Everton may need to sign five players

Kean
Malcolm
Zaha
Gbamin
CB

I would be okay with this. Real intent

The fans did their bit at the end of last season to energise the team. What about earning a bit of corn, Marco, and improving one or two of the existing squad? Some of the passing and movement at the moment is tediously slow.

How is it we the fans knew this and Silva has just woken up and smelled the coffee? Mmmmmmm...

Left it too late now, methinks.

Well, Malcom or Zaha since we definitely need a right back.

I'm getting rather tired of all this "Will he? Won't he/' speculation via the media. Whoever we are trying to sign, so be it. However, at this moment in time, we are linked with every player under the sun.

Marcel & Marco have been entrusted with sorting it out early in the current window! It hasn't happened, and in fairness nothing currently is of their making.

It's getting close to the close of the window, but all this pie in the sky doesn't help. Facts, facts, facts, not supposition.

Surprised he mentioned a number, i.e. 5, rather than a “we have a number of targets in mind” sort of thing. Is it a sign of impatience, or relationship breaking down, or maybe even getting excuses in early?

Well get feckin on with it then

So Silva is saying that the only two players we have signed are too similar to play together?

Brilliant.

I really hope we can sign at least x2 proper strikers who know the smell of goals and where the goal is, an RB, CD, but in reality for me the strikers and the CD and with the possibility of Gana, leaving, we need his direct replacement.

We live in hope but as it stands we could be starting worse off in terms of squad strength, than we finished at Spurs.

The Wigan game, a game of two half's, in which the second-half team, the weaker of the teams field, showed more endeavour.

Too slow, too predictable and not enough team work, and the two games yesterday exposed all the issues we face.

In Marcel Brands we trust and it's gonna be an interesting couple of weeks.

Calvert-Lewin's conversion ratio, and based on positions in the box he takes, says to me he'll not be a regular goal-scoring footballer. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see the composure, instinct, and decision making to achieve this.

Let's hope we get some players in.

Gana pictured in Paris - he’s gone, we all need to accept it.

We know we want Gomes on the ball, but without Gana there it’ll be tough to do that.

Davies is not the man - either McCarthy is fit and steps up or we need to think differently.

Such an encouraging end to the season, two key cogs in the spine are now gone (Zouma/Gana) whilst we were already the striker short; damn we need something in the next week.

Didn’t Roberto Martinez say he needed 5-6 players after his first season and got...? This is the Everton Way, Marco. Leave everything till the last minute then plop!

I can’t see us doing anything until the big earners eg Bolasie, Walcott, Schneiderlin, McCarthy etc...are off the books and Gana is sold. And just as I was getting excited about the new stadium.

That’s the thing with reading things Phil, because you can interpret them whatever way you want to.

I think players who play in a similar way can compliment each other, but I’d say that in a midfield three, you will also want somebody who is very defensively disciplined, and also good at covering the space and winning the ball back?

So...

Kenny goes on loan, then Silva says he only has one right back.

Robinson gets sold, then we only have one left back.

Jagielka is let go, then Holgate is used as cover for centre backs, contributing to his first comment.

I hope they know what they’re doing.

We are always so close to success, just can't get over the line. We lose our best players every year, its gone on for years, Lescott, Stones, Barkley, Lukaku go and we can't replace them straight away – then slowly build up again and wallop we lose Kouma and Gueye, two pivotal key players to our system as well as Gomes, but at least we retained him.

We'll probably replace them but it will take another year to imbed them, another 6th to 8th place, but just looking good to challenge again – and then you watch we'll lose Richarlison, etc etc .

Brands's problem is that, even though we win U23 titles, cups, none of them are good enough to come up this season. Liverpool had Trent Alexander and Gomez break through; we sell Lookman, loan out again Dowell, Kenny, etc. Where are the 18- or 19-year-olds we need to make an instant impact

We are running out of time, I believe this is frustration on Silva with Brands and Mosh, The problem with this as in any negotiation if we are leaving it to the last minute the other parties are aware we are then "desperate".

If we go in to this season with no proper instinctive striker, I will lose the will to live!!

Gana is gone, If he wasn't at Afcon, he would be at PSG by now. I think we should defo hold out for at least £30-35M for him; we have him on a long contract and they are loaded.

Carrying on with my rant - it's a almost impossible position we are trying to obtain. There are the real big-money clubs – Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea – who are generating nearly 3 times income we do, have a recent history of success, being measured by playing in the Champions League. We are striving to catch up on a reduced budget against teams who will buy success.

We can only buy let's call them Div 1 players as opposed to Champions League players – almost impossible to fully compete, unless you catch a dream season like Leicester did 3-4 years ago but couldn't sustain. I think we could sustain success as we have Moshiri, problem is obtaining success.

M&M inherited this bloated squad, weighed down as it is with more than a few mediocre players who realise they'll never again get close to their current contracts. I suggest their attitude at FF stinks the place out when it comes to getting the "mentality" sharpened of those M&M actually want to keep.

Their inheritance was handed to them by Moshiri "assisted" as he was by appointees, all of whom, bar one of course, now having been disposed of one way or another. That's a good thing but Moshiri is not a wealthy man in comparison to more than a few other owners. The malfunctions he unwittingly appointed and oversaw hurt us and will continue to hurt until such time as the Deadwood Stage-coach/es are fully occupied and ridden right out of FF. He can't spend his way out of his mistakes.

And I'm glad that others are also realising that for all the "great" work being done by "Unsy" very little if any product emerges as a reliable first team player. To me that's the kernel of his job, and he's therefore failing.

Yeah, I don't buy Silva does not know what is going on with Gana, sure it was an open secret he was leaving.
So unless PSG change their mind, he is gone.

Personally if the reported fee is correct, for me we have sold him on the cheap - easily worth £40 million in todays market and PSG are not short of cash.
And he will be hard to replace.

Our number one priority as everyone knows is striker striker striker.
If the reports regarding Costa were true, I think this would have been an unbelievable signing for the club in terms of raising our profile and of course this guy doesn't like losing !
Yes he is a risk, but worth it for me, imagine Costa leading the line on the 4 Dec 19.

The cynic in me suspects there is a load of spin going on at Everton right now, good to see us linked with good players but it means nothing if we don't get them.

Can we get one thing clear it’s not the manager who gets players he just says who he wants and brands gets them. The most telling part was his words if we want to better last season we need 5 more. Absolutely correct. Moshiri go get em but not Zaha, just my preference.

So did Coleman play both games or did Connolly play one?

I’ve just heard from a mate that kean from Juventus is at finch farm

I’ve said since Delph signed I thought we’d get 3-5 more and with Gana now leaving I’m sure it will be 4 at least. It may be that these moves don’t get wrapped up till deadline day but I have faith in Brands to bring in some quality late on as he did last summer.

Looking like Kean, Zaha, Gbamin and then maybe a RB and/or a CB on loan.

