Simms joins Coventry in permanent deal

Alan Myers reporting Ellis Simms is heading for Coventry.

Obviously not that keen on the Coventry forward. Unless he basically turned us down for Sporting.

Now go and get Gnonto and Rodrigo.

Best of luck, kid.

Looks like we're ready to go with a 13-man squad in August. But at least we won't go bankrupt as we wait for P&S penalties to be imposed, and Kenwright can't claim he's made any ridiculous overpays on second-rate Spanish strikers. This strategy is all starting to make complete sense.

Gavin, maybe to Gnonto, no to Rodrigo. Mike, that was a helluva single memory of the lad.

I've always said it's not important how much you sell for – it's how you spend the money that counts.

If we bring someone in for £8 million who's better, then it's a good deal.

Problem is, we're woeful when it comes to how we spend money.

But not good enough for Everton apparently; even for further development. That goal must have been an aberration. Just how would £8M change our world anyway?

I read yesterday that we haven't got the £70M that we brought in from Gordon and Kean sales (not really a surprise) but you would think with the P&S hearing and a possible transfer embargo on the horizon, we would spend £70M this summer, and then sell Onana, Richie-style before next summers 30 June annual accounts deadline.

We don't want to be in a situation where we don't buy enough players now, and then aren't allowed to when we're in the Bottom 3 in January.

I mean Coventry!!!!

The wages are a sticking point too, but the way I see it, losing Mina's £120k wages would offset it. He's also a Spanish international and can play anywhere across the line. He could also play behind DCL if he's fit in the Doucoure role, so he would give goals and options.

4th best GA. GF was OKish.

Maybe he helps them out with goal-scoring.

Good luck to him.

Is anyone surprised though? I mean, buying silence can be expensive!

Paul, re Coventry not wanting to sell to us, I never saw that, only that Gykires possibly preferred to go to Portugal. Player's decision.

Whilst it's a shame that we are losing some of our younger players like Gibson, Samuels-Smith and Isaac Price, at least we are getting reasonable sums in for some of them.

I also think that it's good that these players will get a chance to play regularly. Those who are 22/23 need to be playing. Although as has been said before by some posters Samuels-Smith if he goes to Chelsea will probably be loaned out, more than likely back to us so he can sit on the bench

I’m disappointed that Ellis Simms has gone before Maupay and before we signed another striker and that we allowed a very promising LB to go without a fight given we have no cover in that position.

I just hope Dyche creates the fittest team in the league because woebetide us if we get any injuries.

Reports of Iwobi and Demarai Gray wanting away are also very concerning as I doubt we will replace them with better quality.

Who'd be football manager/Chairman/owner?

With due respect to Ellis he hasn't pulled trees up or made himself a definite first team player with his performances.
Yes Ellis may prove himself to be a decent player but if we can sell 2-3 young players who are on the perhifery of the first team to generate 20-25m to invest in players that will have an impact THIS SEASON. I'm OK with it.

I'd rather keep Branthwaite, who imo, is the one young player who stands above the others at the moment.

But without Sporting paying Coventry the reported €15 Million (that's a big fat £12.8 Million that we don't have!) for Gyökeres, there is no way Coventry would have the cash to come over with a bid for Simms. Up until this, there has also been nothing else we can ponder on in the market, other than an aggressive Ipswich trying to low-ball us on Simms with opening bids of £3 to 4 Million.

(Quick tangent: Ipswich is going for back-to-back promotion, which gave Coventry added-motivations to out-bid a promotion rival and prevent them from strengthening. No hard feelings Tractor Boys!)

£6 to 8 Million is exactly the range I hoped we can get for Simms when Ipswich made the initial overture back in early June. An expiring contract with Dyche's indifferent opinon on him, this price should bring some smiles to some depressed Evertonians. If there are Add-Ons in addition to the amount above, I'll buy a round of drinks for my colleagues after work.

After some tidy work on the Samuel-Smiths deal, Thelwell continues trying his best to pull rabbits out of his hat.

As a founding member, I am inviting membership request for the #ThelwellBrigade.

Surprised he is leaving a club going places...

That said, we are running out of players, even average ones, yet we still have to pay the Invisible Threesome £15m a year. Can we not con the Arabs into taking them? Closing down sale, everything must go.

I'm thinking of dusting off my boots. I'm crap but that doesn't seem to be a problem and unlike Maupay, I'm available on a free and am cheap as chips on salary, so that should be music to the board's ears... that is, if we actually have a board.

To get £52m for Simms, Gordon and ISS is a good testament to an academy that’s failed to make much money in player sales since Rooney.

