Is Aaron Ramsey on Benitez's January list?

Now that the former Rangers boss is in charge of Aston Villa, I can see the likes of Ramsey joining the Villains rather than Everton.

From Everton's perspective, buying players who are at the end of their careers, won't help the club to build a dynamic team, it will just be adding to the list of players who were good once but are now looking for a last pay-day to extend their career.

Ramsey is an intelligent and useful player, but with injury concerns, not right for Everton in its current situation.

Exactly the sort of player we are looking for - to fill the Delph suite in the Finch Farm treatment wing next season. Expensive, no re-sale value and injury prone he meets all of our requirements.

Absolutely not. He's wad a good player but he's always had injury problems he's not the next James Milner or Gareth Barry. They where super fit, relatively injury free players who featured heavily for every club they played for. When will we learn? If you sign a player with historic injury problems, the injury problems don't just stop. Look at James or Delph.

I completely get where we are as a club and that we can't sign ‘peak' James, Ramsey, Delph etc and have to gamble. But we're gambling on the wrong player type. Surely better to gamble on younger players from the Championship, like Moyes did in his prime?

However, there's no evidence we're even considering making a bud for this player so let's hold off with the hyperbolic ‘when will the club learn….' Statements when we probably (hopefully) aren't even interested.

Gerrard had an easy ride at Rangers. This is the Premier League and he knows what to expect. I hope Everton are on song when he comes to Goodison.

We came close to signing Aaron Ramsey 12 years ago when Moyes was manager. I remember us being interested and it was a straight choice for him between us and Arsenal. I remember Moyes saying that Ramsey came up to Merseyside and was having a chat about coming to Everton in Moyes's house. He rejected us and chose Arsenal.

He's a very good player and he has that natural uncanny ability of being in the box at the right time to score goals. However, he is 30, the Premier League has moved on, it's faster and tougher. Has he the physiology to cope?

The lad is injury prone and on massive wages. On balance we should steer clear. Newcastle will probably offer him what he wants and we should not be getting involved in any wage auction like that.

I doubt very much that he is on our shopping list. He is very much on Juventus´s sales list. He is on £400k per week and is a squad player for them. No club wants to e shelling out over £20M a year for a bench sitter in the best of times – let alone post pandemic. I think the link to us is just Juve´s marketing machine.

The perfect signing this keep us in mid-table obscurity.

Not against signing experienced pros, but not ones on such absurd wages and with such injury problems.

But this is an ever-increasing issue. As wages the extortionate, especially at the top clubs, the experienced pro at 30 years of age (like when we got Barry), is now a player earning £200-300k a week. So such signings are no longer good value.

Stick to signing younger players, or the better players from Europe's B-leagues, and building that way like West Ham, Leicester and the likes of Dortmund, Leipzig, Atalanta and co have been doing to great success.

If we have a scouting network worthy of the name, we should be finding younger, hungrier players in the lower leagues (Europe, America etc) who will come in and grasp the chance to see if they are good enough.

We have, hopefully, learned the mistake of the 5-year contracts that saddled us with over-priced squad fillers.

In the current financial climate, players will know that reality has to bite. But players with ambition and belief will see how they can benefit from shorter-term deals with optional extensions.

Not being an avid watcher of foreign football, I can't name the players we should go for. But I can name some we don't need. Aaron Ramsey is on that list. Unless he is a straight replacement for Gomes, and why would we? He adds nothing new.

We still need to increase our options in attack and at full-back. But with the nouveau riche Geordies, and Villa having put their messiah in charge, we are slipping down the glamour charts.

January will be interesting, though potentially frustrating.

A good signing for Newcastle, if he plays enough games to keep them up – before they replace him with fitter, hungrier players for their next step. They can afford to play such an expensive, short-term game.

For us, I'd rather find better value elsewhere.

Seriously, have we learned nothing in the last 6 years.

Surely this is just paper talk. I mean come on, Rafa gets James Rodriguez off the wage bill and we want to reinvest those saved millions on other injury prone players? Ramsey and Alexie Sanchez can go try the MLS, China or Qatar.

Enough of this nonsense.

I don't trust Brands or Rafa to bring the right players in, nor the right profile, the right age, in the positions we need. On top of that of course we don't seem to have a great deal of talent in the u18s -23s either.