Either way it looks like a lot of new players but hopefully this will be the last time we need to make wholesale changes and moving forwards it will be just 2-3 players every summer and not 5-7!

Pickford
Coleman Keane Mina Digne
Gbamin Gomes
Richarlison Siggy Zaha
Kean

Bar Siggy and Coleman maybe that’s the nucleus of a young and exciting team.

At this hour Bobby?

Not much time left to sign players. I will be amazed if we can repeat what we did in last summers window but I suppose it is possible.
Idrissa virtually gone and still no news of incomings. The Keane and Zaha deals seem so far away from ever happening. Maybe we will be surprised again? I hope so otherwise it will be a tough season.

I think, as said above, there's an element of Silva getting his excuses in early. At some stage he will trot out the usual I would have liked to have the new players together with the squad for a few weeks preparation etc, etc. Then there'll be gaps we haven't filled that he wanted signings for. There's no way he's getting five decent signings he wants. One or two and a couple of loan wanderers for a season. It's hard going making any progress.

Perhaps Zaha is bait for Malcolm - other clubs do it.

I'd prefer Idrissa in that line up Sam@22 but maybe I just need to get closure on that. Still holding out for Zouma too...

Gana reportedly doing medical in Paris tomorrow. WTF was Silva spinning about possibly keeping him ?

Why offer £55M for Zaha when we had Lookman, doesn't make sense to me.

Silva does this, nothing happening so he vents in a casual way rather than a nasty way trying to push the blame away from him. It is blatantly obvious that him and his coaching staff are way off with their preparations and he is trying to deflect the heat, which is working as there hasn't been much attention in the press about Everton getting convincingly beaten twice in one day. I think getting a centre forward is vital, the same for a centre back and midfielder if Gana goes to PSG. Holgate can cover right back, Baines can cover left back. These three deals out of the five and I see us improving in the league. Silvas comments though don't help Brands who is showing his poker face to everyone he is trying to do deals with.

£28m for Gana. That’s a steal imo.

As ever with EFC, it’s the hope that kills you, and we can only truly hope and believe that within the next less than 2 weeks of the transfer window, that MB, gets EFC, deliverance, in terms of the players in the right positions and quality.

If we don’t then, same old, same old, bar a miracle.

This season EFC, must kick on and improve its position in the EPL.

This is the time that Moshiri released money last year. Losing Gueye is going to be difficult and so is getting the players in positions that Silva wants. Brands hasn't been able to move the deadwood enough yet. Zouma did not give the impression he was going to play for Everton this season, so why hang about hoping he would.

Why Kenny was loaned out and Robinson sold looks now like jumping the gun before replacements where found. You would have thought it was better to have targets before the transfer window opened and then act, but the priority seems to have been to move out players where possible, before bringing in anyone.

Silva comes across as being quite frustrated and does not want Gueye to go.

It's a joke, I cannot believe how bad this management is

Firstly if Gueye is having a medical at PSG tomorrow, Silva has to have a replacement ready to sign, secondly if we have offered £50m for Zaha, he has to have a striker secured, otherwise we are pissing in the wind.

Shane #20, Coleman played first game v Sevilla and 1st half of Mainz game, then replaced by Connolly. Strange that Silva would say we had no right backs when Holgate is there. I saw Connolly make his debut at right back v Southampton in one of RM's last games.

In 2nd game Coleman made several typical forward runs in the 1st half. Broadhead was playing ahead of him, but not inclined to take responsibility, Just the easy lay off each time.

The games yesterday gave us a glimpse of life without Gana. It wasn't positive.

Sounds like we have no better than a 50-50 chance of signing either Zaha or Kean, and it does appear from Silva's frustration that there are no other signings close to fruition. Also sounds like Silva is less than impressed that our only two signings so far play the same position in the team.

I'm not panicking yet, but I am starting to get a little bit sweaty around the arse to be honest.

Jim, let’s hope they will pull the rabbits out the hat, these next few days, as is done at EFC, but the market this year has itself been different, and is very complex.

Regardless, we need x2 strikers, who can finish, and a CB and. RB, and a replacement for Gana, as priority.

The clocks running and I sense we will also struggle to offload the deadwood, at any price, if at all, bar a big net loss.

Its all ifs and buts guys, Lets leave it to the men in charge and trust that they know what they are doing.I usualy get some good leads from my man in the know but he is knowhere to be seen at the moment, and not answering my texts.I can take it that he is very busy doing what he does best.

The latest link to Bakayoko at Chelsea, for £40m, to replace Gueye, I hope it's only paper talk, couldn't do It in the Premiership, went on loan to AC Milan, they sent him back, enough said.

Bakayoko might be worth a flier at the right price... but I'm trying to figure out how Chelsea expects to get 40-million for a player who's been a complete flop for them... whereas we only get 30-million for Gueye, who's been nothing short of sensational (I know Bakayoko is five years younger, but frankly who cares?).

He needs 5 players, sure.

I also think he's getting his excuses ready and doing a bit of PR for when they sack him (or he walks) and he looks for his next job.

They all scream their heads off about having no players and usually before they leave, having said that, I agree we do need players.

We will buy late as we usually do and here is why. Any player who is any good that we are looking at who is in the shop window will wait towards the end before they sign with us. But “why is that” you ask. Unless a player has a unique tie to our team or manager they will wait as long as possible in case they can go to a club with better prospects of playing in Europe.

No use in yelling at our team to get players in now when most of our targets probably are making sure there is no better situation, around the corner for them, sorry to write.

"Marco Silva says Everton MAY need to sign five more players.. . "

That's a lot different to, "Marco Silva says Everton MUST sign five more players.. . "

Where does Marco specifically say he wants to sign five more players? I don't see that quote anywhere?

Zaha and Kean. Sign them and we're better. We're not getting in five players in the next two weeks. And more importantly, I don't see anywhere that Marco said that!

Patience man! There's two weeks left, and this is a minefield of a transfer window.

I'd wager a bet (gulp...) that if we start this way, we'll finish higher up the table:

Pickford
Coleman Keane Mina Digne
Gomes Delph
Bernard/Siggy (take your pick at the 10)
Richarlison Kean Zaha

Can we improve on the above lineup? Yes. Will we be able to before the window closes?

Marcel has my trust in spades, but he's not Jesus Christ and he can't preform miracles.

One reality, is that almost everywhere else, there is very little player movement.
I can't think of many clubs that have signed a good deal of players. It could be a case of "who blinks first" for all the clubs, and once there is a player movement, the dominoes all start falling.

I was never a fan of Silva but we cant blame him for this mess.

We knew and he knew before the season ended that we would lose Zouma and Gana.

We knew we had to shift some deadwood.

Now with just over a week to go we Mirallas as the deputy RB, not a goalscorer nor a CB in sight.

We might get Kean if we bend over to Juventus and we may get a replacement for gueye that probably wont be as good and will cost more.

Apparently Palace have said Zaha will not be sold this window (I wasnt arsed about that anyway).

