Sources claim Thierno Barry signing is now very close

ESPN reported 20 minutes ago that Everton have finalized an agreement to sign Thierno Barry. Our new recruitment team bargained Villarreal down from the €40 million release clause to a €35 million deal, plus future add-ons.

And the club have agreed a four-year contract with Barry.

But the guy who got this one the earliest, far and away, was Paddy Boyland. The Athletic suggested way back on May 6 that Barry was a player Everton should, and would, pursue. And Boyland has tracked the progress of the pursuit all the way.

Will he play as a centre forward or just off Beto or whoever?

I can't see him wanting to stick around to play support if, eg, Leeds tell him they'll play him every week.

I wouldn't have thought so. He's done next to nothing with us and so he needs to prove himself at this level.

Meanwhile, another team could have scuppered the deal by agreeing the full amount.

The ghost of Chairman Bill still lingering in the corridors of Finch Farm? The sooner we get the new team in place, the better.

Really?

First, our chief negotiator didn't officially come aboard until about two weeks ago. Seems to me he got right on it.

And second, we weren't gonna sign anybody until the old PSR year was over... which was yesterday. (Or the day before in your time zone.)

Enjoy. We're active right out of the gate. When was the last time that happened?

That means we will have him, Barry and Chermitti as front men unless Chermitti is still considered a viable option.

As Mike states, we were never going to sign new players until after 30 June because of old PSR rules. So, if the news re Barry is accurate, this is impressive.

Bring it on!

BTW, has anyone on here a reasonable idea of how much in total weekly savings has resulted from all of the outgoing players?

I believe it was fairly common knowledge that Doucoure, Calvert-Lewin and Ashley Young were all on over £100k a week, so there's a £15M saving right there.

Mangala, Broja, Lindstrom and Harrison must account for between £15M and £20M in wages and, if you add in Holgate, Maupay, Begovic etc, you're probably talking over £40M in savings but bear in mind we have to replace them and our new executive team won't be cheap either.

I'm hoping we could get another striker to complement him who has lots of pace and is good on the ball. Then we could offload the carthorse Beto if anyone would take him.

You can't beat a good joke to kickstart the morning.

We're supposed to be Keane to sign some bloke called Albert Ross too.

It'll all be okay on the (Monday) Night (at Leeds [Dirty, dirty, Leeds]), though… won't it??

As for wages and figures. I don't guesstimate on them. The board and owners will figure what is affordable.

Positive news. I'm not one for "this link, that link" and only take notice when there is something credible. This one had legs a couple of weeks ago.

Now let's see it in black and white and his picture in a blue shirt with a pen in his hand.

We've to wait till July before we could proceed with any real business other than Alcaraz. Also, there has been the matter of Branthwaite's, Keane's, Calvert-Lewin's and Gana's
contracts which determines the business we can do.

I hope Keane and Gana both sign this week and we go all in for Wesley and Fellows or Dibling.

It seems like this Barry deal is all but done. Looks a real prospect and the sort of player we should be aiming for.

I can't see us letting go of Beto, in fact, whilst Barry is finding his feet I expect Beto to be our starting centre-forward. I feel he has earned that but it's his to lose.

There is every possibility that Barry may struggle to adapt early on, it wouldn't be any surprise at all, in fact I almost expect as much.

So we can't afford to allow an experienced striker in Beto to leave and keep Chermiti as backup who, let's be honest, completely fell out of favour towards the end of last season which probably tells you where he is in terms of readiness.
I think we'll likely loan Chermiti out abroad before the end of the window.

Hopefully Thierno Barry is a wonderful player and makes that starting birth his own and gets double figures.

Beto has been scoring, and if he is thinking of moving in the future, it will make him a more attractive player for potential buyers if he has led a Premier League attack for two half-seasons.

Tell me what team outside the elite have signed shedloads of players?

Meanwhile, we've signed an Argentine international, reduced our wage bill massively, extended the contract of one of the best young centre-backs in the world, apparently are close to agreeing the signing of a highly sought after new striker,, with more to come through the door, and we could only really start signing two days ago!??? Things are looking up, no?

And you are bizarrely not only criticising but also blaming someone who's been dead for 2 years!

The lack of positivity on these boards is astonishing at times.

Beto will still be our starting centre-forward this season, with Barry either coming on late in games or getting some minutes in the wide areas. This is definitely the kind of signing a Brighton or Brentford would make, and everyone on here would lambast our club for not doing something similar.

