Everton hopeful about sealing Thierno Barry's transfer in the next few days

He looked lively but very raw I thought in the Germany France U21 semi final last evening.
Woltemade for Germany had more quality about him.

Beto would have buried them chances.

He won't stand a chance in the Prem. The German guy is miles ahead of him, and us unfortunately.

This lad looks very raw to me for that amount of money.
I hope the scouting staff have seen something in him that I don’t.
If not,we could end up buying another lemon.

writing off another player before he's even put the blue shirt on. What a surprise.

Beto was awful when he first came and also missed several one on ones this season.

Barry has got huge potential.

I understand where people are coming from, it's potentially a big fee but as Ryan says it's a bit early to write him off. Let's wait until he has signed and then welcome him in our (some of us anyway) usual style by criticising him before he's kicked a ball for us.

I imagine the scouting team have done their homework and due diligence.

That said, I am running my own elite scouting network out of my living room, which currently consists of 45 seconds on YouTube and a gut feeling. It's not very effective.

That german guy is so much better don't buy him Davey

I watched him in the 2nd half for France U21s last night.

It was difficult for him as Germany were playing a deep defence protecting a lead. He looked quick, athletic and good in the air.

Service to him wasnt great, but when he got his chance, a header from 3 yards out, he absolutely fluffed it.

It is hard to say from only 45 mins, though.

We can’t really judge him from the u21’s, considering he was mostly starting on the bench, but he had a good season with Villarreal

Saying ‘player x’ is better makes no sense.

Salah and Isak are better but we can’t attack them. We have to roll the dice. The question is ‘with the right coaching and a bit of time will be grow into a good premier league player…’

The indications are he’s raw but has loads of potential.

But if we do get him and he becomes mustard we will have him stolen from us before we see the absolute best of him.

This is how the premier league works.

I think we all debated the pros and cons a few weeks ago – and about 250 comments are summarised above. He has excellent physical characteristics, some decent quality but he's quite raw and may take a few years to really develop (as it appears his predecessor Nicolas Jackson might need).

I don't think anyone (including him) could confidently say he will kick on from his time at Villarreal or whether he ends up plateauing as a roughly Beto or Calvert-Lewin standard player.

The good news is that, for the first time since 2022, we are about to pay a transfer fee that is in line with the sorts of fees the likes of Bournemouth, Brentford, Brighton, Forest etc have been paying for players. Progress at least.

Hopefully we have the money for a right / wing forward too of real quality, because we are desperate to upgrade the abysmal right flank.

How about asking after Lyon's centre-forward, Georges Mikautadze? 47 games, 17 goals and 11 assists. Given they have been relegated, I can't see him wanting to stay there.

If Tete gives us the brush-off, Maitland Niles may also be available from Lyon. He played mostly right-back last season, and can play midfield too.

The German lad wants to join Bayern.

I think Champions League swayed it over a move to Everton

The German guy might be better, but his transfer fee won't be after this tournament.

Stuttgart are now looking for between €50 and 60M. And with some of the other clubs that have been looking at him, we can forget that one.

He probably doesn't realise Bayern have never beaten us.

Need to sit him down with a DVD and Peter Reid

He'd be bevvied within an hour, Ryan!

Liam, a friend told me that we also beat Bayern in another game in 1987... just looked it up.

The Mercantile Credit Centenary Challenge was a football tournament held on 25 November 1987, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Football League.

According to the Everton results site, Everton played Bayern Munich in a match as part of this tournament on that date. Everton won the match 3-1.

Ryan 12.

I think you're being very charitable there saying Champions League swayed it. 😂

Can't think of any other reasons, Si… 😂

Great shout, Jack (11),

The 2 Lyon players could be worth looking into, especially Maitland-Niles.
I'm not over keen on Barry, didn't have a good game last night, missed 2 great chances, scored 1 in U21 competition.

I prefer Igamane at Rangers, full international, more clinical, better suited to Premier League than Italian football and cheaper, £20M may be enough!

Barry is expensive potential. I saw Igamane 4 times live on TV, twice v Celtic and twice in Europa League, did really well in all 4 games. 17 for the season and missed some games! Think Jelavic in his best games!!!

Tend to agree, Malcolm.

Problem seems to be that the recruitment team is uncertain whether Igamame will be able to hack it in the Premier League. Doesn't the same apply to Barry?

By the way, isn't Villarreal in the Spanish league? Sorry to be so pedantic!

Igamame is going to Lille, I read.

He's not someone that impresses me. Doesn't have many attributes that I think make him stand out.

Woltemade is German and if Bayern come calling, most wouldn't turn it down.

I don't know much about Barry, apart from the odd match I've seen in the recent U21s. Not enough to form an opinion. As for the other curve ball, Igamame, I've never heard of him, let alone watched him, so I have no idea.