It will take a Herculean effort by Brands to get any semblance of suitable recruitment in before the window shuts.

Everything remains the same at Everton, even the chairman(regrettably)
.

Those hitting the panic button are doing so a little prematurely in my opinion.

I think the general consensus was that we had a pretty good transfer window this time last year, but out of all our signings, only Richarlison was wrapped up before August:

Digne - 1st August
Bernard - 9th August
Mina - 9th August
Gomes - 9th August
Zouma - 10th August

Everything I have seen and heard from Brands to date, points to a man who has a pretty good idea of what he is doing.

If by the 10th of August this year we haven't signed enough decent players, THEN we can all lose our shit together. Until then, I highly recommend chilling out a little.

Blame-shifting? Deflection?

Sounds like a man who knows he's in for a torrid time with the current squad and is just covering his arse.

Losing Zouma and Gueye rips the spine out of the team. No first-team striker is also very embarrassing.

What happened to 'identifying targets?'

We'll probably sign Bakayoko on loan for the season as the Gueye replacement. Chelsea fans think he's sloppy and lazy so not my choice for DM.

Kean's buyback clause isn't really a big deal. Set it at £65 Million, with a deadline and we stand to make a near £30 Million profit if he does well early in his career. That will also give us enough time to identify someone else.

So far young players such as Calvert-Lewin, Lookman, Holgate, Kenny, Davies, etc haven't improved since Marco's arrival so I doubt the buyback clause will come into effect anyway.

Just throwing it out there but how bad is Gary Cahill? Does anyone know if he's worth a punt on a 1-year contract?

So what would make a good window, and what would make a bad one? I'll start.

Good
Striker: Moise Kean / Milik
Winger: Malcolm / Neres
Gueye Replacement: Jean-Philippe Gbamin
Centre Back: Kurt Zouma (I haven't given up hope!)
Right Back: Youcef Atal

Bad
Striker: Danny Welbeck
Winger: Bertrand Traore
Gueye Replacement: Fabian Delph
Centre Back: Gary Cahill
Right Back: Kevin Mirallas

No wonder I've got insomnia.

I'm beginning to wonder (again) if this "super" coach is anything more than a one trick pony and because he doesn't seem able to get his current playing staff to perform as he wants then it is to be another half of a new team which will save having to devise something new tactically.

Having said that, we do need a few new players partly to replace those leaving/left and to pad out the squad but as others have said, why let your promising juniors go and then complain you don't want to play your first choice in case they get injured.

So is the bare minimum still required a striker, Kean, and a defensive mid and centre back cover, Gbamin. Having let Lookman go and sent Bowler out on loan is another wideman needed given we have Bernard, Richarlison and Walcott or are two of them with Davies, Calvert-Lewin, Holgate, Schneiderlin nothing more than squad members.

Or am I completely wrong and we are to see a brand new playing style?

I refuse to panic. We had a good summer window with the current regime last year.

It’s Pavlov’s dogs - we are all having Vietnam style flashbacks of grumpy David Moyes eye balling journalists and talking about “no more incoming”, looking like he was about to kill someone.

Mark T #52, I am with you at the moment, I think 3-4 first team players will come in.

Kean seems a likely option, Zaha too. I can't say I am overwhelmed with either but not disappointed either. Alternatives to Zaha, like Everton Soares and Malcom, don't really blow me away, to be honest (and I remember numerous times last season thinking Zaha had finally become a BIG player).

Kean could be a new wonderkid or a new Iheanacho. I remember him bursting onto the scene at Man City and impressing but then not kicking on. I would be gutted if we made a statement signing and it turned out like that.

There will be a lot going on behind the scenes that we and the arsehole journalists know nothing about.

Saying that I am sure the management knew halfway through last season where we needed to replace or add too so there can't be too many excuses why we haven't brought in more so far.

The fact we have not replaced Lukaku after 2 years is a bloody disgrace and cannot be excused.

To be honest, there doesn't look if there was a Plan A or a Plan B.

We have tried to replace Lukaku, but all options haven’t really worked. Easy to remember that on his day Lukaku was unplayable when he left us, and so very difficult to replace.

Allan J Thompson, not sure how you look at it like that when most of the positives from last season came from players brought in by Brands and Silva and most of those being shipped out have been the rubbish brought in by Walsh and Koeman.

Way too much panic on here. Does no-one remember last summer?!

Teams selling decent players are trying to charge exorbitant prices. Plus some of those players may be waiting for bigger fish to come in for them. Zaha/Kean would never have moved to us a month ago as they would have wanted to see if CL offers came in.

Hold your nerve and call me a liar if we don’t bring at least 3 more players in by end of the window.

Jamie #48,

Forget Milik – he is slow and ponderous and would never compliment our attack.

We need fast, quick-witted forwards.

If all the panic is because of a poor pre season then that lot across the park will be getting relegated this season.

We do sign players late in the window and there is cash available. Let's see what our squad consists of when we go to Palace; if there are no additions, then we can all panic together.

It's a worry that the only players we have moved on are our young players. We are still stuck with Morgan Schneiderlin, Yannick Bolasie, Muhamed Bešić, Theo Walcott, Oumar Niasse and Kevin Mirallas.

What has happend to our transfer tracker has it frozen in time?

I thought we learned a valuable lesson with the Lukaku transfer.

Gana was our most influential player in 2019, and must not be sold until a player is signed up that is a direct replacement. Otherwise the cost will go up for that replacement player because the selling team will know we are desperate.

It is possible the Gbamin deal has been sealed already by the shrewd Mr Brands and will seamlessly follow the Gana transfer.

Apparently, if an Everton-linked player follows a current Everton player (or vice versa) on twitter or Instagram that means that that player/target is going to join Everton!

Well that’s according to most of the “fake news” gossip sites and red tops.

James Sweet#47, thank you for bringing a bit of perspective to this thread.

If past history is anything to go by, we will end up panic buying 2 or 3 players who aren’t good enough & then trying to offload them later. Look at our squad for god sake! It’s worrying when reading through some very informed contributions, where we are suggesting “X can cover that position”. This is the Premiership, we need more than players who can cover positions!
Waiting for the rabbits to be pulled out of the hats now!!!

The manager is getting his excuses in early, is the most worrying thing I’ve read on this thread, because if that’s the case, then we are not going to be signing enough players, and this would be the managers fault?

I understand he could have tried Mirallas or Walcott, up front on Saturday, but maybe by not doing so, he’s giving us a little sign of his true personality?

He wants to do better, he knows that’s not possible without re-inforcements, and the signs are that he’s understandably very frustrated with how things are at the minute?

I’ve already read Silva, talking about how things are not great at the minute, but I didn’t read it as excuse making, just more that the man was talking sense. He said that although things aren’t perfect, (honestly!) that he would hope to have his squad together by the start of August, and at least this would give him ten days to prepare for the first game... “TICK TOCK TICK TOCK”

I agree with those who say that there is time to bring in players.

