Vidic not interested in Premier League return with Everton

Good heÂ’s well past his best. Need a younger CB anyway.

Good! WeÂ’ve just got rid of two old timers and another one isnÂ’t the answer. Vidic is like his old CB partner, Ferdinand - both of whom looked past it in their final season at Old Trafford.

Similar to Kompany of Man City. A couple of really good seasons but because they rely so much on there physical attributes seem to decline rapidly.

Past his best but we need a defender a bit younger with all the same attributes of Vidic.

We need a centre half that strikers actually donÂ’t fancy coming up against, the type that makes strikers go into their shell after a bit of " physical contact".

Sadly neither Stones or Jags are what you would call that type of defender.

We need a guy with experience not too young and not too old, preferably an age bracket of 25-28 so if we signed him on a four year contract weÂ’d get the best yearÂ’s out of him.

Inter got a bad deal when they bought him because in my opinion he was finished in his last season at Man Utd. He has struggled in Italy, so I think we dodged a bullet there.

His experience and success would have been beneficial to the dressing room but as a whole he is past it now unfortunately.

Cheeky get, he should be so lucky Everton would want him.

What a bizarre link. Van Dijk seems like such an obvious signing to me, but then IÂ’m not as in touch as I used to be. Does anyone know why weÂ’re being seriously linked with him?

Is he not actually that good? Or is he so good that his transfer fee and wages are likely to be out of our reach?

Mike@539

No disrespect, mate, but no way would I sign Van Dijk .The Scottish league is no better than our 3rd division.

Hi, my first time on here. Although he seems to specialise in relegation, I would definitely go for Stephen Caulker of QPR. Ex England & coming into the prime of his career. Like Cleverley, he possibly has something to prove. Probably wonÂ’t be cheap, though.

IÂ’d have taken Vidic as back up, had much worse and heÂ’d be a free/loan. Not the worst idea ever.

Good then, because Everton are not interested in Vidic (or at least shouldnÂ’t be).

@Paul 544
Are you suggesting that Wanyama, Forster and Ki Sung-yong are bad players? Each one of them would massively improve our squad. What I mean by that is Â’donÂ’t judge every player by a league theyÂ’re playing inÂ’.

What a load of bollocks!! The guy’s old and to fecking slow – with piss-poor technical ability and will struggle at the top level of football (his legs have gone).

I never rated Caulker and think heÂ’s crap. However, I think there must be good solid pros in the lower leagues to pick up.

In the Premier League era, I canÂ’t think of any signings of centre halves from the lower leagues who havenÂ’t worked out.

Given need for home grown players I would look in our leagues rather than abroad and would hope the prices of CB’s not inflated - although Tyrone Mings went for £7m which seems crazy.

What about Ryan Shawcross he doesnÂ’t take any prisoners and heÂ’s a big bugger as well !

ThereÂ’s now rumours of Davide Astori being a target. I have a feeling heÂ’ll be our man. Martinez has form for being linked with this fella having tried to sign him in during his first summer, but his club wouldnÂ’t sell. HeÂ’s now available. HeÂ’s the tall athletic left sided CB we need and 5m for an Italian international defender whoÂ’s in his prime seems better business than paying double for the understudy defender from Juventus IMO.

Do we think Martinez is just looking for cover at centre-half or planning to replace either Stones or Jagielka ? If the former, are either Browning or Galloway up to the task ?

Phil, I remember a year ago coming on here saying we need another centre back; you replied to the effect that we already had a few. We did, but other than Jags and Stones they were too old, unproven or just poor.

At the very least we need cover, possibly Martinez is considering three at the back? Or maybe heÂ’s thinking ahead, post-Jags?

If he isnÂ’t good enough for Serie A, then I donÂ’t think he will be good enough for the EPL.

I would rather sign Wes Brown as a backup if we have to pay for Vidic.

What I will say is centre halves seem to get better with age at Everton ie. Watson, Gough and Weir to name a few.