Koeman: No imperative to sell top players

I don't want to sound negative, but where have I heard this before?

What "top players" have we sold out of financial necessity? Who have we sold that we truly missed?

Certainly not Stones or Fellaini, both of whom wanted to leave and brought in way more than they were worth, eh? Getting £24M for Lescott was an even more massive heist.

Maybe Arteta six years ago? Rooney 13 years ago?

Koeman is correct. We can keep anybody we really want to keep.

If Rom goes then there is Cyle Larin and Josh King out their with great potential who I would be happy with. A very interesting transfer window awaits.

Is there some sort of unwritten agreement between them and the media not to unsettle their players? Why aren't the European giants after Kane, Alli, Aguero, De Bruyne, Mane, Rashford etc? Is there really no interest in them from other clubs or are the media under orders not to rock the boat?

I think he is one of the best coaches in the world, especially in terms of improving players individually & improving a team dynamic.

If we can keep Lukaku & Barkley – which I think we will. Then the future is very bright!

I see Chelsea going in for Morata, as Lukaku will be too expensive for them – maybe we can go in for Batshauyi too.

But there are plenty of options available this summer! Especially in the striker department.

Iheanacho would be my first choice; if Lukaku stays, we can build him & improve him. He is third choice at Man City at the moment & will probably be at least 4th choice after the next window.

But the likes of Batshauyi, Perez, Janssen, Dolberg, Rooney, etc.

If Lukaku does leave, then Iheanacho & one of the others.

VERY VERY EXCITED FOR THE NEXT WINDOW! Exciting times ahead!

If we are in the top four or challenging then we should keep him for the rest of the season. He will move, that's obvious... but we should determine when and for how much.

So I disagree about selling our best player in his case. I put it in the bracket of Jeffers, Rodwell, and Michael Ball of seemingly selling our best players for top dollar, but in reality all where crocked and their best days well and truly behind them.

The only times I accept that we have sold our best players were Ferguson and Rooney. Barmby left against our will, but he was not quite our best player. Would anyone have wanted to keep Lescott and Stones, especially with hindsight?

It's not happening – the diva was talking about his move 1 year into a 5 year deal... as if he is going to play out his 2 years.

I think Lukaku will go either in the summer for more than £90m or next January for £60m+

Personally I would take £90m for him and spend all of it replacing him with 2 or 3 players with the requisite talent AND desire to be here.

What would materially elevate us further is regular qualification for, and progress in, the Champions League, and that remains to be seen if we can do that. At least then we would be subject to the same pressure from players and their scummy agents that the elite of the English game are subject to.

If Lukaku is bent on moving to a club which he thinks will get him a lot more cash and more reliable Champions League qualification, he will succeed in that eventually. I think Everton should retain him next season, whilst trying to achieve the benchmarks that Koeman, Walsh, Moshiri and the rest at the club have drawn up to convince one and all that we are on plan and moving in the right direction.

If by this time next year, they all think we are in the right place, and Lukaku remains a sulking hulk, then we should sell him to the highest bidder. This is a MUCH better place for the club to find itself in than when we had to surrender Rooney to Man Utd, for example.

Everton is Koeman's 9th club in 16 years. Which is an average of 1 club every 2 years or less.

So your love affair may be ending very soon.

Every transfer window is like a parole hearing for him.

Get him gone... let him go and see how the supposed bigger clubs tolerate his no-shows with other strikers worthy of playing sat on the bench ready to replace him.

I do like Josh king, but as a 2nd tier forward. Iheanacho might be an alternative, but rarely spotted these days. I would take Benteke, couldn't care less who he has played for.

I've had enough of Rom's story. More about him than the club to be honest. Staying has one important footnote: will Ronko buy to complement his game or still get players to evolve the team?

We have after all played most of our game through Rom, albeit quite successfully. Imagine if we bought/ unearthed a forward who scored often and then how good a player Rom would look?

This is the point – as soon as you put him with better players they aint gonna just pass to him and go help yersz self Rom, they won't need him to score the majority of the goals. Rom might be found wanting to produce more than his goals?

