Confirmed Signing Demarai Gray

[Kev50]

Ive copied this from the 'Player contract expiry dates' thread:


10 Expiring 2022
James
Sigurdsson
Bernard
Tosun
Delph
Coleman
Kenny
Baningime
Gibson
Begovic

7 Expiring 2023
Mina
Davies
Nkounkou
Allan
Doucoure
Branthwaite
Townsend

7 Expiring 2024
Virginia
Richarlison
Pickford
Iwobi
Kean
Gbamin
Gomes

6 Expiring 2025
Calvert-Lewin
Holgate
Gordon
Keane
Godfrey
Digne


Thats 30 players.

So, yes adding Demarai Gray to this group of players --not including youngsters--puts us on 31 first team players.

We could offload 12 of these guys and still have 18 players to fill a first team squad before buying anyone -- again, not including younger players.

So, the point which people are making is that by offloading deadwood --of which we have plenty --we should be bringing in fewer players of a higher quality.

What happens when Gray joins and lets say Bernard leaves and were back to 30 players on the books...we have 3 players which are effectively deadwood...to add to the list.





This reads just like the Benitez argument.

"Everyone should immediately back the manager"

Is the same as

"Everyone should accept us adding deadwood, to deadwood because its cheaper".

We should be adding quality and moving on a heck of a lot of players.

Thats coming from me who is fine with Townsend and Begovic.

Demarai Gray makes no sense at all.

We need 3 high quality wide players if 2 wide is the strategy.

Townsend can be 4th choice...we have Richarlison as 1st choice. We need 2 more....

If Demarai Gray is one of those 2 then were in trouble.

Gray is a top flight performer age 25 who we are paying £1m for. If he comes good we have a £25m player. It's worth the punt.

 

[Tigger]

Sarcasm is not your strong suit then. It is a way of describing them sarcastically as "dear neighbours", when of course they are far from dear to us. Sit in a dark room and think about it. It might click (or possibly not).

I know that mate, your obsession with bringing them into every subject possible is the strange bit.

 

[Zatara]

Demarai Gray has the potential to be a good player. It’s a risk but hence the price tag. He’s certainly not deadwood and I’ll bet he offers an awful lot more to the team than anything Bernard Iwobi Siggurdson Walcott have done from out wide when playing for us.

The best way to look at this signing is if Richarlison is out/unavailable then would Gray offer a similar level of output.

The next thing to look at is him flopping in the premier league and also the Bundesliga.

The third thing to look at is what we need...we need 3 high quality wide players and one backup.

1: Richarlison
2:
3:
4: Townsend

If Gray is a starter or the rotation player then we wont get anywhere.

This window, i wouldnt have gone with wide forwards as its expensive to buy quality. However, if were going down that route you need to have 2 starters and someone to rotate in/out.

On your point, why do we need to compare Gray with Bernard, Iwobi, Sigurdsson and Walcott?

Why are we sitting here discussing this topic when we should be discussing those 3 (walcott has gone) leaving and us bringing in one top class starter.

Id happily go with Richarlison, Bailey/Antony, Townsend, Gordon....that makes sense as were still short one top player but arent wasting money on Gray.

 

[Zatara]

Gray is a top flight performer age 25 who we are paying £1m for. If he comes good we have a £25m player. It's worth the punt.

Baningime is a top flight 'performer', so is Jonjoe Kenny...

Theyre not really 'performers' are they though? Theyre top flight failures if were being honest.

Gray has also failed in Germany...

£25mil....the mind boggles, leicester and Leverkusen couldnt give him away for more than €2mil.

 

[DanB90]

Everton transfer news: Demarai Gray joins Toffees for £1.7m after six-month Bayer Leverkusen spell

Former Birmingham and Leicester winger Demarai Gray signs three-year deal with Everton after agreeing £1.7m move from Bayer Leverkusen; Gray only moved to Germany in January after five years with Leicester

www.skysports.com

 

[Brett Angell Delight]

If weve got 31 first team players once Gray signs then surely we could get two high quality wide players if were able to move out 10+ of them...

If Gray signs then we could literally offload 13 players to take us to 18 and use the funds for higher quality players.

Simply playing musical chairs and increasing the squad size doesnt make much sense aside from cost cutting -- cost cutting only makes sense if were in financial trouble OR want to improve the squad.

Cost cutting makes sense when you have a bloated squad of crap players you CAN'T SELL. People bang on every season about how we should just "sell the deadwood" as if it's as simple as that. If it was we'd have done it. While we are resigned to at least one more year of crap we can't shift, it's a responsible thing to do to bring in players on lower wages by way of damage limitation.

I have no idea if that's what we're doing - as I have said before I think PL teams will vote to bin/mitigate FFP anyway - but it's not a terrible strategy if so.

 

[Kev50]

Baningime is a top flight 'performer', so is Jonjoe Kenny...

Theyre not really 'performers' are they though? Theyre top flight failures if were being honest.

Gray has also failed in Germany...

£25mil....the mind boggles, leicester and Leverkusen couldnt give him away for more than €2mil.

he was at the end of his contracts. he was selected for an England squad 18 months ago and has 100 appearances to his credit. for a good team. He's still got it all to do. Rafael knows players. There is every chance this is a real bargain.

 

[Brett Angell Delight]

TWO YEARS! REJOICE! IT ISN'T PATHETIC ANYMORE!

Turn your urethras to "suck" mode and hoover that wee back up you insufferable whingebags.

I humbly retract my earlier statement. Urinate away, doomsayers.

 

[neil999]

Good to get a couple in early even if they aren't amazing signings, time to bed into squad and breath in a bit of life

 

[Toffe3m4n]

Now official via the club.

No. 11 shirt.

 

[BirkenheadBlue]

Decent next-to-no-risk signing this one.

 

[Zatara]

Cost cutting makes sense when you have a bloated squad of crap players you CAN'T SELL. People bang on every season about how we should just "sell the deadwood" as if it's as simple as that. If it was we'd have done it. While we are resigned to at least one more year of crap we can't shift, it's a responsible thing to do to bring in players on lower wages by way of damage limitation.

I have no idea if that's what we're doing - as I have said before I think PL teams will vote to bin/mitigate FFP anyway - but it's not a terrible strategy if so.

I dont believe we need to sign both Gray and Townsend.

Townsend + Gordon would make more sense financially (save the fee and wages) if that was the plan.

Or alternatively another punt like Nkounkou rather than a two club failure at 25.

 

[Terrarian]

 

[Toffe3m4n]

The deal is actually 3 years with the option of a 4th.

 

[zukai12_]

3 years!