Lets hold our breath and just hope we get it right over the next couple windows. Looking likely we may sell DCL, Richy and possibly Mina over that period. Lets face it, across the park they've sold, Coutinho, Suarez etc and every time they actually improved. It's never the end of the world to lose a player but if the recruitment is just so bad we are doomed to failure. We have no choice but to cash in on those few players because it's going to be years before we see increased revenue from BMD. Happy Christmas.

He is a fine player, when fit but unfortunately he can't stay fit.

I sincerely hope we are not after Ramsey. We must call an end to chasing these 'yesterday's men' and look for fresh talent elsewhere. If it does not already exist in the academy, look in the lower divisions and bring them on to Premier League standard.

Insigne tho, I could swallow.

Absolutely NOT!! The very last thing we need is another player milking us for a big pay day.

I fully expect us to announce his signing on New Year's Eve.

Same tripe has been spouted for three years now. If our answer to the injuries in midfield is an ageing-injury prone midfielder, then we are run by utter numpties.

I thought I had read somewhere that he has turned down a couple of moves as he would have to take a large pay cut. If we were to sign him, then it would have to be on a low base wage with additions for full games played but it does strike me that it would merely be stockpiling the next heap of "deadwood".

A big No. Too old, too injury prone and his wages are Just not for us.

I hope this is a rumour and not a serious thing.

We are in need of reinforcements for sure. I hope we are. But a player with a need for his own hospital we don't need. We have enough of those, don't we?

We should do big changes in the club's coaching team, fitness team and development team. I do not have trust in Unsworth, Ferguson... nor in Brands. Get them out and replace them with capable people.

And Kenwright should go back to Coronation Street. A head for football he doesn't have.

30, Injury-prone, on £400k a week, likely to play a few games per season; obviously going to need his own treatment bed... for fuck's sake, Blue-arsed Bill – snap him up before he snaps his leg getting to Finch Farm!

Ramsey is just another name spouted by an unreliable journalist looking for a headline. There are usually 4/5 different players we are going to bring in every day.

I have no doubt that Benitez has talked to Brands about the type of player he wants and can afford, and Brands is already finding a number of players to help him and who is the best one or two to negotiate for.

Remember we are under FFP rules and it may depend on who we can ship out that will help on who we can bring in.

This could be a smart move. We'll need a like-for-like replacement for Gbamin. If Moshiri falls for this, we may as well give up. But I can't see it happening. We're also being linked with wonderboy Barkley. How far we have fallen?

Actually I'd go for Moyes. He doesn't need to play, just tell Rafa and the board who we should be signing. It works for West Ham in spades!

Howeve,r we seriously do NOT need Ramsey. He may be good but he's too old and his wages – if true – are laughable.

Really? Aaron 30-year-old, always-injured, overpaid, no-future Ramsey? Why?

I swear they do this to us on purpose. It's like a never-ending, unchanging script.

We're not signing him, we can't afford him.

As above, let Newcastle have him as a marquee signing, and they can also pay £225M for Curtis Jones, £152.5M for Brad Jones (or whoever Liverpool's No 2 is) and £25M for Steve McMahon, cause he sure can rap... not that the Everton supporting Howe has any history of this kind of behaviour.

There's also no evidence of Benitez spending money on these sort of players for Everton... well, apart from Rondon's wages. Probably for the best that we're going to be outbid for some of these players for a while...

He bloody well better not be. He was injured all the time 6-7 years ago, and he's not going to be more reliable at 30. It does not matter how good he was or is, if he isn't going to be on the pitch.

Everton as the interested buyer mannequin again. Agents use us to get some leverage and our past dealings don't really give us an ability to dismiss the rumor out of hand.

Ramsey is also mad keen to play for his country. I live in west Wales and my mates all love the guy. He has played some great footy for them only to be crocked for his club side a few days later. (Just like a certain right-back we know...)

He was a special player, he had everything, but despite the "Rondon experiment", I can't see Benitez wasting limited resources on him.

Barry did us a good turn, so if we can get him for £50k a week on a 1-year rolling deal, it could be okay. That being said, we have a lot of crocked midfielders at the minute, so perhaps best not.

“Benitez is known to favour experience over youth” – exactly why this man will ultimately prove to be as big a disaster to our long term health as Koeman and Allardyce have.

How many times are we going to be linked to this guy?

I'm just happy to learn there *might* be a January shopping list.

As a player, he is head and shoulders better than what we have at the moment but sadly he is injury prone and would miss more matches than he would be available for... so it has to be a big No.

