Niasse officially leaves while Baines agrees short-term extension

We get absolutely murdered in the transfer market, it's total incompetence and sets our development back years and years.

Unfortunately for us, Liverpool are absolute masters, buy low and sell high then reinvest. Coutinho bought for £8M sold for £140M and they get Mane, Salah and Van Dijk with the profits, not to mention how much they would now get for each one of them.

Get a grip, stop buying the next best thing and buy some proven quality. That is the only way we can develop to challenge for the top four.

Keep chopping off the deadwood. When are they going to show Davies the door?

Marcel Brands had implied 2-3 signings so let's hope for some quality. We have enough promising youngsters that need to kick on. We could do with some experienced heads to lead them.

Mike @ #1, Liverpool may have their transfer program working now but let's not forget they spent almost £100M on Andy Carroll, Stewart Downing and Christian Benteke!

So we will have room for 2 signings then. If we sign 3 we'll need to invest in a new locker.

In the Sunday League on Sefton Park.

I loved it when for a whole season in the list of goals/£Transfer fee our goalkeeper had a better return than Liverpool's Geordie powerhouse. (I think I meant Powerhouse.)

As for Davies, he's on buttons. He's going nowhere. If you're balancing the books, why get rid of someone like him? If you're the coach then you also welcome someone like him who seems committed to the cause, and if not good enough for the first team, is another body who can cover for injuries.

It's a shame for Feeney and Foulds. I liked both of them and particularly thought Morgan would make it. Interesting to see the two who did get an extension as I don't think either would have topped my list. The biggest shame is Kerode Adedoyin. This time last season, he tore it up in the U18s with Ellis Simms. Adedoyin had a bizarre failed loan move to Hamilton at just 18 and never played a game and is now released. Seems like something happened to me as the lad looked capable of stepping up to the U23s at the very least.

I hope to see Simms, Dobbin, and Onyango get more involved with first team training now and Simms should get on the bench.

Yeah Adedoyin is a weird one. Totally bypassed the Under-23s with that loan and now he's cut loose. That Alex Denny was highly rated a few years back but never quite made it after some injuries.

The positive in this to me, is that, in the past, these kind of okayish players would get extensions until finally being cut lose in their mid-twenties, eg, Charsley, McAleny etc. Better for us to be more decisive and identify top talent rather than hoping against hope for years

I still feel we undersold Rooney, Lescott and Lukaku. Did okay on John Stones though.

Pennington, Connolly, Broadhead and Dowell who are clearly not up to Premier League standards as they have never set the place alight a division of two below. And Sandro, Bolasie and Besic will also be gone.

Probably also Hornby and Bowler. Surprised Tarashaj has not been announced as released as his contract is also at the end of contract and never even playing in Netherlands.

Should make Marcel Brands' job a bit easier not having so many experienced professionals to try and loan out. Pity Tosun was injured as Palace may have taken him. And to the delight on many on here - we can spend the next 6 months wondering is Walcott will be given a new contract.

t took Simms a wee while to settle into U23s even, but the coaches worked hard on his weakness and he's progressed well, Kyle John too. There's virtually no decent U23s tier in Scottish football, he would have been better staying with our coaches for another 6 months and having a January loan if necessary.

All I can think of is that they didn't think he'd make our U23s this season.

Pennington, how on Earth is he still under contract? The worst thing was that someone persuaded someone else to offer him a long term contract whilst we were manager-less. Probably Unsworth and Kenwright, but I don't know for sure.

How on earth can you authorise a 3-year deal for a youngster when the new manager might not rate him? Especially when he was already 23 and far from established in the first team and there wasn't a queue of clubs waiting to snatch him up.

It's probably worse than the Garbutt contract for me, at least that decision was taken at the highest point of his career when he was deceiving people that he might have quality and was actually playing for the first team. Pennington, seriously, how?

In particular, we were weak on the wings. Evans covered that up, but he was meant to be out on loan from the summer and didn't secure the loan expected and so stayed and played.

