Takefusa Kubo leads the list of targets for Everton’s right wing

Kubo could be a great signing as, like many Japanese players, they are tough, skilfull and have good engines.

It will be interesting to see who we eventually bring in on the right as somebody has to play there.

Hope this happens. Skilful and hard working. Be a massive improvement on the right side.

Well at the least the rumours are up a notch from where they have been in recent years.

If we could add Barry, Gallagher, Kubo and a decent new right-back to the mix that would be great business.

Gallagher and Kubo are probably at the peak of their value right now (so not a very good time to buy) but could occupy their position in the first XI for around 7 years or so, making them cost-effective in a different way. Their longevity would spare us the need to dip into the transfer market in a few years to replace them.

That was the approach Moyes took first time around with a core group of players who stayed the course with us rather than being sold for profit.

There will be cheaper prospects now age about 20 to 23 who could exceed the likes of Gallagher and Kubo in time… but many of those cheaper prospects will also fall by the wayside and never quite make the grade.

Buying a couple of ready-made players now (albeit still quite young) allows us to look into the even cheaper (albeit even more speculative) market of 15- to 19-year-olds for bigger talents.

Fed up of rumours now. We need to start getting new players in.

Kubo, Barry and Luiz looks great on paper.

Another rumour is Alexander Sorloth.

Used to play for Palace, now at Atletico Madrid and he scored 20 goals in 35 appearances last season.

Rob #6,

Yeah, and he had a spectacular season at Villarreal before moving to Atletico. Scored 4 in a game against Real Madrid.

But the rumor I saw had him going to Roma. I can't imagine why he'd be interested in us after playing in the Champions League and the Club World Cup.

Well we can but dream Mike!

I thought that Sloth was brilliant in The Goonies. Rocky Road!

Dirk Kuyt?
“Hey you guuuyyysss”

Sloth was actually played by John Matuszak, Oakland Raiders bad boy, 2 times Super Bowl winner and all round lunatic.

He may, or may not, have been Dirk Kuyt's dad. Kuyt's tackle on Phil Neville in 'that' Derby was certainly out of the Matuszak playbook.

Rob that Alexander Sorloth. looks the real deal great movement and positioning and he knows where the goal is. Think he will move on to bigger things though, a bit to early for us just now.

Hopefully we buy two right wingers, with Tom Fellows for £10-12m being one of them. I'd prefer James McAtee being the other one ideally. He's a bit younger than Kubo and has a higher ceiling as well as being able to move into the middle... He's also related to Bally so he's made for Everton.

Kubo would be a good signing if the money was right, certainly more prem ready than the likes of Hutchinson of Ipswich and Fellows of west Brom, he's a fully established international also unlike the two mentioned.

Kubo would raise our profile in Japan where they are fanatical about their players, the whole of Japan will be supporting Everton as the Koreans did with ManU, Spurs and Reading.

They'll be disappointed though when they find they can't buy an Everron shirt in the shops, and even the fakes are not easy to come by.

Christy #5, as we all know, football isn't played on paper.

Kubo would be fine, but I'd still rather have Tim Weah.

Kubo is a really good player but I'd be surprised if we could afford him, would surely be around the £40m mark. Hutchinson may be similar. Fellowes for me is a bit one paced, like Mcneill; I'd hope for someone with a bit more pace and dynamism but he could be a backup. Mcatee looks great but is more of a 10 than a pacy RW.

I'm not sure any of the players we've been linked to so far at RW look the best fit. Weah may be the right profile, the fact he's 25 and has yet to make more than about 20 starts in a season worries me a bit but maybe it shows that he has room to improve with consistent game time.

Not sure I'd be hugely excited by his signing. The likes of Bakayoko, Guessand, Dilane Bakwa, Abdul Fatawu, Geny Catamo and Dibling excite me more. Maybe we could try for Nwaneri on loan as an option.

Agree Sam, Kubo the pick of the bunch probably but surely we can't afford him. Hutchinson and Dibling are both going to be north of £30-35m too.

