Bony to be used as bait to land Stones?

Try £30 mill?

If we lose Lukaku then this may be of interest.

Every Premier League club seems to have 㿊 mill to spend on a striker so it's becoming increasingly hard to buy a decent one. West Ham and Crystal Palace just got blown out after bidding in excess of 㿊 mill on the Belgian lad. He doesn't even look top quality.

Bony can score 15-20 Premier League goals. He has a lot of other qualities as well. However, if we keep Rom, then this is a non-starter.

Not even worth considering, if Stones goes to City then they can pay us 㿙 million then Koeman will decide who to spend the money on.

The cheek of these teams who want to use under performing players as part of the bait, as if they are doing us a massive favour.

Just in case the press haven't caught up since Farhad joined, we are no longer plucky Everton, who will accept crumbs from the table of these so-called elite Sky 4.

He's not worth it. City fans hate him he's been that useless. I wouldn't pay more than £18m for him.

Nice try, Citeh, trying to palm us off with a dud plus a derisory 㿀m which equates to about 㿅m for Stones, you need to pull your head out your backside, sniff the air in the real world and try offering us something sensible.

Might suit Koeman's style of play, a big fella up front who can get hold of the ball?

i would prefer a more mobile forward, but if Lukaku, was to stay, and they hit it off, these two would form a very formidable forward line.

Tell City, we will give them £12 Million, but Stones is not for sale.

Bony is not the answer. He is slow and has a very poor work rate. Fans on this site call Lukaku lazy, you've seen nothing til you watch Bony week-in and week-out.

Brian (#3), The price tag for Stones should be 㿭m, the same as Lukaku. There are very few top class centre-backs to replace him, so we keep him, or 㿀m plus Aguero.

More trash from a trash paper which couldn't think of anything better to write.

Bony did very well at Swansea, but is ridiculed by most Citeh fans I know – another over-rated gold-digger like Sterling whose value has dropped significantly to well below what they paid for him.

In spite of many critics, a lot of whom are well over the top in my opinion, we should be keeping and improving John. Many seem to forget how well he reacted and played through all the Chelski speculation at the start of last season.

"Might suit Koeman's style of play, a big fella up front who can get hold of the ball?"

I thought he preferred pacey strikers?

Hahahaha .... Oh, was that meant to be serious. Try 㿀 million plus another 㿊 million.

Add to that the fact it's from the most odious rag in the world, file under total shite from horrid lying scumbags.

Damien, I really don't know what his style of play is, and is one of the reasons I'm looking forward to the start of a season for a change. But I've seen Pelle play, and he's more of a target man, than a forward that runs the channels.

On another note, it seems every time we get linked with another forward it seems to be the Italian media, who break these stories. I wonder if it's got anything to do with a super agent?

Depends on whether Stones and Lukaku want to stay or go.

If the latter than I'd rather they did and we had players wanting to be here.

I think Bony would be a good replacement for Lukaku but not a partner. He was excellent in his two seasons at Swansea and don't see why he couldn't be again if given regular time and starting status. There aren't a lot of strikers out there who guarantee you PL goals but I reckon he's one of them. And only 27 so coming into his prime.

Stones had a pretty indifferent season and has obviously not impressed Roy as an England player.If he is behind Cahill in the pecking order then he must have gone back as I would not swap Jagielka for Cahill.

If Stones wants to leave then Koeman will pull the strings on any deal. Stones is good when playing with Jags but not with Funes Mori. Again IMO Funes Mori needs Jags too, so IMO Jags should be the first name inked in at centre-back. He should have gone to France as he is far steadier and reliable than any other English centre back around.

Stones's value has gone down and he needs a decent season under his belt before he is sold. Koeman should make every effort to hang on to Stones, Lukaku and Barkley as they are all young with plenty of improvement in them.

I take it we have defenders who can replace John in the short term? We don't have quality strikers who can replace Lukaku. Bony is a good Premier League striker who lost his way at Man City, like a lot of others. Get this over the line.

Liverpool docker's gag from the 1960s.

When rats are found onboard a ship that dockers are unloading, strike action is threatened.

Boss: "We'll give everyone an extra half-a-crown a day as 'infestation pay' and we'll get you a cat"

Union leader: "We want an extra nicker a day and the Pied Piper."

Whatever our players performances last season (or for England etc) this should be our attitude to any (wealthy) side who wants to buy our players.

Charge them like a wounded Elephant or fuck them off.

To be honest, I'm sort of hoping for less nice Everton in the next couple of seasons.

From other clubs and the media, I'd prefer to hear less 'classy Everton' and more 'I fucking hate Everton'

This is not a hard and fast rule (see Leicester) but my experience is once you start hearing stuff like that, the chances are you're starting to have success.

I have grave doubts about players who cannot get regular starting roles after moving for big transfer fees. Just look at Benteke and a few others.

