The curious case of Gomes and Gbamin

I'll try to solve it, Dyche doesn't want them around because they are not in his plans, the two players don't want to be here, Gbamin or his agent I think has even said as much. A double dose of unwanted negativity.

Both will be off soon.

Gomes sounds like he has played well enough to get a move somewhere. Gbamin not so sure, we will likely be heavily subsidising his wage for another year.

I fear we will be subsidizing both of their wages while they work their way back to fitness after a summer spent dreaming of chances they're not going to get.

Remember some currently club-less 29-year-old Nice reserve we paid mega wages to as he ran his contract down whilst injured (allegedly) before he swanned off to Chelski to further prove to the world that he was absolutely fucking useless when it came to being a professional footballer?

Everyone in football (and now business too as a consequence of Moshiri) has known for decades that Everton is the ultimate soft-soap when it comes to the merest hint of know-how.

Like very many of us I revere Prince Rupert's Tower as our motif but the blunt fact is that under Kenwright's tenure our motif outside of ourselves has been our club being spread-eagled arse-up over a barrel for any sleazy bastard to shag.

And they have!

That's why I'd like Dyche to make the run some sand hills. Don't think I've ever seen Gomes break a sweat.

Anyway, just after he became our manager, that colleague of mine went to the golf club on his jack for a round of golf. He was a mad Preston North End fan and was blown away to meet Moyes in the changing room, also without someone to play against. Moyes suggested they play each other and they did.

During the game, they had a long natter. At the time, Moyes had hit the headlines on a PNE pre-season tour of Majorca where, in a dispute with his prolific centre-forward Jon Macken he, Moyes, had been pictured standing the lad on his tip-toes by grabbing his throat in a vigorous confrontation in a late-night bar (Macken was sold to the then crap Man City very quickly).

My mate asked Moyes how he was finding Everton in comparison to PNE and Moyes said his biggest difficulty was not being able to bollock inept players on account of the sway their agents had over our then current (penniless, allegedly) owner – Bill Kenwright.

Further, years ago I posted (and got somewhat lambasted for on TW) that a still current pal of mine who in the late '90s was a Premier League linesman, was in the centre-circle at Goodison when we went to penalties in a League Cup match against Sunderland.

He told me then that he was appalled to have heard Duncan Ferguson and John Collins audibly say they wouldn't take a penalty because they had no interest in progressing in that cup, golf being their preference. They derided Ibrahim Bakayoko before he took a penalty, but missed, delivering them no further need to play in that cup.

Such totally inadequate shits, under Kenwright, have been a cancer in our club throughout his entire time.

I gather he reported back for training. Presumably because even he has finally twigged that no-one else wants him at a fraction of his current wages, so he might as well come back to chill and sit out the season on £5M a year.

Great business, Kenwright. No doubt you also owe Levy lunch and a fine claret. Now think what you owe us.

Maybe we could turn to Big Sam for advice on contract loopholes or any of our previous managers who all seem to know the compensation clauses backwards not to mention bonuses for merely doing what they were hired for, eh, Mr Dyche, Mr Ancelotti.

Given no-one in their right mind will buy Alli, we're lumbered with him and his wage for another year unfortunately.

As an aside, the contracts of Gray, Iwobi, Gueye and Doucoure all expire next summer too. Although none of them are especially good, they represent a productive part of the squad and play a lot of games. It's going to be extremely difficult to replace them all next summer without any sale proceeds to invest.

We really could do with Mills, Dobbin, Warrington, Onyango and Metcalfe stepping up this season to fill one of those 4 places. Hopefully James Vaughan has a Championship loan up his sleeve for this group (or maybe one or two will even stay and be part of the first-team squad).

In a different way, he reminds me of Klaassen. A talented player who might be better suited to the continental leagues.

But I'd go with Jim. If we have them, let's try and work with them.

Deli Alle needs to rediscover his love of football.

I might be in the minority, but like you, I liked Gomes. I think that injury ruined him and in a better team, he might have shined better.

I am fucking fed up with people using the word 'cancer' on here to describe some triviality at Everton. Have some respect for the poor people suffering from that dreadful disease, use another word please.

The word 'cancer' used in this context refers to a disease that threatens a life – in this case, the life of Everton; had we gone down last season, then I do believe it would have been the end of our club.

I'm sure most posters on here have been touched by cancer even if only indirectly: family, colleagues etc I don't think anyone is using that word lightly; the hatred of what Bill & Moshiri have done is real and painful. Currently our big signing hope is 38-year-old Ashley Young.

Good times.

That said, it can be a horribly pernicious disease that destroys everything – and we all know I mean "everything".

Kenwright has for decades destroyed Everton - and I mean everything.

But let's all talk about the likes of Kevin Thelwell and/or various nonentity players instead eh, like that'll get us anywhere in achieving vital change at the top?

a practice or phenomenon perceived to be evil or destructive and hard to contain or eradicate.

These players are destructive to our current precious bottom line. And they are, due to their contracts, hard to eradicate.

So Paul, I understand you may not like the thought of cancer, and I sympathize with anyone who's experienced it. But there's nothing wrong with describing "dead weight" as a "cancer" as it meets the definition (one of them) of the word for many, many people.

Word police, or people who infringe on others' rights to exercise their free speech which is in no way inflammatory, are the ones who honestly need to watch what they say.