Good luck to Simms. I could be wrong but he looks like he might be the next Dwight Gayle, a player destined to flit between good championship teams and poor Premier League ones. Nothing wrong with that. He’ll make a good living.

I'll seriously lose it if we don't sign someone next week now.

You forgot $400,000 on Price although minus whatever we “settled” with Carlo out of court.

Is this the wholesale shake up that is needed and when does it get around to the big money earners. Gbamin has walked but no word from the club and Gomes back for pre-season while Doucoure and Iwobi are in their last year of contract. Speak now or forever hold your piece.

Toure from Almeria looked a replacement for Simms, but he has lost 106 days last season due to a muscle injury and I found one report that he is not playing at the moment.

It seems that younger players are being sold rather than loaned out. Seems there is a threadbare strategy at the moment. It will be interesting to see who comes in on loan or bought. It now looks that the deals for Dele Alli and Maupay were robbery.

Even if all deals are to come in at the lower end of the reported ranges:

Simms = £6 Million
Samuels-Smith = £3 Million
Nkounkou = £2 Million (€2.2 Million)
Broadhead = £1 Million
Price = £400K (thanks to Kieran@34!)

We actually got only £2.125 Million (85% of the £2.5 Million) from the Stones payment due to a 15% add-on clause when we got him from Barnsley. So, Barnsley got a Secret Santa too.

That's £14.5 Million so far in this calendar year (even though the full amount might take some time to be fully in the bank) to help balancing the book. Not too shabby compared to our endless Free Transfers of Youngsters in the past!

Paul Kossof, how do you know we went for Gyokeres? And if we did, how do you know it was Coventry that wouldn't sell him to us? They were clearly up for selling him, possibly due to the fact he appears to be going to Sporting Lisbon. It looks to me like the lad has chosen the chances of winning things and playing European football over the chance to be playing in the championship again in 12 months time, can you blame him?

And yet, the bloody RS when faced with a similar situation managed to get £23 million for Rian Brewster.

What the hell kind of team do they have negotiating for them? I mean, fair play, but bloody hell.

There will be strengthening this window, as failure to will inevitably cost more. So at the moment I am remaining calm. Thelwell will have his targets lined up and will likely need every penny of money available to him to land them.

It's probably a minority view but I think there will be squad investment with an overall net spend of about £40M. Time will tell.

This is a good move for Ellis Simms and Coventry, at £6-8M, it is a good investment and probably the best Everton can get.

It would be pointless staying at Everton and spending most of the time on the bench. He needs to play and make an impact. He's scored goals wherever he's gone and, if he gets an injury-free run of games, he could easily come good for Coventry and score 15 or 20 next season, getting them into the playoffs again.

Best of luck to him, many Evertonians will be following his progress with interest next season.

Spot on.

I'm not holding my breath!

I think Coventry will do well out of both deals. I just hope we insert a decent profit % on the deal, as despite not being good enough for Everton now, you can see him going for £20M in the future if he bangs in 20 goals. £8M will not look like great business then.

I don't think we do sell-on clauses, Kenwright can't be arsed with the complications.

That says it all.

Communicate. Be decisive and tell, not just us mortal supporters, but the footballing world what is going on.

Uncertainty and indecisiveness is never a good thing.

The lack of communication and decisiveness is making those who tagged him as "Dithering Davey" look like an inspirational leader who made decisions quickly.

Saying that, if we don't replace all these outgoings, they're all bad deals.

As someone said earlier, just imagine if Dyche could get a tune out of Dele?! For the sake of another £10M, it might be worth playing him this season considering his wages. I think we can play him another 6 or 7 times before the fee is due, could be worth sticking him in and seeing how he goes.

Yes, I'm clutching at straws, but he was a very good player at one time and stranger things have happened in football before.

However, £6-£8M for an academy player is the type of business we should have been doing for years.

I liked your comment and it made me laugh. Lay off the pink away shirts though. I thought they were great and I got one.

Everton have a long history of using that colour in away jerseys and some of the very few good away performances last season featured it – including the mauling of Brighton!

Our mismanagement previously was putting young players on professional contracts, then ultimately releasing them without a fee when those contracts ended.

Reality is the academy is either where players make it in rare cases for most clubs or it's a way of earning money from Championship clubs. For years, we just let our youngsters rot there (Luke Garbutt, anyone?) and then leave for basically nothing.

Being academy graduates, the fees we receive for Gordon and Simms alone are pure profit and help our books out a lot.

Added to the Gordon fee, that will help the profit figure for the year!

Even if (and it is a colossal 'if') Dele stepped up and showed the desire and performed, it would still not be worth stumping up £10M to Spurs as he is out of contract at the end of the season.

I for one am (like others) praying we can get some chump change for Gomes and Gbamin, surely someone would pay £5M each given their improved performances last season and improved injury problems? Dele will have to be loaned out.

