Reports suggest Everton are close to Lookman deal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-48TbuiJx0

He's also a strongly built lad, seems physical enough to handle the work.

Always hard to work someone out via a YouTube video but he clearly has talent.

Let's see what happens.

He has been described as lightweight and 'short-arsed' by some, but I noticed he wasn't THAT diminutive in the YouTube video alongside his team mates.

A quick biog search confirmed that – 5ft-9in, or 1.74 m. By contrast to Shaun Wright-Phillips (a player he has been likened to and who had a decent career...) the former Man City and Chelsea player was 5ft-6in or 1.68 m.

Lookman appears to have speed to burn, good close control even when running at speed, a decent cross, and seemingly comfortable on either foot – and not afraid to shoot.

At the age he is – just turned 19 – playing 3rd tier, football it is still a punt, no matter how promising he looks now. But the punt carries a large ticket price, so Walsh and Koeman must be pretty confident he can bring something to the squad.

Here's hoping...

An England U21 player with an eye for goal, so he could be just what we need...

We just cannot compete in the Premier League otherwise. No more hatching chickens hoping for them to show some promise. We need to invest in solid players.

I understand what you're staying, but I can't wholeheartedly agree.

If we ONLY buy players of this profile for the fee mentioned, or older players like Williams, then you have a point. That would be a cause for concern.

But given the (still alleged) pot of money Moshiri is willing to spend on transfers, I also expect proven quality players of a good age to be signed up.

I accept we can't ONLY buy 'oven-ready Galacticos,' so I'm not averse to buying potential, within a reasonable budget.

I'd prefer a player who can do the business in the here and now! Bolasie certainly wasn't the answer at £26 million! We've signed enough of these types of players which allegedly have outstanding potential: Galloway, Tarashaj, Henen, Foulds....

ps: I read this in a Nigerian paper.

If so, you might have noticed a guy by the name of Gana who we bought from a Championship club for £7m. Just happens to be our best player so far this season.

He's also miles better than a certain McCarthy, who cost double. The amount you pay doesn't necessarily translate into the player being good.

Get a grip and save the moaning for 1st February when the window closes. You have no idea what players we will have until then and if we get Lookman, he may actually be good. I dare say Walsh and Koeman know a lot more about him than you.

I'd rather we made a statement of intent and buy ready made top quality players. Will Moshiri turn out to be a disappointment? I remain sceptical.

We need to get real and buy players who want to prove themselves. This young kid could be the answer.

I think he will be a regular starter in the Premier League in the next few years. Is he going to be a top player? I'm not so sure he is probably worth taking but only if the price is right. The majority of the fee should be add -ons and instalments. No more than £3-4m up front.

Already playing and scoring in Champions League and Bundesliga and of course for the USA. Seriously, the kid has wheels, creativity, and excellent skills and is an assist machine. Everything Lennon, Deulofeu, and Barkley are not.

FFS, he makes Altidore look like a scoring machine. Plus, Liverpool and Arsenal both want him so we need to get him first.

This kid is being raved over, why not take a £8m punt on him (£10m if he's a success).

Spurs have done it for years, and it's been a godsend for them. Alli is the most recent one, cost around £4m... now valued Premier League winger within the next five years, he will instantly be worth £20m minimum just for the simple fact he's English.

Jordan Ibe went for £15m !!

If this kid ends up a first-team player in the next few years we could have a team with Holgate, Browning, Galloway, Calvert-Lewiv, Lookman, Davies, and Barkley – 7 English players, plus many more showing signs of promise (JonJoe Kenny, Liam Walsh, Callum Connolly and the irish lad, Kieran Dowell to name a few).

All of a sudden, we may actually have a nice bright future on the horizon.

I understand it's a huge ask, and many of the above names may fizzle out, but it's a thought at least, and I'm all for spending a bit of money on quality youngsters.

Get Real, people: Messi, Neymar, Eden Hazard etc. are NOT coming to Goodison. That's not anyone's fault, it's just fact.

What will bring them to EFC? Being in the Champions League 4 years in every 5; paying them £200k a week; and somehow convincing them, that Finch Farm is a suburb of London!

