Confirmation of Rooney's DC deal imminent

I hope this marks the end of Bill Kenwright's long-running Merseyside production 'Owt will do, if it's a has-been Blue' and the return of Nil Satis Nisi Optimum.

Missing you already, Rooney... (not)!

Take the money then come back and start life as a coach... not a bad place to be!

A big shame we never saw peak Rooney in blue.

Then again, our American cuisine and nightlife might add a few more pounds and take some games off his season.

Better for him to play for a couple more years than be a bench warmer.

I think it's good for him and good for us to get his wages off the books. Hopefully good business for DC too, their profile is already raised.

Marcel Brands continues to make steps in the right direction. There will be a few more on the move soon.

I trust Brands and Silva will get 2 or 3 quality targeted signings in too. I am optimistic we will be starting the season with a younger hungrier team with a more positive outlook. With the right signings we can have a crack at the top 4. With Tosun bedding in, Walcott's pace and Seamus and Leighton returning we started to have balance and menace despite Big Sam's preferred style.

With 2 or 3 quality additions replacing slower older players coupled with Marco Silva motivating and improving playing style the upside for the club is palpable. Add to this that the squad will be fresh through no Europa League and no squad World Cup fatigue and you could get carried away. Additionally, Ademola Lookman will be like a new star signing for us this season.

My blue-tinted spectacles are starting to steam up, but I will have a tenner on a top 4 finish for us.

The green shoots are coming through; it is the dawn of another springtime for Everton Football Club.

I'm hoping the new boss gets a good squad together, and who knows, maybe Moshiri's best friend will come in.

Take the family around the superb museums around Capitol Hill, the boys will love it! I am sure many will follow your progress at DC United and wish you well for the future.

"I'm very excited about the match,” Rooney said.

“I grew up an Everton fan, my whole family are Everton fans and I grew up hating Liverpool – and that hasn't changed.

"I think coming to Old Trafford will be a difficult game for them. They know they need to win, they need the three points. I'm sure they will be up for it and we certainly will be too. It will certainly end Liverpool's chances if we win and that's why we're looking forward to it.

"I think if we beat Liverpool we'll probably end their chances of winning the League but there's still Chelsea plugging away. So we have to keep playing. It won't be won yet.”

What did they want him to say? 😇 😇 😇

I know mathematically and whatever else it's correct but finishing 7th should never have the word "top" associated with it.

Top four? – makes sense as all teams qualify for the Champions League which is the accepted pinnacle.

Anything less than those positions is just meh!!

Always gave 100% when you came back although your powers had faded. As someone else said, come back on the staff and share your experience.

I agree, seventh isn't good enough for me – I want top four – but in our new setup's first season...

You know what, Brian, I've changed my mind, seventh isn't good enough!

You'd think that, if any club would know Rooney well enough to want him on the coaching staff, it would be Man Utd, but the silence has been noticeable. Oh – and Jags would probably be a better shout in a year's time too.

I'm not getting excited about next season because we have a collection of pretty ordinary players and I can't see men of real talent being attracted to join them.

Thus those we end up with will have to show about a 20% improvement on what they managed last time. Can Silva effect such an improvement? Obviously Moshiri believes so and we can only hope he's right!

Man City – no chance;

Man Utd – you know they will spend big yet again, so unfortunately no;

Tottenham – highly unlikely... settled team, and any new additions will likely be good;

Liverpool – god I hope so... maybe, just maybe, the Salah bubble has burst... but still very doubtful;

Chelsea – a bit unsettled at present, but still have far better players than us across the pitch;

Arsenal – saw them last season and they were dogshite! But can they get any worse this year? Probably not.

I'm not even mentioning Burnley as we really should be finishing above them. Until we buy at least 3 stand-out players, I'm afraid finishing 7th would be a realistic finish.

The bad news is that we look like we are getting zilch for him, despite the fact that it appeared he had a £10-15m cost as a makeweight in the Lukaku deal. Of course none of these agreements are made public – in our case, maybe just as well.

I thought at the time he was worth a punt because, if it came to the worst, we could always flog him for silly money to China. But they have wised up and Rooney probably wouldn't go there anyway. It's not the worst hit we've taken but the real problem is, we've had a nightmare 18 months on transfers and contracts and so this just adds to the mess. Of all the people we've bought in the past couple of years, I'd suggest only Pickford would be sellable at a decent profit.

I can't see the US working for him, it's a fit fast league and there is no way he can coast to retirement whereas China would have been better at his time but obviously farther away.

