Everton learn price of Manchester City's James McAtee

I really like Mcatee. Good young player with vision, great touch and an eye for a goal. But I don't think he's the pacy RW that we need. He's probably more like Ndiaye in that he's tricky, a good dribbler (though not as good as Ndiaye) with a desire to come inside more often than not. Could work with a more dynamic overlapping RB but I'm not sure him and O'Brien would make an ideal right flank.

Maybe Moyes buys him with a desire to play him at 10 and Alcaraz/McNeill taking more of a squad role? £20m would seem a reasonable price for a player with a big upside.

At any rate it's probably more likely he'll end up at Leverkusen or another club playing in Europe.

This is another non-starter in my opinion.
McAtee has stated his desire to play Champions League football,and although he would certainly get more playing time at Everton,he will almost certainly end up in the Bundesliga.
I notice many of the names we have been linked with in the last few weeks have now slipped off the radar altogether.
Funny that,I wonder if it could have been just media talk?
Never mind,I’m sure we’ll sign enough players to field 2 squads in the next 6 weeks although having a meaningful pre-season might be a problem.
I think I may be suffering from a split personality,not sure whether I’m a realist or a cynic!!

Haha, Stu……just as I posted a response to your post on the Rumour Mill thread this thread appears. I was unaware he was not wanted by Man City, and there is interest from Germany, Italy and surprise surprise, Chelsea!

I’d like to know Thierno Barry’s reasoning behind him joining us, if he is also craving champions league football?

Rumours starting to build up now with Barry hopefully due to sign today and Hackney, Travers and McAtee whispers.
Expect we will be inundated with lots of possible signings over the next few weeks.
It's getting exciting even though a lot of it is utter rubbish.
COYB

He is exactly the type of player we need. He is an upgrade on most of the squad. If less than 25m then he represents a bargain in the modern day madness of exorbitant and ridiculous transfer fees.

I love Everton to sign McAtee, a player with genuine quality. Would fit on that right hand side very nicely.

I'm not questioning his quality or potential and I've no doubt he would be a great addition.

There are just a few obvious questions in my head.

How has the "dialogue" gone with City? Is that an approach by Everton, or is he surplus to requirements by City and has been offered?

Would he be willing to move to Everton, or, as some have mentioned, if he does move, would it be to a team on the continent playing European football?

And would it be a permanent move or a loan? I personally would imagine the latter if there is anything in this.

Stu (2) I think you are definitely a realist although the City manager wanted to keep Cole Palmer he couldn’t guarantee him enough game time to make him stay at City, I bet he regretted letting him go half way through last season when he saw how well he had fitted in with Chelsea and City would have been a lot better with him.

I think you are correct in that McAtee will join a bigger team than Everton with the slight hope he will want to stay in the North West.

I would like this signing.

As for a rumored transfer to Germany, why? When we have the best league in the world on his doorstep.

Get him down to the Dickory Dock and show him the project, he has to be impressed with what he sees, also he won't have to move house!

McAtee all day long. He's young, played at the highest level with Man City, won the England U21s Euros last month.

He can play of the right and through the middle. It's a yes all day long from me. I'd be greedy and ask Pep if we could also take Oscar Bobb on loan as well.

McAtee has only played 18 Premier League games, mainly as substitute.

I am not convinced by the “he wants to play Champions League” line for an emerging 22-year-old with so little first-team experience.

He is the good player, but we need pace in the wide positions as our fullbacks and wide men are slow.

Martin @9,

There is a long list of English league players who have headed to Germany and other countries on the continent to further their careers.

The style is different but it can be educational, as can the life experience.

I wouldn't underestimate the Bundesliga. Personally, I find the "best league in the world" a bit overhyped. Most successful, certainly from a financial and marketing perspective. But best? I would challenge that

I don't tend to rate the different leagues. England, Germany, Spain and Italy; they are all different.

In terms of relative strengths of different Eurooean leagues, the Premier League is clearly the strongest, in my view. What other league has teams that were 15th and 17th in the league competing in the second-best European competition with another winning the third tier and 8 or 9 potentially qualifying for those competitions?

Other leagues may have 2 or 3 genuinely elite teams in respect of winning trophies domestically and in Europe, the Premier League has at least 6 and arguably 8, with 17 competitive teams in the league each season, capable of beating the best in one-off matches.

They are just very different Peter.

La Liga is a lot more technical.

Serie A very tactical.

Bundesliga a mix between the. physicality of English football and technical.

Danny, you may not tend to rate the leagues, but Opta does: https://theanalyst.com/articles/strongest-leagues-in-the-world-opta-power-rankings-june-2025

They have the usual five European suspects as the five strongest leagues in the world. But they claim the sixth strongest league in the world is the English Championship! Hmmm…

Opta have Everton as the 26th most "powerful" club in the world. Again, hmmm.

The world of football just loves misusing and misunderstanding statistics.

I haven't said I don't rate any of the leagues, Ben. I've just said they are different.

Top 5 leagues in Europe:

1 German
2 Spanish
3 Italian
4 English Premier League
5 French.

Just read your last sentence back Ben.

With you on that. I'm not one for data or stats. I do enough of that at work. When it comes to football, I go off what I see and watch.

Paul @17, if pressed, I'd probably switch the Premier League and Italian Serie A around in your table.

Paul @17 - you are completely entitled to your opinion, however I wonder on what basis you make that list. What are the criteria?
Danny @14 - I completely agree with you that they are very different and in term of watchability they will appeal to different people.
My case for the EPL is based on the relative success of teams in the league in European competition against those of all the other leagues in Europe. It is very clear that in terms of overall strength, using European competition results as the criterion, that the EPL is the strongest. There may be (are) stronger teams in some of the other leagues (the usual suspects - PSG, Barca, Real, Bayern etc), but in terms of numbers of strong teams that demonstrate this with actual results in Europe, in my opinion, there is no comparison. EPL ahead by a significant margin.

Peter @19.

The list is just what leagues I enjoy watching most. I'd put the German second division above the Premier League.

Steve@11 exactly. It’s not just about getting good players. It’s about getting the right profiles to fit the tactics and other team members. As talented as he is I’m not sure he’s a good fit for our RW. Could play at 10 though? Or maybe an attacking 8?

Thanks, Paul - entirely fair!

The other angle to this discussion is the quotation of English players in the Premier League.

Without looking it up, I would guess its quite low in comparison to those other leagues? So aside from it being played in England, is it really English football?

All recruit foreign players. Germany from Croatia and Poland for geographical and historical reasons. Italy also from Croatia. Spain has always had a tradition recruiting from South America, which makes sense linguistically and culturally.

But it would be interesting to see the comparison as to how many native players each league has.