Colin, I heard that Rafa wants to build a team around Iwobi!

You heard it here first, mate. :-)

Derek @33,

Is Everton diversifying into other sports such as Dominoes and Darts?

John @2,

Very funny, but sadly bang on. At the risk of being controversial and ridiculed, I would have Ross Barkley back in January please.

When will we ever learn? Signing players on massive wages with a terrible injury record. Does the club have any transfer strategy?

File under B for Bollocks and Blah Blah Blah along with the other Bullshit about the return of Barkley.

God help us.

I know it's the Daily Mail but even if it's slightly true then the £500 million wasted has well and truly caught up with us. Brands has a lot to answer for and should be shown the door.

How much each Premier League club can spend on transfers under FFP rules...

Kenny @38,

As I discussed with Kieran on another thread, those figures are mostly based on the financial accounts for 2020, so there might be a bit more 'wiggle room' than the report is stating. Doesn't absolve the Everton hierarchy of being daft though.

I'd take Ramsey if there were titles and points given out to teams with the most appearances in the treatment room.

We can rule out Harry Souttar in January.

The defender we have been linked with and subject of the previous rumour was carried off on a stretcher playing for Australia yesterday.

Their physio says it looks like a bad knee injury and he will be out for the long-term. The severity is still being assessed. Good luck to the lad with his rehabilitation.

No to Aaron Ramsey. Wrong time, wrong place. Too prone to injuries. Would be a continuation of the mistakes Everton has made during the past 5 to 7 years.

Kenny @38,

It's even more stark when you consider we've sold all our best players to be £35M under the FFP waterline. The club is an absolute shambles from top to bottom and heads should roll. But they won't, unless we got relegated, as the Kenwright mob are too entrenched and far too comfortable.

That our (massively overpriced) record signing is now suspended pending police investigation is about the most Everton thing ever. Moshiri should be utterly ashamed.

Excellent player when fit, but is too injury-prone.

We have ran up a long list of signings of players in the later stages of their careers and most of them have been disastrous. Gareth Barry was the exception.

No, not for me, thank you very much. I'd rather have Barkley but that ain't saying much.

We shouldn't be getting these "been there, done that, bought the tee-shirt" players anymore. What we need is wise scouting, quality coaching, sellable assets and players who have a genuine desire to succeed and ultimately be successful with us.

With regards FFP, it will good for us to take stock, hopefully not sell any of our quality players, and get back to improving things – not just throwing them away when bored.

Brands isn't the sole person guilty for the position we are in; unfortunately, incompetence is throughout the club and it will take a goddamn genius to get it straight again.

A successful first team would help for starters.

If the wages can be reasonable, I fear he fits the current preferred profile of those in charge.

He might add something for a year or so, especially if Wales get to Qatar and he wants to go too, but he could equally be Delph and Rodriguez 2.0.

If we have anything spare, I'd like to see the owners gamble and go get a Ben Diaz, Joel Piroe or (spit) Solanke from the championship, alongside Patterson from Rangers. Fofana from Monaco would be good for the box to box.

If we have no money for fees (looks likely), then try and get Lingard in on a “Josh King” type deal…..albeit after the way he got treated we'd need to work hard to get trusted again.

Fear it's wishful all round tho.

Gary # 48.

There's a very good chance of Ben Brereton Diaz playing for us next season. His contract is up in June 2022 and we'd be a very good next step for him. Which then gives Dobbin a chance to mature on loan getting decent game time.

And on the subject of these non-glamorous signings, Grimes of Swansea and Swift of Reading are also free in June 2022. Both very good players who, I expect, would work their nuts off to make the most of a chance with us.

Brereton Diaz is an interesting one, Blackburn may be looking for some sort of a fee In January rather than let him go for free. Only 22 still, there will be a few clubs looking at this possibility.

Clubs will be assessing whether he can do it in the Premier League and make that step up. 10 goals in 11 games in the Championship is not too shabby though, and he has scored goals for Chile in their qualifying matches. That seems to suggest he could do well making the transition.

Brands must have considered this option and whether it is worth pursuing. It's a possibility seeing that we need a much better threat when Calvert-Lewin is out. Who knows... this lad could even challenge him?

Just shows where Brands is at... another washed-out player on mega wages.

Please, Moshiri, show Brands the door before he wastes more of your millions.