A summer before a World cup is normally a decent one as players look to move to get more regular footy to ensure squad places for the tournament.

Could be some really good buys out there.

I believe he will be gone this summer so long as the price is high enough for EFC. I would go as far as to say that the player has already been tapped up by his would-be suitors.

I just hope that the club is going to show ambition by buying top quality players this summer and hopefully, if that happens, we will not miss Rom too much.

Is it possible for you to post without going into fantasy manager mode (just once).

If he does go and we get £80-odd million we need to try invest it in 2 players at most. We can't be trying to buy 3-4 average players as that won't bring us to the next level. Spurs tried that with the Bale money and it just didn't work. We need top quality or we are just going to tread water.

Arsenal have suffered for years. There are constant articles about Sanchez leaving – managers are even openly describing their interest – Pep did it before the FA Cup (a dodgy move at best). The media ran a big story about Sanchez to Chelsea a couple of weeks ago, and his likely departure has received more attention than Lukaku's.

Wenger is asked every Thursday/Friday about the futures of Sanchez and Ozil in his press conferences. Just google it if you don't believe me. They also had this in the past - the Barcelona pursuit of Fabregas was particularly ugly. A series of Barca players lined up to provide accolades – it was part of an almost strategic attempt to pressure the club into selling. The media were only too happy to oblige.

And Southampton – think of the amount of players linked away, and who were eventually sold. Van Djik will be next – he has been linked with a move to practically every club above Southampton in the table.

Even the likes of Man Utd suffer, when the club is big enough. Look at De Gea – Real want him, and he wants to go. His recent benching was linked by some to a likely summer exit, and recent stories represent Romero's desire to become Man Utd's number one.

Dortmund, despite their status as the best or second best team in the Bundesliga for several years, put up with constant speculation about the likes of Lewandowski leaving. Kagawa went, Gotze went, Lewandowski went, and Aubemeyang, repeatedly linked to every big club in the world, will go.

Let's stop acting like we are special. Any club with talented players will be victim to 1) media speculation 2) the transfer activities of richer or/and more recently successful clubs.

We are vulnerable to that, and Lukaku will be able to press through a move in the summer if he wants as a consequence. I expect that that move will be to Chelsea, for £60ish mil, to replace Costa.

While he's entirely right in saying that Everton can make Lukaku stay, whether it's the sensible thing to do is another thing entirely. We can ill afford another "Will he, won't he?" transfer saga played out in the tabloids.

I'm in a quandary about the alleged attempt to take in Chinese investment. Does it mean the board now realise signings of the quality we'd like are beyond their pocket, or is Steve Walsh going to make us contenders from the bargain basement?

For what it's worth I'd favour squad over stadium expenditure. Easy for me to say, I admit, but there's more than a few clubs who've built themselves better stadiums and then found themselves declining with unimproved or worsening results.

A nerve-jangling summer awaits.

I think what the club are saying here is "We no longer are a club who needs to sell and so, even if his value should fall, we still are strong enough to deal with that."

I think how we need to manage the situation though is to use the time we have now to get in the best replacements possible. Of course we won't be able to buy a similar top scoring striker but there are a few who are capable of doing what Rom did with us and like some said with next year being a World Cup year many will want to come to a club like ours to get regular football so they boost their chances of World Cup football. I'd happily take both Benteke and Batshuayi as replacements, even the latter on loan or with a buy back clause.

The last thing I want is for the club to use the money they get from the sale to buy several mediocre players. Hopefully we've learned that it was worth splashing out the £28M on Rom as strikers are worth paying that bit extra for. Spurs went cheapish on Janssen and I think he's been poor for them and I'd hate to see us go for a player like that. Of course it's always a risk but I hope Koeman and Walsh have a plan in mind.

It seems obvious Rom wants Champions league. Calvert-Lewin looks like a decent lad to progress next season, so get him the support.

I'm not sure if it still works this way but I believe, if a player is sold without handing in a request, he is entitled to a cut of the fee. I think it is classed as some sort of loyalty bonus?

In Lukaku's case, this would be a substantial amount of money. Of course, he would offset this loss with any signing-on fees from his next club. Everton will not sell until he forgoes this fee.

