Everton sign Swedish youngster

Mycket bra!

U23s at Southport now open to the public I think. Monday they have a game there and subsequent games. Keen to get there.

Who was that other Scandinavian Wunderkind we were linked to a few years ago? He visited FF then signed for someone else and later disappeared into the night never to be seen or heard of since.

I thought we couldn't buy youngsters because of a ban or does that only apply to UK players or players under 16?

Phil @1, " Mycket bra! " what size cup are you? :-)

Seems like a lot for a 16 year old but hopefully we have done our homework and he turns out to be a cracker.

Still think Niels Nkounkou is the 'Bargain of the Century'. We thought a Seamus type deal £60,000, would never be seen again, but hey ho you can't argue with his undoubted quality and potential and on a Free.

Marcel Brands is doing what we expected him to from the start, not sure what happened where Iwobi is concerned, but he may turn out to be worth it. However he's leaving it late to show it consistently and especially against Premier opposition.

Iwobi will be a great player for us. You could have put Pele into that team and it would not have worked. He got injured just when Carlo took over just bad timing. The team now has structure a lot of players who have been below par will be able to perform. We have some really good players on the books. Ancelotti is genius.

This guy could be the new Stefan Rehn?

David @7, now there's a name from the past, he was to football and unfortunately Everton, like Cyril Smith was to Gymnastics and Hang Gliding! What genius spotted that little gem? :-)

Mike#6

I agree. At long last Everton have a organised structural mentality suitable for young player introduction and progression.

Good Luck to Iamin on his career move. Don't take Fat Unsie too serious and refuse a fry up, would be my advice. At last Everton is a good career move.

Jagne must be a very decent prospect, we are on a roll lately too with our teenagers. Branthwaite is a certain future first teamer and the talented Nkounkou is looking like a huge find for the club. Look forward to the reports on this kid's performance for the U23s.

Colin @3. If you mean Joshua Zirkzee, he's now at Bayern and already scoring goals in the first team. He's Dutch rather than Scandinavian though. So many if these kids get trials etc it may be someone else you mean.

On this lad, it's the right idea. Already played men's football at a tender age and U23s have lost Adeniran in midfield (to Wycombe) and Baningime will surely leave too.

Robert, I think you’re right. Zirkzee was talking about how close he came to joining Everton. We offered him a good contract and Koeman told him how close he would be to the first team (at 17 years of age). The lad is about 6’4” now and looks a real prospect.

Hopefully this kid signs and is another Brands gem along with Branthwaite and Nkounkou.

Mike @ 6, I think Pele is a bit too old to join us now, and besides, according to the adverts he is suffering from erectile dysfunction. :-)

Colin (3) I recall the instance - but not the name of the player. I think he opted for Ajax instead of us and, as you say rode off into the sunset, never to be seen again.

We actually had Zirkzee on an Everton team sheet for one game, it was something like the CEE Cup, foreign tournament. He was hoiking himself around Europe to get the best contract.

Shame we never got him, I suspect Marcel & Carlo would get it done today.

Patrick #4, yeah that ban is for EFL players into the Academy, ie, Under-18 non-professionals.

So we've signed a few foreigners e.g. Seb Kristensen is under 18 and got Branthwaite at 17 by giving him a professional contract straight away, so not an Academy player officially.

I think I saw that Jagne has his 17th birthday in the next week or so, in which case we'll likely wait until then for him to sign a 3- year pro deal.

You can't sign a 3-year deal at 16 in England, and I think it's the same under FIFA regs... I may be wrong though.

Derek – my wife is Swedish so I didn't even need Google Translate.

I won't even tell you how they write the number six, but that has also caused a few eyebrows to be raised even higher than Carlo's when we have used it in the presence of English people!

I'll leave you to check out Google Translate.

And if Imam is on here – Hjärtliga Välkomna!

Colin (3) Are you thinking about Rasmus Elm?

Rasmus Elm, that's the one! Thanks, Stephen. Never heard of this Zirksee guy tbh.

Rasmus Elm.

That definitely belongs on the list of the more absurd transfer sagas at EFC... and there's been a few.

Colin & Phil, Rasmus Elm, sounds like a rare European genus of trees. I remember he had many Clubs chasing him, and he went round them all to check out their Training Facilities etc, before deciding on which to join.

