Everton linked with move for young Schalke centre-half

One for the future?

Yes, we Can!

Let's hope we keep buying young talented kids who may one day save us a fortune; the more you get right, the bigger chance we have of becoming a bigger side.

Spurs Harry Kane and Dele Alli cost them buttons yet saved them hundreds of millions. Without them they would be no better than us.

Yeah... Eriksen, Lloris et al are rubbish 🙈

No, Tim, they're quality, but do we not have quality??

Also, mate, when you develop a kid into the world's best Number 9 and add a top quality Number 10 to him for £4M, you get to spend your money elsewhere.

Also, is Lloris better than Pickford? Eriksen better than Richarlison? If we added Kane and Alli to our squad, would we not compete for top 4 ?

Spurs are a top side but top sides have top players and Spurs most valuable players are Kane and Alli.

Simon #5

I take your point but roundly disagree. Spurs are much much better than us: aside from just Kane and Alli

Saying that, put Kane and Alli into our team instead and perhaps we'd be ahead of Spurs...

Hmmm... maybe you're onto something???

Also, Kase, if we had them two players, our next investment would be wide men or a right-back, if we had Alli, we wouldn't have bought Sigurdsson, freeing up £45M, and we would build it that way.

All ifs and buts... but, if we bring through the right players, a lot can change.

Look at the Red Shite, they get sterling for £500k and Courtinho for £6M, combined they were bought for £6.5M, gave them a fantastic few years and a £180M profit!

Many of our fans moan when we're linked with young players in need of development, but the right few can shape a club's future for the better. Even going back to the Man Utd team under Ferguson, he freed up money for big players after doing well with his youngsters, the Nevilles, Giggs, Beckham, Scholes, etc – freeing up money for Ronaldo who was also young and served well before going at a huge profit.

Spurs have done it a while too with plenty of success, going back to Carrick and Bale, they bought young and developed.

We won't go out and buy the Premier League, we need Brands to produce some magic with some young gems.

Going back to the lad above, we as a club have done a lot of good work with young centre-halves too, look at Stones and Holgate of late; also, we were very unlucky with Dier and Mustafi.

A Striker please!!!!

That is great one for the future. We have enough center Halfs. We need a STRIKER TO SCORE GOALS!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree with the sentiment about a striker, we definitely need something to fix that... but you can't stop scouting talent, especially young talent to help you, as Simon has said above. I think these things are good.

We haven't done bad ourselves when you think the players we have bought cheaper and sold on... Rooney – nothing, Ball, Jeffers, Lescott, even people like Lukaku, who gave us nearly £50m profit..

The main issue I see for us over Spurs, is we seem unable to keep these players, as they want to go to one of the Sky darlings, whereas Spurs have kept them and built around them!

Simon (5): "Also, is Lloris better than Pickford? Eriksen better than Richarlison?"

To question 1: Yes (but only a bit).

To question 2: Yes (but only by a huge amount; I like Richarlison – but Eriksen is one of the world's best midfielders).

Simon – we haven't got a single player who would get into Spurs first eleven.

Simon @5

My answer is a definite Yes to both.

I agree with Andrew but would be a bit more definite on #1. World Cup final aside, Lloris is much more reliable and composed than Pickford.

On #2. I can believe you would compare both. Eriksen is more like a high octane Sigurdsson and usually dictates the pace of games.

Okay lads, yes Erricson is top notch I'll have that, but Lloris isn't what your all claiming. It's neither here nor there as we won't ever get to swap or anything else so the point was just to show were not miles behind.

Spurs have spent on players over the years knowing they had there big guns already locked down. Personally, I don't over-rate Lloris.

Anyways Eddie as for us not having a player who would get in spurs first 11 I'm not having that. Keane or Mina not getting in Spurs team but they play the Argentine lad Foyth?

Digne not capable of getting a game? Gomes? Gana? They getting kept out by Deir, are they? I don't agree, myself.

Yes Spurs are better than us, you don't need any special qualifications to see that, my point is not too long ago Spurs were like us. Since then, they got 2 super stars as kids for pennies that changed them. Now they spend wisely.

Comment #7, I explain my point using Spurs, Man Utd, and Liverpool. I stick by my points.

Simon, I said first eleven, Hoyth isn't in it.

Gana and Gomes... no chance! Keane and Mina! Those two aren't even as good as Zouma, and he's a Chelsea reserve.

Get a grip, Simon.

"Get a grip, Simon!"

Tell me, is Deir a better holding midfielder than Gana?

Is Davies a better left back than Digne?

All about opinions; maybe you should get a grip, Eddie.

Simon lad. Spurs have had better players than us for years. Bale and Modric are better than anything I have seen in a blue shirt for years. Under Rednapp (idiot) they were excellent, and have continued to be. Even when changing manager and players they have remained a top side. The fact they bought no-one in the summer and were above Man City, and in any season (last two aside) would be top, shows how good they are.

Not sure how often you have watched us but we have a couple of okay players and some poorer ones. We lack balance and, in the last few seasons, we have built new foundations every other season rather than building a house. We have become a middle-of-the-table team with a couple of good results which give us tired Blues hope of a new dawn. As I have said in several other posts, there is no silver-bullet answer, but we should at least give the current man a chance.

We can all point to players who clubs have bought and made a mint on. Coleman is currently on the field who, at his peak, was worth millions. Stones and even Rooney are examples for us and better choices we would have Van Dijk on the field, who is hardly a bargain for the RS.

Finally, I don't think one or even two players would make that much difference. I hope that the younger crop have a couple of gems and we sell some baggage and get some decent players in. But more than that, we need to play more as a team and deliver on the pitch... and that starts at the back. Everton have conceded the most goals in the Premier League (since it began) and that is not good enough.

Tim lad.

I agree with a lot of what your saying but when you talk about spurs under Rednapp or with Bale and Modric, your talking about a team that in 2007 finished 2 points ahead of us and in 2008 finished 12 points below us.

I'm not saying were as good as Spurs, I put a valid point up that if we were to get as lucky as spurs when buying kids we could one day get a Harry Kane and a Dele Alli which saves a club millions and push us on as Spurs have since back when Moyes pushed them all the way a lot of his seasons as a blue.

My point was I felt Eddie was harsh when he claimed no Everton player makes Spurs first 11, yes they are better than us but imo Digne and Gana at the very least make spurs first team.

Oh and as for watching us, I do it every home game with my dad and kids at Goodison, and watch all away games on live streams as you probably do.

My initial point made in comment 3 was we need to buy young up and coming players as we would need to find a fair portion of our starting 11 via that route as we won't ever have 11 £50m players.

Young talented players have made clubs like Man Utd and Spurs an elite Premier League force in different eras; I want us to be the next one, is that so bad?