As Jamie # 47 shows transfers where late in the window last year, when Moshiri released money . I also agree with Don # 17 regarding the Finchs Farm set up. The level of fitness was well below that of the Seville and Mainz squads. It was the same last year in pre-season. I surprised that Brands and Silva haven't moved to address this. Those guys will go on holiday at the drop of a hat. Hopefully the new Head coach is bending Silvas ear.

From what I see the pattern of the transfer window has unfolded similar to last year. Silvas outburst where he said that Everton 'may ' need five players and then forgets about Holgate at right back and, as I was reminded by Mike Gaynes of, though without recommendation, Cuco is still a Everton player. Definitely a strange one from Silva. Baines could have only fell on his ass.

No doubt Silva did have illusions that Zouma and Gueye would be Everton players last season, and feels rejected , but we have Mina who started back last Monday ( thank go, maybe not a lazy bugger ) and Delph a midfielder who can tackle and pass a ball.

If we get Gbana we will have cover for Gueye and Mina, with the addition of a 78 percent pass completion rate, a improvement in midfield. The addition of Kean will be a improvement on Lookman and Moshiris big money signing Zaha may work out. If you throw enough money at something things happen.

Being a long suffering Everton Supporter you have to be optimist or else you would cry. Maybe this is the actual role of Barret Baxendale , Chief Bullshiter. Yes , I finally on my way to working it all out , only having our Chairman to upset me.

Gerry@64 the history you are talking about is pre-Brands. Last summer we bought in some excellent players (some very late on), mostly for quite decent prices, 3 of whom (Digne, Zouma, Richarlison) were in our best 4 or 5 players of the year.

Gueye will be a big loss but he deserves his dream move in my opinion. Other than that I have faith it will be another good window for Brands/Silva.

Tony Williams @28 — stop with the Lookman thing. He wanted to go, he didn't like Everton. No matter how much playing time he got, it didn't matter... he wanted to leave.

Let's park the gloom and doom, I suspect Silva is frustrated with Brands who IMO has the harder job of shipping players out - thank you, Mr Koeman and Mr Walsh.

Our pre-season has been that bad – take a look at the RS results – it is pre-season and is meaningless in predicting what will happen this season.

Tony #65.

Marco Silva will be fine and happy again when we've signed Kean, Gbamin, Malcom and Zouma (yeh Zouma).

Tony@65, he did try Walcott up front on Saturday though right? It didn't work (though was a small sample size I guess).

I don't see it as excuse making. I think he's just putting a little, helpful pressure on the board and reminding the fans that there will be new players coming in.

I hope many on here will be feeling much happier with our squad in 11 days time.

I'm thinking that apart from adding quality in the positions needed we also need to drastically increase our hunger, desire and fitness levels. No good having a top talent out there with the wrong mentality. We need a Tim Cahill mentality, players who want to be here, who badly want to play, who give leadership and inspiration and breathe blue air – these may not be the €50m players... in fact probably not – but will give you an awful lot more than talent and promise. So let's not waste money and time on the 'legends' but rather find the next Tim Cahill or Seamus Coleman. Dreaming? Maybe, but it can't be that those players, honest-to-God footballers no longer exist.

Didn't watch any of the games Jerome, but I thought Everton were definitely fitter last season than they have been for a few years though mate. Maybe all these double/treble sessions are taking it out of the players at the minute, or maybe we just haven't got enough quality in the squad as it stands right now?

Answering my own questions, I'd say it's both. Although not having all the squad together to build on the obvious momentum that we had started to build towards the end of last season, must be very frustrating for both the manager and the players right now?

Let's hope we can sign the right players, whilst appreciating that anyone can go and sign any old shite, and appreciate even more that it's not so easy trying to sign players from the top end of the market, especially for a club that haven't won a cup for 25 fucking seasons, and have also got a massive wage that is getting wasted on a lot of any old shite!

As always we're all shitting ourselves with about 11 days to go.

Let's embrace it as it will make those last minute (quality) signings seem that little bit sweeter!

Gueye had 3 years left on his contract, so why sell our player of the year, especially for £29m?

And we're linked now with Bakayoko, who flopped at Chelsea and AC Milan, and quote £40m, senseless.

Tony Abrahams, I read a stat recently that said Everton were second behind Man City for their pressing work without the ball last season; that indicates that Silva has definitely got them fitter. We saw the real benefit to that in the last 3 months when he slightly tweaked his midfield set-up and gave us almost an old fashioned middle two engine-room type system.

We are going into a new season in a couple of weeks and it looks like 2 of the mainstays of last season won't be here Gueye and Zouma, which is a worry in itself. When the season finished Silva and Brands spoke about having identified the targets they wanted, and they didn't want to leave it as late as last season to bring in their targets. Well apart from a 2nd/3rd choice goalkeeper, Fabian Delph and making Gomes move permanent nothing else has happened.

Now after a few pre-season games were we have struggled to score or even create a lot of chances, Silva is now saying we need 4/5 players. Even a blind man knew that we needed at least a couple of strikers as last season our choices of Calvert-Lewin, Tosun and Niasse were way short of what's needed. Plus we will also need a midfield player maybe another centre back and time is running out.

Now we may all be very pleased with the squad that starts the season but, at present, it looks like we will start this season with a weaker squad than last season.

Christy, you've said a few times that Bakayoko flopped at Milan but actually the opposite is true. Yes, he had a poor start and there were rumours of him being sent back but after that he was excellent and many Milan fans believed him to be contender for player of the season. Statistically he was their second-best player to play more than 10 matches.

Whether he's suited to the Premier League is debatable but he did not flop at Milan. He's very solid defensively and though he wouldn't be in my top 5 picks I don't think he'd be the disaster you're claiming. If there's even any truth in it, which there probably isn't!

We should all remember that the Gomes and Zouma loan deals were not widely reported before Brands had them wrapped up. Similarly, Bernard was only linked days before the deal was done.

I am sure that these deals were not done "overnight" and that Brands had been working on them without the "press" ever knowing. I suspect that this year will be similar, with both incoming and outgoing players over the next two weeks.

Unfortunately I don't think even Brands will be able to move Mirallas, Niasse or Tosun due to their inflated salaries and overlong deals.

I see there are reports, allegedly that Chelsea fans are not overly happy with Zouma's pre-season form and have taken to Instatwitter saying basically they (Chelsea) should have snatched our hands off at £30M'ish for him.

I still believe he will eventually end up with us, but not until January! While on the Chelsea theme another 'rumour' that seems to be doing the rounds, and I personally hope there is no foundation to it whatsoever, that Timaeyo Backothecho is being considered by us.

He looked pretty average when I saw him play in spells last season, and if he is anything like his namesake that Walter Smith brought in (Ibrahima) what a mustang he was, so no thanks.