Coleman, Jagielka, Holgate, Stones, Galloway, Deulofeu have all been acquired in much the same way and I think it could be considered quite a success. I just hope Koeman and Walsh and team don't take your whining to heart because I really have my fingers crossed that we sign Will Hughes from Derby County also.

This fella is not proven at the highest level, his touch is still rough, and he was given a lot of space for the goals. In my very amateur opinion I'd say he's a long shot to be top 4 quality, which is where we should be targeting for new players to be, and he's by no means certain to be top half material in the Premier League either.

I will leave it to the pros to sort this out, but I won't be celebrating until I see him rip defenders apart on a regular basis (something no-one at this club has done consistently for years).

Let's not forget Dele Alli started of his career in the lower leagues. It is a good breeding ground; particularly so for dealing with the physicality of football. I also like the fact that this lad, much like our Seamus, hasn't come from the cosseted world of academy football.

I think the comments above about signing 'world class' players is frankly ridiculous. Who and with what money? We are wealthy, but not oligarch rich.

A bit like a Vardy but young? Plus, we still don't have the necessaries to shop at the big end of town with cast iron guarantees of performance, do we?

The deal will be in instalments so forget about judging him as a £10 million player. If we pay the £10 million, it will mean he has turned out to be a good player as he will have hit the targets set in the instalments.

But hey, lads, forget all of the above. Let's get on a downer about it before he has even signed. Let's make our mind up he's not good enough for us early.

I think that younger players who have played regular lower league football are better able to adjust to first team Premier League football than a lot of Academy graduates.

I always considered Evertonian's knowledgeable and different from other supporters but there's a number of posts on this thread that show we have our fair share of deluded "fast food supporters."

"Oooh he's shit, he only plays for Charlton" or "I've never heard of him so he can't be any good."

We have people watching these lads, people who've been in the business a good while. People who are professionals. Give them a chance to do their job. If we get the lad and he turns out to be rubbish (I doubt it) then moan.

All this depressing negativity is typical of today's "I want this coz he's got that" attitude. Have a word with yourselves, it's embarrassing.

What is a statement of intent? Does it win you games? This is what happens when you raise a child on 24 hours Sky Sports.

Mahrez, Kante, and Vardy came from lower leagues for small fees and won Leicester the league... now who was it identified those prospects?

Anthony (#27) – who is "the Irish lad, Kieran Dowell"? "Two Keiran Dowells, there's only two Keiran Dowells ..." :-)

Watch This Space

I'm remaining cautiously optimistic with everything crossed for luck.

The two Man Utd rejects we are linked with currently command combined wages of around £200k a week. This equals or is higher than our MVP.

We have to buy potential like Lookman or go for quality players from smaller clubs, which doesn't always work out, for example, Sigurdsson at Spurs. This usually works out to be quite expensive.

It does appear that we have put in place a very good scouting network that has more knowledge and experience than ourselves and we should accept their wisdom, for now.

We need new blood for the future of this club and players of this calibre is what is required to take us forward as Stones, Jags and numerous other players have shown over the years. Hopefully he can make a few appearances this season and maybe cement his place in the first squad for next season.

Let's face it, we are not going to attract world class players even with the money we have as most of the other clubs are in a similar position and we have to compete on what we can offer them. At the moment its mediocrity, a mid table club and no champions league.

Buying so-called ready made players at £30-40 million does not guarantee you success. Let's get real and not just think of today.

If we are to seriously challenge the 'big' 6 we need to attract players on the next higher level. How you manage that is another question but, off previous experience, we need to, or we will always be best of the rest, or at least it's very likely we will be.

By all means sign the lad, but we need to raise the ante.

It has worked wonders for Chelsea. They were already making a profit doing this but now that the Chinese are involved, Chelsea are basically minting money off these payers.

I don't see anything wrong with Everton doing a little of this too. Sell players not likely to make the first squad so we can keep those who will make it or who are already on it.

Everton are not viewed as good commercial prospect for the top class players. Why not (answers on... yes, there's many reasons). If you look at the likes of Chelsea's team their valued some where in the region of £350 million.

When I watch Everton I see Lukaku who can't even stay on the ball for the size of him. I look at Barkley and think, not even too little, too late. Just sentimental reasons why he's still at Everton. I look at the Premier League teams all whom we've played this season, many of which do not have our purse, yet each one has some thing to offer whether decent players, team mentality and or teams who can defend and score goals.