We'd better have some irons in the frickin' fire or there will be uproar after keeping Bill on. I want to completely lose my shit over Gyökeres slipping through our fingers whilst Simms goes there; however, I am going to maintain for now a small fool's hope that Thelwell is given free reign to do his job and has targets lined up.

Of the players out so far, none were regular first team players, I am much more concerned about who plays in midfield during the African Nations Cup!

While you are right about transparency, Moshiri has never wanted transparency – he has always wanted to operate at arm's length – and that's why he thought texting Jim White was the way to communicate with fans. I don't think he is alone – most owners of football clubs very rarely come out and address supporters.

The changes we have made at board level are purely cosmetic as the two people who need to be gone are still there, and getting shut of Moshiri will prove to be the most difficult. Makes you wonder why there is such a delay in MSP investing reportedly £130 million for 25% ownership, still leaves Moshiri owning 70% of the shares.

If Moshiri couldn't come out and address the fans after two successive relegation battles, I don't expect him to come out now and outline what going forward looks like. Let's not forget, this is the man who told us in January "If we need a striker, I will get one."

Since his boss has had to leave the scene, Moshiri has less interest and is only staying till the stadium is built and hopes a rich Arab state will offer him and Usmanov a way to reduce their debt.

I can't help thinking relegation is the least of our worries. Grand Old Team eh!

£10M might sound a lot for a player out of contract but it's small change compared to the cost of relegation! If Dele can weigh in with 10 goals then it's worth it.

Buy, like you said, he's checked out and couldn't even cut it in Turkey. It's just a pipe dream I'm having as someone challenged me on another thread yesterday to come up with some positive news and I realised just how little of that there actually is!

Besides finally bringing in some money for academy players. That's about it.

Yes Ellis may prove himself to be a decent player but if we can sell 2-3 young players who are on the perhifery of the first team to generate 20-25 m to invest in players that will play THIS YEAR then I can live with that.

The big "if" is if Dyche gets to spend it on players.

I'd be really disappointed if we sell Ellis...

Also the ‘have we or haven’t we’ where you have a go at Kenwright for ‘keeping us in the dark?!!’ I mean, I hate Kenwright but I would never expect a chairman to comment on some other head the ball chairman trying to drive his players price up?

I’m all for slating the man and every bad decision he’s made but when we’re slagging the club off for not commenting on transfer bible or whatever we’re in a worse state than I thought!!!

That is probably why only Ipswich and Coventry have enquired. He wasn't going to make it with us. I do wish him well though and he probably has found his level and will do okay wherever he goes at that level.

As far as Everton are concerned, if the £8m fee is finally agreed, it is an acceptable amount particularly if a sell-on fee can be included. Canon to step up then?

Whatever, we are still bereft of any decent strikers and one dreads what is to come yet again.

Selling Simms makes sense.

Getting £8m for an academy player who the manager doesn't fancy is good news! Much better than endless academy talent leaving for peanuts.

We seem to be getting linked with some talented younger players (Bilal Toure, Gnonto, Summerville etc) and there will also be some good players available on loan (Danjuma etc).

Last summer (bar Maupay) was one of our most sensible transfer windows in a while and I'm quietly optimistic that we might make some decent moves this summer too.

Dyche has proven he can perform wonders on a shoestring and that may be what is needed till the stadium is finished. It will be ok. I think!

However, we aren’t replacing them. Everton being linked with players means nothing.

I am very worried about the lack of activity and the usual silence from the owner and board.

Why for once do we not just act, get the players in, and have a proper pre-season where Dyche can get them fit and working within a system and getting our identity back?

The silence is fine by me. I am never assured by anything The Oligarch's Mate or Young Mr Grace say.

We'll bring in players, many of whom will see us as a good start in the Premier League, or a stepping stone to bigger things if they're good enough.

If Chairman Bill has been involved in the negotiations then we will get the full £8 million conditional on Ellis winning the Champions League and being the first man to set foot on Mars.

Simms will be good (not great) in the Championship and may end up in the Premier League eventually but, for now, is not quite at the level we need. So, letting him go makes sense, getting some money makes sense, and at the very least, it ensures that next season's strike force will have to be different.

I expect Maupay to go also, even if it’s on loan and we cover some wages – he will want to get out while he still has some reputation intact (outside of our fanbase).

Finally, our form under Dyche over the last 10 games was delivering 1 point a game, that then rose to 1.6 over the last 5 games. even if we take a middle ground of 1.3 over 38 games, it brings us 49 points.

