Rumour Mill — Week of 25 May 2025

It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new chance for us, yeah
And I'm feeling good

New owners. New stadium. New chapter. Don't blow this opportunity, Everton.

I don't know who will come and who will leave, but let's start on the right foot.

Nina Simone, Colin?

Can she play right-back, Mark?

If so, yeah.

That Hamer from Sheffield Utd looks good.

He was voted Championship Player of the Season.

Yep, Hamer would be a good low cost option. Bit similar to Ndiaye and Alcaraz in style, but is a player with skill.

Alcaraz, Hamer, walker-peters, lamptey? 35 mill?

Lampety and Walker-Peters are free, but will be a bit of agent fees and sign-on. Not great defenders, but offer pace in the wide.

Alcaraz is £15M, but they're chipping that fee payment structure.

Hamer I'd think is sub £20M. He isn't going to want another season in the Championship. It's just whether someone offers him silly money from Leeds, Burnley or Sunderland.

For £35M, it would be a sensible way to spend some of the money. They'd settle quickly.

Spend the other £65M on two players of good quality in wide right and striker, and a couple of loans.

Ian, aren't you missing an important position out mate? A striker?

I like the optimism though and hope your figure of £100M rebuild budget is accurate.

I'm not even sure if Moyes wants Alcaraz to stay.

Perhaps he thinks Soucek is a better option down the middle.

Grealish on season loan, as long as Man City pay most of his wages, in his preferred centre-midfield role would be a risky, but a great option.

Last paragraph, Steve, for a striker. And yes, I can see a £100M gross spend. There will be some leavers I am sure.

The Friedkins have the cash and, if PSR is in for next season rather than squad-cost ratios, then the increased revenue covers a £20M amortisation charge (£100M over 5-year contracts).

Sorry Ian yes, I skim read that doh!

Based on current results save some money and don't buy anybody.

Colin# 10, I think Grealish is OOC, So Citeh won’t be paying anything towards his wages.

Never seen him centrally, always seemed wide left whenever I saw him for both Villa and City.

Jeff, you might be right about Jack and his contract. He did tend to play down the left at Villa but he had freedom to roam. He’s straight-jacketed in Pep’s robotic system.

Free the lad and he will produce.

I wouldn’t go near Jack Grealish even if he was free. Be 30 in September and on the way down.

So many great possibilities and very hopeful we get a much stronger squad for next season.
One signing I hope we don’t get is overpriced red shite castoffs.
Why does this link keep reemerging, could understand it if it was a bargain price but £30m for unproven cast off.
Please no!

Not sure about Hamer. If you read fan sites from the Championship they all seem to flag up the same concerns.

Doesnt last the full game

Over weight and not fit enough

Bad disciplinary record

Injury problems.

That said, player of the year in the Championship.

Plenty for Davy to work on there.

Cant see us pay anywhere near £30m for Doaks, remember Brewster ? Liverpool rarely slip up releasing young players or the over inflated price they get for them, one to swerve.

Mateus Fernandes looks a player at Southampton. Only 20 had a good game against us especially in second half when he moved from our wide to central midfield. Box to box midfielder with pace and eye for a pass.
Villa/Hammers and Leeds supposedly sniffing around him at moment.
Not sure what’s going on with Alcatraz it’s a bit worrying that we’re not at least making noises to sign him, missed the plot when we didn’t take the option to get him for £12m. I don’t see us getting him any cheaper and probably end up paying more or worse still loose him to another club.

Ben Doak looked good from what I have saw. Could be another Sheedy snatch.

Colin, I have been impressed too with Doak, having seen him play for both Middlesborough and Scotland; however, he is more-or-less untested at Premier League level. At £25-30M, hardly a snatch, but possibly may turn out to be worth it.

It is a risk, and the question I always ask of any transfer, is why are they letting a player who is good, leave? Often due to the player wanting regular starts, still a big chunk of the budget to splash out on potential!

Martin @ 18.

Hamer looks like a good Championship player but he's hit his ceiling. Alcaraz is definitely an upgrade.

Mateus Fernandes looks a good shout. Probably has a low cost relegation clause.

Paul Joyce from The Times reporting on Twitter that the Alcaraz deal will hopefully be wrapped up by the end of May and the fee will be £12.6M.

Andrew, Paddy Boyland from The Athletic reports exactly the same.

Might disagree with you on Hamer. He's only 27 and Moyes will definitely get him in top shape. Good gamble for me.

John #19, the Alcaraz option is still in place through Saturday. Only the obligation to buy has expired.

Where would Hamer play when we sign Charly Alcaraz?

On the bench, Ryan.

Let us not forget that amongst all the other news, that today is the 40th anniversary of the death of 39 Juventus fans who went to watch their team in a football match in Brussels.