All three would radically improve our team and offer potential sell on value too. Fellows could come good but it's much more of a gamble.

Sam #18, Weah is probably the fastest player in USA history and can play both RW and RB, as well as subbing in other spots. He's been starting for Juve when they play 4-2-3-1, but not when they play 3 at the back, which he's not suited for. And they have a big squad with Cambiasso and Costa to play wide also. That's why he only starts half their games.

We're a club that desperately needs pace on the wing, and he's the quickest we've been connected with. He's not the finished article but is young and value priced by Juve at €15m (£13m). I'd be very disappointed if we let Marseilles snag him for that.

I'm biased of course, but if I didn't think he would be a really good buy, I wouldn't say so, Yank or not.

Mike, I'm sure you know him better than me. He does look quick and at £13M would seem good value. But he's not that young at 25 (26 in February) and think it's fair to say he's not quite smashed it anywhere yet. Perhaps he's not had the right opportunity.

Definitely has some qualities we could use and that versatility could be great but he's not top of my list I'm afraid. At that price could be a great squad piece at the least.

Sam @22.

25 not that young? I'm not sure what your criteria is then. Can play in two positions we need and has pace.

I'd take McGinn if there is anything in that Rob. I've liked him as a player for years.

Danny, it's obviously quite subjective and differs player to player but for me a 'young player' is probably 20-24, with 25-29 being the prime years for most players (certainly those who depend more on athletic qualities) and 30+ being experienced pros whose athletic qualities are likely to start to wane.

Weah is maybe somewhere on the threshold but he made a decent amount of appearances for Celtic in 2018-2019 so fair to say he's not just bursting onto the scene.

Good engines on these Japanese players, Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mazda ? :-)

It’s that time of year again
More and more rumours and “linked with “ players that I can’t even remember their names,never mind having a clue how good they are.
But it seems to provide posters with hours of fun,debating which rumoured player is better than another rumoured player most of which are never going to end up here anyway!
Maybe good craic for some,but I’m just finding it boring and won’t believe anything until someone turns up in a blue shirt,preferably before September!
Talk about Groundhog Day all over again !

List of right wingers we have been linked with this summer:

1. Ben Doak
2. Omari Hutchinson
3. Tom Fellows
4. Timothy Weah
5. Kubo san

I don't know why Kubo should cost more than £25M, it is not as though he is an elite player (yet). At that price, it would be a good bet, otherwise, I wouldn't mind any of the others on the list.

Oh, I like the John McGinn rumours too - he is a player that I have admired greatly for his all action and feisty style and leadership qualities. He would instantly upgrade our midfield.

It is subjective Sam. I just don't see 25 as not that young. As you say by your view, approaching their prime, depending on the player and position.

We got the best out of Seamus in his later 20s and once signed a 25-year-old Andrei Kanchelskis, arguably our last top drawer signing, although some would also put Lukaku up there.

The Russian Ukranian certainly didn't look too bad for a not too young player.

I'm not having a pop at your own opinion, by the way, Sam, I just personally don't get overly fussed by age. Is the player still fit? Can he still play? That will do for me regardless of age. As we've seen with Gana.

Yes, as players get older, we all have to adapt our game. It's not necessarily that we lose our pace, we just lose the explosive acceleration when you hit a certain age, usually sometime in your early 30s for most. That's when you adapt your game, read it more and anticipate.

It's the business thing, Danny, unfortunately.

Get someone in at 18-22, play 3 or 4 years, then double your money.

Buying a 25-year-old, there's less juice in the deal.

Buy a 28-year-old, and then there's nothing left at 32 or 33.

Even Man City with all their money are buying young rather than prime in the main.

Fair enough Ian.

I don't really get bothered by sell on value. I just want players who will improve Everton and help us compete. When we sign a player, I'm not not really thinking about how much we can sell him for in 4 years time.

I just want him to help us win a trophy and get into Europe. It's chicken an egg. Do we go for it now and establish a foothold? Or slowly build a younger team over several years? I know which camp I am in.

