Tom Fellows… Future Everton Star?

He was Man of the Match last week and followed that with a cracking goal at Plymouth on Saturday.

We need fast players; that has to be a prerequisite.

I agree with John. Armstrong impressed me in the few cameos we saw of him. Hopefully the loan will have benefited him and he can rejoin the Everton first team squad for next season. I'd like to see Dixon there too.

Mixed reports about Fellows having pace - and I can't comment particularly.

He does have excellent assist stats in a very strong league - and will be pretty cheap too by all accounts (under £20m). But if he really is lacking in pace he'll struggle to have an impact in the Premier League (as per Harrison).

As for Armstrong and Dixon, they need games. No point keeping them in the squad next season to play fewer than, say, 5 games (which might be 10 minutes here or there or cup games against crap opposition).

Much better for them to be on loan in the Championship or Eredivisie etc playing 38 or more games.

Unlike McNeil, he looks to be pretty ambidextrous which is useful and though mainly a right winger can do it on the left too which is useful.

I'd hope we might aim a little higher (Nuamah for example has higher potential in my opinion) but for around £15M Fellows's versatility and experience in English football could make him appealing to Moyes.

For some it doesn't work out either football wise or struggling to settle, but that could be said about any transfer. The plenty of examples of players coming from abroad who have been a success, as much as those who haven't been.

Look at the Swedish lad for Newcastle.

Bowen was always a player worth taking a punt on so maybe Fellows, is another? The player who really impressed me on Saturday was the number 14 - Kudos, another player who was heavily linked with Everton, after we ran out of money!

Kudus, Soucek, Paqueta and Bowen were good signings, but it looks like they all had a go at spending the Rice money...

Big signings cost £65m to £125m these days. These are out of reach.

This is Rich 6 territory plus Newcastle.

The richest 9 (which includes Newcastle, Villa and West Ham) have all been spending in the £40m to £65m bracket too.

If we attempted to sign players in this category, we would just end up with very overpriced average players - as we saw in the early Moshiri years.

It's more likely we'll spend money on mostly cheap (ie sub £20m) with possibly a few mid price players (£20m to £40m) of the likes that Brentford, Forest and Bournemouth have been stocking up on.

If that's right, Moyes will probably help spend fairly well (although in fairness very much in line with what Thelwell was doing anyway).

Good players cost a lot of money but given the choice, I’d much prefer us to sign a few hungry ones who have both the willpower and the character to succeed🤞

That sets the tone for the club's ambition.

You can see that in the sub £20m category you can still buy some "ready made" good but not great players - players who might be comfortably good enough for the Prem, but not (yet) good enough for the European places or Champions League.

In the level above (£20m to £40m) where (taking account of inflation in transfer fees) Moyes did much of his shopping first time around, you can get players who are good enough for European football but maybe peak below Champions League level.

You can buck the trend a bit. Indeed I'm optimistic that Alcaraz offers a much higher ceiling than his price tag suggests. But it's a real challenge to do that consistently.

You can also buck the trend by buying high potential players age 16 to 21 - but have to accept these are hit and miss - and require patience and well structured development.

Having said that the very best players stand out instantly, but really we are not in that price bracket, we are shopping in the almost good enough for the champion league level as usual.

If Moyes cant recognise a good player by now I'll eat my hat, so I would trust him to find the right players.
I also think we are much more attractive to players now with new owners and a brand new stadium full of 50 thousand fans.

Of course other scouts are out there too for other Clubs, so there is little chance of having first dibs !

On the obverse side of the coin, how many very highly priced players turn out to be flops ?

I firmly believe that our best way forward is a structured approach like Robert T alludes to with a DOF or sporting director overseeing the style and direction of the club so that any managerial change does not require a reset. This is broadly speaking what Brighton, Brentford, Bournemouth and Palace have done to good effect.

Lets see who else comes in and how we spend out money this summer.

We (like other clubs) had the option to buy when he left Sweden and when he left Dortmund.

The only way to get these players on the cheap is to take a risk on young Champions League talent. You have to also buy at decent volume because many just won't make it.

There are so many outrageously gifted teenagers who end up never making it.

Moyes has no track record with this at all. There might be one or two but I can't think of a single player he has bought in this sort of category.

Maybe Baines and Fellaini but these were much more established players when Moyes bought them. Stones (his last ever signing for us) is probably the best example.