In my opinion.

ps: I've had family members have childhood cancer, friends lost from cancer, etc. I have zero issues with anyone using the word 'cancer'. It's not a bad word. It's a god-awful fucking disease that I pray is eradicated as soon as possible.

I think everyone has their sensitivities. I upset some by mentioning Himmler the other week. At the same time, as a proud uncle and Godfather of a beautiful young lady with Down's syndrome, it irks me when people say “retard”.

We've all had relatives with cancer and a fair few in here have had it themselves. But obviously the word evokes strong emotions in Paul so rather than trying to rationalize it maybe give the guy a break? There are plenty of other words we can use to describe Kenwright. Liar being one of the few four-letter ones that is kid friendly.

Like everyone else, we look at the phones first thing in the morning and again 10 times a day hoping we have signed someone, but we all know that we are carrying too many overpaid players and until they are gone we will be lucky to get any new faces in.

I imagine Kenwright negotiated these contracts too so blame him... (yes, I know we already do).

Gbamin is certainly off, I'd imagine. I agree Tony that this is likely to be on heavily subsidised wages. I don't like the way he has used his agent to have a pop at us this year. We all wanted him to work out and we have all been frustrated with his Everton journey, as I am sure he is.

André is a different animal. As some may know, I lingered in my open support for him on TW for much longer than most. This is because he was my favourite player in his first season. I even still hold some small hope he will have something to offer us this season?

I would personally rather keep him if loaning him out meant we pay £70k or so of his wages. He could operate effectively in a midfield 3, let's see what happens in pre-season. A fool's hope no doubt.

Bit over the top, maybe. But when it comes to Kenwright, when isn't Don over the top?

Jamie (23) has it right.

In American sports, it is not uncommon for clubs to ask those who demanded a trade (ie,. ask to be transfer listed) to go into witness protection program until the transfer is done and dusted.

Without keeping them away from the squad, their places in the Training Camp would not have been filled by 2 of the youngsters, so this is another case of additions via subtractions.

Financially, they (and Dele Alli) are nothing but sunk cost. We are definitely subsidising any impending transfers or loans for Gomes and Gbamin, but any penny saved is a good penny. There were various reports cited that Lille and Trabzonspor were only on the hook for 10% of their salaries in the past season. If they are making £200k per week in total as reported, the savings of £20k per week via another season of subsidised loans could be used on an extra and useful loan addition for Dyche.

If Thelwell continues his strong effort this summer so far, he might be able to pull another rabbit out of his hat that is minimising the financial hit on the club by Gomes and Gbamin.

I'm a "glass half-full" guy, but even I can't see anyone taking any of Dele Alli's salary off our hands.

But still, the £300k+ per week paying to this "Holy Trinity" will be done on 30 June 2024: so we are less than 12 months away! Rejoice!

I was though, thanking Don for the post on the hard job Moyes had, disciplining some players because of agent's influence. I also found it interesting to hear about Ferguson and Collins refusing to take a penalty because they weren't interested in the League Cup; and golf being their preference.
If that's true, and I've no reason to disbelieve it, it's a disgrace.

As for Don's obsession with Kenwright, well my guess he's bitter about what this man has done to our club, and at the same time calling himself a great Evertonian amongst other utterences. If Don goes on a bit too much for some, I'm sure that there are, equally, many Blues who feel the same. I know I do.

I think, Steve, some Blues, because we're all different, get obsessed with what he's done (is doing?) to our club; and I think I'll have to put myself in that club as well; but I'll try and cut my comments about him down.

About the word "cancer", me mam and me sister died of the same type of cancer and it is a dreaded word to many of us. I'd hope it wasn't used in the football sense purely for selfish reasons; but I'm with Jamie, it is an accurate word, but unfortunately it has dreadful connotations.

There's too many wokey word police in this country which in my humble opinion is turning this nation into being afraid to mention a word in case it offends someone. Not easy to balance but I think it is way too much constricting at present.

Finally, about the three musketeers we've got. Gbamin looked good to me in the first couple of games I saw him in before he got that injury.

The one thing that concerned me about Gomes before he came was his hopeles goalscoring record. He was Man of the Match against the Reds at Anfield and he had a lot of other good games before his injury. Could he recover any of that? Well, that's a job for Thelwell and Dychy!

Same with Dele Alli, he's got great talent and I remember him turning a match on its head when he came on at half time. Same with him though. If Thelwell and Dychy don't think they can get anything out of them, we'll just have to carry them, unless we can loan them out.

IMO it has been quite obvious for years that the Everton players or enough of them are not interested in playing in the FA Cup after Xmas. I would go as far as to say they had no interest in playing in European Competitions either, as Ancelotti found out.

But given the problems with Profitability and Sustainability rules, I don't think the Club fancied coming under FPP rules had they qualified for a European competition either.

Don has been right about Kenwright for years. Any of us who in hope thought that Kenwright was doing an Everton serving job were continually let down.

It is really sickening to be reminded of it, but if for years Don has been right. Do we want him to tell things are different than they are? Do we want to be going about in a waking sleep?

No matter what topic we discuss on a thread, 99 percent of the time, Kenwright is involved on the downside, either directly or indirectly.

He is still Chairman despite justified universal calls for his resignation, showing how determined and manipulative he continues to be. He would sell us all down the river without hesitation.

We all know that.