I'm not saying that's what we will get but with a few additions, Doucoure and the midfield looking more dangerous, McNeil chipping in and Calvert-Lewin for more than 3 games, I'm confident that Dyche will keep us out of the Bottom 3 pretty easily. So, sell, sell, sell, we'll be fine.

I agree with Sam H, and Paul T, to a certain degree because we are getting a lot more for Ellis Simms than we got for Jonjoe Kenny and Tom Davies, but I was just commenting on the negativity around the club, which hasn't been this bad since Mr T (transparency) sold Rooney, for half the price he said he would. But at least it kept him in charge.

I lot depends on Calvert-Lewin’s fitness this season; if and it’s a big ‘if’, he can stay fit, it will make a massive difference.

I know Maupay is the current whipping boy but I think the absence of Calvert-Lewin was a large factor in his lack of form.

Moshiri will not want us relegated any more than we do so there will be some money available for replacements, I'm sure.

Looking through our squad, we have the basis of a mid-table side if we can strengthen up front and left-back.

I have every confidence in Dyche to get the best out of what he's got to choose from, it won’t be fancy stuff but we will be hard to beat.

Just looking at the betting we are 1/4 to stay up and there’s 5 other teams more likely to be relegated before us.

We can't keep hanging onto players in the hope that they will suddenly come good. Maybe if we had a stronger squad we could afford to wait a bit longer. But we need players who are ready to go right now and not at some unspecified time in the future.

We have had our fingers burned too many times waiting for some young player to get up to scratch already. Personally I doubt Dobbin or Cannon will make the grade either.

Even if Simms did turn out to be the next Rooney, we couldn't keep him anyway. We saw that last season with Gordon and Richarlison sales. We are simply not in any position to refuse decent offers for any of our players, especially fringe ones.

I think we've done decent business so far – especially if we get £8M for Simms – but let's see who we manage to buy. We need to bring in new players quickly because Dyche will want a full pre-season with them in order to break them into little bits and reassemble them.

Rodrigo is 32, so £3.5M and high wages is a risk for me if he asks for a 3-year contract or something stupid like that.

Yes its very frustrating. I can only assume that getting the players in so late every summer is to do with the financial restrictions at the club and need to shift other players first.

However, I'd rather get good players in late in the window than average players in at the start. If we have another window like last summer i'll be fairly pleased. Onana, McNeil, Garner, Gueye and Tarkwoski were all good moves (though Maupay was obviously poor and the loan move for Vinagre was wasted).

I'm hoping by the end of the window for at least 3 or 4 new transfers in and a loan or two.

If for argument's sake, we leave their output as a "push", one was on pennies for one more season. The other 2 more years at £70k per week.

Money made the former real easy to move, the latter might be tough to move this season.

Much appreciated from Toffees who know what he did for our club.

Everton reportedly offered Simms and Broadhead to Coventry in exchange for Gyökeres in January.

Unless you are operating at the very top tier, with top budgets, it's hard to get your targets signed. There's a premium to pay to get things done early and Everton can't afford that premium.

Sides play hard ball, inflating prices until the last couple of weeks of the window when they have no option but to compromise or be stuck with bloated sqauds, bigger wage bills or unhappy players.

Be patient, I'd say. It's not what we want but it's our reality.

One thing I'm interested to see is the profile of player Dyche and Thelwell go for. As Sam Hoare states, last year's window was positive (Maupay aside). Another positive window with maybe another Onana out the bag would mean decent progress.

If Simms leaves, I think that would make it 7 senior players out and none in...

We also currently have 9 senior midfielders listed but 3 won't play. Only one real striker and only one left-back in the squad. Whilst we can put out a decentish first XI, assuming everyone is fit, we have nothing in reserve.

5 weeks to kick-off — strange times.

Simms for Cannon is an upgrade I'd say. It's not like the sale of Richarlison so let's not get carried away.

We have been calling for the deadwood to be shed. When we start to shed the deadwood people fear the sqauds to thin.

Sporting management is openly talking about him to the Press. I take that as an indication Coventry have given them permission.

Reading his own quotes, Gyokere's sounds like he's leaving to go somewhere.

I know and agree we need to sign some firepower, due to our lack of it.

Myself, I'm leery when a 25-year old career minor-leaguer is seen as the solution.

Frank Lampard?

Either way, no way a player in the championship turns down Sporting Lisbon for us.

Gyokeres isn't a great player by any stretch - but we're unlikely to sign a great player for striker competition for DCL. More like a player who will get 8 to 10 goals in Premier League. That sounds crap, but players like Isak and Nunez were in that category this season. Gyokeres would also be a decent (if unspectacular) all-round focal point for the attack. That said, I expect many fans would consider him crap for not banging them in left right and centre.