The unfortunate thing is other clubs have already started down this route, so we are well behind the likes of Chelsea, Brighton etc. and it is ok for Moyes to rubber stamp new recruits, but he can't be out there identifying players given the demands of managing the first team.

Personal opinion is there are some good players going down this season who would be less of a risk than the likes of Fellows.

Hutchison and Delap at Ipswich. Kyle Walker Peters from Southampton, Soumare, Ndidi and Daka at Leicester to name but a few.

I also have high hopes for some of our academy to come through like Omar Benjamin and Martin Shariff.

That said, I’d very much like to see Alcaraz, Patterson, Iroebugnam, and Chermiti get a run of games to see what they’re capable of. Just want to make sure we’re not setting them up for failure.

Your focus is on existing players in the English league. I'm sure there are decent players out there, but I'd rather cast the net further.

Remember Pienaar? Signed initially on loan from Dortmund before making it a permanent deal.

I'm not saying who is wrong or right, I would just rather we would look outside of the British Isles. There is plenty of talent out there.

Coleman - £70,000
Cahill - £2.2m
Jagielka - £6m
Lescott - £6.5m
Graverson - £3.5m
Stones - £3.5m
Carsley - £2.85m
kilbane - £1.25m
Baines - £7.5m
Yobo - £6m
Johnson - £11m
Yakubu - £16.5m
Pienaar - £2.75m
Distin - £6.5m
Jelavic - £6.6m
Heitinga - £6.8m
Mirallas - £7.5m
Arteta - £2.8m
Howard - £4.2m
Bent - £675,000
Beckford - FREE
Saha - FREE

Let the man do his job, he has had so much success in the transfer market over the years with Everton, shoe string budget, but I’d take a few of these players now!!!

Why after all the suffering we have had for years, have to crucify the man after what he has done. We have rode the tidal waves of mis management and total guff managerial choices, can’t all the soothsayers back off and back the club into this new era!!!!

COYB!!!!
IMWT!!!!

New era, new beginnings, let’s start to enjoy the journey back to the top!!!

John/Jonathan, I believe we will see those players given some games, but not until the last 3-4 weeks of the season when there's little or nothing at stake. Moyes will want to see what they can do, but not while he still has a chance to finish above the likes of Spurs and United.

Players in the £3.5m to £10m back then would now be in the £20m to £40m bracket. That's where Moyes did most of his business and back then.

Cahill, Kilbane, Arteta and Pienaar would be more like £15m to £20m signings now.

And of all of them only Stones was a high potential youth acquisition. Coleman too possibly.

So like I say, Moyes has no track record in the acquisition of exceptional talent that directors of football oversee at Brighton, Brentford, the RS etc

Mike # 23, you'll not be surprised to hear that I'd been watching Alcaraz along with thousands of other enthusiasts long before he joined Saints.

Coleman, 70k?

WTAF?

Good point on inflation too.

Distin, was a great replacement for Lescott, and the overall budget he spent on these three players was all made because of the profit he made on Lescott, but that’s why I agreed with what Sam said, in his last paragraph@6, when he spoke about David Moyes.

Does inflation actually matter Robert? I don't really see this point. Chris is talking about the price at the time of the deal. Your estimated inflated price today is surely irrelevant or, quite likely, am I missing something? It's the price paid back then against market value and good buying on the day of the transfer that matters for Chris's point. After that the future is irrelevant.

They were good/great buys at the time and that is what matters. What on earth does later inflationary prices have to do with the deal done back then?

If not we're probably at cross purposes!

I agree that Moyes generally made good value first team signings to create a good but not great team - on a budget lower than what has become the rich 6.

However, that budget was not tiny. This is the point I'm making about transfer fee inflation. Indeed it was considerably more than the budget we've been working with since 2021.

And I do get the constraints he, previous and successive managers had to operate under. But they all made some that didn't work out. Such is the cycle of transfers.

Mike, I we, as a club should be tapping into the Americas more.

I'm not dismissing there is talent out there in the English leagues. I just saying we should be more expansive in our scouting and recruitment.

A lot are impressed with the Brentford and Brighton models. The former clearly have their tentacles close to the Scandics and to a lesser degree, Germany. The latter has uncovered a few gems including one from Japan. Look at Tottenham with Son from South Korea.

There's a big wide world out there. Go and explore it.