None of the above is based on fact and purely my opinion/understanding of how modern transfers work. If I'm wrong, please feel free to correct me.

I think it would be very difficult to persuade our wantaway leviathan to stay another 12 months with the daunting spectre of Thursdays in some far-flung outpost of Kamchatka where the Wi-fi doesn't work and the showers are cold.

The only reason that we will see Mr Lukaku next season, is if the big boys won't cough-up enough dosh. My guess, is it will hinge on Costa going to China, and we may get a cash plus Batshuayi deal, which for me would be fine.

Of course the injury to Zlatan could persuade Rom's former boss to take a punt on him, but would Mourinho fancy him more today than a few years ago?

I expect Rom to leave in the summer. He could end up top scorer in the Premier League and he agreed to stay one more season, so I really can't knock him for wanting to move on.

I suppose he could have a rethink if we sign two or three players of proven quality as soon as the season ends, but when was the last time that we saw such early business?

What we do know however is that Rom doesn't see his future at Everton as the ship is turning too slowly. I don't really blame the boy; for every Leicester at home there's a West Ham or a Bournemouth away and until new recruits come in and adjust to the managers playing style, this is not going to change suddenly.

I'd like him to stay but every club has it's Ronaldo, Suarez, Bale, etc, so players move on and the club pays Koeman and Walsh handsomely to find another way.

Ultimately I think it will depend on whether the player wants to leave and more crucially what bids come in for him. If, for example, Chelsea were to bid £80m plus Tammy Abraham (who Koeman likes according to some sources) and Lukaku asks for the move, then I think it will probably happen.

If Man Utd and Chelsea mess around, bidding £50m here and £55m there, then I think he'll stay, whether he likes it or not, for another season.

It only seems that way to us because we only Google "Everton FC" every morning... lol!

I've been waiting for the queue of pundits to form who want publicly to say: "I just want to hold my hands up. I said when Everton paid £28 million for Lukaku 3 years ago that they'd overpaid. It's now clear they can sell him for three times what they paid. I was talking utter rubbish."

By my reckoning, most pundits should be in this queue, dozens of them, but strangely it seems there's no one in it yet!

To Lukaku: Not happy with our club's stance? Hand in a transfer request and relinquish your financial stake in a transfer, Rom.

If Rom is determined to move to a 'big' club, he should hand in a transfer request. Simple!

Rom will almost certainly leave this summer, unless we buy some top top players. And I don't see that happening either.

Keane, Hart, Pickford and many others will go to the top six, unless we start paying astronomical wages, then that's a different story.

Walsh and Ronald are going to have to pull a few rabbits out of the hat before the summer transfer window is over.

Only 2 player's to bring in for me... Mahrez & Rooney. Bring back all our loan players and build a new team from scratch, playing 4-4-2.

He has said "with Barkley the situation is different"... "Yes, but Lukaku has two years left on his contract"... "Barkley must decide by the end of the season,... if he does not sign he must be sold".

I reckon it comes down to a decision from Barkley. If he does not sign, he goes and Lukaku stays; if he does sign, he stays... but I reckon Lukaku could then go. One of them will remain at the club – at least.

Don (#29) – look at the fair play rules and the limitations of owners, not investors, bringing money in.

Just in the past week I've read stories about Ibra, Sanchez, Walker, Alli, Shaw, Eriksen, De Gea, Dier, Ozil and Lucas Perez supposedly about to depart their clubs. There were multiple stories in March about Aguero wanting away to Madrid. And I read something right before the January transfer window about Man Utd coming in for Kane at £80 million.

Every team goes through this.

Maybe he has decided that he can coach more of Rom's potential but, as other people have said, Ross is difficult to develop further and a No 10 that doesn't produce goals and goal threats is not top 4 material.

Lukaku – change the needle... whose bothered? Money talks, always has... build a side around him – our "great" scorer, dressing-room spirit killer... no thaks, regardless!!!

Our real club players of yesteryear, but lesser statistics than him, must be wondering how low or move with the times, do we go??

Rooney, any youngster offered & Mr One-Touch can go to pastures greener, along with "warming" the bench & European times, games!!!