Given our injury record, it won't be long before the treatment room is full again. Patterson and DCL are currently injured and it's not clear if either will be available for the KO. A striker has been top of the wish list for a long time, why have we still not gotten one in?

I'm not particularly sad to have let any of the players go that have gone, Mina aside if we could have signed him on much lower wages, but literally no one has been signed and we've saved a ton on the wage bill on those that have gone. Even if we don't have much money I would have hoped we'd at least have signed one or two on loan by now, perhaps with options to buy. The likes of Chelsea have tons of promising players who will likely never get a look-in with them. The near guarantee of first team football would have been a decent offer to put on the table, no? Even if the player doesn't fancy a permanent move now he would at least get playing time - like Lukaku.

Here's hoping something happens as the weeks tick down. Given last summers last minute waste of £15m on Maupay, I'm not feeling confident.

rising to £5m based on appearances and goals, and £8m if Coventry gain promotion to the Premiership

Source please?

"Simms signed a four year contract at the CBS Arena after completing his medical at Ryton, joining for an undisclosed fee, which CoventryLive understands to be £3.5million rising to £5m depending on appearances and goals in a deal that could be worth up to £8m if City gain promotion to the Premier League." Source: Echo

Previous record signings for Coventry City, include:

1 Wales Craig Bellamy Norwich City 17 August 2000 £6,500,000

2 Republic of Ireland Robbie Keane Wolverhampton Wanderers 18 August 1999 £6,000,000

Obviously, a fee of £6m 23 years ago, is a lot more in today's money than the possible £8m that Everton may receive.

"Simms signed a four year contract at the CBS Arena after completing his medical at Ryton, joining for an undisclosed fee, which CoventryLive understands to be £3.5million rising to £5m depending on appearances and goals in a deal that could be worth up to £8m if City gain promotion to the Premier League."

Pretty specific to be just a SWAG. They must have an "in" with that club.

Link

I will not watch Everton again (in any division) while he's still connected to the club. There aren't enough words to describe this despicable parasite.

Undisclosed fee, so all guesses. Or true if you're naive enough.

For God's sake, it's Ellis Simms we've sold, not a 22-year-old Lionel Messi or Ronaldo.

Honestly, there is some need for context, otherwise, all Blues will be visiting the funny farm for long spells in the next few months, possibly not quite as bad as a long stretch at Finch Farm?

A good deal for them. He will be a good Championship striker in my opinion; that could still be of interest for a lower-level team like us in the Premier League.

"I will not watch Everton again (in any league) while [Kenwright is] still connected to the club."

Your love for Everton isn't that strong that it counters your feelings about Kenwright? Are you a season ticket holder? Do you attend home games? Did you attend games last season? Is your season ticket for next season available?

I do believe the players bought had a positive effect on the team. McNeil, Garner and Onana are young players with their best years ahead of them. Garner was unlucky with injury or I say he would have played a bigger part.

The loan of Coady worked out okay, Tarkowski was our best defender! Mina was good when he played but Tarkowski played week-in & week-out, probably playing through the injuries Mina was getting stretchered off with! You can't be our best defender sitting in the stands with a sore fingernail, mate!

We are not Man City, Chelsea or Newcastle Utd with unlimited funds to splash around. The money we spend needs to be targeted in the right way at the right players. It's not about when we sign people — it's about who are them people!

It's not hard to see the players who are not contributing a massive amount will not be missed. Yes, we need players in. But the likes of Davies, Coady, Simms, Mina, Vinagre are hardly irreplaceable. Players who can make an impact on the first team is what we need.

If we can trade 7 or 8 players who don't really contribute much over a season for 3 who make a genuine positive impact on the first team, then bring it on.

The smell of dead wood is being lifted from Finch Farm. Embrace it!

Thanks

If it's really only £3.5M, then we need to employ a specific negotiator for outgoing transfers.

The kid could easily get 15+ goals in the Championship next season and the season after. That's definitely worth £12M - 15M given how transfers have been going.

It does make one wonder whether Everton are competent at anything??

I am starting to believe though that our “lucky escape” might not turn out to be one. We've still got Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee in charge, and I fear lack of signings is an impasse from a complex investment situation. Moshiri isn't putting anything more in, so who will be??

I think this season will all be about survival once again. West Ham won't be paying £60M for Onana and nobody is coming in for Pickford either. I think our best hope is a couple of signings on loan or the never-never.

We're at the stage now where our Iranian fool owner has bet it all on black – stadium built and clear 3 years on P&S and an investor comes in and bails him out. The issue is, who's daft enough to come in and compete with Saudi money (direct like Newcastle and indirect like Chelsea)? If Man Utd go to the Sheikh, it'd be a fool who comes in and buys now just to finish 6th to 10th maybe.