We have no say. I just want the Gana situation sorted. Clarity on Calvert-Lewin. I think I know the answer to that but then who knows?

Then we move on to new additions.

Sounds like Sandro revisited for me.

If and until he turns up in an Everton shirt, Geoff, we wont know and can only judge him on that merit.

I feel any player now is joining Everton on a better footing than their recent predecessors. Let's see what happens.

His debut could be at Accrington Stanley (who are they)? Talk about a culture shock!!

If Moyes is oking the signing, thats good enough for me he should be able to judge a player by now.

We still don't know what is going to happen with Calvert- Lewin or Chermiti yet.

Danny, if you look at his highs on the tube of U there aren't any. These short clips are supposed to make anyone look like a world beater on YouTube.

All I can see is a lanky kid who has every clip cut short just as the ball sails over the bar or 10 yards wide, same with his crossing and passing.

If he was £10M then it's worth a gamble… but not £30M of Everton's paltry transfer funds.

The clip was for others, Geoff, but captures him well.

My own opinions aren't forged by watching YouTube. They are formed watching players, week-in & week-out, with my own eyes, all over the country.

I'll just be glad if he stays with us.

Raymond,

Although Moyesey has an eye for a good player he seems to have a blind spot with goal scorers:

Beattie, Johnson, Jo, Bilyaletdinov, Vellios, Stracqualursi, Jelavic etc.

I know he didn't have much money to spend but he also bought some duds at West Ham:

Scamaca, Chamack, Jelavic (again), Samuelson, Maynard, Haller, Vaz Te etc.

David Moyes getting blamed for signings he never made at West Ham is taking the anti-Moyes agenda a bit too far.

Jay Harris @29.

Most of those West Ham players were signed by other managers before Moyes took the job.

Also Jay 29.

Beattie represented the best available/obtainable option in the premier league at that time.

Johnson had scored 30+ goals in the premier league the year before and scored 12 and 10 in two seasons here. The second year he was playing second fiddle to Yakubu.

Jo was just a loan deal as we had no money. Vellios cost pennies. Straqualursi was us scrapping the bottom of the barrel due to having no money. The year before we had to sign Beckford from the Championship on a free.

Billy wasn't even a striker. He wasn't that bad a player. Just not really good enough to take us higher than the 5th place we had achieved the previous two seasons.

Jelavic was great until Moyes changed tactics and he was doing more of the dirty work. Instead of being in the box doing his one-touch finishes.

100% Grant

Jelavic did well enough under Moyes, 19 goals in under 60 games. He wasn't a great player, but for the money did alright.

Beattie had done well at Southampton, and seemed a low risk signing. Unfortunately he never looked an Everton player. Always felt that buying Dean Ashton and Darren Bent would have taken the team forward. They had less pedigree, but both had a hunger to make it. Buy players on the up with the right attributes is key.

Ive seen a lot of players come through Everton. And those that make it, give absolutely everything and have some quality.

Danny:

"I'll just be glad if he stays with us."

Have I missed something? Has he signed for us?

Beattie was an interesting one, Grant. I don't know if it was tactics, but it never worked out at Everton, although a bit of a coup at the time.

I won't slate him or any player for injuries, but to me, he looked out of shape. I've said before, he walked out at Craven Cottage. He wasn't stripped, not even in a tracksuit. He was in normal clothing. As is the case at Fulham, the players walk right past where the away supporters are located.

He came over, was chatting. Looked like he was carrying a bit.

Agree with you on Jelavic. He was great in the penalty box, which is where you want your striker(s). But then, for whatever reason, we decided to have him chasing the channels.Then he was less effective.

Regarding Jelavic, there are a few interesting comments in Leon Osman's autobiography. In it he suggests Jelavic's initial form was due to defenders not realising he always pulled away for the cutback cross. Once defenders realised he did this everytime, he was man marked and was never the same threat.

He also suggests that Jelavic wasn't exactly committed;

'After a stunning first 8 months or so, he seemed to lose confidence. After 6 months I spoke to him in the gym and said

"Are you enjoying it? It's a good club isn't it?"

He agreed but added "I wont be here long."

"What?"

"Yeah, 18 months and I'll go somewhere else."

At the time things were going fantastically well for him... I'd never come across that before... his form then dipped. Maybe he knew that he tends to go to clubs, hit the ground running and finds it hard. Maybe he needs a fresh start regularly to keep his interest going.'

So maybe it was the player rather than the tactics?

Interesting that, Liam. I've never read Leon's book.

Could have been the player, because I don't think he ever hit the headlines after being with us and bounced around a lot.

Being a geography geek, it always interested me that technically, he was born in what is now Bosnia (then Yugoslavia), but opted to play for Croatia after the break up.

Similar to Kanchelskis. Born in Ukraine, but opted to play for Russia after the break up of the Soviet Union.

Paul Joyce has just confirmed talks are set to intensify even further now that this chap's been knocked out of the Euros.

