Everton sign goalkeeper Tom King from Wolves

He is 30, has 1 Welsh Cap and stands at 1.94m. He's played for 9 teams, not counting spells as a youth player with Man Utd and Crystal Palace. He's made 1 Premier League appearance and his most appearances were for Salford - 64 games.

He has played more games in League Two, than any other division / competition - 123 games. In total he has played 222 games. He is very much a 3rd choice keeper. No doubt this will mean Harry Tyrer either being sold or loaned out.

We need a right back,right winger (2), central midfielder & an experienced striker too!

Brilliant!!!

Simon, two major signings in 7 days (and one minor one) is how you define "things grind to a halt"??? I think you've locked up Odd Post Of The Day and it's only dinnertime.

We have bought a goalie, why do we need yet another??? Our academy keepers (U21) must be really disheartened. We have at least 3 of them. There was one called Pickford (no relation), I don't know what happened to him.

Typical Everton. Don't fill the desperately needed positions. But waste money on places we just don't need. And if I am correct, there is an exemption in the rules for keepers. So if Pickford gets a long-term injury, the club are allowed to go loan one on top of the squad they have.

Bloody pay for Dibling and some defenders at right- and left-back. Muppets!

We probably do need 3 goalies (1 to sit on the bench) but we are screaming out for a right-back and a right-winger.

Many of us are frustrated because this has been a problem for years now and is not, apparently, being solved.

We should've kept Begovic.

As for Begovic, apparently Moyes shares my opinion of him... not good enough to count on. I used to call him Bungles Begovic, although I will readily concede he has done well with us.

Martin, George Pickford is only 17, so I don't think he's had time to get disappointed. And as for Jordan's possible heir apparent, do you think Tyrer would rather have a loan back to League One, where he played 38 superb games last season, or sit on the bench and watch Pickford?

As Jack says, King's signing is Tyrer's ticket to a full season of action -- which a young keeper desperately needs.

It’s better for us, and Tryer, if he spends a year in the Championship rather than being 3rd choice.

Douglass Lukjanciks will be the one if any of the goalkeepers makes it out of the Academy.

Tyrer looked competent in the friendly at Accrington; if he returns on loan to Blackpool, I'm fairly sure that he could be recalled if there was an injury crisis.

I still don't understand why Virginia was released.

Now we can have 2 keepers on the bench every week again

So it's 2 keepers on the bench at Elland Road then? We certainly don't have any problem getting very average keepers over the line.

I think there were three or four new caterers brought in at Finch farm as well that might also be included in the numbers.

Welcome to this great club Tom.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Abdoulaye Doucoure, Ashley Young, Joao Virginia, Asmir Begovic, Mason Holgate and Neal Maupay, with loanees Jack Harrison, Jesper Lindstrøm, Orel Mangala and Armando Broja all left...

Do you think the squad is stronger or weaker now?

We really need you as that bench ain’t gonna warm itself.

Virginia left us to go home to Portugal.

Tyrer has hit a point now where he's probably best off leaving for a nominal fee and challenging himself to get back in the Premier League, like Broadhead and others have done.

A 3rd choice GK basically never plays so it’s almost like having another coach or support staff. King by all accounts is a brilliant dressing room character to such a degree that Pereira got him to give the team talk before their win over Leicester in April. Sensible, unexciting addition.

So many of the posters on here think we are slacking because we haven't just gone out and bought a dream team. Isak, Eze etc. Get real people. We have a limited budget. This one cost us nowt and allows the younger guys to go and learn their trade.

Meanwhile, by the end of the transfer window, we will, hopefully, have found a right side we can afford, that won't result in points deductions and bankruptcy in 2 years time.

If, on the other hand, you all have £50m to give to the club to pay Southampton for a 19-year-old whose total contribution last season was less than Beto's, then I will apologise and let you go and spend your money for the common good.

He'd look good on our bench!

I just find it odd that a 30-year-old doesn't want to play regular games. He'd rather take the money just to train. That's modern football, how sad. But for him, an easy life.

Fair play, I only wish I could have been so lucky to have been an Everton squad member.

It has nothing to do with just coming for a payday.

The life of a goalkeeper can be a solitary one in more ways than one - not only is the position a solitary one by nature, but the life of a goalkeeper can often be quite solitary mentally as well.

There's a good reason they joke about 'keepers being a bit mad.

Older, 3rd choice 'keepers are not signed because they're likely to ever play for the first team, that's not their role at all. There could be a very rare occasion where say Pickford is injured, and then Travers also gets injured, so King might get a game - but that's obviously extremely unlikely. 3rd choice 'keepers are there to impart knowledge and experience on the goalkeeping group, and in particular younger players, whilst also being there in the unlikely event I've just described.