If the bet fails, the most palatable and likely option then is the Rangers model. Keep the name, start again… I suspect though that a fool stubborn enough to keep Bill in place this summer is a fool that'll spend 10 years thinking they can reverse it all.

I think this year will all be about survival once again.

Kin'l... splitting the atom comes close but... respect!

I just fear we've tied ourselves in knots at the top. We wished for a coup, but we got croup.

Ta for the goal at Chelsea. It helped keep us up.

Good look to Simms, we've messed him around these last 2 seasons and he's kept a dignified silence and worked hard when he finally got on the pitch.

I hope to see Godfrey, Branthwaite and Tarkowski as a back 3 and think James Garner and Onana will be more prolific and consistent. Onana is going to the top so keep him another year and sell for way more than what we will be offered now.

The crucial signing of a centre-forward is still yet to come!

I tend to separate the team from the soap opera upstairs. But the frustration gets to us all.

I will comment and be as critical as anyone in my own style about the absence of leadership and mismanagement of the club.

However, come matchday, it's all about the team and I'll watch and support those 11 players on the pitch, just as I did last season. It's all I've ever done and, apart from a few glorious years, I've lived with near misses and false hope. It's all I know.

Forgot to mention also looking forward to seeing Cannon rejoin the squad as I think he will make an impact and knows where the net is!

Brent, I can't commit to a season ticket, so I attend when I can (I also have MS so need to manage that).

Danny, I 100% respect all regular match goers, and you imparticular due to the traveling that you commit to support Everton.

To everyone, I admit I was being melodramatic last night, I'd had a couple of Friday sherberts and I've just had it with Kenwright and his smugness. I've just a feeling (like many of us) that he ain't going anywhere. In reality, I couldn't stay away too long,

“I will not watch Everton again…”. I remember uttering the same words when we let Howard Kendall go to Birmingham City as part of the Bob Latchford deal!

It's a good job only my Dad heard those words (“Don't be so bloody daft, Son”) and TW wasn't around at the time.

For us, it's simply staying up. That's success for us. Sadly that's it. The squad lacks goals and attracting real talent will be difficult. Our history over the past 25 years has been successful in staying in the top league.

Everton is about survival and with our squad why anymore? Simply we have been very fortunate selling talent for big money and not replacing them. It's not the manager who will be at fault, just the lack of quality to go forward.

Hopefully a few players can be signed soon but I fear transfer deadline day will be the day. Remember, staying above the Bottom 3 is success next season.

The problem is that he was the best fit striker at the club.

Any argument for selling him that involves investing the money raised in the squad doesn't account for what's happened in the past. We know what happens next.

Last man out can turn the lights off.

Dennis (92) DCL and Patterson didn't look particularly injured to me in the back-to-training vids. Unless they've already been injured in the re-conditioning process.

There is no return for him. He is never going back to Goodison and will not grace BMD.

As I said on the Esk's own site and latest article, they've got rid of managers, they've sacked the board. Do they think that appeases the masses? That seems to have been their "strategic" approach.

No. It doesn't. Until he is gone, the pitchforks will remain out and the sentiment amongst the increasingly majority of supporters will not go away.

But, they don't have much room to manoeuvre now. The phrase I used is that the rats are cornered. Approaching the end of the runway, to coin a phrase used to describe our recent relegation fights.

Come August Joe, we'll be there for the team. Be that in person, watching from home or those overseas at ridiculous hours.

It comes with uncertainty, but we are getting there with a fresh start, we just need that last leech removed. Definitions of leech:

"Bloodsucking parasites"

"A person who extorts profit from or sponges on others. They are leeches feeding off the hard-working majority"

Terry @115, I saw Cannon briefly so would like to see a bit more of him. I think he came on against Norwich (don't quote me) and looked lively. I said last season, and I hope for this one coming, we see Lewis Warrington and Stanley Mills involved with the first team squad. I've watched more of those two.

Stick together Evertonians. It's the one thing that has kept us going during these past few seasons.

Maybe I’m naive and just don’t understand why it had to be the other three leaving, whilst Chairmen Bill stayed on, but I believe it’s the people who believe he his staying on for the good of the club, who are the most naive?

I hope I’m wrong because I also want to go to Goodison, but I’ve stated that I also won’t be going into the ground if Kenwright stays, and I would love to see an empty Goodison, if the bastard remains, because if everyone stayed away, I’m certain this would be too much even, for the man who has no shame.

