a 33-year-old with injury problems.

Cleverley and McCarthy could genuinely be a good enough midfield pairing to bring back the solidarity we missed this season with an ageing Barry, and it’s a partnership that could go on for years. Both are young, both are ambitious, and both want to play for Martinez.

I see this as a fantastic opportunity, and one that we should not let slip through our fingers. He’s on a FREE, for god’s sake!

Zero risk? No player is zero risk. Even if they play for nothing, the risk is that they are not good enough and we are risking losing points as a result, and actually that will cost you money as well in the League platings.

I confess that I don’t know too much about Cleverley, but what I do know is that when I watched us last season we were boring as hell to watch most of the time, seemingly content to pass it around near the halfway line going nowhere, and often then giving the ball away.

We need a midfield that will look to bring the ball forward. I watched very carefully at the Emirates in March to see how two supposedly similar passing teams did things and what differences there were. The difference was bleeding obvious : When we had the ball, we tried to keep it, but usually passed it sideways or backwards. After twenty passes we usually hadn’t moved forward at all. Arsenal, on the other hand, wanted to keep the ball, but were constantly looking for a forward pass, with off the ball runners aplenty.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s a mindset. The mindset comes from the Coach. He’s failed this season for the most part to get those players’ heads right.

I don’t want to watch us at present. I went to the Spurs game the other week because an old friend who has moved to New Zealand was over for a funeral and it seemed like a good idea t o kill two birds with one stone. But, I didn’t look forward to the match, and rightly so as it turned out as Spurs ran rings around us from the start to the end. And you know what? Every time they had the ball, they were looking to move it forward. Not lump it forward, maybe only a few yards at a time, whereas we seemed happy passing it around in our own half. At home as well.

It’s got to change.

The fact is, as some have mentioned, we are a team that hasn’t won anything since 1995. Go to South America and hardly anyone knows who Everton are, never heard of us, don’t matter what we did in the 1980’s. Football nowadays started 15 years ago, anything before that is ancient history, irrelevant.

We have, probably, about 15 million to spend. Our midfield has McCarthey, Besic, Barkley as the only decent players in their 20s. Then we have Osman, Pienaar and Barry in their mid 30s. We also have Gibson about 6/7 games a season. So we need another centre mid, but not so much that we want to waste our budget on one.

If we can get a decent defender for 4-6 million, then we can get our much needed no10 for 9-10. Add a loan and it’s what we can expect with our conditions.

Cleverly was a highly talented, probably over-hyped, young player who fell by the wayside. This is the type we need, someone who has potential but whose rep has fallen so we can actually sign them.

People site the cup final. Well, I guess that means we should sack off half our team for free following our cup final showing. And any scouts who saw Barkley this season wouldn’t offer more than 500k, and we should their hands off, no?

Villa were woeful, but apparently when their form improved Cleverly was an important player.

An exciting signing, no. But do all signings have to be exciting? He’s 25, he’s decent and has potential to be realized, he’s cheap and he’s not a crock.

Good one, now go get that 4-6 million defender and then we can get excited about the no10 we sign for 10millioj or so.

Just watched him play a FA Cup Final half hearted and is the reason I have come to this conclusion. I know Arsenal we’re to good for Villa, but I only really saw Delphi trying to stem the tide. Cleverly was happy to play one-twos going nowhere and never tried to hurt Arsenal once.

Technically sound, I’m just not sure he’s got enough desire. maybe Martinez could get him going properly. Who knows?

If he’s a defensive midfielder, then we don’t need him – we’ve got McCarthy, Barry, Besic, Gibson and Ledson for that position.

If he’s an attacking midfielder, we’ve got enough of them who can’t score already... and if we’re looking for someone who can unlock defenses, it’s not Cleverley.

I hope the lad signs for Villa, it would be a better fit for him and he’s probably wanted more by their fans.

Given Martinez’s rhetoric, are we happy to see Cleverley in in terms of squad priorities? Do you really believe the simplistic line of argument which sees Cleverley is risk free because he is free?

My priorities this season would be: CB, creative midfielder, Winger, Cb, striker. In view of Martinez’s rhetoric, I think that giving wages and signing on fee to another CM will just lead to lack in a more important area. We need creativity, not another play to pass the ball sideways. Bringing in a player with 2 assists in 3 seasons and a negligible goal threat is not the way to improve a team who is not creating or scoring enough goals. Cleverley is not exactly going to make us more defensively sound either.

The bottom line is that the current custodians of the club have done nothing to enhance the club’s stature, in fact I would argue that their persistent penny-pinching and dithering has started to make Everton FC look like a newly promoted club that has no idea how to deal with the big-time.

We can blame the manager all we like but he like his predecessors has to work within the limits set down by an unambitious board of directors. Bill Kenwright is renowned in the theatre world for staging shows with A list names in the cast only to find that the shows run for the most part with cheaper stand-ins playing the leading roles.

He is and has done the same with Everton FC, we no longer expect the top names and scrabble around at the cheap end of the market. I fully expect Lukaku, Mirallas and McCarthy to be departing before the end of this window and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Stones and Barkley leave either. A combination of a cheap-skate board, apathetic fans and a manager out of his depth means that Cleverley and others similar in price / wages will be what we will see a lot more of in the future - the only thing that keeps many fans going to Goodison is the rich history, it mightn’t mean a lot in the grand scheme of things but it shouldn’t be dismissed so readily.