As with all players and transfers, it's a balance between academy graduates, bringing in young players, players in their prime and experienced players.

You can't have too much of one of those categories.

Danny, I’m afraid that your approach may be similar to the one Moshiri took and is what very nearly sent us down the drain. At least in terms of not thinking about resale values.

Successfull football clubs these days either have enormous fan bases and hence revenue streams or have to operate shrewdly in the market. We are not the first and therefore have to try to be the second. That doesn’t mean only buying young players of course but does require an eye on value and future sales opportunities. We have to be clever in order to stand a chance in the long term. As you say, balance is important.

If someone like Weah is really available for £13m then that seems like good value to me. In terms of age he’s probably around midway through his career (having started at 18) so neither really young or old in my eyes for a winger.

Ian, to be honest it depends on the clubs situation. Buying 29 / 30 year olds is not sensible. Getting them on a free is.

Experience is vital bringing along younger players but you are generally not building a team with several older players in it. You are masking other, usually financial, issues. When the money left with the sanctioning of Usmanov, Moshiri stopped funding anything he didn't have to and players on 3/5 year contracts just ran them down as we have seen.

Football is a business, we want the best we can produce and the best we can afford. But at the end of the day (especially now) the business must try to operate at a profit. We are no longer in survival mode, a rebuild is underway, money will be spent but (sadly) common sense dictates we still need to persist with some older players.

Hence why we are still paying for the management previous.

Danny # 29, sell on value is incredibly important because it determines what you can spend as future transfer kitty. The awful Moshiri years should have put beyond any doubt the importance of sell on value. The RS wouldn't be where they are now without focussing very hard on that as a strategy.

Christine # 31, you are spot on. There is nothing wrong with buying experienced players. In fact it's often a very important part of squad building. But linked to the point above, it's important (as you are saying) to keep the outlay modest (free / reasonable wages or relatively small fee). Otherwise, as above you just rob yourself of future transfer kitty when, in two or three years, the player is out of the door (like Allan for example).

Moyes, in his first spell, didn't focus on sell on value but seemed to work on the basis that a player age 22 to 26 could be bought and occupy a position in the first team for many years. He wasn't thinking about selling them on, but he was still thinking long term.

Given where we are now (tiny squad with limited quality) it probably makes sense to do a mix of Moyes' way and the currently fashionable RS / Brighton / Leipzig model.

I do understand that longer term Robert & Sam. I'm just thinking short term, just go for it.

Once you win something or qualify for Europe, then you can start longer-term plans.

We actually have an opportunity now and it doesn't mean going back to the reckless Moshiri years. Just spend wisely to get us in a position to build on relative success.

We can debate speculation that we might sign a 25 year old that we probably won't anyway, but I still maintain that isn't old.

I've never really looked into signings as to what we can sell them on for, because I just want them to play for Everton.

I don’t think 25 is old Danny. But as I said originally it’s not that young. Probably somewhere in between.

I’m not convinced we have a great opportunity right now. We’re a fair bit behind the top teams. The way to catch up is by being smart; sensible recruitment looking for good value and a mixture of players for the now and players for the future. PSR requires that if we wanna keep spending big we also have to make some good sales. Forest will sell Elanga and replace with Bakayoko or similar.

Hopefully we can be more competitive next season and build a foundation to be challenging consistently higher up the table.

You'll have to politely excuse me Sam. I'm going into pre-season optimism mode.

Aston Villa and Newcastle were both relegated in relatively recent seasons. One has played in the Champions League and qualified for the Europa League next season. The other qualified for Champions League and won a trophy last season.

A far lower starting point than us, but they invested wisely. That's what we now need to do.

Villa bought a certain 25 year old Ollie Watkins for £30m. Now 29, if they sell him, which is being rumoured, I'm sure they'll get a decent fee.