I wouldn’t expect this to happen but what a message it would send to certain parts of William’s sycophantic media. The liar who has only stayed away for his own safety, actually forced one of the most passionate fanbase’s in British football out the ground🤷‍♂️

On a positive note, without any data science skills, if you search League One youngest Players, you get a list of players who have played professional football. These players at their age are way ahead most clubs academy players in terms of professional football level ability. Most players in our academy will be hoping to play in League One at 19/20 years old. So if we rated these players then you can say they are at a lower academy level because they player in a lower league. However if you rated these players at this age for their professional football level, they are higher than most of our academy players. There must be plenty of gems here to buy and send out on loan again as they are all professional football ready.

It does have a mish-mash of data, but you can see League One has a history of lots of 16/17/18 year olds who have played professional football and by this fact alone are many of the best young players in the English league. Some of these won't be with a top 8 Premier League club.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/league-one/juengsteaelteste/pokalwettbewerb/GB3

Simms was popular at Sunderland but he rarely played a full game or had a long run in the side. I seem to remember there was some doubts about his ability to focus for any length of time. That might come with maturity though of course.

Good luck to him anyway.

Worrying though that there are no new signings yet. As others have said, the bottom 12 are probably all chasing the same players while the top teams gorge themselves on the best takings as they go about their asset stripping and stockpiling.

Simms joined Sunderland on a season-long loan for the start of the 2022/23 campaign and went on to score an impressive seven goals plus two assists in just 17 league appearances before 31st December.

The reports I saw, said they had a deadly combination with Stewart, who banged in another 10 goals next to him, and were one of the best scoring pair in the Championship.

He's not Premier League quality, that's clear. But give him a season or two, and it will be multiple times £3.5m.

The other 20 sources or whatever saying 6-8 million are now dismissed.

Because we’re Evertonians.

Here’s one saying 8 to make us feel better!

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/ellis-simms-speaks-out-after-27281952

What's with this occasional use of the undisclosed thing anyway? Does this also mean they can keep it from the Inland Revenue :-)

On a separate note. I’ve heard from someone with links to the club that we’re seriously looking at Ashley Cole for LB cover.

He turns 38 tomorrow.

Let that sink in!

Could be BS and I hope it is.

Went kid-in-a-candy-store when not necessary from 2016 - now sort of correcting, finally; hopefully not an overcorrection.

"It's fast and furious in the ready money round."

Brands had a list of fine players turned down including Dumfries.

Steve Walsh didn't want Rooney or Klaassen.

The DoF model can work fine if they're allowed to do their jobs. The jury is out as to whether Thelwell is the man to stand up to the higher ups regarding footballing matters and transfers. Hopefully he will but he was DoF when we had both Dyche and Bielsa on the same shortlist which is a worry.

Get your finger out — Fulham at home 5 weeks today with the Toffee Lady up front!!!

In Kenwright we trust! 🙄

We already look stupid. No other club would have paid the stupid stupid amounts of money we've lashed out on journeymen players, eg, £30M Bolaise, £20M Walcott, £50M Sigurdsson, £20M Tosun etc etc.

We are as badly run as they come.

If I wasn't the truest of blues, I would have given up by now, I really would. I have zero trust in Thelwell, Kenwright, Moshiri or the mythical MSP, I don't believe, not that we are being told anything, in anything that they tell us.

Thelwell should have been sacked by now for dereliction of duty. But at least we have Bill with his expertise on transfers and dealings. If we are still in the Premier League at the end of this season and still solvent, I will be happy with that. I expect nothing more.

"If I wasn't the truest of blues, I would have given up by now, I really would."

That's the spirit, Paul. Positivity. Beats all that negativity some people keep posting ad nauseum.

This isn't exciting I appreciate, but it is sensible, as opposed to all the drama of recent years. On the pitch we need to go back to basics and build a solid ahrd-working squad that'll give Dyche a chance to progress with the project he's started (and not kneejerk if there are setbacks). My belief/hope is that he can be the new Moyesiah - who also did an incredible job on a shoestring. I was really proud of those days tbh and never really worried about the KITAP1 approach.
Generally I'd much rather see us cemented back in the top 10 with 50-something points each year (or top 7 with 60+) than trying to play beautiful attacking football and flirting with relegation. Obviously it'd be great to have both (which to be fair some sides are managing), but results matter more right now.

Behind the scenes we clearly need to balance the books to fend off FFP issues, but the moves we've been making (together with sales from last year) suggest we may be able to do that, which is precisely why I'm not getting overly agitated about the lack of transfer activity. I think we will buy a striker, possibly two in the summer and probably a couple more.

Meanwhile, in the boardroom, we've already had a bit of a cull and I suspect BK will follow soon enough as most on here are desperate for once investment money comes in and/or they identify an option Moshiri believes to be credible.