This was not known when Adenoyin left early in the window. At this time, I thought he'd be likely to claim the right wing slot for himself. The guys in the slot last season were Bowler, Evans and Gordon. Bowler was always going on loan. I covered Evans and Gordon isn't a winger and was always expected to claim the Number 10 spot.

End of next season's about 17 million of wages. For me, the first 7 below need to find a new home. The rest on the list, I guess we'll see soon enough.

Walcott - 100K
Bolasie - 75K
Sandro - 65K
Besic - 30K
Dowell - 15K
Pennington - 15K
Bowler - 3.3K
Broadhead - 2.3K
Connolly - 7.7K
Hornby - 9.4K
Hansen - 1.2K
John - £702
Astley - 1.2K
Adeniran - 2.3K

What you are on about. when they sold lady boy to Chelsea they then went and spent shed loads on Andy Carroll, Downing & Henderson. Please don't try and convince me about Henderson as England managers have used him to no avail. And the boy they bought from Leizpig for 60m, where does he fit in..

Don't fret yourself, that lot across the park can spunk money just as well as us.

I am hoping we have a new scouting regime now and have turned the corner. As James above wage stats show , this transition may well take another season before we can get to full strength.

Also, remember Silva's arrival was long-expected, so I'd be VERY surprised if he had no say -- unofficially, at least -- in Pennington's contract extension.

Not talking negatively about the guy, but he was a mistake of a signing? In the first instance, he was bought by Roberto Martinez, who mistook him him for another player.

I may be wrong, but he was given a contract, a very lucrative one at that ! Not his fault, I must hasten to add !

One thing he could never be faulted for was attitude, he did try when called upon in spades but clearly something was missing !

Mathew Pennington, unlike Garbutt, never cost us a penny, we gotta decent loan fee when he went on loan to Leeds, presume we also got loan fees at other clubs he’s been, Ipswich and a couple of other clubs, we will get a transfer fee if he is sold and as Mike Gaynes says he will have a good solid career at a decent level.

Nothing there, no pace, no power, wingers that basically aren't wingers because they aren't quick enough to hit the byline, no goalscorers in the midfield area.

Defence looks okay at the minute the Chelsea game aside, but the rest is bottom half at best.

Burnley's starting XI is better than what we saw last night. The worst Arsenal team in my memory (and I'm 50) and we took one proxy point off them.

The match at Goodison was awful. Our neighbours score fantastic goals for fun and we are –8 goal difference. Carlo and his team have a huge task to at least give Everton FC some pride back.

In my opinion, Brands has now been put in charge to sort this out, starting with a cleanout. Naisse had opportunities but wasn't prepared to put the work in. He ended up just being content to lift his wages.

Even now, Carlo has a different mindset to the rest of the club; let's hope it's enough. I fear until that buffoon steps down as Chairman, we will never challenge.

Hopefully Marcel will be able to sort out this mess out but it's not going to be easy.

Honestly having watched Keane I'd say there's an argument Niasse is a better substitute, either way not much in it. The words headless and chicken spring to mind.

Keane has talent but he's keeping it well hidden. Sadly I think he's another big loss in terms of transfer fee because Carlo doesn't seem to be be able to get through to him and they both apparently speak Italian?

As for Martina, he's a far better right back than we witnessed when he was forced to play left back. I always thought he had the physice to play centre back or in a back 3 but having not witnessed him much I can only presume he's not got the head / mind to do so.

It will be very difficult, we live in hope.

You are probably right regarding Niasse. The problem was that he wasn't worth the transfer fee or the wages he was on. In Silvas first preseason he did not put the work in and the exspected benefit having played for Silva before, never materialisted. Calvert Lewin did put the work in that preseason. Niasse appeared too lose interest after that.

As for Keane he was poor against Norwich. He needs so much work, that it is beginning to look that he will struggle to establish himself. On his display it appeared that he was definitely not listening to Ancelotti or ignoring what he is saying.

The playing time he had in the Norwich game was a opportunity to establish his claim, he didn't take it.

I’ll leave on the basics, but if that his attitude then Carlo, whom I judge, will deem his future.

