Everton in the pack tracking Reims midfielder

22 years of age, 6 foot 6 inches tall and plays central midfield. €12M transfer fee could be smart business.

The side is certainly looking big if he was to come in.

Sounds promising, but other Clubs are circling, hopefully we can come out on top, good window thus far, with limited resources while take-over issue is still unresolved.

He looks mobile and has pretty good skill and can carry the ball forward.

22 years old at €9M? Definitely worth a punt.

We shouldn't gamble on many kids in central midfield! Iron Tim Iroegbunam, Garner, Onyango and, if we get this guy, they would be very inexperienced and could get easily outplayed by the top teams.

We do have Gana and Doucoure, but they are basically ‘ball chasers', not players who can control the play, and therefore would not be ideal role models for the younger midfielders.

I would love to see Kalvin Phillips in our midfield — I am sure Dyche will whip him into shape quickly and he would be ideal to control the tempo of our play.

His Dad is a US basketball player hence the height and the surname. So presumably speaks English?

Quite a graceful player but not sure he is aerially dominant despite the height (Sam H?)

Could become excellent and the price is good. But may look a bit lost in the Premier League in his first season.

Just spotted 20-year-old Micah Hamilton of Man City is joining Boro for £3.5M with a buy-back clause of £11M.

He is a good player — left-wing or No 10 — and I was hoping we'd get him this summer because he was never going to break into the City set-up.

Interesting to see how he gets on at Boro.

Ajay,

James Garner is 24 during the season. He isn't a kid. He's also surrounded by experience, and a number of players reaching their peak in 24 to 28. Ndiaye 24, Lindstrøm 24, Mykolenko 25, Branthwaite 22, O'Brien 23, McNeil 24, Clvert-Lewin 27. We aren't packing the squad with 18-year-olds with no experience.

Onyango isn't going to make it. He's racked up that many injuries, I'd be surprised if he makes it as a Premier League player. He's missed development and it's unclear if his body can cope at this level. We can't not sign players hoping he makes it. That's crazy.

We need to be signing players like him in the £8-15M bracket, and hope to develop them over the season to be £30-40M players. Creating assets for the club on affordable wages, and not having expensive players that leave on frees. That has to be the new reality.

Onana was a good signing for us. But the real deal was Lyon paying £12M and selling him for £30M after 9 first team starts.

Richardson is young, but he's played nearly 100 games in Ligue 1 and 2, and will be 23 during the season. He's not green.

If he's good enough, this is precisely the deal we should be doing rather than signing a Phillips-type player on big money, career on the fall, and probably likely to be sold in the future for far less than what it would cost to buy him from Man City.

Ajay @4.

The only tempo pineapple Phillips has ever controlled is the speed at how many people actually think he's not more than a bang-average footballer.

The man is next to useless and apart from making up the numbers offers nothing.

Him to us? Um… No.

Just think about Minteh, Newcastle bought it for €7 million, didn't even play a game in Premier League. Farmed out to Feyenoord and sold to Brighton for £30M a year after.

I hope we are getting in such deal.

Richardson is exactly the right kind of player profile we should be looking to sign. But, going on our past performances, with 7 other clubs interested, I bet we will be 8th on the list! Not going to happen in my view.

I just hope we don't end up desperately scratching around at the end of August like we usually do and end up with someone on big wages with no sell-on value… a la Phillips.

Why is it we seem to miss out on good potential players so often, for want of increasing our bid by a couple of million quid?

@ Ian you construct a set of important points.

Onyango isn't in the conversation for first-team football. He and the club should be seeking a move for him.

Garner is 24 and has shown so far that he is a decent enough player. Early on he showed a lot of promise and was at an age where it could've been perceived that he was near the beginning of an upward trajectory.

Personally I don't think he has improved in the last 18 months. I like him, but I think what we've seen already is what we can expect from him. He is a safe pair of hands. Honest. Works tirelessly and gives his all.

I hope I am wrong obviosuly. More midfield options may mean that Garner could be considered as cover at right-back. I actually think this could be a better position for him. His better performances have been right-wingback or right-back with us. He also won a major U21 tournament playing this position.