If you don't believe me, there's an article I'll post here which also explains similarly to what I've described. If you get bored (us goalkeepers are good at not getting bored, it's one of the reasons we became goalkeepers - along with way less running about) skip to near the bottom for the part about being an older, experienced 3rd choice 'keeper.

Honestly, some of the replies on TW are very knee-jerk and ill-informed. And I say this without malice.

Link

Welcome Tom, hope you enjoy your time here and help the other keepers out.

I mean our former goalie Wright being on Man. City’s books for four straight years without playing once, Liverpool had a good goalie who won two Eurpean Cup medals without playing hardly any games for them, he did mention though that the £1,000 a week he was on couldn’t be sniffed at, he went on to have a very good career with Middlesbrough and Fulham if I’m not mistaken, he came from the South End of Liverpool —Ward(?).

Phycological it might do them good— stop them from going completely round the bend but I think the wages have a lot to do with it especially when they are getting on a bit!

My reading of Moyes is that "It's my way or the highway and, if you don't like it, tough!" As we wait for Monday night, I'm not sure of what to expect, there are a few questions or decisions that might not quite work out:

1. Will we be more effective without Doucoure?
2. Is Calvert-Lewin better than Beto, Barry and Chermiti and should we have kept him?
3. Would Richarlison prove to have been a better bet than any of the 3 mentioned above.
4. Is Grealish a gamble?
5. Is Branthwaite going to be troubled throughout the season with muscle injuries?

Five is enough to be starting with but there are several others that are just as pressing. COYB in HD at BMD!

I don't know how good these two keepers we've signed are as I've seen nothing of Wolves and Bournemouth reserves — and I suppose points docking for losses of £105M over 3 years is nothing either.

I don't think many, including initially resistant fans like myself, are questioning what Moyes delivered after returning. He's now got the opportunity to deliver the consistency over a full season. We all hope he does.

In answer to your questions (personal view):

1. Probably.
2. No. It was time to say goodbye. For the player and the club.
3. Possibly, but let's see how he goes this season. It's off the cards now, so not really worth thinking about too much.
4. I don't think so. Any transfer or loan is a gamble.
5. Who knows? It's football. Would Mykolenko have gone down with a groin strain in a pre-season? You can't predict.

Alan @38. I don't either other than Travers has made about 70 appearances for Bournemouth. No idea about King.

I was also rather mystified as to why the club did not go down the route of exercising its option to extend Joao Virginia's contract for a further year and to offer him more attractive terms.

You may not have viewed it but there is quite an interesting video of Joao being interviewed on Youtube entitled "Everton's Unsung Hero- Joao Virginia Opens Upon Pressure, Patience & More - it's around 55mins duration and was, I understand, filmed in April of this year.

At around 17mins in he mentions he was very proud to represent Portugal at a junior level and would like to represent the senior team some day. At around 42mins 20 he emphasises he wants to play regular club football but that he will stay for another year if the club want to exercise its option to renew. At 46mins he reiterates that he wants to represent his country.

Possibly by June he had taken the view that he was unlikely to have regular first team football with Everton in the near future unless Pickford was injured for any length of time ?

I think we have lost a very competent goalkeeper.

Robert #36

What evidence do you have for describing Virginia as a markedly inferior goalkeeper ?

And you’re asking me what makes him better than an international GK with 100 Prem and Championship games under his belt.

I find it amazing that fans get so emotionally attached to players on our books who demonstrate absolutely no ability whatsoever - maybe a cameo pre season, a few extremely low standard u21 games etc or low league opposition in early round of the cup etc.

We are not Fleetwood or Bolton. We need to seriously raise the quality of the playing squad and lose the sentimentality. I just don’t get why anyone gives a monkeys about letting Joao Virginia go and getting a proper reserve GK in for peanuts.

King has been on loan to Millwall, Newport, Salford(?!?), and Northampton and played one (1) Premier League game for Wolves. It seems he's also been on loan to Welling Utd, Braintree, Stevenage and Wimbledon. Does that sound anymore failed than Virginia?

Travers, after a loan to Swindon had one season as Bournemouth's No.1 and then loaned out to Stoke before a loan keeper was brought in from Chelsea. Somewhere in there was also a short loan to Middlesborough.

Fleetwood and Bolton would not be out of place among either of those lists and I find it amazing that fans so quickly settle for mediocrity even if they will only get a game owing to injury or a League Cup game against teams of the quality similar to those they have been on loan to but not signed there permanently.

Having said that I hope they don't get called on owing to injury to Pickford but do well should it come to that but are they really any better than Virginia who at least has ambition or the aging Begovic. Still what's a few million to a club serially in debt.

And if Virginia was so ambitious - why has he wasted his career to age 25 playing second fiddle and basically never playing - and then moved on to a club where he will once again be playing second fiddle? That sounds like the opposite of ambition.

And yet you describe buying an international goalkeeper as mediocrity in comparison? I don’t get it.

Sorry, Robert, but you seem to be using a double standard.