Kone: Everton fans haven't seen the best of me yet

Sorry, but he should be offloaded and a new, proven Premier League striker brought in to provide Lukaku with some serious competition for the number one striking role. Kone just isnÂ’t it.

If heÂ’s fit, I hope he can contribute over the coming months. Either way, I doubt heÂ’ll be getting a new contract next year, so he'll just be backup for 12 months.

Agree, Brian (#1), he has to be offloaded now.

Although no doubt Henen is our striker Â’signingÂ’ because Martinez probably thinks that heÂ’s Â’in a good momentÂ’ or that Â’his willingness to prove his abilities here shows his strength of character and phenomenal mentalityÂ’, which means heÂ’ll get another chance.

And if heÂ’s not, thereÂ’s plenty of time to offload him. Right now he would bring pocket change.

I think he got back into the team at a time when confidence amongst the team and us fans was low. Chances for forwards were few and far between. But I think he is an intelligent player and was short of match fitness and confidence.

I have some faith in him. Would rather keep some cash. Persevere with Lukaku and some of the U21s like Long. See what they can do.

HeÂ’s here for this season. LetÂ’s hope his knee, and the muscles around it, are fully fit, sturdy, and ready for one more shot at contributing something.

I donÂ’t see anything in him or his game that makes me think weÂ’ve got a player here. He was generallly shit at Wigan as well.

Only Everton sign players who are carrying an injury (and a serious one at that) before they sign on the dotted line. Nice money and work if you can get it.

Sorry to cast further doubts on his chances of setting the Premier League alight, but this league is simply too fast and physical to be carrying a Â’sicknoteÂ’, no matter how genuine he is, when he tells us we havenÂ’t seen the best of him.

Please file under Â’Never Should Have Been Signed'.

He has done nothing to disprove that statement.

We should have got rid when he was touted as being fit again.

Lost wages, missed opportunity.

Drugs. Just say no.....

Seriously, itÂ’s hard to see him contributing much. We only play one striker and Lukaku is clearly first choice.

So Arouna will be limited to sub appearances and cup matches. Not exactly a lot of minutes to build up real match fitness , is it ?

And he turns 32 in November. Other clubs wouldnÂ’t bat an eyelid at ٤m but to us it was a lot at the time and thatÂ’s something some will hammer Martinez for.

People who slag him off, know....very little about what to look for in a player in his position. All they see is an injury! They never look at the extent/ seriousness and rehab that the player would need to recover and play again at the top level.

I hope we get at least one semi-decent season out of him, but itÂ’s not looking likely. I didnÂ’t know he had an injury when we signed him. If he did that makes it even more unusual as we have been fairly conservative in signing injured players.

I feel for him. A lot on here talk about money, but I bet itÂ’s not easy being a footballer and stuck on the sidelines for 2 years. The moneyÂ’s a given, and itÂ’s not like they are stacking shelves. Surely they all want to be playing (even if it doesnÂ’t appear that way at times).

Thankfully we have Lukaku, but we could do with an extra forward or at least introducing an academy player to try and bring through a prospect of our own. I would like to see McAleny given a few games.

Rephrase Â’Everton fans have seen nothing from me yetÂ’

The only club I could envisage taking a chance on him would be Levante in La Liga and even if, weÂ’d only get a couple million at best. They saved his career after he had another career threatening injury while at Sevilla. So we can all but hope.

I donÂ’t actually think he was as ineffective as some on here. He gave opposing defenders something to think about when they were set out to deal with Rom. But I do think he could have been played on the right of a front three rather than putting Rom on the right flank as he sometimes played there for Wigan. I can only surmise this was because heÂ’s lost a yard of pace and was never 100%, which is no surprise really.

When allÂ’s said and done I think people shouldnÂ’t be too harsh over his signing. He didnÂ’t cost us anything if you think we got the same fee for big Vic and KoneÂ’s proved he is a top striker at some points in his career, something Vic has never managed to do.

I genuinely feel sorry for Kone – bad luck with the injury etc, but he just isn’t top quality. saw him warm-up at Swansea, and he couldn’t hit the goal with three shots, with no defenders and all the time in the world.

He is getting around 㿊k to do this job, so sorry, – no room for sentiment... offload please!

In other news - David Cameron and Boris Johnson are a bit posh!

Adolf Hitler was a tad aggressive!

IÂ’m from the colonies, so a question for those with more knowledge of the EPL contracts. Is a players contract guaranteed like most in the US of A, except for the NFL?

Pains me to say it, but we are a club that cannot afford older players with repeat prescriptions. Loan Kone out, cover half his wages, and consider either Mirallas or even Deulofeu for the CF position if Romelu is unfit or out of form.