Despite all these rumours most of which I hope are exactly that, I still have trust in M Brands, who I do believe has not let us down since his arrival. I am less confident about Silva, but hopefully time will prove me wrong with the latter.

Some of you lot must have had some miserable Christmas Mornings if your mum's and dad's told you what you were getting a couple of weeks beforehand and when you dipped into your sock/sack and found exactly that, you'd have had a gob like a robbers dog. Wait and see try and enjoy the suspense no club of any note gives out details of their targets before the ink is on the contract.

Kean, Zaha, Gbamin, Zouma, and a right back with potential.

Moise Kean and Gbamin look likely, Zouma may follow in January, a right back will be bought to cover/compete with Seamus.

The Zaha thing, he is overpriced but he is a 10 goals and assists player, however I still think we are being strung along. Tottenham or Arsenal will come in late and mess our plans up intentionally, scuppering our chances of competing with them for the top 4-6.

We need to tread carefully, and have more irons in the fire. I am a bit surprised the Malcom rumours have died away. He was the interesting option. Maybe we've sounded him out and he prefers elsewhere or the terms were unpalatable.

If we sell Gueye and replace with Bakayoko we may as well just give up. Woefully poor player.

Still don't understand the absurdity of the fee we are accepting for Gueye, 28 million?!?!? Absurd

Gana wants to leave, PSG want him, we have little choice but to let him go. You have to look a little bit deeper than simply looking at the fee. He's 30 in a couple of months and has been a decent servant to Everton - when a player wants to move, clubs have little power to stop them anymore. Those days are long gone. There's nothing absurd about the fee at all. I'll wager on other threads the same people are saying we shouldn't sign players near 30 as they have no resale value - well you're answering your own question really aren't you?

Bakayoko was excellent at Milan, despite some claims on this thread about him being rubbish. Do a little bit more research before you comment would be my advice. He'd be a good addition in my view.

Gbamin looks a beast of a player to me, though I'd never heard of him till a few days ago so can't really comment. It's a bit like the above - you probably saw Bakayoko once for Chelsea and now you're an expert as the papers say he was a flop. Gbamin looks decent on YouTube, but then so did Cenk Tosun.

I’m old enough to remember the days when no one bothered about (following) pre-season friendlies. We used to play the likes of Southport or the Marine FC or if we wanted something more exotic, or foreign even, we’d play Macclesfield or Oldham. These games are for reaching desired fitness levels. Nobody’s ever won the league or a cup in late July!

As for Bakayoko. If anyone can get him back to his Monaco form then we’ll have a world class player on our hands. And Chelsea aren’t asking £40m for him, that’s what he cost them. £30m should do it.

Lukaku left out of Man Utd squad. Lukaku goes to Juventus. Moise Kean comes to Everton.

It’s all so simple, this transfer business.

I remember watching Bakayoko, when he first came to Chelsea, (only once or twice) and I thought he was going to be the next really big player.

He was quick, he looked like he had “every attribute” that a midfielder needs in this modern game, and then he really faded.

Easy to fade at Chelsea imo, because it’s been a club that seems to have been ran by the players for a long-time now. But I wouldn’t rule out this player being a success somewhere else, simply because you don’t become a bad player overnight.

As stated in one of the posts above the pre season games are to bring fitness levels up to the desired levels by August 10, nothing more than that.

It's more worrying that with 12 days to go before the big kick off at Palace we don't have our business done and dusted. The decision to let JJK go out on loan is looking stranger by the minute.

A centre back, a replacement for Gana and a right sided mid field player and a centre forward to back up DCL are a must.

If we can produce the performance levels of the last 10 games of last season then we won't go far wrong.

In Brands we trust (but please get a move on)!

At this stage it's all call my bluff. Palace say they want 80m but Everton wait until palace get desperate to make their own signings without leaving it too tight. All brinkmanship to save huge amounts of money. Who blinks first. Then it's also a case of merry go round as someone else said, that transfer goes through releases another player and so on. Then it's also down to complying with fair play financial rules about wages and stuff and sadly we have some ridiculous contracts that are impossible to shift on to other clubs. Would you pay half Schneiderlins or Mirallas or niasse wages to shift them and release some money or wait out for a club to pay it in full (no chance).

This is where Brands earns his corn. If he doesn't fully succeed this window we know it won't be for lack of ability. It will be 4 or 5 windows before he can judged fairly from a blank hand so to speak and in the meantime we hope Silva gets us playing.

The gamble we absolutely must make at all costs is a striker or two. but they are not cheap...40m for a 19 year old...80m for Lukaku...the market is mad

Has this been left late as we have been looking to offload Mirralles, Tosun, Bollasie, Schneiderlin, Niasse, Mcarthy and others?

Only one or two of those mentioned are even close to playing first team football let alone playing in a side challenging the top six.

There aint a rightback or centreback in that posse and a goalscoring striker must also be real high on Silvas shopping list, the damage done by previous managers is huge and being close to impossible in some cases to fix without running down contracts.

I reckon it’s looking like Zaha, Kean and Gbamin.

Gbamin could also cover at CB till January when we can buy Zouma if he’s not first choice once Rudiger returns.

Zaha-Kean-Richarlison would give us one of the best counter-attacks in Europe I reckon!

Benjamin, but palace have money in the Bank from the sale of Bissaka.

Maybe they just want to
Keep their beat to player who signed new contract til last season.

Bid 45 for Everton Soares I say

Christopher! " a centre forward to back up DCL. "

You are joking? To back him up?

Sam #92 that is a mouth watering front line.
Would scare the shit out of most teams in europe.

In terms of unloading remember the European window shuts three weeks later than ours. I’d expect Brands to find moves to European clubs (probably subsidized loans) for the likes of Bolasie, Mirallas, Schneiderlin, Niasse if not wanted.

Reading that Everton and Juve, might have a compromise and that rather than a buy-back clause, it would just give the Italians, a chance to buy him back in the future, at the market-value price.

If Sam is right and add eh business we've already done then that's not a bad window, especially you see how slow it's been for most PL teams.

I still think we may see a CB or RB in even if it's a loan deal. Meunier is still at PSG with only a year left on his contract.

I won't start jumping up and down in frustration or ecstasy until the transfer window closes.

Some of us can remember at time when we approached the end of the window with no money to spend.

At least now the debate is about, 'which player to sign?' rather than, 'where did the Arteta money go?'

SSN now claiming us and Dortmund are close to matching Barca's valuation for Malcolm. Plan B if we don't sign Zaha surely?

Am jammin, and it looks like wolves want Gbamin too?

The Red Echo are trumpeting Kean as a Lookman-replacement. I thought he was a powerful striker, not a tiny little winger? Am I missing something here?

The Malcom vs Zaha debate is interesting. You’d expect Zaha to make a more immediate impact but Malcom is maybe more rounded and crucially has an excellent shot from range to help unlock the packed defenses.

If they were the same price then I’d probably opt for Zaha but if he’s going to cost twice as much then go for Malcom.

