Player Watch: Youssef Chermiti

And I don't think there's another player in the club who can crack a volley with his off-foot like he did against The Hammers.

It's irrational after so few glimpses, but for some reason, I just believe we have a star on our hands.

One observation I did make from Saturday's game was that his yellow card should be appealed and rescinded. He made no shirt pull on the Hammers player, yet got penalised for it.

Many more previous serious West Ham fouls went unpunished – another example of inconsistent refereeing?

Although we haven't seen much of him, what he has been able to show holds much promise that he is going to do very well.

I still have high hopes for Beto too but in a different sort of way.

I think Chermiti can adopt to the team's style of play but in Beto's case the team has to adopt to his style of play. I think he is very much in the mould of "Feed the Yak and he will score" although that wasn't the case against Brentford.

I also think that this lad's going to be another Isak, I really do; he has a quality about his quick thinking and feet to match. I think we have a star in the making!

A bit-part role on the bench and injuries like this season isn't going to progress him.

The hope is that he stays healthy and is in top form come preseason, dukes it out with Beto for a starting spot (assuming we don’t get a decent offer for Beto), and beats out Beto for that spot. Then goes on to score a more realistic 8-12 goals given he’s still pretty raw. That way we can spend our money on pace on the wings, quality competition for right and left back, and some more dynamism in the central midfield.

The worst-case is we loan him out, he struggles to get game time, we overpay for a striker who is no better than he or Beto is, and we’re left with another year wondering why we can’t make a good buy on a striker and can’t put the ball in the net.

At this stage, we know that Chermiti is a good prospect but injuries have stalled his development.

At 20, it's about time for him to be playing lots of games and developing – which probably isn't going to happen next season at Everton.

So a loan at a good standard makes sense – like the PSV loan which was the making of Branthwaite.

I also think he'll become a good player – and hopefully he does hit Isak levels.

He's a lot more skilful than Beto, and if he gets game time, and stays injury-free for the rest of the season, we could have a top striker.

I believe he'll learn a lot more playing in the Premier League than going out on loan.

He's probably a third or 4th choice striker at the moment, and if that's the case would benefit from a good loan.

Interesting we've been linked with that young Strasbourg striker, who isn't that much older: Emanuel Esseh Emegha, 6ft 5in.

Wow, and I thought I was an optimist on the kid. Nice to know I'm not the only crazy one!

I saw a few Sporting fans at the time thought it was Christmas come early getting the price they did for him; however, his highlights reel for them and the B team showed a player with quick feet and surprising skill for a striker.

If he goes on a season-long loan and proves himself, next season, we will be scrabbling to try to get him to sign a new contract in his last full year under contract to us, whilst a load of other clubs will be offering him untold riches to sign for them, on a free at the end of that season.

In my view, better to keep him here and develop him, and if he does start to click, sign him up to a new contract whilst he still has 18 months to run on the old one.

I truly hope that no one at the club thinks that there is even a semblance of this in his injury-racked time with us. How many times have high hopes led to low failure? The first thing that needs to happen before anything else is that he starts two or three games on the run.

No goals in 19 appearances for us really sounds like Isak; 6 goals in 45 career appearances really sounds like Isak.

Let's hope he now becomes relatively injury-free and we can see him score regularly.

Spot on. Comparisons with Isak seem bizarre given he's not even scored!

Hoping to see him get a goal in our next competitive game at some point!

This is down to Thelwell who failed miserably to bring in a striker last summer... until the fucking last hour of the window when, in sheer desperation, he threw all his last-minute chips on an injured Broja 3 months from match fitness and look what happened.

He had the whole window and erm we might hope months of planning. I see that the corrector-in-chief and our educator in US corporate business, who bigged up Beto and has now jumped ship to no goals in 19 Chermiti, thinks that Thelwell will quickly get not a job but a top job.

Let's see if that works out better than his wayward predictions about US corporate business TFG. He might be right. Let's see.

Meanwhile, we have four strikers – one who will go back to the King's Road who has not scored in 6 (Thanks Thelwell, shut the door behind you on the way out); two others who we cannot rely on (one has scored 3 in 22 games, the other not too bad 8 in 25); and a 20-year-old virgin scorer for us.

Remember the famous #9 shirt at Everton?

I'd keep Chermiti more out of curiosity than hope. The other three I really can't get moved enough to care. Push comes to shove, I'd want Calvert-Lewin to stay more than Beto. But we need two decent strikers this summer and, despite what I've said about Thelwell, can we be confident that a fit model is in place to make the right choices?