For me it’s like waiting for a new engine, but it seems, miles worse than the model we have.

I want him to do it. And if he’d scored that shot at Leicester in the embers of that game, it would be better.

For me, as EFC, we got soused yet again. It isn’t lookin likely to happen, but any time next week, would be great!

Beat The Foxes.

The 3 players going is a small step in the right direction. Let's take the positives, eh!

Justin #69, actually you're right, Cuco plays centre-back for Curacao, and I watched him lead them to their best-ever international performance at last summer's Gold Cup. He's not bad there at all. Would have been adequate emergency cover for us, at least for a game or two.

It was Martinez that gave him a 5-year contract extension back in 2015 on a reputed £25K a week. That's £6.5M just in that 5 years, not taking into account whatever he earned in the 4 years prior.

It's kind of hard to believe that the man responsible for this and the Niasse fiasco is in charge of one of the best teams in the world now.

That was a signing that had already had two seasons of goals behind him in this league one with us, the other with West Brom, at £28 million we knew what we were getting.

The signings ever since have been overpriced and just basically madcap looking back and not really one has made me sit up and think “yeah this fellais gonna propel us into the Champions League”.

People might argue Richarlison but I don’t think he’s involved in games enough, still too many simply pass him by where it probably takes 65 minutes to realise he’s playing.

It’s up to Carlo to somehow pull a few rabbits out of the hat and introduce something different to a team with looks rather one dimensional.

To me, it was unfathomable to turn down a chance to work with Bielsa and help Leeds push for the Championship knowing full well he wouldn't play for Everton. He probably didn't want to get injured in the final year of his contract.

Glad he's gone and I won't be wiping a nostalgic tear from my eye when I think about the "cult hero" Oumar Niasse.

Basically Niasse was a god awful footballer, utter shite and frankly he stole a living as a professional player, couldn’t control a ball and Roberto had a complete brain fart signing him especially when we already had Lukaku up top, complete oddball signing.

We have this thing as Everton fans where we worship shit footballers for “trying hard”, correct me if I’m wrong but footballers should always try hard and if they haven’t done when wearing the Everton shirt over the years then it just shows the amount of poor players we’ve gone after.

Niasse, Stracqualursi, these are players that should never have been anywhere near a professional football pitch let along the Premier League.

Until as Everton fans we start demanding better than it will always be a bit of an old fools sentimental club, a sketch from a comedy, hahaha look at the Everton fans idolising a circus act.

Let’s hope Brands has a good summer. We could use a Gana Gueye, a Distin and a (who was the last good right winger we had?) Kanchelskis.

In terms of youngsters who didn’t make it, I really liked the look of Brendan Galloway. And Ryan Ledson.

If any of our forwards had Niasse's shotting ability, he would make a big difference to Everton's finishing.

Niasse has been set up for life by the Everton transfer; I doubt he is worrying too much. I think the mistake was giving him a locker – he didn't want to destroy it with soiled gear.

Since football is mainly about entertainment, I'd take a poor quality player who tries (and doesn't score) over an allegedly talented one who can't be bothered (and also doesn't score).

FYI Liverpool failed to win the Premier League this season. Again. Hahahaha!

We have got ourselves in a position were we have high earning players, on long contracts, who other clubs wont pay anywhere near our asking price, and wouldnt be prepared to pay anything like the wages these players are on. So we are left in a position of loaning these players to anybody who will take them as they are surplus to our requirements and also having to pay in excess of 50% of their salary, how mad is that?

So please only listen to Ancelotti on signings, and let Brands try and secure Ancelottis targets. Also if anybody over the age of 27 wants a 5 year deal and silly money, look elsewhere. Moshiri needs to decide that come hell or high water Ancelotti is his man and stick with him. You cant keep changing managers ever 3 years and expect success.