Besides Lukaku, we have Enner Valencia as a striker (on paper), but we have no other strikers. Our back four is like a player's retirement home. Koeman on current performances is not the master tactician (through media hype), we presumed he was. Southampton have a good team with strikers.

We have the life-blood, who need no mention who strive every game for little reward overall. Other than that, who do we really have. I am so shocked that we're in 7th this season given our continuously poor show, in fact were it not for the performances against the Premier League's low teams we would not be seventh from the top but more like further down than 7th from the bottom.

Something needs to change. We cannot afford any more Naisse faux pas either.

I looked at Liverpool's performance who were largely terrible until they switched on and then it was like watching a Barcelona master class.

Bournemouth are a relatively poor team financially speaking), but they still put in tremendous performances at times. Look also at Hull, how strong they were against Liverpool, once again until Liverpool switched on superstar performance mode.

Question to be asked is: Do we have the finances for such a risk? Personally would prefer to go for a good striker proven whom is going through a bad spell.

If Everton do sign the kid we can only hope that he is a success, just as we can only hope that a major high-value signing is a success.

He's supposed to be really outstanding, level-headed, determined and confident, with a bit of "nastiness" about him. Sounds good to me, but let's see if we get him first before we destroy and devalue him.

Remember we all thought we had a gem in Sam Byram, although the Hammers fans have not seen a lot of him, regarding his injuries.

He appears from all aspects that he has no attitude barriers to going all the way. He is calm and has a winner's and an improver's attitude.

Very physically balanced, two-footed, sees a vision and a picture instantly on the field, can shoot with either foot and usually under control – not skying it.

In a lot of respects, he reminds me at this stage of his career of a Trevor Steven or a Paul Bracewell...

His balance and his decision-making making him look very similar to Tricky Trev, but he also has a burst of pace that can take him beyond defenders. This is a 4-3-3 type player rather than a 4-4-2 – Koeman's view.

As for his outlook and attitude – it can take him and us a long way. Going beyond what others would pay, say £5-6mill, then we are now in a position where we have to take these gambles... just as Howard Kendall had to gamble so much in the 80s. Maybe a Tricky or a Sheedy comes from one of these punts...

Sign them both up?

Tammy Abraham is one of the dozens of youngsters hoovered up and then loaned out by Chelski. He's a centre forward, 19, 6'-4" and has been belting them in all his life. He has a brother at Charlton called Timmy.

And here's me wondering what I'd do with that new anorak I was given at Crimbo!

I assume the Irish lad Anthony refers to is Harry Charsley.

Thankfully comments in previous threads about him being 'Atsu~esque' in terms of size and ability appear to be 'off the mark', thankfully.

I embrace the club chasing top, young talent... let's hope that Koeman opens his mind and eyes to the top talent we have in our table-topping U23s, not least Liam Walsh, Harry Charsley and Antonee Robinson.

It must be remembered that Dele Alli came from MK Dons, Stones from Barnsley, and Vardy from the Dog & Duck. Everyone's got to start somewhere...

Seems he will turn out to be a good 'un!!

They seem to have a good academy; the kid who Liverpool signed off them and then got a really bad injury, is also spoken about in "glowing terms"

It's the Everton way...

I'm positive I and a few others around me saw Lookman in the Directors Box in front when everyone was returning after half-time, near Sharpy yesterday. He looked very happy, smiling and chatting to people?

Can anyone else confirm ?

Very curious to see what a £10m league one teenager looks like. Seems a huge amount for someone so untested.

I see he won Championship Apprentice of the year last season which got me enthused untill I had a quick look at the previous winners:

2015 – Lewis Cook
2014 – Mason Bennett
2013 – Dimitar Evtimov
2012 – Gael Bigirimana
2011 – Connor Wickham
2010 – Adam Matthews
2009 – Sean Scannell

Not the most inspiring list which shows how often young promise leads not to the summit but relative obscurity. Hopefully this lad will do better and Walsh and his team have been thorough in their assessment.

I see that he has captained Charlton recently which at 19 is a good sign of his character and the faith placed in him.

Think he will be a Nathan Redmond type player, who incidentally I was amazed we didn't go for when Norwich bought him for £2m three years ago.