I am not a huge Garner fan tbh. He's probably doing what the manager is telling him, and just screening the back 4.

But he's a bit lightweight for me, and needs to get on the ball more — creating and scoring.

Some rate him. He's neat and tidy, but I think some over-rate his level.

I agree on Garner, tidy but never does anything special. Better at right-back than the critical centre-midfield role.

That said, he's better than Doucoure and is probably our first choice midfielder when fit — which shows our need for a classy centre-midfielder who can tackle and play forward — the next Arteta, Alonso, etc.

Phillips was that player, Pep doesn't rate him as he's not good in small spaces, but I think we could tolerate that for a bit more robustness and taking passes forward.

Garner was a 6/10 last season. It is worth bearing in mind it was his first full campaign in the Premier League, his previous season having been disrupted by a back injury.

Tidy in possession, with decent passing and industry off the ball he was a reliable rather than inspirational presence in midfield. The manager knew exactly what he was going to get from him which is always a plus.

The question now is whether or not he can progress into a more dominant, productive player, in particular by adding a few goals to his game. I think there is more to come from him but we will only know that as the season ahead unfolds.

I was a bit concerned about inexperience in midfield but I think Ian and Stu have called it right. Garner is no youngster at 24. It's time for him to kick on now.

Competition from players like Iroegbunam and Richardson could help with that process — and also give us a strong, well stocked midfield for many years to come.

But I still wouldn't be averse to loaning Phillips for a season on low wages, which might also help.

I think the game breaker for Phillips, Robert, is “on low wages”
— I can't see him accepting a deal like that while he has other options.

Just heard Richardson has gone to Fiorentina. Another one passes us by!

Some media talk of us being interested in Eddie Nketiah from Arsenal. I like what I've seen of him, but I think he'll go to one of the wealthier clubs or abroad if he has the opportunity.

Stu,

Man City would still pay the mega wages - we'd just subsidise them a bit (50%?) I guess.

As for Nketiah, he gets in great positions (ably assisted by a brilliant footballing side) but his goalscoring record is really poor. 5 in 27 games last season, and 4 in 30 the year before that. He misses so many chances for a side that creates a lot of good chances.

That Richardson fella has agreed to sign for Fiorentina. So he's not coming.

I'm a bit worried that, with Branthwaite, O'Brien and now this bloke and possibly Beto, we are doing the opposite of that which was rumoured when Colin Harvey was manager, that we didn't sign players taller than 5'-9" as it would ruin the team photo.

Throw in Tarkowski and Calvert-Lewin and you have the back row.

Get him...

Aye, Alan - the club photographer will need a taller tripod!

Sounds interesting like but so many clubs in for him, it looks like we'll be last on his list of possible clubs to join, sadly.

Still think we need a real attacking midfielder who scores goals, a player who can become not only our talisman but a real leader too... whatever his age!

Okay, we lost out in signing him. But Thelwell has shown he has a list and is willing to move on if things doesn't quite work out.

Next!

Richardson is a talented young player but not sure he suited Dyche at all. One of his best traits was his ability to dribble through the press and beat his man. Dyche does not want that all from his central midfielders as we saw with Onana.

I'm not convinced Phillips is a great fit either. Better in possession than out of it. Not very athletic. Dyche needs a midfielder who can cover ground fast, win his duels, maintain shape and be very secure in possession without doing anything fancy. Gana is almost perfect for Dyche (not always disciplined in position) so a younger version must be the aim.

I see that the BBC football gossip is reporting that the Echo are continuing the story that Anthony Gordon is wanted by the RS and previous reports that he wants the move.
As a self professed Blueboy, how does he think it will go down in the city! It's very close to being Nick Barmby all over again, but at least Barmby never professed to be a lifelong blue!

"The treachery of a friend is worse than that of a foe".
(Hannah Kent) Who she? Ed.

It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.
(William Blake)

Gordon was a childhood red wasn't he?

He was not only a childhood red, he was also in their academy until he was about 11 when he got cut and moved away from the dark side.
Seduced he is again by the dark side. Dark Side leads to suffering.

We should now put in a cheeky loan bid with Chelsea for Gallagher.

We could do a lot worse folks!