I've added Tyler Dibling to the list of linked players but this one seems to be a joke.

He managed just 4 goals for Southampton in a lot of appearances last season as they finished bottom of the Premier League... and they want £60M for this "Saints prodigy Tyler Dibling"???

They are 'avin' a larf, methinks.

Being linked to Callum Wilson is totally ridiculous, the reason Newcastle are stalling on a new deal, is because he was out for different periods during the season with his hamstring.

It’s nice to dream again about having some exciting players possibly joining. Been so sad the past few years, hearing the letters psr ruin everything and blatantly there to try and keep those big six at the top.

It’s been refreshing seeing Spurs and Utd have such shitty league seasons, and other teams getting a look in. It would be great if that could be us next season with hopefully a bit of luck and aggression in the transfer market to bring in a few exciting signings.
Would like to see Cherki sign but Hamer wouldn’t be a bad alternative.
Surprised not more rumours about Walker peters or Lamptey as free right backs.

Grealish could be another Raheem Sterling, on the gravy train and lacking in motivation. In any case, we need a right side MF.

Nick Woltemade, striker at VFB Stuttgart is interesting. 17 goals in 35 matches, 6'6" and reportedly on 23k/week.

Mbappé could be coming to Everton

Kylian Mbappé!!!?

Erm... no, actually Maureen Mbappé, she’s a 17-year-old Cameroon international, but I should probably add there’s another 15 clubs after her, including Inter and Barcelona… Actually, I should probably (ie, definitely) add that I just made all that up and the player doesn’t even exist.

"Well what was the point of that, you daft twat?"

I’ll explain: This summer, there’s no World Cup finals; and no Euro finals.

This is always a bit of a problem imo, because when there’s no (proper?) summer football – apart from an England World Cup qualifier against Jibrovia and/or Everton playing a friendly against the Mississippi Oven Chips (in The Biloxi Soup Bowl) – newspapers and websites are under (even) more pressure to fill gaps.

And when they’re under pressure for ’content’ (?), the level of buIIshit reeeaaally increases.

"Delap to turn blues down!" – Monty Trousers, The Mirror

Now a story like that might turn out to be true, or... it might not (50/50, I suppose) but remember, when Monty (or whoever) writes these stories, they don’t give a toss whether they’re true or not – when they’ve filled that empty space, it’s job done and… “Huzzah, large ones all round!”

No one ever takes them to task or fires them. So what can we do? Simply this – ignore all the nonsense.

100% fact: Moyes and Everton will sign a few players this summer and miss out on a few others. When players are pictured wearing a blue shirt (with a Castore logo hanging off it) you’ll know they’ve deffo signed. Until then… relax.

If you ignore every transfer story linked to Everton this summer, your general health and stress levels will benefit. And if you can’t completely ignore them, at least look for the tell-tale signs letting you know ‘this ‘story’ is defo bollocks.’

What should you look for? What (specifically) will let you know - ’This lazy hack twat is just making up shizzle’?

Certain phrases you’ve seen a million times…

’An insider yesterday informed us..’
’Sources close to the player...’
’Friends believe...’
’Those close to the player think..’
'It’s believed the player won’t be...’
’Club officials are thought to be...’
Etc etc et-bleedin-cetera.

It is all hack-speak for "We know nothing, but we’ll take a guess, then we’ll present our guesses as fact and hope you mugs swallow it."

It could be a long old summer. Up to you how much of it you spend reading invented shiiiiiiiiite.

Up The Toffees! ’Go on, Maureen Girl!!’

Buy them all at a packaged low price and sell all of those we don't want at, say 5% discount>. Eh voila, we're completely cashed up.

Okay, I'll also get me coat🥸

Sincerely hope the club are getting the move on with transfers (aside from Charly, and the failed Delap approach).

There are a few players who will soon be free agents like GKs Robin Olsen and Freddie Woodman who would be great backups for Pickford. Tariq Lamptey is also available who can play either side as fullback. A very talented albeit injury prone player. Walker-Peters definitely worth a shout as well (as others have mentioned)

Just to add to Eugene's point we are now being associated with Tammy Abraham who wants to come back to England after a poor spell in Italy.

I've been keeping an eye on Abraham Jay, his Milan move wasn't the best though he looked good initially at Roma. A player I always liked and thought maybe he'd come to us because of the TFG connection. However,10 goals across all competitions in 44 games this season in a good side doesn't exactly get the pulse racing.

Big fan of Tammy Abraham but sadly he hasn't been the same since his ACL injury.

Tammy Abraham? I worry we are being linked with so many injury prone players.

No, please.

I'd rather keep Calvert-Lewin.

I've just watched the latest (drone) video from BMD. The fella who posted it thinks it won't be ready until about September. There still seems to loads of work going on.