Needless to say we weren't up to his liking, but having said that, not that I am that interested I have never heard of him or the tree since.

Rasmus Elm? The swedish beckham! You' ve got a long memory Colin. He's 32 now.

With the club having restructured their scouting system under Marcel, I'd be giving them the benefit of the doubt, on this transfer, if true.

If this lad is half as good a prospect as Nkounkou, then it will be hopefully a good investment, for the future.

But we shall see what pans out.

Hopefully this window we can get a CB, and perhaps a few players in on full terms of loan deals,to boost our first teams squad.

Paul @ 23, The three O's would do me, and bolster the squad into the bargain, whichever way they do it, ie loan with a view to buy, bargain price, swap, swap plus cash.

Lozano, Romero and Todibo!

Rasmus Elm. Surely an anagram of Martin Murray

Whatever happened to the Azerbaijani Messi ?

Mike, think he got got caught in crossfire, can't say too much it was rather Messy! :-)

Hope he turns out better than Ray Atteveld, although he was Dutch. Same thing really.

Derek@24, let's hope so, that's a dream team, If they happen!

I'm too long in the tooth to go into over drive, but the vibes of 1983, are there.

Let's despatch West Ham, on Wednesday, and hopefully no injuries to our squad.

It's a long time since Stefan Rehn, came on and was taken off, within 20 mins of coming on, but Anders Limpar served us well for a couple of years.

Tobias Linderoth was very basic, and I recall Alexandersen being okay, but nothing special, but scoring for us at West Ham, we won 4-0.

Jesper Blomqvist was knackered before we bought him, previously a top player, but he was ready for the knackers yard, and why we bought him still baffles me.

In fairness, those teams were in the transitions of the seemingly lost years in terms of Everton being a serious challenge.

Now for now and Lukaa Til, for Everton, this season and the future.

All stay safe and well.

Mike - that was Araz Abdullayev. Now 28, he's playing for Boluspor in the Turkish top flight after spells back in Azerbaijan and Cyprus.

Robert @31, ' all that glitters is not gold ' sounds like we dodged another bullet there, at 28, having reached the giddy heights of Turkish Football, would he have been any different had we taken the plunge?

I know it can be a very thin line between making it and not, and quite often as in a lot of walks of life being in the right place at the right time, and being spotted by the right people can be the difference.

Equally so, some show incredible promise, get through to the top echelons then just fizzle out, Funny Old Game isn't it?

Some other positive news and Issac Price has signed professional terms today, so a boost to the youth policy and Marcels and Carlo’s eye for talent.

Well done Issac.

Derek Knox,

You werent paying that much attention at recent European Championships. Rasmus Elm was a regular for Sweden, didnt quite scale the heights of the likes of Henke Larsson or Zlatan but carved out a decent career.

As to this fellow, who knows at 16, but if you throw enough mud at the wall, some of it will stick.

Think our association with Swedes down the years (especially the 90s) meant we have quite a good fanbase over there, particularly as the other lot had more Norwegians playing for them (Riise and Bjornebye to name at least two)

I’ve asked the Swedish in-laws about this fella and while there’s a lot of good reports about him, to their knowledge he’s not appearing yet for the Hacken first team (which is equivalent in quality to a team like Swindon). A lot of money for a prospect, but if you don’t buy a lottery ticket.

Duncan,

He has not played for the 1st XI this season and was a sub in the last match of last season.

He is actually listed in the senior squad rather than the U19s.

I think to class Häcken as similar to Swindon is a bit of a disservice. Swindon won League 2 last year - Häcken have been in the top 6 of the Swedish Premiership for most of the last 10 years, won the cup and been in UEFA Cup on a regular basis although never quite getting through to the group stages.

He’s been in the country for a few days and is now a confirmed signing.

The signing has been announced on the Everton website.

In the country for a few days now - so how many more of the 14 before he has finished his quarantining - or is Sweden not on the red list at the moment?

Presume Partey will not be in the Arsenal team for the next match as it will be less than 14 days since he arrived from Spain. Interesting that a player from Germany brought to this country has been one of the ones to test positive 12 days after he presumably arrived.

There was a photo of Gundogan only now back in training and therefore whether those who have had COVID are going to be fit enough to play as soon as they are clear of the 14 days.