The manager is the most important man at a football club, good manager equals good team!

What you say is true, but it didn’t need to be like that. It’s down to Kenwright and Co who are completely incompetent and simply can’t run the business of a football club. We should be a top club sitting pretty and thriving on Kings Dock. We aren’t due to that incompetent clown Kenwright.

We need a top class goalkeeper and we need a commanding central defender. Big money needs to be spent and we will have a cracking team next season.

OK. Yes, I am dreaming!

We probably need to go oversees. Stoke City picked up Bojan for just 1.8M Euro and he is still only 24. Mark Hughes began playing him wide but now uses him as #10 and he has looked sensational. This is the kind of business we need to do. We need a young Arteta.

What have we got to lose from last season! He is on a free and young!

No one knows him better than our our manager and if he can’t get the best from him then they can both get out!

Give the guy a chance if he signs!

A lot of people suggest we need a younger version of Arteta or his style of player as a Number 10. Wasn't he played out wide a lot? I seem to think he slowed the game down as well...

Do we really think the top players are pestering their agents to come to us? Could we afford them if they did? If we can get a proven Premier League player who has played for England on a free, what’s wrong with that?

I saw a rumour in the Telegraph that McCarthy may move this summer, to where not specified.

We need a better scouting department obviously when you consider Stoke signed Bojan and Newcastle Aloze Perez both players at under £2 million. They are out there if we look and take a chance. Vargas at QPR was in the same ball park as well.

Delusions of grandeur is about the size of it unfortunately.

Mike - Perez and Vargas? They were both decidedly average all season. One got relegated, the other escaped by the skin of his teeth. They cost £2M for a reason!

I think that a natural playmaker in the middle is what we miss most. RM seems to want to buy wingers all the time. Although I do like pace in a team it is no good having several pacey targets if we cannot get the ball to them. Someone earlier mentioned Riquelme. What a dream it would be to have a player like him in that role.

He is [as unfortunately, we seem to be] ’the best of the rest’!

Van Persie says he wants to go somewhere where he will play every week....

Step this way, RVP !!

Apparently we can’t do without the experience Barry brings to the side – and anyway, he is a high earner with two years to go on his contract – so I suspect either McCarthy or Barkley will be moving on. Neither will be happy on the bench or on the wing at their stage of development, surely?

Who’s next, I wonder?

I don’t know where Barkley is supposed to fit in at the moment – let’s hope he has a steady preseason in a set role.

I honestly haven’t seen Cleverley play much – I only remember thinking he was pretty tidy playing for England without offering much cut and thrust.

Yeah, shouldn’t take too long, should it? Seen as how Kone and Alcaraz passed with flying colours, I imagine it’s something not too dissimilar to being pulled over by the police at night and asked to walk in a straight line.

Minimally it’s a refreshing change from waiting until August 28th-ish to do anything under OFM. God that drove me nuts.

’I imagine it's something not too dissimilar to being pulled over by the police at night and asked to walk in a straight line.’

You’d be surprised how difficult that is after twelve pints.

The quality of his purchases are less impressive.

Although the whole Kone and Alcaraz signings weren’t exactly world class (cough cough), I think overall with the Lukaku, Barry, McCarthy, and Besic signings as well as DelBoy and Lennon on loan our Gaffer’s done fairly well.

Let’s hope there’s a few more early signings so he can get the players in and hit the ground running this season. We can’t afford the malaise beginning of 2014-15.

Nor can Roberto...

Certainly Moyes did make mistakes but I think player recruitment was one of his strengths. As for comparing his best buys and RMs best buys, then there is no comparison.

Moyes signed Stones £3M, Oviedo £1.2M, Mirallas £5M, Jagielka £4M, Baines £6M, Coleman £60k – these are the players still at the club. I would guess that of the £19.3M spent on these players we would get around £75-£80M which would give us a net profit of around £55-60M.

Yes, there was Krøldrup, Bily and Beattie on the negative side. But you can add the £19M profit on Lescott which would negate the loss on these players. Now when you look at Lukaku, McCarthy, McGeady, Barry, Kone, Alcaraz and Robles... I doubt we would get much profit combined for this lot.

Believe it or not, Jagielka & Baines signed in 2007. In those passing 8 years, transfer fees have at least trebled. Fucking hell, you’ll be mentioning how Latchford was a bargain £350k next.

I think you are missing the point, I was just pointing out that Moyes was excellent by-and-large in the transfer market and RM like most things he does is rubbish.

When you manage a club with little or no money to spend, and whose revenues apart from Sky are pitiful, then the only way you can hope to compete with clubs far better off is to buy cheap and sell expensively, which for most of the time is what Moyes did.

Today, McCarthy is worth at least £20m taking his age into consideration. Lukaku will go for at least £30m (We paid £24m – £4m off his fee was an addition if we reached CL)

We could make the largest gains on Besic – I think he could turn into a £20m midfielder.

One last thing – why on earth do people make comparisons with one manager having two seasons to sign players, and another eleven? Are you really that desperate to be proven correct?

Give me eleven years and the chance to sign 68 players, I think I’ll make some good signings as well. #Miracle worker.