Okay, Bony was decent at one time and under the right manager could do a good job somewhere... but please not Everton and certainly not as bait for Stones.

FFS, do we really need another lazy sulk monster?

I think Lukaku will end up staying put.

Remebering what all the United lads were saying, as well as many of us on here, when we brought a certain Louis Saha in back in the day. He was meant to be an epic sicknote... would never be off the treatment table... useless... needs to retire.

Stayed with us 4 seasons... scored 15 in his second season!

Not sure we want to be fleeced to the tune of £25M for him... but if we could shift Niasse along, I'd be happier seeing Bony on the bench than our £13M signing.

Why are we even debating the sale of Stonesy?

We fought tooth and nail to hang onto him when Martinez was here – a manager who did little to boost the lad's potential. Now we have a manager who could potentially get the best from him, and we are discussing the possibility of selling him?

In my view, we should be fighting even harder to keep him now – sell him the vision Ron and make him the cornerstone of our new era.

Make it Kelechi Iheanacho and you've got a deal, City.

I do think we should let Stones go and get top money whilst we can. I thought we'd blown it after the season he had but if someone is still willing to pay a fortune then we should take it.

We need some top defenders who'll organise our back 4 and not have us shitting 'em every time there's a corner or free kick about to be launched into our box. I'm sick of having that feeling. Stones just causes me palpitations every time he's on the ball.

I know all of this is paper talk but I'm a bit underwhelmed by the calibre of player that we are being linked with. I'm hoping Koeman is keeping his powder dry and has got better options lined up.

Craig - I can understand the sentiment, but I genuinely believe the lack of confidence and defensive indecision was down to Martinez and his inability to manage this area of our game – amongst others.

I can remember Kevin Ratcliffe getting stick and struggling as a left back initially. Howard moved him to centre half and gave him the captaincy – the rest is history.

My point is, until we've given John the chance to work under a top class manager who's played in that position at the highest level and understands what is required, we'll never see the best of him.

There is no doubt in my mind we have a future England great, a future England captain and someone we would find very hard to replace.

As some have said on here, we need to change our whole outlook and mentality as a club – recognise our best players and their future potential, keep, protect and nuture them; and tell those who still haven't woken up to what has happened here at Everton to fuck off and patronise someone else.

Bony only went to City for the money, no thanks. Koeman brought Pelle with him.

Sorry if this has already been raised but I see that Tottenham transfer target Vincent Janssen is "disappointed" by club AZ Alkmaar after they rejected a bid worth around €18m (㾼.5m) for him. The Netherlands striker, 22, scored 27 goals in 32 Eredivisie games last season.

What with our new Netherlands link and the price quoted for a proven goalscorer (albeit in a less challenging league), might this be a player who could bring us firepower with or without Lukaku?

By my calculations that means City value Bony around the £25 million mark.

As. Fucking. If.

Bony only went to City for the money, no thanks.

I hope Koeman can get Pelle, he had him at AZ, and brought him to Feynoord, and then Southampton. In the last year of his contract... and Juventus are sniffing. He would be a great addition (and take Long also!), and get rid of Lukaku.

I'm with Eugene (#15); raise your £20 Mill by another £20 Mill and a player we might want and we MIGHT call, with Mr Koeman's permission.

Bony for Stones? I want Silva.

Christy, how do you figure that? Might he have wanted to win trophies too?

Niasse for Bony swap, yes. But NOT for Stones!

Might be a little controversial but I'm not so sure centre-half is Stones's best position. Look at Eric Dier. Different player since the switch to holding midfield.

Pelle is no spring chicken. He is 30, almost 31. Otherwise he looks decent and reliable.

Andy Sommer, I think you are 100% correct he is total shit in the air constantly out of position and lacks aggression.

He is not a centre-half... he is not a full back either; if he didn't have the grace and ability to play the ball, beat a man, and pass the ball, he would not be playing in the Premier League. He should be playing in front of a defense where he would be above average. Nice to watch sometimes but he is a terrible centre-half.

Ross Barkley to my eyes is playing out of position also – he would be brilliant at centre-forward.

The back 4 are responsible for defending, not just the 2 in the middle. Yet, most of the poor defending was committed by Oviedo, Baines and Coleman. But no mention of them. Maybe fans believe that a RB and LB are there as alternative wingers, and defending is an added responsibility when need be.

Steavey, I agree. Most of the goals conceded were either individual errors or crosses from our right.

Under Moyes Coleman was an able defender (not superb), but regressed under the superlative one.

Same with Baines.

Going back to basics defending crosses should be a number one priority.

Andy (#34),

Why controversial? I agree that you may be correct in saying that could be Stones's best position. Personally I think he's top quality, just had a poor season, as we all know... but who didn't?