Also, using the period of time heÂ’s been with us to berate his goal ratio is simply overkill. He should,in my view , be judged when he is fit and has a run in the side. It is frustrating to see a player with long term injuries but talking of getting shot of Kone or Gibson is nonsense. Like it or not they are entitled to be paid when hurt.

One goal in two years when he was either injured or not match fit for about three quarters of that time.

Soon we will be into pre season fitness training while he will be in the middle of Ramadan.

This season will be the last for him anyway in an Everton shirt (didnÂ’t he sign a three-year contract in July/August 2013?) so I imagine heÂ’ll be a bit part player until heÂ’s released this time next year.

He is staying so he gets my support until he proves all these people right. .

According to Martinez, due to Ramadan, Aroune was behind the rest of the squad with his pre-season fitness regime and unfit to play. Then followed a catalogue of mysterious injuries that he found difficult to shake off.

You may remember a similar never ending list of excuses from AvdM. I was accused by other Twebbers for describing him as a fraud. In the drunks own words, I was vindicated... and now I see the same pattern developing with Kone.

Upbeat, hopeful and determined ... a great attitude to take into pre-season...!!

His finishing has let him down but his movement, link up play and runs in behind and between defenders has been very good ... certainly not crap.

What Martinez needs to think about is that if Lukaku picks up a bad injury after 31st August, is this the man to lead out line long term? And if he answers yes to that, heÂ’s barmier than I thought.

I thought he was a bad signing from the start simply due to his age and limited ability. Half decent was as good as it was ever going to get.

That said, he hasnÂ’t had a chance to prove me wrong and his injuries have been terrible luck for him and us. LetÂ’s hope he can get back to being half decent for a season unless someone else wants to waste money on him.

It looked like he couldnÂ’t trap a bag of cement on occasions but when you are unfit that can happen.

As Mike Gaynes says, heÂ’s worth next to nothing at the moment so we can only benefit by giving him a full pre-season and the first few games to showcase his talent, if he has any left, to us and the rest of the world, at that point we are in the best position to either retain his services or attract an appropriate offer.

For what itÂ’s worth, I have always thought Kone to be a useful, intelligent player and I think he would have proved to have been a successful Martinez signing at Everton had it not been for an unforeseeable injury.

Taxi for Kone!

Browning came on at Anfield and did great then disappeared! Galloway did well in the last couple of games and probably learned more in those games than 5 years in the reserves.

We have to get rid of Kone, Hibbert etc and get the youngsters on the bench.

What he said is that he was hungry, due to his fasting and the journo just filled in some blanks and viola – a story

I wonder, do we still pay him when he refuses to train with the squad because he canÂ’t drink fluid or eat the correct food at the correct times? LetÂ’s just give all the players extra break while were at the part of the year when we need to boost our fitness.

And I used the word Â’nonsenseÂ’ because when he arrived at the club it was a big dilemma about when we were going to see him play? Everyone waiting for that time because he had to wait longer to get himself match-fit. Next year, we hear heÂ’s working through fasting because he feels like he needs to show and prove what he can do. Now we have this headline so, for me, this tells me is he also going to get himself super fit or is he going to take the time off again.

Don’t jump the gun when religion comes into it at the end of the day we have to say it as it is. Half our team is catholic, I imagine – do you think 10 am Sunday morning they’re all at mass and Kone there running around on his own? I don’t think so, mate.

In 2007, when playing for PSV Eindhoven, he returend late from Ivory Coast and missed a chunk of pre-season work, really angering the club.

The same year he contracted malaria (something that you keep forever by the way)

2007, PSV lost patience and he was transferred to Sevilla for 12 M euros on a 5 year deal

2008, After one year at Sevilla the club wanted to move him on as his form was poor. Unfortunately for Sevilla, he tore a cruciate at the start of the 2008-09 season while playing for Ivory Coast

2010, Sevilla eventually ship him out on loan to Hamburg and he had an equally disastrous spell. Hamburg shipped him back to Sevilla, where he scored one goal in 40 appearances

2011 Sevilla sell him to Levante, where he had his only really successful period, prompting Wigan to pay €3.5M for him in 2012. The rest we know.

If you were hiring someone and they gave you this CV, would they make it to the interview?

We slate Everton when we sign a player who then gets injured, forgetting that the vast majority donÂ’t get injured upon arrival. And do we really think weÂ’re the only club that has happened to?

Hindsight is great. But amongst the criticism of his signing (and there was plenty, lots justified) I donÂ’t recall anyone saying he was injury prone.

If he can contribute 4-5 goals next season that is good enough as he is nothing more than a back up. Hindsight is a wonderful thing as someone pointed out and we just need to make the best of it.

I think we need a proper forward to put the pressure on Lukaku. Kone brings a different style and therefore can have a role to play, but Lukaku needs to feel real competitive pressure for his spot.

Austin would be a terrific acquisition if we had the cash.