I know it doesn't need spelling out but it is heartbreaking when you look at the money we have wasted in recent seasons. We should have had a world-beating team with the amount invested. Really painful to dwell on it but to think of the money spent on Sig, Klaasen, Keane, Schneiderlin, Bolasie, Walcott, Tosun, Iwobi, Kean etc. We should have been able to assemble some team with that amount. For years we cried out for investment and we've frittered away our one golden opportunity on mediocrity and mercenaries.

In those 10 years we did manage to win the Cup once thanks to Joe Royle and his dogs of war - but we also managed to escape relegation on the last day of the season TWICE and if it hadn't been for the same Joe Royle we would have gone down in 1995.

So while it is frustrating to be "plucky Everton" - far better than playing Tranmere which is where we would have been without those 11 years.

Can someone explain the curious case of Virgil van Dijk to me? When he was at Celtic, every man and his dog knew he was a class apart. Our leader and supposed football guru, Martinez, has the chance to sign him for around £11M but elects to go for Funes Mori for £1.5M less and Van Dijk signs for fucken Southampton, ffs! Unbelievable!!!

And this is not me being a hindsight hero – it would have been obvious to a Sunday league manager, never mind a multi-millionaire football ‘guru'!

Just not a top class player, no fault of his, he had a go. But you’ve got to wonder what it was in him that somebody at EFC reckoned he was worth £13 mill. Just hope they’re not on the scouting team any more!

Very unfortunate with injuries but still managed to get honoured internationally.

Met his family recently near Harrogate and they were effusive in their praise for the club's efforts to help him overcome his injury woes.

Genuine character and I hope he does indeed get a contract with Ipswich as suggested in the article.

I'm hoping now Brands can offload Sandro, Besic, Tosun, Bolasie and not sign Sidibe.

I think that we will keep Theo and Iwobi. I know there is one or two more people would like to see gone, but I think if we got rid of the four mentioned and brought in 3 players and relied on youth, we will be in a better place.

I wish all the players released good luck in the future.

Not sure about the cup final v Man. City, I only saw the last twenty minutes and Wigan had a couple of chances before they got the winner, but I missed most of the game so not sure if they fluked it.

Nice, I've got Morgan Schneiderlin here on €100,000 a week, do you want him? No. Fuck off!
. Morgan, Nice want you for € 25,000 a week, do you fancy it?
Fuck off, Marcel, would you go for 75% drop?
..err no.

Nice, pay him €50,000 and we've got a deal, we'll say you gave us £2 million, but we'll give that straight to Morgan's agent, Morgan are you up for this? seeing that 90% of Everton fans hate you.
Err, okay, the sums confuse me, but since I've made £25 million over the course of my time in England I'll go back to the south of France for one last hurrah at €25,000 a week and try to help Nice qualify for Europe.

Who the fuck would be Marcel Brands!

Just as so many said Lukaku was overpriced at £28M and we should steer clear!

Opinions eh!

I first saw him play for England's younger team and didn't think much of him. Besic was also given a crazy contract and of course Niasse – all by Martinez. Add Alcaraz to the mix and he made in his own words, '4 incredible deals'.

Oddly enough he may well go on and win the World Cup with Belgium. Lucky for him at international level he does not have to deal in transfers and contracts!

The first rumors were at €7M. He went for €2M. I say Morgan got to pocket that €5M from Nice.

After all, he might not seem to be worth €7M to us who've suffered him for the last 3 years or so. But, in the general transfer market, €7M is a low number, even for him and even for Nice. Anyway, that he's gone is the main thing.

I think the same thing happened with Mirallas last August. 1 year left on £75k per week and he left on a free? I say Kevin got that last €3.5M from Royal Antwerp in lieu of any transfer fee.

Carlo must have a firm idea who he wants and who he wants out but we certainly need some class acquisitions as it is apparent that the squad at the moment is and never will be competitive where it matters.

Everton may not have the billions that RS had to finally build a top side but with some more astuteness in the transfer market may be able to assemble a squad like Leicester did a few seasons back.

Spot on. It comes down to ‘do we want to be taken seriously or not?’

In the second season he was a leader that looked a mile in front of his Army, with the inevitable result.