Looking forward to further sweepings and moving the squad forward, this is a start.

Please stay on the right side of the law in the USA and come back wiser and who knows, one day, you may be a coach...

The club moves on.

Of course he wasn't the player he was in his mid-twenties. But he was still the best we had. With better application and quality around him, it could have worked. It didn't.

But it feels like the posters on here who make him the whipping boy for last season's failings are just shouting sour grapes over his move to Manchester, when frankly, we needed the cash and he had to move on to achieve what he couldn't by staying.

Thank you for that goal against West Ham. Thank you for being an Evertonian first and a footballer second. And I hope when he comes back to watch the blues in the future, he gets a real welcome.

Martin (#26), regarding the US being a "fast fit league", it certainly is, but Wayne is well above the standard of quality for MLS, which should more than make up for it.

As evidence, I give you Robbie Keane (104 in 165 for LA Galaxy) and David Villa (73 in 109 for NYC).

Wayne will do just fine, at least until he gets sick of being on the worst team in MLS.

He was surrounded by far better players throughout his time at Manchester United and he still found himself being dropped down the pecking order and without a positional portfolio in the last two or three seasons.

'Better' players saw him squeezed out of United's team – not forming the fulcrum of it. His best days were very clearly over, despite both Van Gaal's and Mourinho's attempts to find a suitable role for him.

Sadly, we still believed in fairy tales.

Hopefully his imminent departure means those days are finally over.

He actually played 31 league games and 9 other, a lot more than half a season. Also, he only scored two more goals than Niasse, and Rooney's 10 included 3 pens I believe. Had someone else taken the pens our Oumar would have been top scorer – says it all for last season.

I don't think we should really be cheering 10 goals in a season as some great achievement as it is. Even Glen Murray at Brighton managed that. Rooney could admittedly only play as much as his body allowed but bringing him back was a poor and extremely expensive decision imo. At £150k/week and by far our top earner, I'd expect a lot more than 10 goals in a season, especially having played most games.

Personally, I look forward to him being off the wage bill. Nothing against him personally (who wouldn't have accepted the offer to come back, especially on those terms) but it was a massive step in the wrong direction for the club and signing him smacks of sentimentality rather than footballing reasons. Huge load off the wage bill once he's gone.

Hopefully more to follow soon.

The truth is, of course, that we've managed it only 8 times in the last 30 seasons so are the assumptions of greatness based on the memories of Catterick and Kendall?

So please, let's get real. By all means hope for instant glory but by any standards, a good seventh would show we were on the mend. Don't knock it, folks – it won't be that easy to achieve!

Not a bad side if they played for us at their best! (Full backs slightly dodgy!)

David Silva is the same age as Wayne and Mo Salah earns £60k a week less than Wayne. Bringing the Man Utd bench-warmer, Wayne Rooney, back to Everton was as discrace, IMO.

£12.5M per year for two years is an average of just over £240,000, per calendar week.

Not exactly a drop down from his £150,000 per week with us, although whether or not Man Utd will have to top it up to the £300,000 per week he was allegedly on with them, is, of course, another matter.

You were totally played out of position for us last season but you still managed to score some vital goals that kept us away from danger.

The great goal against West Ham and the Anfield penalty will live long in the memory.

You could have had 2 or 3 great seasons for us but we are clueless on how to get the best out of players and some supporters just unappreciative and I guess that's why you're gone.

Glad he's gone. Too old, too slow and not good enough.

A handful of decent / good moments but not enough.

He's part of the past; let's move on and build a decent team.

He has had a brilliant career, half his life playing in the Premier League. Good Luck to him.

So what did his year here cost us?

£10 -15million transfer fee offset from the Lukaku deal

£7.5 million in wages

I don't think anyone can argue that the £17.5 - 22.5 million was well spent.

No-one can blame Wayne, he is a born Everton supporter and wanted to do well, but he is way past his best footballing-wise as a striker and physically.

This was a foolish and sentimental decision predominantly made, most suspect, by Bill Kenwright. In normal times he would have been told to step down for spunking £17.5- 22.5 million in a year on just one player with zero resale. One not good enough to get a regular start for a rival in almost 2 years. Ironically protected by the litany of Koeman and Walsh's failures and the Big Sam debacle, Bill has managed to keep his head below the parapet.

And don't get me started on the Lukaku deal, Man Utd played us like a fiddle, off-loading Rooney at the same time. They must have thought it was Christmas. If Real Madrid came in for Lukaku now, Man Utd would be touting him at £140m. On top of all that, we didn't even replace him with the relative peanuts Man Utd chucked at us.