Now we need that right flank sorting!

But also none of them have had a hole ripped out of their squads like we have.

I expect us to add another forward on loan but that may not come until towards the closure of the window. Broja's replacement.

Couple of wingers and full-backs who can whip in crosses too next please and we'll start to have a proper toolbox our magical manager can use. A “Fellaini type” centre-midfield unit wouldn't be bad icing on the cake too.

Isn't Chermiti going on loan to Stoke?

Many have banged on about it before but we need to be picking up these players earlier.

If we get him, fine… but according to some we only have between £70-100M to spend this summer.

I don't count Chermiti as being close to our squad this season, let alone a 3rd choice striker. Despite so much time on the sidelines with injury, he needs to go somewhere like the Dutch League, or a Championship team, to try and score a lot of goals. If he doesn't, I'd definitely move him on next season, as our new Everton can't wait for him.

It would definitely be Beto and Barry for me next season and a loan for someone in the mould of an Ings or Vardy (clearly not Ings or Vardy, just examples), to offer a bit of something different.

I think we need all or most the new players to be on the US tour to get the team bonded. I hope we'll have 5 or 6 in the next week.

So much bad blood and despair between the club and its fans has made us battle hardened, but slowly we are all reawakening to this new Everton, but rightfully sceptical, as we aren't there yet.

Unfortunately, when Kenwright said, I have found you the billionaire owner you wanted, we all thought, OMG, we have a new era coming!! I won't go into any other detail about that as it's now old news and we are moving forward.

I feel the honour and pride of being an Evertonian coming back, and believe again that a new era for us beckons! COYB

I don't see the need to move Beto on. We'd just have to bring in another striker. He scored 8 last season, in a low scoring team. We need options up front. Beto and Barry (if/when he signs), give us that.

We can focus on other areas.

Yes it may take a few games to see the best of him, although if he is here for pre-season that will help, but if we are spending about £30M on him I expect to see him in the team from the start of the season

I have no idea how good Barry is as I never seen him but if he comes I still expect Beto to start the season as our striker.

I don't get the reticence around gradually easing him in. He's a professional on good money. Go out there and score goals.

Unfortunately Beto will probably stay, but for those who think he should stay I have a feeling you'll be joining the rest of us gnashing your teeth over him half way through the season.

The old adage - if you're good enough you're old enough.

I'll leave it there - I never played at any level - there are people here who did. I did briefly work for a football club.

We couldn't sign him earlier due to PSR and the guy was playing for the U21s. People seem to think other clubs complete signings in a matter of days, it never happens like that... and if we did then people would complain we didn't do enough due diligence!!

Although I must add Fabrizio was wrong about Tete so not a done deal yet.

I can't see us letting Beto go now, we saw him develop second half of last season and we need competition up top. Hopefully we'll see more of Chermiti this season and whether he has a chance of making it, we did spend quite a lot on him as a young unproven striker.

BBC - Beto, Barry, Chermiti…

He was quite anonymous and I only noticed him because of the Everton rumour. My immediate impression was that he will struggle to make an impact in the Premier League from day one and that he comes with a hefty price tag. But maybe it just shows how difficult it is to buy strikers for the Premier League.

I have a feeling Calvert-Lewin will in a Spurs shirt come August. I hate Spurs more than the redshite.

But if Mike is right and there was interest in May, we could have agreed the transfer fee, agreed terms with the player, and signed an agreement with both club and player to execute the contract as of 1 July.

It could have been done and dusted with little chance of being gazumped by someone else.

If I was really being "glass half-empty", I'd wonder why nobody else was interested in him? All they would have to do is meet the release clause fee and they would be in pole position.

"Eric you are usually a very sensible poster on here"

Thanks Steve but you're probably the only one who thinks that!

You can't have been around in the Fellaini transfer and Covid days.

Hopefully he goes on to do great things for us but in the mean time we have Beto and I'm baffled that people want him to move on - I think he's been great for us so far and will likely only get better.

He needs a loan.

Obviously I hope I'm wrong and he hits the ground running but I'm not so sure Moyes will thrust him into the Premier League straight away.

Many players have taken time to settle before showing their best form and I think Barry will be used as a sub, in the main. Let's just get it done first, anyway.

As such, I think other clubs will test the water with substantial bids, and if we get over £20M bids, I think Beto will say he wants to go. If he does, he will of course be replaced.