I’d be pretty delighted to get either to be honest. And I really hope we get Kean. Brands masterclass coming up?

Kean deal now looking very likely. Get in ! Next.

I feel a fee transfers will get done in the last few available hours. Very difficult market this year. I still believe in Tom Davies for our midfield and Silva is clever enough to find the right place for him.
Really if we start another season without a striker to allow DCL time to grow into his role it will be farcical

Michael#103.
Michael, the only thing you're missing is the fact that the Echo is a load of shite mate!

Thanks Brian, that clarifies it for me.

I wonder how DCL feels about being replaced by someone three years younger than him? One minute you're one for the future, next minute time's up.

''Zouma posted a photograph of his new Nike boots on Instagram on Monday which included a French flag, his initials and more importantly - his squad number.

The former Saint-Etienne man has the No.5 stitched into his new boots, but that number is occupied at Chelsea.

Jorginho was handed the No.5 when he joined from Napoli a year ago, and will be keeping it into Lampard’s debut season as boss.

In what could be a transfer twist, Zouma wore that number at Everton last season, and it remains unassigned by Marco Silva ahead of their opening fixture against Crystal Palace.''

It is clutching at straws to say the least, but would be delighted if it happens.

Who was it said Delph is a direct replacement for Gueye again?

Looks like Pepe's club have had £72m Bids accepted by Lazio and Arsenal.

When Pepe decides where he wants to go likely Arsenal that then rules them out buying Zaha and were the only ones left in for him so we should some movement on this end of this week.

As for Kean, Juve are playing hardball with a low buy back clause, so we either accept it or we move on.

I'm expecting 3 signings: Zaha, Kean and a Gueye replacement.

I think 5 is too much.
Lets not make the same mistake of the last few summers ago, load up on player, have and have no clear first choice 11 for some key positions.
Madness to now say we need a right back after sending a perfectly good backup out on loan
We do need a striker. I think if Mina can up his game, we are not too pressed at CB. (maybe Zuma becomes available at Christmas)
Gana will be a loss, but there is Delph and Davis
All in all, except for a striker, I don't see us as hard pressed as Silva is making out.

Tony (110) - Maybe. Or maybe he is eyeing up the France Number 5 shirt for the long-term, and is making reference to the fact he has worn it in the past?

Geoff (94) - I expect DCL to lead the attack just as he did against United, Chelsea, Arsenal and most other games at the back end of last season. We actually accumulate quite a number of points during that period and DCL was MOM or close to being so in most of those games.

Christopher
Spot on

In other news, I see Oviedo Baby has just left Sunderland and returned to the Copenhagen club we originally signed him from.

Always liked Bryan as a player and a person. He looked destined for a long fruitful career with us until his horrific leg break.

Jay, who knows, he was a favourite of mine too. Horrible injury. Not as good as Digne though hey

Benjamin @ 90 is handing out plaudits to Brands and is even prepared to give him another '4 or 5 windows' to get things right !

Personally, I don't see the present management team as much of an improvement on their predecessors - particularly as Silva took us down a place last season.

Of course we have to wait a couple of weeks before we can form an opinion of any new signings ( and them as signed them ) but the portents are not good. Given that we have lost two of our best players this summer, the much vaunted pair have much to do to get the new season off to the good start we all look for.

What a mess as usual.
Someone just noticed the league starts soon and we ain't got enough decent players.
Doesn't stop us still selling our best players for chickenfeed though.
Seems we only exist to help players advance their agenda at the expense of Everton FC.
We're being dragged to the graveyard by the amateur buffoons at all levels of the remnants of our club and anyone who can't see it, and there are still plenty on here, should hang their heads in shame at their part in the demise of Everton Football Club.

Come on KZ!

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but I can’t see Palace selling Zaha unless he hands in a transfer request or somebody offers a huge amount of money.
They have had their pay day with Wan-Bissaka who has a lot of potential but Zaha is for the here and now, he can and probably will be the difference in keeping them out of the bottom three and that is worth (to them) considerably more than the £55m we have apparently offered.

I think we should cross him off the list. Malcolm would be my choice.

I also fear that Delph has been Gana’s replacement all along, but I still think we will still have something to smile about come deadline day.

Tim#122
Tim Zaha has already asked to leave mate.

Brian,

I wasn't aware of him handing in a written transfer request. All reports so far have been rumor's of him asking Hodgson to leave. Palace have subsequently denied that any request has been made by Zaha.

Happy to stand corrected.

I hope I am wrong, be more that happy to see in royal blue.

To be fair to Palace, if it was us selling and playing hard ball over the fee we'd be buzzing off our negotiation strategy. It's going to take £60 million or so to get Zaha.

Any more than that though and we should walk, especially if we are the only club bidding. We should look to avoid a repeat of Sigurdssons fee and how it escalated. The fact is, none of the top clubs are particularly interested, if at all.

If Palace would go for it we could throw in any of Walcott, Tosun or McCarthy and the wages saved would pay for any increase from the original bid. There's a supposed £200k a week, £8 - 10 million a year, in total.

In fact, fuck it, all of them!

Tim, his brother has let the world know he wants to leave.

David #126
He has, but that was in response to Arsenal's interest, not seen anything where Zaha is agitating for a move to us.

Like I said I want him at Everton I just cant see him coming to us.

Silva wants four players, I have no problem with that. Could they please include Mbappe, Varrane and Thiago, I am not too fussed about the others, whatever Marco says :)

It is being reported that Palace have declared Zaha will not be sold this window.

Whether that is a negotiating stance or follows from Parish's "friends" chat with Zaha it is difficult to know but I think the price was too risky anyway.

I would much sooner take a punt on Malcolm.

I am more concerned with getting quality replacements in for Gana and Zouma without whom we are a midtable team at best. That is the difference top quality players can make.

'There are different players on the table with the possibility we can achieve their signature. “We are only thinking about people who can really, really improve this squad. We will only look at men who can really strengthen a position. One centre-back, one full-back and one winger. We are going to do that. Really I want a better team than last year.”

Sounds like Silva ? Actually, a quote from Emery. They must all have the same playbook.

Derek Taylor@119. Brands has already done better than previous regime. And Silva didn’t take us a place further down last year so not sure where that idea has come from.

Pat K, would that quote be from Dick or Unai?

Oh you are awful, Derek

Tony #73

Yes Everton where noticeably fitted last season, but pre-season they are very much of the pace, in comparison to their opposition. This probably the root cause of Silvas outburst. Most people would be Pissed off in his position.

I still think there is slacking tendency at Finchs Farm when the pressures off. It happens after good wins and extended breaks. Silva has the same Pissed off look, move up and down the line looking demented.

Nice one Marco with 10 days left. Good preparation. Typical Everton.

We are such a joke of a club

We are such a joke of a club

5 class players will always be welcome. Everton have a lot of underachievers that need replacing. End of story.

Ian @136 and 137, why exactly?