You are correct in what you say. Managers also found that there was a parallel power-base that had aN influence on decisions and could work against them. Players could use this parallel power-base to undermine the manager. Wayne Rooney was imposed on Koeman and Walsh. Other players were able to extend their careers beyond their usefulness to the squad. Contracts where given that build up latent problems for transfer policy and FFP rules.

"Oddly enough he may well go on and win the World Cup with Belgium".

Odd wouldn't be the word for it. It would be a bona fide miracle. Belgium are underachievers on a grand style and are perfectly suited by their manager.

GK - Pickford, Virginia, Lossel

I'd imagine an experienced keeper will come in, with Lossel departing.

Defenders - Baines, Digne, Coleman, Kenny, Mina, Holgate, Keane, Gibson, Braithwaite

A right back and left sided centre back needed in my opinion to supplement a small group. The link to the Lille lad looks concrete enough.

Central Midfield - Sigurdsson, Gomes, Davies, Gbamin, Delph, Benningime.

Complete lack of midfield pace and tackling ability. Bar Gomes the rest aren't up to it. Any pretence of closing the gap to the top 6 comes with addressing this problem area.

Wide players - Gordon, Bernard, Iwobi, Walcott.

Strong link to Fraser on a free, but questions whether we have the finance to bring high quality in addition. Clear lack of consistency here around goals and assists. Unclear if Walcott or Bernard will be kept on.

Forwards - Richarlison, Calvert Lewin, Keen

It will be a success if Richarlison is still here to be honest. Him and Calvert Lewin are potent, but they need more help than a 'rough Keen. I want Keen to succeed but he looks way off having the know how to be a genuine threat at the top level.

Incoming and outgoing

Obvious saleable assets are Pickford and Richarlison. Somebody might fancy Bernard, Keane or Sigurdsson at the right price.

Deadwood all the loan contingent Tosun, Bolasie, Besic, Sandro, Tarashaj, Dowell, Pennington, Bowler.

Positive steps that Schneiderlin, Niassie, Martina and Garbutt are off the wage bill already.

Incoming - cheap keeper, loan right back if Kenny is retained or a decent replacement if sold. Left centre back, dominant central midfielder, up and coming centre midfielder, right wing and striker. That's 7 players in an ideal scenario.

As for handing Garbutt another contract as cover as someone suggested, well the mind boggles. He might come good in his late thirties.

The laws of probability suggest maybe he will score 1 in 3 - 5 opportunities so, for every 3 or 5 chances, he will miss the majority of times. We therefore need a Bruno Fernandes-type midfielder to create better chances for Calvert-Lewin to increase his probability.

We should invest more in this position, even if it tales £50M northwards if we are to do well. Calvert-Lewin's stats would be better playing for a top 4-6 Premier League team. Caveat: I don't know Calvert-Lewin stats but I do watch him miss far more opportunities than he scores.

If mangers are lucky about 50% of transfers pan out, Bobby aiming for the sky with a bow and arrow amidst peers with rockets was a contest he could never win.

Weird how some just won't give him credit for trying.

No surprise given decent players he achieved Belgium's best ever tournament result of 3rd in the world cup.

Bizarrely that grates with some Evertonians

Martinez was way out of his depth. Rode the wave on his first season when he actually had a fit team but, when he actually started to introduce his ways, his lack of defensive knowledge left us totally in the shit. Wallowing in relegation places and with a bunch of players who were so unfit they could hardly compete a half of football – let alone a full match.

The pace of his football team was pedestrian at best and it was painful to watch. He should never have been appointed in the first place. Martinez started the rot and Koeman just completed the job.

If Martinez was any good, he should have at least made the World Cup Final with Belgium with the team he had. No wonder we don't have top class standards at the club when fans want to extol the shit state Martinez left us in.

The owner would make better use of his Director of Football if he got him and his signings to repair the damage done to his property by celebrating Liverpool fans. So send Marcel Brands and his signings down to the Pier Head with some blue paint to give them Liver birds a few coats of emulsion.