£30M is peanuts for a striker these days so our expectations should not be too high.

Delap was an absolute steal and players of his ability would normally go for over £70M.

We got £75M for Lukaku all those years ago so, if this guy is even close to becoming a "Lukaku", we will have got a diamond.

It just wouldn't look good. RIP.

The first is the popular belief on this thread that Beto had only scored 4 Premier League goals in 1½ seasons under Dyche as opposed to the 8 goals in half a season under Moyes. Like the majority of our attackers he suffered under the constraints of the Dyche regime and wasn't used to best effect.

Posters may therefore feel with better service and a less conservative manager that he will be more than capable of hitting at least 15 this season. Moreover it may make sense to have an experienced Premier League striker as no doubt Barry will probably need at least half the season to acclimatise.

However the other side of the argument and one I believe is that Beto's purple spell coincided with a new manager bounce in which practically every player were re-invigorated after spending 2 full seasons of the most tedious constricted football most of them will ever have had to endure.

Once the initial 'bounce' wore off Beto wasn't grossly better than the player we seen before. I certainly wouldn't be confident in him hitting double figures this season. In the perilous world of PSR I think now is exactly the right time to cash in when his stock has risen and we can achieve a break even of our investment. That money could then be used to buy a talent like Ferguson who has lost his way, making him realistically affordable and who would excel under Moyes and his demands of a striker.

One of the biggest mistakes of the previous regimes was to see a player hit a bit of form, reward them with long and extortionate contracts and then see them sit on the shelf, unable to offload. I hope this regime will be a bit more savvy.

Which clubs are you thinking of that will have Beto insisting he doesn't want to stay if they offer us £20M?

But all the promoted teams and up to midtable would be interested in a player who scores in the Premier League the way Beto did last season.

We all know he's not the best we've ever seen but last season he scored every 188 mins he played in the Premier League, which is not to be sniffed at

I get that his career has been stuttering and goals patchy, but Kevin is correct and most teams from the top 8/9 downwards would be interested in a striker who could score 10-15 goals if given a good run.

Bit harsh on Beto. He may not be Lukaku but he is a proven moderate goal-scorer and we'd be silly to part with him unless we had a decent alternative lined up.

His form tailed off when the service was absent due to players either getting injured (Ndiaye) or being in and out the team (Alcaraz) He has a decent understanding with the latter in particular and when Charly started against Ipswich and put in a great cross he started scoring again.

If he could just comprehend the offside rule he'd have scored a good few more last season. His record of goals to starts is actually excellent.

Evan Ferguson has only ever had one purple patch in his career to date and has otherwise been dreadful. Still, Brighton want £28M for him. No thanks.

He will probably be played out of position on the wing for 6 months.

Probably play him at right-back.

There is a good reason Brighton don't want Evan Ferguson.

He can't score goals at this level and/or his confidence is totally shot.

As we saw with Dele Alli, the Premier League is very unforgiving; so, if you are out for any length of time, it's too hard to get it back.

Beto has never been a prolific striker. He will be 28 in January and his best season has been 11 goals in any decent standard of football. From a financial perspective we will never be able to recoup this type of fee again.

Ferguson you are right only had a Premier League purple patch but there are reasons which contributed to that namely injury. He is a special talent who along with Cesc Fabregas were the only non English players to score 10 Premier League goals by the age of 18.

While Beto is arguably at the highest value in his career, Ferguson is most likely at his lowest. This is a player who Alan Shearer waxed lyrical about in terms of his all round game.

Ferguson has also suffered since the signing of Pedro when he regained fitness who likes to take the space and is better suited to Wellbeck who likes to spin in behind. Ferguson would be a lot more suited to a manager like Moyes who likes to get balls into the box and focuses on set pieces.

Were Ferguson to stink the place out we would recoup the majority of our outlay. The upside with him his huge and he is still only 20. No doubt he will have a point to prove and Moyes has a bit of experience with this type of player like he did with Arteta.

I didn't ask for clubs that would be interested in Beto for £20M, I asked for clubs he would be demanding to be allowed to leave us for, if they offered us £20M to sign him.

He may turn his nose up at Burnley, but there will be clubs who will be able to attract him. He was being linked with Man Utd the other week. He will speak with Moyes and realise that he's not really what he's looking for.

If Barry does sign then I am sure Beto will fight hard to stay in the team.

We shouldn't sell him. Prior to the arrival of Moyes he was playing in the most negative team in the country that were destined to be relegated.