I imagine some business was done because it's all we had and we had to wait till the bargain bin picked their teams. I think he performed very well under horrendous work conditions.

To loan or not to loan will depend on how he and Beto finish the season and which new striker we bring in. If after the summer Chermiti looks like first or second choice then clearly he should stay. If he's third or fourth choice then he needs to leave to get the minutes that he has lacked, potentially signing a contract extension too.

Isak is a high bar but I'd make do with Zirkzee or a young Calvert-Lewin for the next few years. Either way, he needs some game time and hopefully some goals.

Very few young strikers hit the ground running immediately.

If you want a good one, you often have to show some patience and be prepared to develop them.

I would be very surprised if there are any strikers in world football who we could sign for less than £40m and would be an instant hit. You could even go as high as £65m or beyond and that might still be true.

Name one 'Thelwell hater', Go on. Just one. Your term, name one, with the necessary quotes.

Thelwell seriously fucked up last summer over a striker, I believe. Does that make me a Thelwell erm 'hater' Mr Shave as, let's say, your litmus paper test?

Answer a direct question, if you want to.

It's unrealistic to compare him to Isak or any other player for that matter. Firstly, no two players are the same and second, we haven't seen enough of him to judge just yet.

I think we have done the Thelwell good job / bad job discussion on the dedicated thread. I don't like the tag "hater", just because individuals voice their opinion, which could be different. And it may be on one or two bad decisions rather than overall performance. A bit like a manager or a player.

Let's hope Chermiti can develop, stay injury-free, and get more games under his belt. Hopefully with the team in a more comfortable position now, and remaining that way next season. It's not easy for most young players playing under the pressure and conditions Everton has been in over the past few seasons.

Now that would be a statement signing!

I mean BMD is great but not worth giving up £10-£15M to sign for us.

Plus he could probably have a flutter without the aggro.

Hopefully, as per the thread, Chermiti comes good and we build a fast, progressive young team around him, Branthwaite, O'Brien et al.

I'd like to see us replicate Bournemouth, including bringing in Iraola. I love the way they play.

At the end of last season, while still putting himself about, he was doing okay in the few minutes he put on the field, I think he was getting those few minutes ahead of Beto.

Last Saturday, again in a few minutes, I think he impressed a few supporters and hopefully the manager, to acknowledge that we might have a future striker playing the full ninety minutes consistently for us.

Put Beto on for the first hour or so against Liverpool battling, bullying and upsetting the frail Liverpool defence then see how Chermiti performs in the last 30 minutes against that tired Liverpool rearguard expecting a rest only to get another player with plenty of zest but more skill upsetting them further.

I agree as I do with a lot of what you say, he looks to have improved from when he first arrived. I am always very cautious about praising players who haven't played much for us but he certainly looks promising.

We will get a good look at Broja on Friday as he is in the Albania squad to play England, and Beto is also away on International duty so hopefully no injuries.

Dave Abrahams [@33] makes a good point, about using Chermiti and Beto in a 'Good Cop – Bad Cop' role: Beto to be the battering ram for 60 minutes, then Chermiti, the 'flashing blade' for the last 30!!

The injury-hit season will probably put his development back by quite a bit so let's not get too excited just yet.

First time I saw him was away at Doncaster in last season's League Cup and he got the hook at half-time because he looked way out of his depth.

Yes, I agree about being cautious and maybe over-praising young players but I think it will be interesting to see how Chermiti performs the rest of this season and from then on.

However, as we can see from the strikers bought over the past few years it is really, really tough to find a Delap even if you have a huge budget - let alone a much smaller one.

And with Delap, it would be interesting to see how he'd have fated at Everton this season. Ipswich play kamikaze football, have depth in attacking positions with Hutchison, philogene, Enciso and Clarke – as well as good attacking full-back play.

Moyes and especially Dyche prioritise the goals-against column over the goals-for column. It's tough to be prolific in this set-up.

So I don't say it's impossible to find a striker who will score more than about 12 league goals for less than £40M – but it is unlikely. It will get more likely if we also strengthen our depth in attacking midfield / wide and the quality at full-back.

Calvert-Lewin's wages alone would probably cover the majority of wages for a marquee signing for big name striker, like Toney ,who ticks all boxes as far as proven goal scorer, and Premier League experience. (Although we've all danced to that tune before…)

It could be a pretty exciting summer with the changes afoot, both with the squad and the stadium. I just pray it's not another false dawn...

Can you not have a dialogue with a fellow ToffeeWeb poster on here without the personal vitriol you aim at them?