However, I believe Moyes was a great manager for us at the time. Massive debt, poor ageing squad and very little expectation. Remit, stay in Premier league. Done exceptionally well after a few yo-yo seasons.

Martinez was a step in the right direction in developing a good squad into a more attacking and attractive team to watch. Achieved remarkably quickly, sadly he struggled to get the balance right between defence and attack. The high risk defenders playing out, got found out and it was Adios. To soon in my opinion, he just needed a leader at the back, (we still do).

Koeman. A mistake appointment as we don't have an Everton philosophy and got someone who lacked experience with a dull brand of football. Manager didn't fit the players and style we had developed.
The club implemented a European style director of football, so Koeman had his hands tied on recruiting 'his' players.

Sam. Never wanted but he got the players more organised and resilant. Terrible football, got the points needed, job done OK. Thankfully gone ASAP.

Silva, proved his sides could attack but always a defensive shambles. Improved recruitment, improved squad skill set, couldn't organise or get players playing as a team. Simply not good enough, a lessor Martinez.

Carlo. An experienced winning manager. Being positive that should mean improved results. Player recruitment is likely to be a deciding factor in how successful and also playing style and formation. But I believe he can be flexible and organise the team to win some silverware.

I think Holgate, Gomes and Richarlison are players he can trust and build on to implement his game plan.

So many players needed. The priority for me is in the midfield. Hopefully we can sign someone who can actually tackle without giving a foul away, someone who drives the team forward from centre mid.

Whoever comes in, let's hope they can score more than 1or 2 goals a season. So much deadwood to get rid off.

If Liverpool have bought wisely, they have sold even better. That explains why the Reds' net spend during Klopp's reign is only around the £100million mark.

Michael Edwards is responsible for negotiating deals and he knows how to drive a hard bargain. The club's sporting director has struck again by commanding an eye-watering initial fee of £19m for Bournemouth-bound Dominic Solanke.

That's a remarkable sum of money for a young striker who scored once in 27 appearances for the club.

It's around three times what Liverpool agreed to pay Chelsea for the 21-year-old's services following his move to Anfield 18 months ago.

Put into perspective, it's also £6.5m more than the Reds paid for a truly special talent in Xherdan Shaqiri.

Rewind to last summer and Edwards banked another two bumper fees for fringe players as Danny Ward went to Leicester City for £12.5m and Danny Ings was sold to Southampton in a £20m deal.

When Liverpool agreed with a heavy heart to sell Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona for £142m a year ago, it was Edwards who got the Catalan giants to agree that they would have to pay a £100m surcharge if they try to buy another Reds player before 2020.

In the summer of 2017, after being repeatedly foiled in his attempts to convince RB Leipzig to sell Naby Keita, Edwards out-gunned rival suitors by thrashing out a complex agreement which saw the Guinea midfielder stay put in the Bundesliga for one more season before moving to Anfield.

That was also the transfer window when Liverpool stood firm and ended up getting £26m from the sale of Mamadou Sakho to Crystal Palace. Kevin Stewart, who hadn't cost the Reds a penny, was packed off to Hull City for £5.5m rising to £8m.

Made about £500k in transfer fees. and we laugh at and Carol with the amount of full kit wankers those lot have the shirt sales and the bedding sets they sell easily covers the player costs!

Same with Coutinho got rid of him replaced him with VVD and Allison for about the same money -

They do good business fair play

Our M.O was to spend big on the likes of Belfitt, Archie (can't remember his last name), Mickey Walsh etc and fade away. It hasn't changed since the late 60s

It was shown on Sky today and really was embarrassing when he was asked about Luke. He did not recognize the name and had to ask someone at the side who the interviewer was referring to but still looked bemused. (Or did Sky doctor the interview?)

There is no contract more legendary than Bobby Bonilla's deal

By comparison, Bill Kenwright looks like Axe Thingy off Billions.

Oumar has donated his final salary to the food banks of Liverpool. Well played sir. I’ll remember the big heart, on and off the pitch, and the big smile.

Unreal that he is some kind of hero?

Shambolic!