What happened to our famous "Once a Blue, Always a Blue" idiom?

COYB

Let's be a little realistic when it comes to the transfer market it really takes much more than money to attract the great players who are already established with the elite clubs that have massive cash turnovers.

The FFP means we can only spend so much of our income therefore even if everything goes perfectly and we win every domestic prize plus the Europa League, we would still not quite be able to compete with or even beat ordinary Man Utd. Income into the club from selling a player like Lukaku could be worth a lot more than the raw cash as it frees up our ability to spend in the future.

To keep the momentum going, I'll just point out that if we can get Moshiri to finance a rebuilding of Norris Green baths, we should have no problem retaining and attracting top players.

As an aside, I would love Ihenacho to come in the summer.

Browning looks as though he needs some armbands at Newcastle tonight.

Early days... but not sure he's ever going to be the answer.

He's been in a safe position with no competition so far and maybe he doesn't rate his chances if he gets real competition for his place now that the money is available.

Good to see sensible people put paranoid Colin into perspective. I said at the beginning of the season Koeman was brought in to do the same job as he done at Southampton and he has. Sell Ross and Rom as there are a few players coming through the ranks. Buy some little gems coach them to sell on and Ron will leave for another club.

I more than likely will not live to see the new stadium I'm sure as hell wont live long enough to see Everton win the premier league. I was grateful to have witnessed the 80's success.

Until our 6 million dollar man can motivate a team to win on the road consistently then I don't see much happening next season 7th again at best..

But I do like the dreamers on this site, I like reading the polar views on everything from management to players, love the humor and despair. But most of all reading TW every day makes me feel like I'm sane in a insane world. Thank you fellow blues for entertaining and educating me.

Lukaku has been in a rich rein of form at home but as everyone has witnessed other than putting the ball in the back of the net he is quite limited in his overall play. A very limited player called Niasse is a finisher and puts in a shift.

If the team creates chances goals will come.

To put it in a shell, if Chelsea want to offer £90 million and not a penny less, I will gladly drop Abramavich's kecks and shaft him for every penny.

We'll see in the summer.

But...

We probably won't be able t hold on to the all the quality players, we will sell the on-loan players, but not for crazy amounts, the young players have a steep learning curve and will need more time and the players we want (and need) to sign in the transfer window will probably not want (or need) us...(no Champions League, and every player with any kind of ambition won't settle for anything less...or so I'm told).

The summer will be a interesting one for Moshiri, Walsh, Koeman and his "project".

Those who think there is a conspiracy against us must think very highly of the ‘moral integrity' of sports journalists/newspapers.

To think that most of them would avoid writing spurious gossip articles about transfers involved with players from Top 4/6 clubs (adjust to ensure we're one below) just to preserve some status quo is odd.

So instead of these journalists writing about Man Utd or Chelsea players that would probably result in higher readership for the journalist/paper and therefore more pats on the back from their managers, they opt to write articles about players from less successful clubs (in recent history) which probably result in less readership. This seems to imply the journalists/papers put the bigger picture of maintaining the status quo above their own career/sales of papers.

The reality is we pay more attention to the goings on at EFC than at other clubs, so miss out on many of the gossip stories elsewhere.

KEEP THE FOLLOWING:

Stekelenburg (as No 2 keeper)

Baines
Williams
Jagielka (as back-up to a back 3)
Coleman
Holgate
Pennington

Schneiderlin
Bolasie
Gana
McCarthy
Davies
Lookman
Mirallas (only as a back up due to being in Europe, otherwise not consistent)

Lukaku

TO LEAVE:

Robles

Galloway: Not good enough for Everton
Garbutt: Not good enough for Everton
Browning: Not good enough for Everton
Funes Mori: Not good enough for our next level

Barkley: 5-6 years to prove himself, still doing same mistakes
Lennon: Inconsistent for our next level
Deulofeu: Not a Koeman hard-tackling type of player
McGeady: Not good enough, lazy, inconsistent
Besic: Unreliable due to injury, cant plan a team with him in it
Barry: His time has come and will be even slower next season

Valencia: works hard but not good enough for top level
Henen: Championship level, struggling to break through
Kone: Simply not good enough
Niasse: Take the money and run. Wont score as many next season

TO COME IN:

Jack Butland: for me, £25m would be a steal for this player. At the age of 24 he plays with the maturity of a 30-year-old. He could be our new Nigel Martyn for the next 15 years.