This is why I am a bit worried about this summer if we are focussed on a striker and Moyes is calling the shots. If that is the case I'd rather limit his expense so he can unearth some cheap but useful hold up guy like Bent, and then use the rest of the cash to do what he does pretty well -- unearth goalscoring midfielders like Cahill, Fellaini, Soucek.

I'm struggling after that.

If I went back further I could name Southall, Sheedy and Reid.

I'm sure older generations will cite Kendall, Ball, Harvey and Young.

@Robert. I didn't realise you were in the same bracket as my son and youngest brother who haven't seen us win a thing that they can remember. I respect that generation and enjoy watching their unwavering enthusiasm with pride. It's easy for me, but they never cease to amaze, especially at the away matches.

But Gareth Barry might be another who would fit the description.

I have seen him put Roy Keane on his arse, run through brick walls for the club, arguably the best header of the ball I have seen, a couple of nice overhead kicks, left or right footed and a goal in the world cup finals that if scored by a Brazilian would be replayed over and over again. A proper leader and team player.

I don't think it's a stretch saying he could have played at a higher level for a higher profile club.

My point being we have been distinctly average for years but have also had quality footballers.

How would you describe Materazzi if he hadn't have played for the blues? World cup winner, serial winner with Inter and Italy.

Graveson went to Real Madrid does that make him a great?, technically gifted but hair brained.

It's all about opinions isn't it.

I think that's what the Rich 6 and Newcastle would describe it as - and they'd all have long lists.

Ours is a list of about 1.

Kanchelskis.

Maybe Lukaku. We signed Beardsley well over 30 years ago so he doesn't count in the last 30 years.

If you count Eto'o and Rodriguez you might as well add Gazza as well. Barnet could say Edgar Davids...

I'm not saying our signings didn't go on to become elite (eg Stones). But that is a different point.

On Materazzi, for me, he was the right player at the wrong club at the wrong time. You could see he was going on the better things and Everton weren't a position to offer him that at the time, so he didn't hang around. Mention of his name also reminded me of that awful one-to-one kit, that wasn't even Royal Blue!

All champions league players.

When we had money to spend besides Ancelloti we have lacked a manager capable of getting us into the champions league.

We have also lacked funding for most of the last 30 years so it would be difficult in attracting anyone from an established top team.

You've a mix there of decent potential, Barca reserves and flops and players who even at their peak were miles off elite level.

The truth is we haven't had enough money at any point in the past 30 years to compete for ready made elite players.

We still don't under TFG. Our best chance of hunting down elite level players is with teenagers like Stones and Branthwaite - and u21 players of potential from cheap markets like France and the Eredivisie.

Hopefully we'll see a bit of that over the summer - along with 'solid ' signings like Fellows.

I prefer the 'Champions League player' or more definable terms that Robert uses.

Get injured at Everton and it’s like disappearing into a Black Hole.

If we are going to include a 'passed it' Eto'o, then we need to include Gazza.

I think the term world class is overused. I agree, it's subjective, but for me it is reserved for a select view. From living memory (just in the case of a couple), it has to be the likes. of Pele, Cruyff, Beckenbauer, Maradona and more recently Messi.

Gravesen HAIR brained 🤣🤣🤣

Doesn't that make him just brained?

In terms of standard I'd guess he roughly comparable to a player like Keane Lewis Potter at Brentford.

Not a star but someone who has decent technique and will contribute via workrate too.

We probably need about 3 or 4 more like this - Garner and McNeil standard hopefully - along with some with higher potential too.

Fast and knew where the goal was, but not a great footballer.

Arteta, Cahill and others were very good (especially compared with what we've had before and since) but weren't of much interest to the top 4 or so during that era and comparable clubs abroad. Those sorts of clubs often had a bench full of players as good as Arteta and Cahill.

I'll be really interested to see how much TFG are able / willing to spend this summer. The highest guestimate I have seen on here is £100m net spend.

Sounds big (and is by our recent standards) but starts to look more modest when you consider a player like Fellows (who wouldn't get in the First XI at Bournemouth or Brentford or probably even Ipswich) might cost £20m.

Arteta signed for Arsenal, and they were linked with Jagielka for a long old time. The fee and his age putting them off when he was around 30 as I recall.

Baines could easily have played top 4. Pienaar went to Spurs, and was a far better than some of the wingers in the top 4 sides at the time. Might not have started, but was easily better than Hleb, Malouda, etc.