Humble apologies, Sam. My memory was playing tricks - everything in the garden is fine, after all. We should make top half !

Sam

Because we always leave it to the last minute / too late to get players in and bed them in

Do you not agree?

Mal #135. Did you curse your parents because they still hadn’t given you your Xmas present by 10th December?!

Last min buys is the norm now . look a Man U with Maguire. its the way the window works now.

Expect most things to happen next week.

I'm nervous but hopeful. In Brands we have one the shrewdest & professional operators in the league so I am expecting good things.

I see we're not being linked with a loan deal for Oluwafikayomi Oluwadamilola Tomori.

Catchy name huh?

Wouldn't it be great if none of these big money deals happen and we get him on loan. Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Guess these next 10 days will tell us a few things about our ambitions for this season. I don't want to break the top 6, l want us to challenge for the title.

Silva sorted the defence last season. Now they have to sort out the attack... and they have 10 days to do it. Brilliant

Its time we made a statement of intent We are being talked of in the same way West Ham, Leicester and Wolves are. Thats with our current squad. If we do get 4 or 5 quality players in surely we can start to dream.

James, #144, do you seriously imagine he'd even consider coming to us ?

Andrew Ellams (#56);

We appear to have lost Zouma. Gana also seems on his way. We've sold Robinson and Lookman, loaned out Kenny and a few other youngsters, and lost those off-contract (Jagielka and Williams).

There doesn't seem to be any movement on Mirallas or Bolasie so how have we moved on the "Koeman & Walsh rubbish"? Add to that, Mina could be facing a 6-week to 6-month suspension and we are being linked to more widemen, which we have in Bernard and Richarlison, and it could be argued that only Gomes is left from last season's buys.

Does that help in seeing part of my view of things?

Of the 5 players one of them is cover for right back, which to be honest I'm not going to start shitting myself about.

They've known for months Gana may leave and will hopefully know exactly who they would like to replace him.

We are in for Kean and negotiations remain ongoing. Big hole in the squad sorted if we land him.

Centre back does need sorting and is dragging on. We definitely need something pacey in there. It has been very quiet on that front.

As for Zaha, I don't think anyone knows exactly what's happening. If Brands & Silva want him that much then try £60 million, however we structure it. If that fails then walk and try something else. Can always go with a loan if they want to freshen it up wide, which I think we do as Walcott is, frankly, shite.

I'm confident we will have 4 in before the deadline. The wide man could be the problem.

Lemina and Tomori (young CB from Chelsea) now linked on SSN.

What annoys me is that no doubt Lemina would cost more than we get for Gueye and yet in my view is an inferior player.

Hi Dudes

Look you idiots. If we say we will leave the market with no deal...ffffllltyh...haha then all will be fine.

We have a glorious history and, ffffllltyh...haha...everyone wants to give us a cheap deal because ffffllltyh...haha we used to win something

Anyway ffffllltyh...haha to you wingey scousers.

Pip pip

Boris

Dermot, what have you been told about hitting the ale during the day??? 🍻🍺🍺🍺🍻

Ha the funny thing is this is written before a glass mate😀 just watching news

Ian@141, I don't think that makes us a joke of the club. If you are aiming high (like Kean and Zaha) then you have to be prepared for them to wait to see if better offers come in.

If we wanted to sign Charlie Austin i'm sure we could have completed it weeks ago.

Aiming for the best players does not make us a joke of a club in my opinion. Its annoying not having time to bed them in but i'd rather have the right players come late than the wrong players come early.

Silva coming out with this idea reminds me of Martinez asking for 4,5,or 6 new faces one preseason He never got the numbers mentioned and I doubt that we will see so many incomers.
Surely the club are already aware of the Gana decision which was surely sealed before Afcon. Why would it have been shelved? They must also be waiting on their target(s) if Gana is definitely going.
Obviously we will all be the last to know. Ditto Zouma.
After our uninspiring friendly performances do we really think Richarlison will be enough to invigorate our squad?
Without Zouma I can see us shipping more than we score. Worrying times ahead.

Not going to happen, I see Delph as Gueye’s replacement and they will say we tried to sign more players.

Why do we always buy players so late in the window?

It makes no sense at all.

If we go into the season with DCL as the only striker we have for the 3rd Season in a row it may cost Silva his job.

I like Brands but buying this late is utter madness and makes little sense. It seems we have learnt nothing from last years mad scramble.

Marvellous Marco stating the bleeding obvious.

Apparently we have now upped our offer for Zaha to £55M plus Tosun and Jimmy Mac.

Gueye was the nucleus of our team, and we knew he was going since January, so we should have had a replacement lined up, it doesn't seem that's the case, so why not make an offer for Fernandinho, City have bought Rodri to replace him, I know he's 34, but wouldn't he do a great job short term?

Why don’t we give them Niasse and Snides too. Oh and Walcott.

Kean's brother has started following us now on twitter.That more or less confirms the deal.

John @ 158, if you check the 'in's and out's of all Premiership Clubs, you will find it is not only us, as in comparison to previous windows, not much is happening anywhere.

The tendency seems to be drawing any activity out till the last few days of the window, when a couple of Big transfers trigger off a chain reaction, then it's mad scramble time.

I am confident that M Brands is far more abreast of any situation in the Transfer Window than any of us here on TW, and knows who he wants with the fees (within reason) accounted for, and also a Plan B in case things go pear-shaped at the last hurdle.

Aston Villa seem to be the only "Premiership" club that have made any significant number of signings thus far.

Lemina is an odd link. Hasn’t lit up the league at Soton yet free to talk to clubs this summer and linked with Utd. No mentions of price tag from the usual outlets but you’d think around similar to what we’re selling Gueye for.

Tomori again seems to be a lazy link because of the Zouma connection. I can’t see us going for someone playing in the upper echelons of the Championship last season, would we not be better off keeping Holgate who we know can play at this level?

I think Zaha for £55m plus two players surplus to requirements off the wage list is a good deal. Not many teams have an out-and-out no 9 but forwards who can play right left or centre. Having another option will open up space elsewhere, if we have Siggy, Zaha, Richarlison and Bernard with Walcott and DCL off the bench as options I think we’d surprise a few people.

I think if we got this over the line it’d be a great move and a statement of intent from Marco and Marcel.

Dermot #152, tighten your hinges, mate. I think your doors are about to fall off.

Sending JJ Kenny out on loan is looking more ridiculous by the day.

He was more than adequate as cover for Seamus in my opinion.

It's crazy. Palace are now offering us money if we keep Tosun.

Peter, Lemina was being linked with Man Utd earlier in the window

Apparently Everton has now put out a statement denying any further bid for Zaha since the weekend, as follows:-

" Everton have denied Sky Sport’s report claiming the club made second bid worth £55m, plus Cenk Tosun and James McCarthy to Crystal Palace for Wilfried Zaha.