If BMD is not ready for opening day, can't we just play at Goodison in the meantime?

There's no seats at Goodison, Colin.

People could take their own, Liam.

Joking apart, this is embarrassing if true.

The club have requested to play the first three games away from home so that takes us to early/mid September.

Better hope for an away draw in the Carabao Cup then…

Brian where have you heard that?

We have to have a third test event yet before we can "officially" use the stadium that I would imagine has to be somewhere near capacity.

The obvious one would be a pre-season game so, if we can't use the stadium in early August for that, I'm not sure what sort of event, or when they could hold one, to get the certificate once the season has started.

Thats up there with your best ones, Eugene.

John (47): everything you say there is evidence that Brian (45) is on the right lines.

I've thought and posted for a while now that my fear is that the headlines after the first game will be about off the pitch issues and also that the stadium will not be ready.

Watch the video. Still a lot of scaffolding, landscaping, painting etc… going on. The grass needs more time to grow evenly. There are also rumours Moyes isn't too happy with the changing rooms.

There are going to be loads of teething problems so I guess we'll just have to be patient and hope it's ready before the weather starts to turn.

For fuck's sake, Colin #50… What's wrong with the changing rooms?

Please don't tell me they've fecked up and provided enough lockers for every bleeding player?

It looked ready to me at the 2nd test event, which I attended. It needs some cosmetics, but it is ready.

Where have these rumours come from?

I would have thought if true, the club would have announced it.

We've sold season tickets, so I doubt very much our first game of the new season won't be at the Everton Stadium on Bramley-Moore Dock.

It is known as hot lockering.

Same as in offices. More people than desks. Same here. First to arrive gets a locker. Only 8 in each changing room. Last 3 to arrive, plus all the subs have to change in the toilets. They can ring in and say they do not need a locker as they will be playing in their back garden this week but not admitting they will be watching Sky Sports on the tele or being sly and actually being on Football Manager on the PlayStation.

That is such a good idea, I hope for Man Utd players that Radcliffe is not reading this because it would be something he would do.

On a more serious note, my kids, and maybe my grandson as well, are walking GP to BMD in early July and then trying to find my dad's commorative stone. Do we reckon wait until late August?

"Hot lockering"

I may be back on the cigarettes tonight...ok... early tomorrow morning.

Apparently, Moyes thinks the changing room is too far from the pitch.

Does that mean the players will be knackered by the time they get on the grass?

The changing rooms have been designed that way so the players walk through a glass tunnel in the lounge area before going on the pitch. I don't see anyway of changing that.

Hopefully nobody forgets there socks.

So, people can watch the players through the glass walking out of the tunnel, Craig, guzzling down their last bubbles? You would think that they would be already in their seats?

It might also be that Moysey is really pissed off at leaving the Old Lady's dressing rooms behind:

"Moyes shows a secret. The dressing room has a little backdoor that opens on to the Gwladys Street End. Few know it's there. “You can always hear the Gwladys Street out the back. The noisiest day was Wayne's goal [when a 16-year-old Wayne Rooney scored against Arsenal]. After, you could hear the supporters singing down the street. It was unbelievable.”

This is a top article:

David Moyes: Secret door, cramped away dressing room — why I love Goodison

Danny @ 52, I'm on the same track as you. Rumours are just that! somebody says something about that which they know nothing and then the issue becomes stronger through Chinese whispers. This one was likely started by some RS dick head, jealous of our new stadium.

Bob, the wonders of the internet. Anyone can post something about anything, which spreads rapidly!

Here, I’ll start one, albeit only on here as I don't do Twitter or Facebook or whatever else there is out there……….

Man Utd are reportedly set to announce the sacking of Amorim and are looking at taking Slot from the RS, who would like to take Salah with him to Man Utd!

See how easy it is! 👍👍👍😀😀

John#47.

John I was told that by a good mate, a club employee who deals with ticketing.

He's not one to make up daft rumours.

He did stress that the club had "asked" but hadn't had a reply at the time from the EPL.

The changing rooms looked fine when they were presenting from them on the BBC breakfast, just the other week.

test events would not have happened if the stadium was not ready. I think mainly just housework left to do

The painting of the steel won't be finished before the season starts. But it won't stop the use of the stadium.

Quite agree Danny,cosmetics just need attending to,the stadium looked a little bare,not disfunctional by any means,at the 2nd test event,so I am sticking to the old adage “innocent until proven guilty “. Club statement—factual,no club statement—- fictional.

While I am sure that any new stadium might have a few minor teething problems, with already having had 2 test events and still a couple of months to go before the new season starts I cant see us not starting at BMD.

Gnonto at Leeds please. VG stats last season and wanted to come a season or two ago.