The squad didnt have a star man, and the squad depth was weak. The semi final win over united being perhaps the peak, and the beginning of the end of that team.

which might have scraped us in to the Europa Conference League.

Cahill would have got games at Utd certainly but was far too technically limited to be a regular starter and would have been used as an impact sub mostly. At the start of his time with us Utd had Rooney, Saha, Nistelrooy, Ronaldo, Forlan, Giggs, Scholes and Solskjaer in attacking positions. At the end of Cahills time with us they had Rooney, Berbatov, Nani, Chicarito, Welbeck, Tevez and Owen.

We've been so poor on the pitch and financially for so long, we really are absolutely miles off the quality of top sides in terms of elite level players and depth of quality.

The sections on how he worked for years to develop his leap and aerial ability are brilliant. Any young prospective footballer should read it for how far hard work and commitment can get you.

My uppermost thought about this game was how athletic and powerful every single Newcastle player looked on the day.

Top level football has become a mixture of speed, skill, power and concentration, with skill very much at the bottom of that list, imo.

If you bear in mind the (low) quality of opposition in some of these clips you get a sense of how someone might fare in the Prem.

You also get a strong sense of who is being marketed by selling clubs and agents because some very random players suddenly spike in exposure.

It is something to do in spare mins here or there.

Liam #71, I didn't know he had written an autobiography. Going onto Amazon right now to find it. Thank you.

Les #74, snigger as you wish, but yes, Lukaku was absolutely world class. Three consecutive seasons of 25 or more goals for us and ManU. Back-to-back 30-goal seasons for Inter. And THAT GOAL against Chelsea, the greatest individual goal I have ever seen from an Everton player. He's the best Everton striker I've ever watched, by far.

Robert #75, you must devote considerably more than "spare minutes" to your hobby. You're quite dedicated.

A lot of successful football is about partnerships and how playing with someone who complements your strengths can make all the difference.

Exceptional talent stands out in any team but real talent spotters can see the potential of a player playing in a poor side that could look exceptional playing with better quality players.

But to me Rom's just shades him. I so enjoyed the way he screwed Gary Cahill into the ground with his final move.

[Laughs up his sleeve again!]

A bit generous there Peter, mind you there is a lot of going over the top on this thread! I wouldn't be surprised if John Rafferty comes on with something special that Iwobi ever done!

When Moshiri was the owner, the Europe thing was why we were forced to buy below top class players. I don't want to be a wet blanket, but when occasionally we uncover a gem they sing 'I want to play in Europe' and leave.

Until we manage to get in Europe, we are stuck – it's the chicken-and-egg situation.

Pete, yeah, he did miss his dribble but got the ball back on a fortunate deflection. Can't argue with the pace or the finish, but luck was definitely on his side too.

Les, glad I can entertain you.

I am a football purist, but you need hard work, desire and commitment to go with skill. Win your individual battles and earn the right to play football as was drummed into me.

A good example of this for me this season has been Ndiaye. He has demonstrated the all-round aspects for me. If he or we lose possession, he is tenacious in snapping around ankles and harrying to get it back. He's a pest. It's often not just about what you do on the ball, but what you do off it.

Tony, I frustratingly witnessed that for years watching the kids from the sidelines. Although I feel it's improved slightly in recent years, our game has been based on pace, size and power for too long.

Lads at 14 picked because they were the biggest and quickest. As I've said before, they might look great at that age, but may not be the best footballers. Meanwhile, smaller, more talented kids get cast aside and by the time they've caught up growth-wise, they've probably got disinterested.

I've said this all before, it's been a pet hate of mine for years.

Meanwhile, in other news and John Raftery mentioned it earlier, Harrison Armstrong scored for Derby in their 3-2 win at the weekend following on from his Man of the Match award in the previous game.

He another tenacious so-and-so from the little I've seen of him.

We all know them. The types you love having in your team, but they're like a irritating wasp buzzing around you if playing for the opposition.

I used to think of Robbie Savage like that.

I wouldn't mind him playing up front for us now, because he would score more than anyone we have now, but he is the archetypal flat-track bully. Cost us the cup and cost Roberto Martinez's Belgium world and European Champions status.

Trophy dodger.

I'd get to the field and two or three kids would already be there working on their skills or practicing free kicks an hour before kickoff. They were never the biggest or fastest ones, but once the game started they were usually the most relentless, the ones who just refused to lose.