John Kavanagh @2,

Says all that needs to be said. Talented player when fit but not going to be around long enough to take us to the next level, which has got to be the goal for our recruitment policy.

Alex@15,

What makes you think our recruitment team are as good as “Utter numpties”?

30 years of age, regularly in the treatment room, been outside the Premier League for the last 10 years and on massive wages.

Sounds like a dream, snap him up, Moshiri.

Kenny (#38),

Thanks for the Daily Mail cutting (can't believe I said that!) but if there's a scintilla of truth in it, we are demonstrably the worst-run team in the Premier League.

If it's all baloney, then surely whoever's actually responsible for our current fiasco will provide monies for a quality signing in January?

Yeah, right.

No thanks, our crock department is already full. Why bother with a past-his-best injury-prone player? Give some young lad a chance.

34 years old and injury prone. No thanks.

Not for me this one, although I can see it happening.

Two goals (one a penalty) for Wales against the mighty Belarus last night mind!!

No thanks.

We need another player of the same profile of Doucouré.

Both our midfielders can play 6, 8 or even 10, the issue isn't that we need the missing piece of the puzzle, it's that we need cover when they are unavailable.

We also don't want players on the downward trajectory. Ramsay made his money with his big move, he's not coming here to top up his pension and cruise to retirement while he fucks off to Wales ever other weekend.

Jay @50: 2 years, not 10.

Kieran @56: 30, not 34.

Undoubtedly a top quality player, his injury record is not that bad but you would have to question his desire at this stage of his career.

As a Welshman, I absolutely love Ramsey. Totally ran the game against Belarus last night. He has the same knack of being in the right place at the right time as Tim Cahill, which none of our current midfield do.

Against this is, he's 31 in December, prone to injury & would be expensive. This would also be his last move, so probably doesn't need the money. I'd love it to happen, but can see all the reasons against it.

Get Pulisic on loan from Chelsea in January. He is a top striker and cannot get in the Chelsea team.

Remember our last Yank!!!

Of course Ramsey will join us, he fills all our criteria. Too old. Too slow and just ripe for the Everton 'end of career' pension fund. He should ask Rondon for any further advice.

Ramsey is 30 years old, 31 in December.

Newcastle-bound, hopefully!

I wouldn't take him based solely on his injury record.

Desperate we might be for "proper" footballers but if they can't/won't play it wastes time and money. Surely our renowned tricky -dicky Colombian taught us that spending more time on a plane than on the pitch

I can see that we sign him for our treatment room to keep its personel busy in case if we get rid of Delph / Gbamin in the future!!!

12 years ago, he would have been an expensive mistake given his later injury record and cost for a club with no great income. Now would be an expensive luxury who would not be fit enough to provide an active contribution.

Also, there is some expensive Man Utd misfits for us to salvage for them without much if any loss!

97 years old. No thanks

Hope not, he would only add to the long list of ageing cast-offs we regularly buy that would have no sell-on value whatsoever, he's hardly a game-changer. Mr Director of Football wants to get his coat on and go visit a few grounds in the Championship; I'm sure he'll find a few gems better than Ramsey.

Paul - either that or pack his suitcase. He has a credibility gap with me on his performance at the club and will need to show up good style for me to change my opinion by doing exactly as you say - I know Danny suggests he is hamstrung by the management committee but he is part of that (presumably willingly) and needs to open his mouth.

Played alright last night, but I'd rather see what happens in the summer regarding the central midfield pair of Cantwell and Gilmour at Norwich.

As for a new right-back, the perfect fit for me would be Nico Williams, who had a good game last night and continues to impress me greatly... the lad is simply wasted "over the park".

Ken 70. Any ideas on who should replace our not to be named midfielder? I bet if a few true blues scouted around they would find a hidden gem or two no problem.

Paul,

No doubt about it. Many more knowledgeable TW contributors than me could no doubt produce a very realistic list for our DoF to go and scout. If I recall, several did on another thread before the start of the season.

I have no particular problem with signing players who have turned 30 as long as they don't have a poor injury record. Look at Ronaldo. He's 36 yet hardly misses a game. Since signing for Juventus, Ramsey has had numerous niggling injuries that have caused him to miss 24 games.

It would help if he stopped playing international football which just increases his chances of picking up injuries. Older Players like Ramsey and Coleman should decide where their priorities lie. Club or country because they can't manage both.

If Ramsey is going to insist on continuing international football, then we should avoid signing him.