Michael Keane: What a stunning defender and could be ours for around £25m also. Always shows a steel like character that would galvanise any back line. Great attitude, always shouting and up for the fight. potential future Everton captain.

Gylfi Sigurdsson: I would rather take £30m for Barkley whilst teams are willing to pay that (Eg, Tottenham) and plough it straight into buying Sigurdsson. Barkley has had 5-6 years at the top and I genuinely feel he has reached his glass ceiling. A player of his experience should not still be standing on the ball whilst trying to decide where he needs to put it. He still runs into players and falls over looking for free kicks. I know he is one of ours, but this game is about winning trophies and whilst there is a better option out there such as Sigurdsson, go for it. His goals, assists, completed passes, completed dribbles is phenomenal. We need this guy sat behind a front 2 or as part of a front 3. Okay, Barkley made stunning cross for Lukaku's goal against Burnley, but this guy does that, week-in & week-out.

Jermaine Defoe: For the coming season I feel that we need two strikers of Lukaku's quality or better. I also think we could also do with a 3rd striker that can come on and create a bit of magic. Although Defoe is 34 and is not likely to command a fee when Sunderland are confirmed relegated, what amazing back up should any of the front two get injured, or even as a front 3 with them.

Moussa Dembele: 49 starts in all competitions this season, scoring an incredible 32 goals. Yes I know this is the Scottish League, but Dembele is a 6ft, 20-year-old that will just get better and better. Imagine where we might have been in the league had we had this man up front with Lukaku all season. I believe Celtic paid around £5m for him from Fulham, £25-30m would surely acquire his services.

Lukaku does still have two full years to run on his contract, which is still quite some time. I believe that Koeman will gladly allow Lukaku's contract to run down to its last year as he attempts to put in place a squad of the above quality to show how ambitious we are. Once the first few quality players start arriving I am sure Lukaku will eventually change his mind at the end of next season and sign a new contract. However, if that doesn't happen, I would still buy Defoe and Dembele, but add a 3rd striker from the following options:

Javier Hernandez
Kelechi Iheanacho
Andrea Belotti
Kylian Mbappe

Off topic, I watched Tyias Browning turn out for PNE last night against the Geordies. I'm afraid to say I wasn't impressed, and on that showing, it doesn't look like he has developed much out on loan.

He looked very leaden footed, a bit overweight in all honesty, and was constantly outmuscled in the aerial bombardment thrown at them by the fat waiter's team. Only one showing of course, but more evidence to me that a quality centre-back is a big priority.

Also, history shows that so many at the same time rarely results in trophies in their first season.

Stoke don't need to sell. Also, I'd be very wary if they do, £10m is a big gamble on butland right now. That was a bad injury and you need to be sure he's back before spending big on him.

Also, FFP would stop us spending £150m.

Bad news about your third choice striker I'm afraid:

Real Madrid will make a bid of up to £85m for 18-year-old Monaco forward Kylian Mbappe in order to beat Barcelona and Manchester United to the teenager's signature. (L'Equipe – in French).

Unless of course you've factored that spend into your calculations?

How do we find our way around that?

BING! – Don't sell Lukaku until we have the striker(s) already signed.

Doing it this way may slightly alleviate the losses we may incur by keeping hold of Lukaku. It may also teach Mr Cement Bag how to trap a bag full of humility whilst sitting on the bench watching another striker extol his wares.

Buy one that could play as a lone striker or as one of a two-up-front partnership.

Just what is going on in this situation?

Certainly if we can sign the likes of Sigurdsson then we don't need Barkley. As a previous poster has already said, he's had enough time to prove himself.

And as soon as that overblown turd Lukaku fucks off, the better. The sight of him hugging that Chelsea transfer geezer after the match yesterday? Made me want to puke.