Ultimately I've seen a little glory and a LOT of adversity in my c.40 years as a fan and I can say that this is far from the worst situation we've been in. Pre-Moshiri we were on the verge of bankruptcy for years, so I don't think our finances are anywhere near the nadir, we'd also been flirting with relegation regularly pre-Moyes under the likes of Walker and Smith, this was not the first 'last day escape'.

Previously we didn't have an owner who'd been able to invest (or find) money and we certainly didn't have a fabulous new stadium on the way. My ambitions aren't crazy: a top 10 finish, a little squad development and continued evolution to a more sensible way of running things off the pitch, but I do go into the season with some optimism... there'll be plenty of time for moaning later on!

Not even close to being good enough to cut it in the Premier League though. I've seen milk turn quicker.

I think if he was better playing with his back to goal, then Sean Dyche, would have probably kept him, but I think he's got a chance because he has got a turn of pace, so I definitely can't agree with your last statement, Jay!

If true, my opinion is this is a fucking unbelievable deal for Coventry and quite the opposite for us.

I suppose we will never find out!

Although I agree with your opinion.

It doesn't matter if he's a little better than Maupay if he's much easier to sell and ultimately fairly easily replaced in turn. Hopefully, if he can't improve, Maupay will end up being third- or even fourth-choice by the time the season starts.

Yes, I agree that this coming season is about survival and the transfer policy will appear up to the last minute as you described. But Moshiri does normally pull a surprise near the end of the transfer window. The reason only known to him, with mixed results.

I don't know if you are aware of the Greater Fool theory, used to describe Trump's business dealing in the early 2000s. A fool buys a business and expects a greater fool to buy it off him at a huge profit. Any logical analysis of the situation is confounded by unknowns, pushing the limits, a myriad of borrowings, a legal quagmire and behind-the-scenes workings. In the world of Premier League football, fertile ground seems to be the order of the day for this theory.

Some will never be happy.
They ask for deadwood to be sold or let go, and as soon as a few squad fringe players are gone & high earners who don't contribute enough they moan the sqauds too thin.

Chris I don't agree though about your take on our finances. Kenwright never tried to invest when he was in control. Never tried to maximise the potential we had when he had a really good manager in Moyes. We were not nearly bankrupt under him, he never spent any money, we were run on what the club generated. He didn't invest a penny himself.

We now find ourselves in the opposite situation where the 100s of millions moshiri has wasted has effected us worse. Where its left us without a pot to piss in. With sections hanging over us, ffp tying our hands in the transfer market, players not wanting to sign for us.

From where we were when Mosiri took over to where we are now is how I look at it.
We were able to attract players like lukaku & Richarlison now we are looking at bargain bin signings to save our premier league status.
It's a million miles.

I think he's only shown glimpses, but then was he given the chance? Did manager after after manager have the confidence in his ability?

I guess now we'll never know.

That night was a great moment, but in general I was on the fence from what I've seen of him.

Time will tell, but I wish him well.

Play football regularly. That is most important for his career development.

I was never convinced either but like you I wish him well.

I've heard he's sold for £4M plus addons if they get promoted etc.

If he wasn't our player, he seems the type if profile we would easily splash £10M on. Go figure?

Good luck to the lad, I think he's made a lot of progress last season and will continue to improve.

I don't where you're from or what your problem is but if you think someone saying they wouldn't expect a chairman to comment on transfer rumours means they support the chairman, you're either pissed, can't read, or are mental. Or a combination of all three.

Go and have a lie down.

We have a fairly reasonable first team though our major goalscorer is a doubt to play every week, we have a poor bench though some of the young lads might become men.

We have the financial situation and the Profitability and Sustainability chasms to cross, it could mean a disastrous experience but who knows?

What is very likely is that we are short of funds to buy expensive players but we might just get a goalscorer and a right winger. So I agree with you that there is one aim for us this season. That is to avoid relegation with the further hope that we are not dealt with harshly and we can get around mid-table.

I think Dyche is planning for the worst but hoping for the best. I hope we back him and the squad next season like we did last season. I couldn't think of a more suitable manager for the situatrion we find ourselves in.

It was probably going to be Usmanov and Moshiri who had a vision of owning a Champions League club. Usmanov has now gone and it looks like Moshiri is going to put the debt on the club.

It's been reported he has said that EFC can't really afford the new stadium. If this happens, as it probably will, it will be a millstone around the neck for possibly decades. It may also prevent takeovers. The debt could be massive, possibly as much as £1.5 billion.

We do know what our finances are like, they are disastrous. We have been recording over £100 million losses each year for the past 4 years. Last year came down to £45 million because we sold Richarlison on the last day for £50 to £60 million.

If you want a complete breakdown read some of Paul the Esk's past articles. I suggest you have a stiff drink first.