New start for all now we've got rid of the clueless clown. I think he will flourish if he stays – which I hope he does under the leadership of Koeman, who wasn't a bad player himself back in the day.

If Stones is the player some believe him to be, and with City being one of the world's richest clubs, this won't be true.

Surely City will bid whatever it takes to get John?

Bony and Rom are completely different players and could work well together.

Bony is a static style forward who is the centre piece in an attack, he is big and strong and has a quality first touch.

Rom likes to run in behind finding himself in one v one situations, id back him to score a lot more goals with a Bony style foil to play off.

Forget the Stones deal though, we have money of our own, keeping Stones is a must.

Obviously if the situation becomes one were as we cant manage to hold onto Stones, then we should look closely at players they may have going spare.

Players like Fernando, Fernandinho,and Bony are quality, just because they have become over looked doesn't ruin them.

Also id seriously consider Mangala, I know he's been ripped to pieces, but he's young ,athletic and still learning his trade, he has the potential to be a top player.

Clichy is another good player, but I feel we have enough cover at left back.

If we don't sign Bony then a loan deal for Ianacho could be worth a mention too.

Sorry Anthony,

You lost me when you said that Rom would be the mobile one if he played with Bony. We might as well just have 2 cardboard cut outs up front in that case. Throw Barkley in behind them, and it's not the most mobile of teams you are building there mate!

Not for me.

er, De Bruyne surely? My Dad always taught me, never swap down, always swap up.

I wouldn't believe anything that appeared in the fucking rag anyway. I went to buy my daily copy of the Guardian this morning and couldn't find them on the shelf. Somebody had moved a wet and crumpled copy of 'the paper that won't be mentioned' over the pile of Guardians and I had to move it with my foot so I didn't have to touch it.

Bony is not for Everton, he's not good enough for us with our new outlook and 'project'. I'm just looking forward to the day when I read the headlines EVERTON WILL NOT SELL STONES OR LUKAKU BECAUSE THEY DON'T WANT TO. RONALD TELLS ALL CLUBS, THE MEDIA AND SUPER AGENTS TO FUCK OFF. PRESS CONFERENCE TAKEN ABACK BY PLUCKY LITTLE EVERTON'S NEW ATTITUDE. MOSHIRI SEEN APPLAUDING FROM THE WINGS. RYANTSEV SEEN POLISHING HIS LUGER WITH A WRY SMILE ON HIS FACE. SURVEYORS SEEN AT TRAFALGAR DOCK MEASURING UP FOR NEW STATE OF THE ART STADIUM WHICH IT IS BELIEVED WILL BE NAMED NEW GOODISON.

Be nice won't it?

Fair shout Danny, but IMO Rom makes intelligent runs that our midfielders either fail to spot, or were instructed to ignore under Martinez.

If you watch Rom you will see him make the run in behind time and time again, and you will see him throw his arms up in frustration.

If them runs were spotted by Bony when up top, or by a ball playing midfielder then Rom's work rate wouldn't come under such scrutiny.

Im not denying he seemingly lost interest a bit towards the end of the season, but he and many other internationals had one eye on the European championship.

Anyways, after watching Rom for a few seasons, my opinion is that he is not a back to goal striker like Bony, Drogba, and Giroud, but more a striker who likes to play on the last man, bearing down on goal in one on one situations.

Its his physical build that sees people sterio type him as a back to goal hold up player.

Im sure there are other players out there who could compliment Rom better, but a Bony style would be a good addition IMO.

I agree with Anthony (45) when he says Lukaku makes runs that are not spotted and don't agree with the 'Rom is lazy' jibes.

The lad must get pissed off when he does make a good run and the ball is played across, back, across, back and then finally played in when he has a defender up his arse. When we do play it forward and ahead of him he can be almost unplayable.

Despite his build I would like to see him played as a second striker with a target man to play off so he can receive the ball when he is facing goal.

Anthony - some good points and I have to agree that Rom probably did get disheartened not receiving the ball when open. He almost looks the real deal but he doesn't chase back once the ball is lost, nor is he a fox in the box. But 50 Pl goals for us already speaks for itself.

I am a real big fan of John Stones as he is so calm on the ball, makes mistakes granted, but never looks flustered.(imo)

Both these players have only played for the mighty EFC under Martinez. His failings as a coach have been well documented here and may have hindered their progress. We have a new man and he is credited with knowing his players and improving them.

The club needs to hang on to both for at least this year and tell Citeh we will swap Stones for Aguerro not Bony and 20mill

Broadsheets this morning seem convinced Stones is off. Reckon we better get used to the idea and start thinking again of his replacement. Appears my first choice (Peps too) is staying at Bilbao... I hate going in for managers previous players but Virgil was one of the best players around according to one of those stats sights.
There are a few vey good young Dutch defenders around.