I am sure you can all remember how bad it was. I just couldn't see where the next win was coming from.

For all my doubts Moyes came in and did a marvellous job resulting in Beto scoring some vital goals.

I like him. He has a great attitude and I think Moyes feels the same way.

He's missed 24 games to injury over the last 2 seasons.

And he's played only 1721 minutes and then 541 minutes over the last 2 seasons. Thats 19 and 6 games equivalent = 25 games in 2 season, when the best would have played 100.

I beg to differ if you'd get your money if he broke down again, and he's likely to be demanding fair wages over a 4 or 5 year contract.

The here and now is Beto is fit and scoring. Ferguson could be on the treatment table.

Id take him on loan only, and any talk of a permanent deal can only be if he's scoring and playing 30+ games a season.

We've seen this one too many times already with Duncan & Dcl, and why id keep beto. You'd still get good money on beto when he's 30, as hes not had serious injury to date or ob silly wages.

Two things I'd disagree with on.

I think with a full season playing regularly, he could hit double figures.

And I wouldn't be selling him just yet, as we'd need to find someone else.

Year after year, we have so few strikers, and most of them are the non-scoring type at that. Fully agree with Danny.

Erm, Fabregas only scored 5 goals in the Premier League by the end of the 2005-06 season. He's currently 38 and turned 19 in May 2006.

Evan Ferguson was gash at West Ham. I don't think Pedro 'taking the space' or Welbeck 'spinning in behind' had anything to do with it.

If he was that good there is no way that Brighton would consider selling him. Especially the same summer they've allowed Pedro to leave. Maybe they know more than we do and see this as their last chance to get a decent return on a busted flush?

Is this the same Brighton who wouldn't entertain bids of £60M for him and wanted £100M not long before? Because Hurzeler doesn't rate him doesn't mean he's finished.

At West Ham he was never properly match fit. I watched him play 2 games for Ireland and in both games he was 'gash'. But in a split second in one of them he picks up a ball deep, plays a 1-2 with Parrott and strikes an absolute screamer. The ability is still there even when he was out of shape and low in confidence.

Ian is right that a loan to buy would be the best option but I only raised the suggestion because I have a feeling that he will come back firing to get himself fit and is one of only a few top class strikers we could afford with Premier League knowhow, who is available and would come to us and is a serious upgrade in quality to Beto. He would come to a club and manager where I think he would thrive

On Ferguson, I'd take him in a heartbeat. He fits the mould of Moyes, a player with undoubted qualities who's lost his way a little, a bit like Arteta and Pienaar.

I don't believe that there isn't loads of players with 10 Premier League goal 'involvements' by the age of 18. Rooney and Jeffers were 'involved' in loads of goals by 18.

If they still thought Ferguson was a 100 million pound player now and their manager didn't then they'd be getting rid of Hurzeler.

I am glad he's too good for the defense of a side ranked below Oman and Gabon in the FIFA World Rankings. Always the main criteria when assessing the suitability of potential new recruits.

Maybe you're right. Time will tell and that guy at Sporting Lisbon that everyone wants was a Brighton reject.

Man Utd were quoted £100M two years ago, the talent is there. I would say, we can't afford to sell Beto, with Calvert-Lewin gone.

To expect Barry to come in and expect him to make an impact straight away in the Premier League is a big ask coming from the Spanish league.

You have poo pooed yet, despite all his setbacks, he still has more Premier League goals than Beto!

What 2 more Premier League goals from 8 more appearances? Right, that must be why Brighton thought he was worth £100M. Beto must be worth £90-95M himself though.

He then added a further 6 prem goals in his next 12 games.

A series of minor injuries, then a major one have curtailed his development resulting in a loss of confidence, form and stability. Beto is what he is. He is a ten goal striker at best and apart from his enthusiasm is inferior to Ferguson in every other facet of the game.

Here is a great article by the athletic. We will just after to agree to disagree on the player.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5863495/2024/11/20/evan-ferguson-brighton-hurzeler-goals/

I don't recall him being a regular and I don't think he was that prolific over several seasons?

Anyway, it looks like our money is on Barry, so that's where the club is going. If / when it happens, and it sounds close, then we will have Beto and Barry as options.

Now for the right flank.

Beto/Barry, Ndiaye, Alcaraz plus another won't look too bad.

Considering he scored 10 for us last season in just 20 starts and half the available minutes, that is a distinctly odd statement.