Good luck to him – he lived the dream, albeit mainly at Man Utd. He's still one of us.

Colin – old Mother Hubbard made me laugh a lot! Hahaha!

Ashley Young? Valencia? Blind? Mata? Smalling? Phil Jones?

I think Mata and Smallling would be am improvement on our current players.

The others not.

And I think Samuel Eto'o might also get a game.

However, if it is for both years then we may still have to contribute £30k per week to make up his pay. That might be one of the terms for cancelling his contract with us.

It's a shame that one of England's best footballers in a generation was essentially not fit or sharp enough for top-level football by the age of 30. Perhaps he played too many games when he was young but I suspect his predilection for fags, booze and junk food had something to do with it.

Everton fans have little sympathy with Ronald Koeman as big purchase goes missing

I can't understand what is gained by him not potentially winning a derby or even a cup to gain dollars (if any) to try America. As a millionaire, you take your family anywhere you want once retired.

We name 25 players to start the Premier League season. I seriously doubt we will have 25 players better than Rooney. Or a squad that wouldn't benefit from his expertise in the final third.

But Everton save money and Wayne does what's expected of him again, like a sheep. All good players must finish in America?

Sold his life story to The Sun.

Came back to Goodison Park and kissed the Man Utd badge.

Been back at Everton a matter of months and gets caught cheating on his pregnant wife.

Let's be honest, I wouldn't even let him buy a season ticket at Goodison. A Man Utd legend and a Premier League great goal scorer, but it boils my piss when people talk about how great an Evertonian he is. I cannot wait for him to leave; he should never have come back.

Score a winner in the derby?

Win a cup?

He's shagged. Literally!

He was out of position, scored from his own half and finished leading scorer. Under Koeman he started very brightly his performance away to Man City was as good as any. Yet again the evidence doesn't fit the hyperbole.

I don't believe it's likely we will win a cup or a derby but surely the chance do that outweighs DC?

The personal stuff is exactly that, personal. If you think that 90% of our squad don't cheat and get pissed you are extremely naïve.

But I'm just talking from a football pt of view. There are at least 15 squad players that currently contribute far less to the teams success. And that is being generous. Or is anyone going dispute that?

I shall never forget the advert: 'The Hanging Phlegm – Come next week and see it Drop!!'

If he was SO good, why was he played out of position? And why is no-one seeking to prevent him leaving?

He only showed when he managed to raise his game – in our opening two fixtures and against West Ham, when he had to make an effort again to impress our new manager.

Apart from that (and please don't cite the penalty at Anfield), what other performances merit such blind faith?

The 'top scorer' justification is a misnomer. Three of them were penalties, which, had Niasse taken them for example, would have made him top scorer. He also missed three too! He didn't score at all in 2018. And he stunk the place out.

Yeah, let's keep him, on £150k a week – and play him where, exactly? The only reason we re-signed him is that his name's Wayne Rooney.

No-one we have ambitions to compete with would have given him a locker. And at last, it seems, we have finally woken up to what a folly his nonsensical second coming was.

But all this is immaterial. He's going – woohoo!

For the record, I'd let him compete for Number 10 shirt with Sigurdsson or the Number 9. He's certainly worth £150k a week in today's market. But the blag billionaire or Kenwright Mk 2 wants to save a few quid.

This is a case of Everton making a profit yet again and Rooney following his advisors or maybe not fancying being a squad player. A large part of his decision I'd guess is following the fashion. Maybe Colleen will be able to join in now, in the "living in USA" conversations with Alex Gerrard and Posh Spice.

But it's the age-old adage again:

"Lies, damn lies, statistics and English football logic."

Gana is brilliant though haha. As I sad, madness.

We want Allardyce fucked off because of the football??? Yet England's best ever player at 32 needs fucking off because he's finished... but Baby Legs Gana, "I need to to tackle you twice, I'm so lightweight" is brilliant? He's going to deliver great football and goals from the halfway line?

There's probably a typo you can all pull me up on though. So you win: Rooney is shit. Wayne Rooney... and Keane, Gana, Lookman are boss too... 😂

I name more high profile Portuguese managers than Marco Silva, rather than Everton players better than Rooney.

So, Blue Bill welcomed him back and we paid him a fortune to be shit for us. I know some Evertonians think he did a good job. For the money he was paid, he was, in my view, utterly fucking shite.