Steve Shave (22) was merely expressing an opinion. Calling someone on here 'pathetic' for having a different view than yours reeks of being a bully of the worst kind. Most of your posts on here are in the same vein, highly emotive and abusive.

You clearly have the hump with anything Mike Gaynes posts, once again continually slagging him off, almost on a daily basis.

Real bullyboy tactics. I'm surprised the moderators haven't called you out about your online behaviour.

That said, I think it's fair to say that every Evertonian knew we needed another frontline striker and a replacement for Coleman at right-back quite a while ago and the general thought was that Thelwell left it last minute on the striker position with Broja and didn't even bother with the right back position because we already had Patterson and Young.

Whether that impression is fair or not is certainly up for discussion.

Paul, I can accept that the word "haters" used by me was perhaps a bit strong in relation to the people pleased to see the back of Thelwell. I can also accept that it was written in a post directly after your post which was quite negative about Thelwell. Hence you thought I was writing about you, I wasn't.

However, quite why you've decided to respond so strongly to me expressing an opinion (with no previous beef history between us) only you can know? I see you on here all day picking away at your latest target, as Steve said, you come across as a real bully and highly toxic.

I am also amazed you are allowed to get away with it, your recent treatment of Mike Gaynes on here was utterly diabolical. You have in a short space of time become the next Tony Marsh.

I don't doubt your commitment to Everton but it's a website for opinions, guess what? Not everyone shares yours, though I imagine for many it's just easier to agree with you.

"Pathetic"? A tad light and soft for me and I have seen far far worse on here from others, including the name you mention.

If you want to see something that defines moderation, have a look at the last quarter of the last Live Forum and follow a particular name.

I enjoy your posts but I think I was on a real anti-Chermiti rant so your words are noted.

Thelwell is leaving, he has done a decent, good, very good, or incredible job – depending on how much credit people want to give him for the fact that Everton are still a Premier League club but, because quite a few people didn't seem to rate him, they are suddenly termed as haters?

I don't get it myself and don't feel it offers much to a proper debate… but neither does insulting people because we are all Evertonians at the end of the day.

I've done it myself with the insults but usually by trying to bring a little bit of humour into play, but I can also understand why the moderators stay out of things and assume it's because they want to keep this website both natural and real.

Steve and Steve, many thanks for the support, but that particular obsession goes back at least a dozen years, and I've actually grown to admire its durability.

I rarely read his posts, but a friend likes to email me when he fires off something particularly outrageous. It always brings a head shake and a smile. No worries.

Lyndon and Michael moderated TW closely because it was theirs and Everton is their passion.

I believe Lyndon mentioned that the new owners operate lots of websites, and I frankly doubt that anybody monitors the posts here on a regular basis.

Your gracious response, says more about you, than the person continually attacking you on this forum. I'm not sure where or why the obsession stems from, or why he feels the need to do it?

Strange actions.

But in the summer we need:
a substitute goalkeeper because Virginia might want to leave
a right back -priority. O'Brien has done well but he needs a back up and we need a real RB
a CB if JB leaves, Keane will go so one or two needed anyway
cover for LB, Myko gets injured often.
a new DM even if Gana stays, somebody who can pass the ball.
In the #10 place, Charly is good but he needs backup and it is not Doucoure.
a right-sided winger — priority
cover for the oncoming right-sided winger
cover for Iliman
a new striker and I mean a real forward
There is some work to do between now and the end of 29 August.

It has become a trend in recent months for any comment posted that queried the decisions of Moyes or Thelwell to be met with that reaction - hater, armchair manager etc. Interestingly, if posters push back on this over-reaction then they are met with claims of targeting, bullying and toxicity.

Thelwell has not done a good job in signing good quality strikers to this club - Maupay (1 goal), Beto (9 goals), Chermiti (0 goals) and Broja (0 goals) do not represent value based on form showed since their signings. 10 goals in 105 games!

Chermiti may prove a good acquisition, but I don’t think he has shown greater quality than players who have passed through the club like Dobbin and Cannon. Certainly not at this stage.

Everton have to set higher standards at all levels of the club. Doing a decent job in tough circumstances just won’t cut it any longer, and that is why I find the upset at Thelwell’s departure really puzzling.

If we are going to recruit new heads of strategy, operations and trading reporting to the CEO, then we also have to do a proper search to recruit the best out there who are willing to join the club.

Tony A has made this point countless times, and we can only hope that the new owners of the club have the same level of ambition as he does.