Then I'd see them again a couple of years later when I worked a high school game and, sure enough, they were the captains, the leaders -- still not the most physically gifted, but the winningest.

With the love, the game becomes a lifetime gift, even for players like me who are completely bereft of natural skills. But without it, whatever the footy gods have granted a kid will eventually be abandoned. They move on to other things. Which is okay too.

I don't think we are taking a chance on this player, if Moyes and his recruitment team (who will have a bigger dossier on the player than us) are happy, then that's okay with me.

As for taking a punt because he doesn't cost too much, I have never understood this nonsense. Money wasted is money wasted.

He is either good enough at whatever price or he isn't. I suspect he will be the first signing through the door if West Brom allow him to leave.

Legacy

I actually went looking for a Cahill bio on Amazon some years back, but I kept finding books by another Tim Cahill who writes entertaining outdoors travel books ("A Wolverine is Eating My Leg") and I overlooked it. Glad TW gave me another reminder.

If you take the early '00s, it was all about power and pace (eg, Arsenal and their giants in midfield), then it became Pep and his team of small midfielders and dominating possession.

It seems to be swinging back to strength above skill again – lots more counter-attacking, long balls, set pieces etc. I think that, as one school of thought has prominence, the other looks for ways to combat it.

There's a brilliant book on Argentinian football by tactical polymath Jonathan Wilson called Angels With Dirty Faces. It shows how Argentinian football continually swings from the beautiful ('La Nuestra') to the brutal (anti-fútbol).

Yes, Colin Glasser was excessive in his praise of Iwobi — a bit like me!

In the last couple of seasons, I've noticed that most teams in the Premier League seem to be better at passing the ball sideways and backwards because that's the way the ball goes more often than forwards.

Mind you, Everton players are not very good at that, as well as movement off the ball and finding space – as shown last Saturday.

That's funny.

Newcastle on Sunday just looked to get the ball forward quickly as much as possible. Either from dead balls or with driving runs. There wasn't much subtlety there. But does there have to be?

The Geordies would argue that Dan Burn's header was as exciting a goal as they've ever seen!

And don't give me Ancelotti -- he buggered off as soon as he sussed out Moshiri and Kenwright!

I read people (myself included), who were sceptical and disappointed when the announcement was made.

Others, myself included again, who aren't getting carried away and the jury remains out. Not for what he's achieved this season, but whether he can sustain it into next season.

As he has said himself, the target is to stabilise us, and that is probably sensible.

That's how I and a few others see it. And of course we want him to do well. He's not the long-term fix, but he's steadied the blue ship so far.

He looks not dissimilar to a Dwight Mcneil, although he can use his right foot. His crossing is decent but he has no pace at all, and that's a problem as we've none elsewhere up top.

He creates moments, but is hardly there as a beacon of hope in the Championship. I watched him a couple of weeks ago for a full match and he wasn't in the game at all. That's a problem, as in the Epl he's going to be way off it.

That's not just a personal opinion. Sofoscore has him down at 6.54 average rating this season. To be in top 50 in the championship you need a score of 7 and above. So that puts him probably outside of the top 100 players in the championship when he's just about to turn 22. Ripping it up he ain't, and you can see why no one else is leading the chase.

Plays on the right, but is predominantly left footed. You can sign him, get appreances under his belt, and probably your money is safe in getting it back. Someone will always want that inexpensive English option.

Clubs will be in for him, Tyler Dibbling, and Philogene this summer. I hope we aren't one of them. There are better players coming through in South America & Europe. Yes, you need a British core, but I think we've got enough.

I was flicking through some sport channels on the TV, when an EFL match came up. West Brom v someone or other. I was about to switch off, when I thought; I'll just watch it and see if there are any outstanding young players.

After 20 minutes or so, I thought: "That lad Fellows is the pick of the bunch." As I say, I had never heard of him before. I'm not saying he's great, but he stood out in that level of company.

I'd take Rom over any striker we've had since Sharp, Lineker and possibly Cottee.

I think we all recognise Tim as not the most skilful but one of the toughest players and best headers of the ball we have ever had. I maintain he would have been embraced into our squads of the late 60s and mid 80s.

What I had not realised was the lengths he went to succeed, and the sacrifices he and his family made. I highly recommend reading his story.

Another unconfirmed rumour about Fellows to Everton this morning. And so the transfer circus starts!!