His signing was just one example of the criminal negligence that afflicted our club last summer. Bringing him back as a coach would be even worse than retaining Duncan "the legend" Ferguson... and, by fuck, that decision would take some topping.

The Rooney-to-Everton deal was another pathetic Old Boys' act from Bill Kenwright — no doubt about that.

Utterly shambolic signing... but wasn't it said the reason we got such a shite fee for Lukaku (£75 million) was factoring Wayne Rooney into the mix, who cost Everton £10 million plus a Billion quid a week for wages?? If so, we have just given Rooney away for free and this whole Rooney-to-Everton has cost us all that wasted money.

Un-fucking-believable, the shit Kenwright has presided over at this club: Kings Dock, Destination Kirkby, Kieth Wyness, Kitbag, Million seasons of Moyes, etc etc etc.

Plase can we now put Kenwright, Rooney, Bolasie, Klaassen, Sandro, Williams, Schniederlin, Niasse, and the rest of the cast of the Goonies on to the Happy Bus and kiss the twats Goodbye???

It's sickening the money we've sponked on shite in the past 2 seasons while Kenwright just sat there clapping like a sealion on acid. Bill Kenwright let Koeman and Walsh run amok with the club's funds but I put the Rooney deal squarely on Bill's shoulders... Hope it's true that Kenwright is a goner soon.

Lock up your Grandmas — America Wazza's on the loose!!!

They, along with the likes of Kenny, Davies, Connolly, Baningime, Dowell, Calvert-Lewin and Lookman are the future for Everton - not some faded hero on a farewell tour.

The only thing Rooney has excelled at is very ably demonstrating that his best days are moving ever further behind him. Those who think he a foundation for us to build on are living in the past.

He is a symbol of all that has been wrong with Everton under Kenwright's tenure and no-one we aspire to competing with would have even contemplated buying him - never mind on a staggering £150,000 a week.

All this redundant rhetoric about him 'being a blue' urgently needs putting into context too.

He has played less than 100 league games for us: 67 between 2002 to 2004 - 14 years ago - and 31 last season.

In between he spent 13 seasons at Manchester United, playing almost 400 times.

By what sort of criteria does that make him the 'Everton legend' most of the dwindling minority who still want him here maintain he is?

Yes, he played for Everton.

Yes, he was the most exciting player we have produced in my lifetime.

Yes, he happened to be an Evertonian.

But that's it. He left us when he was only 18. He earned the right to be called a legend because of what he achieved somewhere else.

He has done nothing at all for us to be called one here.

I can only assume DC United are as gullible as we were. They will soon realise though that they have got the Rooney the Mancs were so eager to get rid of, not the one we were so desperate to keep all those years ago.

I was horrified at the rumours early 2017 that he'd be back at EFC for 2017/8 season - an utterly crazy BK-inspired move. In order to get him we sold our proven PL scorer over 5 seasons with years ahead of him on the cheap to the team that finished just above us in 2106/7, without first replacing him and when we didn't even have to sell him - 2 yrs left on contract, World Cup coming up!

No wonder our season, with an awful early fixture list & an early start to Europa League, had a rocky start and was such a disappointment.

And there's rumours about him coming back to us as a coach! He's not even qualified - he'd be great at showing our youngsters how to show no loyalty to your home & boyhood club, to abuse your body so as to shorten your career, and to cheat on your pregnant wife without any consideration for your 3 kids! What a role model!

ONCE A TRAITOR ALWAYS A TRAITOR! GET OUT & NEVER COME BACK

Only Robles and Mori out so far from the senior squad. Surgeon had better get his gloves on as this patient needs a lot doing!

Probably got the use of a private jet clause over the line.

Good luck to him; i hope he gets a few goals for them.

Are we having to sub his wages?

Correction, he WAS a top player, but no longer is. You wanna know how I know that to be true? Because he’s moving to the MLS to play for one of the worst teams in that substandard league.

We need to dump salaries! Send him on a free for all I care. It's £10 million wasted.

Move on. Prepare for a Silva-lining future.

Then, hopefully and finally, EFC is reborn starting in August 2018.

Good luck to the man I still remember the 2 goals at Wrexham, as well as the one against Arsenal.

Link

Flickered briefly on his return. Great player in his time, but that time has gone and for the most part was not at Everton.

Indifference is my own overriding emotion as opposed to the genuine pain of his first leaving of the club.

I think it’s important to differentiate between vitriol and simply believing that at this stage he is not what we need.

Really?

Who's next? Williams, Bolasie?