Chris Bascombe shared Everton’s statement in the telegraph;

“Everton Football Club categorically denies that a bid has been submitted to Crystal Palace for Wilfried Zaha that included an increased sum plus Cenk Tosun and James McCarthy.

“Everton and Crystal Palace have a very good relationship. A bid was made over the weekend which was turned down. Both clubs agreed that was the end of the matter.”

Pat K, 😂we could get Zaha for free if we offer Niasse, Schneiderlin, Mirallas, McCarthy, Besic, Bolasie and Tosun!

I'm glad we're not signing Zaha, a striker and Gueye's replacement are our top priority.

I honestly think players are not bought until the end of the window because of the wages they are on. If a player is earning £100,000 a week, and he can be bought at the end of the window rather than at the start, the buying club can save £1 million per player bought. I can’t see any other logical reason why clubs leave it so late every transfer window...

Here we are again scrambling to get up to 5 players in the next 12 days before the season starts! It’s the same every year...

Danny while that makes financial sense it does not make football sense as the new players do not have time to bed in before the season starts.

If you had offered players and money and it was not accepted would you want those employees involved to know? It might work to get them motivated one way or another but whichever you might end up with some disgruntled players that you can't get off the books.

Alan! I think that if you where to offer a player as part of the deal, they woud have to be consulted beforhand as would the other party.

Geoff(#179); Certainly the other party as there is no deal if they know nothing about it but there may be no consultation with the players until there is some idea that the deal is acceptable. Or those players have already been told that there is very little future for them at Everton without specifically mentioning a particular deal.

Right now our squad is weaker than when we finished in May, and we struggled over the line to finish 8th then!

Gana is a huge loss to what we do and the high pressing that Silva wants, I don’t think we can replace that energy within a week now either which is more concerning.

Delph had better be good!!!

Jim, let's wait and see. There's Irons in the fire. We have to trust Brands knows what he is doing. It seems to me that we are in for Zaha, Malcolm and Neres, but we will only sign one of them. We confirmed we didn't make a second bid, which confirms we did make the first and that was supposed to be £52m. So we are talking big money here.

Moise Kean looks set to join and I think he will be confirmed in the next 24 hours. That's a big one for us and he fills the striker role we have been demanding. So that's the attack sorted and considerably strengthened on last season.

midfield, it seems Lemina is on the radar but so it seems is Gbamin. I know little about the latter, but I saw the former a couple of times for Marseille and Southampton and he looked decent. He was playing centre back for Marseille though and bringing the ball out of defence, somewhat like Stones does. If they are as good as hoped, and with the addition of Delph, perhaps the midfield is stronger than last season.

Then there is defence. We need to replace Zouma, and I hope Timori is not the proposal. Even if he is backup, then surely that makes no sense as he's blocking the way for the impressive Gibson. We definitely need better there. Also, lets not forget Santi Arias. He's the Atletico Madrid right back up who is now set to play backup to Kieran Trippier. Brands is a long time admirer and we're heavily linked. I expect him to leave and hope he comes here. Although he's not young, would want guaranteed football and you wonder what that would mean for Coleman.

If all that comes off, and it is a big if, then we would be stronger. It does rely a lot on Brands, and let's see if he if his reputation is justified. I am hoping he is just doing his thing and playing the game and keeping the prices down by jumping between different deals, but by the time the window closes, the squad will be in place, and we'll have avoided the panic buys that created the financial mess in the first place.

Steve

Obviously I hope you are right!

I also hope if Moise Kean does arrive he’s good and ready to be thrown straight into the team at the age of 19, we can’t afford to wait half a season or more for players in attacking positions to hit the ground running.

I’m not too fussed on Neres to be honest, he doesn’t look as good as the rave he has had.

I know Moise Kean has a great reputation and has already done well for Juve, but at 19 years old coming in to a new country I can't help but feel he is very young to be thrown in. It will be incredibly exciting if he does hit the ground running.

When I am thinking about him I am thinking of Michael Owen in the late 90s and the impact that he had when he was 18 and 19. Banging in 18 goals in 36 games both seasons as a teenager.

It's do-able.

I still think Malcolm will come, normal with Barcelona leaving everything to the last minute before reducing their asking price.

If Neymar signs then the HAVE to sell one of their non EU players. Only 3 per side allowed in Spain.

So Kean, Malcolm, Lemina. Well within budget. Lewis Gibson has done enough pre season to show he can make the step up to replace Jags & if anything be an improvement.

Still need a right back, Seamus was poor in the Opel Cup. I would also like to see us go in for Rafinha of Barcelona close to the end of the transfer window when the price drops. He can play anywhere across the front line & also in midfield. In pre season for Barcelona he has looked impressive & just what Marco wanted is left footed.

If Kean is a revelation then fair enough, but if Everton are buying the next best thing again, it could be disappointing like Tosun. We can only hope.

Next best thing to what Mal?

For me, there's a world of difference from Tosun to Kean. Tosun is a singing that makes you google him. Few had heard of him on here. Even people who watch a lot of Champions League football had only seen a couple of clips. He was a signing made of a certain level. A signing to cement 8th place. A sure thing to slot into a certain way of playing.

Moise Kean is someone most of us had heard of. He was someone that most football fans had heard of. And what he we heard? Here was Italy's new hope. The best player, or at least forward, in the country under the age of 21. The new Balotelli. Someone they considered to have the talent but not have the demons.

I don't think this is the next best thing. I think this is the best thing. If Liverpool were signing him, I would not be surprised. I would expect him to walk into their side, replacing Firmino down the middle, and would make them better. That is how good he is. And he's only 19. He can be so much better.

You infer settling, but this signing is one of ambition.

So just
- right back
- centre back
- winger
left to go.

Who do we think?

Steve, I really wanted Malcolm for our winger and was really disappointed he chose Russia of all places, to ply his trade. I don't think it'll do his chances of competing with Neres and Richarlison for a place in the Brazil squad any favours. I think he's better than Neres and hope we don't make a move for the overpriced Ajax winger. Zaha is good but overpriced.

I would really like Reece James for right-back but (as with Zouma) I don't think Chelsea would be foolish enough to cash in on such a top talent. I watched him at Wigan a few times last season and he looks an absolute superstar... better than Wan-Bissaka IMO. S. Arias from Athletico Madrid might be a decent option, if we could get him for the £13 million they paid PSV. He seems surplus to requirements after the signing of Kieran Trippier.

I kind of suspect one of the signings will be a loan... Probably in the centre back position. Finding a player as good as Zouma could prove to be tricky though. I'm hoping Mina can stay injury-free and cement a solid partnership with Keane.

Steve, I reckon reckon we'll end up with Diego Llorente as the centre back..

Arias for the right back would be good, especially as a long term replacement for Coleman, but more likely we'll end up with someone unexpected only on loan.

As for the winger, though we've been linked with Neres, Zaha etc...I'm expecting it will be Jarrod Bowen from Hull.

So serious talk - if Everton don't sign another right-back, who is going to sub for Coleman this season?