Walsh heads Everton delegation on Milan trip

The Mandarin Oriental means we might get a photo of dinner at Ristorante Seta with Bacca and Zapata.

If they're at the Greco (where I spent one night in 1978), Walsh will be coming home with Banega's boot boy and and a couple of takeaway pizzas.

Milan have made no secret of their desire to keep Deulofeu, and given Barcelona's reluctance to buy him back, I think they just need Everton to agree a fee (15million Euros is mentioned over here in Italy).

The other players mentioned in this article don't strike me as the most consistent with the exception of Mertens who has just had the best season of his career and taken over from Higuain as the darling of Napoli fans.

From Milan - I would love it if we could get Manuel Locatelli only young but has the makings of becoming a brilliant player, Suso who plays between the lines of attack and midfield or the young defender Romagnoli who Montella noted in the very good Roma youth setup.

From Inter - I like Candreva who has bags of talent on the right, lots of assists and scores important goals, Joao Mario the ex-Porto midfielder who has a motor on him (though Everton already have lots of competition in that area) or Gagliardini who arrived from Atalanta last season and may soon become a key member of the Italian national side.

From Napoli - I like Koulibaly and Mertens. Can't really think of others worth going for at the moment but Walsh and his team may see things differently.

From Fiorentina - Federico Bernardeschi comes to mind, there is lots of speculation about him going to Juventus or Inter. Has scored some lovely goals from outside the area last season. Kalinic is a good striker who Milan are after, and one for the future is Federico Chiesa (the son of former Italy striker Enrico Chiesa).

What about it is bizarre exactly? When Lukaku leaves we will have exactly zero strikers in the senior team. I would sincerely hope we plan on signing more than a single striker this Summer. Kone gone, Valencia gone, Lukaku soon to be gone. By my count that leaves us needing a hell of a lot more than just Sandro.

Or were you just baiting us with your remark, attempting to catch us out?

Sorry, private joke... only joking, Martin.

We're off signing dross in Italy when we should be securing Pickford and Sandro. Now we're going to sign a load of randoms instead of focusing on quality. One of whom (Niang) we almost signed five years ago and last season he looked much worse than Calvert-Lewin.

We need to get quality in and continue to develop youth talent. We should be holland securing Klaassen, picking up the new Ajax prodigy de Ligt, and why not Kasper Dolberg. The one stop Ajax shop for three great young players, then back to England for sigurdsson. And then on the phone to Lukaku and saying, what do you think now Rom? One more year?

We know there will be twists and turns as some of our targets get picked off by a desperate West ham, Stoke or Crystal Palace willing to spunk the lot of their TV money or a champions League outfit offering better step up

We need Walsh out in the market where Italian clubs and relationships may deliver 1-3 quality players - either squad depth or replacing the strike force which has all but disappeared.
Mr Walsh has already put our stake in the Sandro table stakes and Pickford appears to be a Fitness test from conclusion .

Sigurdsson is a waiting game and Koeman will be playing the Dutch angle and no doubt the Spanish angle

But where is Bill? and Bob?

Certainly not Bizarre Stevie F...?

Scout is interviewed, Walsh is photographed but there's nothing to see here. Brilliant.

I'm hoping that we haven't actually told the journos who are "actual" Italian targets really are. I'm hopeful that Steve Walsh and his entourage are laying a smelly trail to keep them off our real targets. We can but hope.

Let's see what he's got before the knives come out.

If these reports are true then both player and agent must be on-side.

He's still only 22 and I suspect that his game is better suited to the Premier League than Serie A football. He did okay for Watford. I gather they wanted to sign him so he mustn't have done too bad.

Carlos Bacca would be a decent signing, again in a deal for Deulofeu with us chucking a few million Milan's way.

Not sure about the other Milan striker (Lapadula) He's 27 and bounced around most of the clubs in Serie A without ever getting a cap for Italy. Definitely not the calibre of striker to replace Rom, IMO.

"We're off signing dross in Italy... a load of randoms instead of focusing on quality."

Man, you would boo a sunset. At 11am.

I'd suggest, without selling anyone, we'd have £80m maybe to spend. Just a figure plucked out the air... but if it is in that ballpark, we would spend that by signing Klaassen, Pickford, Keane and say one more top player in the £20m range. So it wouldn't surprise me if we target 1 or 2 on loan.

This above is, at present, wishful thinking, but it would be nice if it actually came true.

Pessimistic slant is: Walsh is just in Italy to finalize the sale of Deulofeu.

Either John (#19) is right and they got their Zapata's confused, or we have a really bad scout that can't tell the difference between a defender and a striker.

Or, perhaps more likely, the whole list of names is a smokescreen to throw the press off the real target – Koulibaly.

Extremely happy to sign Klaassen. Just wish we had news on Ramirez as he is the one we need. He is awesome.

He sounds just what we need.

Gomez on Tevez, what a challenge lol: https://youtu.be/x2uwDZ09v-I

I hope we got Klaassen sorted this weekend.