I think we all have our theories on this and that, Danny (otherwise this place wouldn't exist). But often we don't have the full picture. It's still fun to debate though!

Yugoslavia – could possibly have been a dominant force in the 90s if it hadn't broken up. Not just in football either. Was reading something just the other day about the Red Star team that won the European Cup in 1991. What a side that was.

Feck, Kevin #39

We must be at Level 5 on the Intensity Scale now... doesn't get much higher.

Danny 36. Dunno, did he need wide players and crosses?

We signed Davies and Van Der Meyde. The latter being one of the most talented and high profile signings we've made in the Premier League era. Yet he did absolutely nothing for us and was always injured.

Beattie undoubtedly had ability as his deft lob against Fulham shows.

Very true Liam. That was a very good Yugoslavia side. Croatia are still churning them out for what is now a nation with a smaller population than Scotland.

Like a lot of Everton strikers, Grant. Isolated and if the service isn't there, they instinctively go looking for the ball, so I'll give you that.

In terms of Seamus. Bang average? I wouldn't say so. Took time to settle and went on loan, but never looked back.

In his own words, we are a very demanding crowd and we don't suffer those who hide. In very challenging times, he has never hidden. The crowd would have let him know. They never have other than chant his name.

Is he the best right-back we've had? Open to debate. But he has been an example to those around him, consistently in a very demanding and challenging period for the team and the club.

It's enough to give any right-thinking Evertonian a migraine, Brendan.

Beattie was just a bad signing because he lacked the athleticism to play the role Moyes wanted him for – and we didn't have the athleticism elsewhere in the team to make up for that. He could strike a ball well etc but his signing was the equivalent of a £65M signing these days. It was a bad error of judgement.

Jelavic tailed off because he just wasn't as good as his early form for us suggested. It was just a brief purple patch – like Michu years ago for Swansea and like Adebayo and Morris for Luton last year. Morris would have cost about £25 to £30M last summer but has just joined Derby after scoring 8 in 31 in the Championship.

The loud calls for "clearly better than Calvert-Lewin" Adebayo of last summer also seem to have died down on here after he returned to normal form (5 in 39 in the Championship).

I really like Barry. A bit chaotic but excellent athlete with great movement. He has the potential to be a great fit for Everton and develop into a really effective striker.

But given Moyes's preference for a solo striker formation, I question the wisdom of spending such a large chunk of the transfer pot on a player with similar qualities and standard (currently) to Beto. Unless the plan is to sell Beto.

Maybe it's just good future planning. Or maybe Moyes doesn't like Beto. I just hope we don't spend all our money on a substitute and then end up with the somewhat underwhelming Tom Fellowes on the right wing, which is more of a priority position in my eyes than striker.

I see Sunderland are buying Habib Diarra for £30m, decent player.

To the football world, except for us somewhat local but massively loyal Toffees, Everton is perceived as one of the very most attractive clubs the world over for bog-standard players and their agents’ intent on signing for us to their benefit, not necessarily ours, ever. To name our hopeless signees would test the patience of a saint - and I ain't one of them, ever!

That’s the 30-year bogus legacy of, in his words, our "greatest ever Evertonian”.

Well done to Dan Friedkin and his appointees but they have an Everest to conquer before we even start to be trophy contenders for even the League Cup, or whatever that meaningless competition is now called. Will they show intent to win a trophy, and if so, when?

Comments made by Villarreal's sporting director, Fernando Roig Nogueroles, as per The Echo:

"In the end, it seems there's a shortage of forwards, and now we've been selling our centre-forward for two years, and now it seems there's interest. But at the moment, we have no proof of that, and we're counting on Barry for next season.

“You should never be closed off, and you should always listen. It's another matter if an agreement isn't reached, or if the negotiations aren't enough, and no matter how much a player's will is, sometimes you have to say no. But hey, you always have to listen, and you always have to negotiate.

“These aren't real estate deals. What you're selling here is a person with a strong will. When it comes to defending the club's interests, you have to listen to their will, always listen. You don't always reach an agreement, and sometimes you have to say no, but you always have to listen and negotiate.

"Yes, the player's will is very important when it comes to any type of transfer, but, well, we're relaxed. We want the player, and if he were to leave, it would have to be, if not for the release clause, something very close to it. If not, he won't leave."

The Bobble is saying Calvert-Lewin will definitely be leaving so the search for a striker is key now.

Hopefully we can seal the deal, especially if it’s true that DCL has just announced his departure.

Ian @26,

Was that when we played Bordeaux too? I remember some European game happened not long after the ban and thought it was against them.

Villarreal have just confirmed they've received no approach from anyone, so the intensity of these negotiations is all on one side at this point, it seems.

We've probably been playing hardball with Villarreal's rugger team, I expect. No wonder they didn't accept our bid.