Nottingham Forest came up and stayed up by the skin of their teeth. Were dead certs for relegation last season, but shocked the Premier League. Finished within touching distance of Champions League and will be playing European football next season. One of their key players was the 33 year old Chris Wood.

Anything is possible.

According to transfer market and Wiki these stats are wrong. Kubo had 2 great seasons with excellent goals and assists but last season was really poor despite similar minutes. Judging purely on output this season I doubt Soceidad could command a 40 million fee.

Anyone know why such a drop off this season? And was he still performing well despite his numbers?

I love a bit of wild optimism, Danny! Though I’m not sure if it’s always the best business model.

Think we are agreed that it requires a balance. And that buying the right 25 year olds at the right price is perfectly acceptable.

Totally Sam. We're just about on the same page.

"Suffer" every one of my 64 years from same optimistic close season.

Will never change or the point?

Danny # 33 - unfortunately we cannot just "go for it" - qualify for Europe / win a cup and plan for the long term from there.

We have the smallest squad in the Premier League by some distance - with a squad currently valued as 17th in the division (but closer to Leeds and Burnley in 18th and 19th than Wolves in 16th). We are currently absolutely miles off having the quality to "go for it" and thwarted by PSR / tightened belts to spend big (which these days is between £200m to £500m in a single window).

Had we started preparing for the long term instead of "going for it" (in monumentally thick fashion) when Moshiri took over, the long term would already be here. Much like Villa and Newcastle, we would now be genuine Champions League contenders with excellent players on the books (indeed we'd have had a good head start on both).

The sooner we start organising for the long term, the sooner it will become our present reality.

Sam, Danny and Robert -- great stuff. Love these debates.

Robert's point about how far we are from becoming a top-line contender again is too often dismissed or ignored on TW, but it's key. We need to build a solid foundation of depth and talent in the squad before splashing big cash and raising our eyes to the CL.

Just seen a showreel for this guy. He'll certainly get people off their seats.

I'm with Danny on this. The longer I go without seeing our players the better they become to me.

I see entirely unrealistic Champions League scenarios; these are the days of missing MotD because it's not on, not because we've lost again.

There must be an in-between way forward, dreaming, but with one foot in the real world.

Big round of applause to Leeds for signing up / about to sign the likes of Sean Longstaff and Callum Wilson, so that we don't have to get the rumour chills about them anymore.

To think that's the level we were at 8 months ago…

Andy, me too. I have this mental picture of us winning our first 10 games and going on to finish in the top 4 and a Carabou Cup win to go with it.

Accrington next Tuesday should bring me back to reality!

Kubo is a very skillful, exciting and even more importantly determined player. He fights for every ball and is determined to score or set up his team to score.

Maybe Moyes could do a Coleman on him. Do you remember when he moved Coleman into defence from the wing everybody was divided on that positional change

Patterson did his best work at Rangers as an attacking right back.
I appreciate his injury record has been massive since signing for us but when fit compared to our 2 season Leeds loanee, in my opinion, there’s no comparison.
Patterson played in that position is far superior

John, Patterson wasn't even 1st choice right back at Rangers though.

Oh hell, I kept seeing Kubo and thought it was another hidden gem that I could only see through others' accounts. He goes by Take and he is a diminutive pitbull with an engine, and a football heart as well.

It did not matter whether la Real was clicking or not, this one put in a shift every appearance I witnessed. He has a full toolkit for undoing back lines; can get to the by-line with enough space to deliver, has balance for cutbacks that leave defenders' jockstraps on the turf behind, possesses the ball with occasional Gazza-like flair, and has the vision to find the proper option if he attracts too much defensive attention.

Find the money if you want that right side to light up the Dick!

Conor 36, Real Sociedad had a very slow start last season, 12 points from the first 10 matches, 16 points from the leader at midseason. I suspect the dashed hopes for CL lingered through the season.

As I stated, Take always put in a shift and looked rather disturbed about being subbed. I would lay the blame elsewhere and as evidence for that, Arsenal bought Zubimendi to replace that guy. Real Sociedad are tweaking the first eleven.