TheFinnFan
Finners
And the fluorine in our tooth pastes are making our wangs lifeless
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Ha, think Mertens would fill both requirements tbh!
Zatara
Player Valuation: £100m
You mean the infamous "Martinez sides cant defend" topic?
Since Howard has been out weve not conceded many have we?
I also agree we dont need any more defenders other than perhaps a right back?
Left side is overloaded and we have 3 centre backs (also pennington,holgate,browning,galloway) but perhaps it may be wise to sign one more whose either 30+ and very experienced OR someone to take over from Jags in a couple of seasons and send all four younger players on loan for a season or two?
On the right apart from Coleman and with Hibbert off we then have Browning, Holgate and Pennington who are all centre backs but have played league games at right back. Then of course we have Kenny cominf through and currently on loan.
So at maximum one centre back if we loan out the young ones and a short term right back. Ive not included Mattioni either....
Whereas before we would likely not sign anyone and look more long term to develop the young players we "may" make a signing if Martinez wants to push hard for top 4 next season and wants experience...
Zatara
Player Valuation: £100m
Were going to have Deulofeu and Lennon for the right (and im really impressed with Lennon now hes shown what he can do! I thought he was a poor signing but has really stood out since being given a chance!)....then it looks like Niasse and Cleverley for the left (who knows about Mirallas?!).
It's of course a squad game and with the TV revenues and new investment it "could" mean that if Martinez chose to we could see Cleverley as a utility player off tbe bench and Niasse as competition for Lukaku which would free up a left sided space for a superstar.
Is Mertens that player? I'd say Yarmolenko would be the one we'd be after there which would fit with the rumours (which arent really rumours!) and be the marquee signing to impress Stones Lukaku etc.
It could be that when we bid for Yarmolenko last summer we hoped we would get him due to his contract situation and werent able to get him in Jan but with the new investment it seems like an "open secret" that we will bid again for him this summer.
Who would you rather have?
The right side looks like a really nice balance doesn't it?
Ideally I'd like the same sort of options on the left, one a more defensive minded player that links up with the fullback, which I think can be Cleverley, and then a more attacking option. I really rate Kev but for me he seems better on the right and Martinez appears reluctant to give him much game time so guess he'll be off in the summer. Niasse may work but iirc one of reviews I read about him indicated his rapid improvement as a player coincided with a shift from the wing to the centre. Personally think we run Rom into the ground too much/play him when injured and think there is enough gametime to keep two good strikers content.
Martinez clearly has a plan for where he'd play Yarmolenko if he brought him, presumably left or central, but whenever I've seen him play he's been on the right and find it really hard to judge how well he'd perform in any other position.
I don't watch Mertens regularly but I've seen him play for both Napoli and Belgium in the position we require and do well so feel a bit more confident that he'd suit us. However think it unlikley he'd move as he seems settled and since he turns 29 in the summer a high transfer fee/salary to tempt Napoli and him would probably be unwise. With my sensible hat on there are probably better options, but he has such a sunny character and nice smile I'll likely still mention him until we get that side more established
How about you, who is your preferred option?
Milk
Udderly delicious
Reported a target for Man Utd as he has refused to sign a new contract at Atletico
If we were to go for a playmaker in their prime, for me I'd love us to go for Bonaventura.
Think Pienaar in his prime with a bit more pace and also more of an eye for goal. Superb player.
Whether he'd leave Milan is a different question though.
I do feel that we'll be looking to make a move for Yarmolenko pretty quickly either before or after the Euros, like.
Ashtonian
Banned on request
Thinking out loud here so don't hang me.
All this talk of selling X.Y,Z, all these figures being banded about. What if we bit whoever's hand off for Stones if we were offered 50 million for him?
I like stones, and personally would love to have him as the backbone of the team with lukakau and ross for many years to come. But personally i don't think Martinez can coach him into a top defender, his attitude of letting players play doesn't quite work with a center half who needs to learn the game. So potentially replacing Stones with more defender type center half could be beneficial for both manager and team, considering replacing stones for Mori has also turned into less mistakes, less goals conceded and more wins. Can't be a coincidence?
All this talk of selling X.Y,Z, all these figures being banded about. What if we bit whoever's hand off for Stones if we were offered 50 million for him?
I like stones, and personally would love to have him as the backbone of the team with lukakau and ross for many years to come. But personally i don't think Martinez can coach him into a top defender, his attitude of letting players play doesn't quite work with a center half who needs to learn the game. So potentially replacing Stones with more defender type center half could be beneficial for both manager and team, considering replacing stones for Mori has also turned into less mistakes, less goals conceded and more wins. Can't be a coincidence?
evertonarntwe
Player Valuation: £35m
Were going to be linked with absolutely everybody when the window opens! What a time to be a blue
II McColl II
Player Valuation: £6m
Some people have completely lost there heads in here, bit of money has come in to the club and people seem to think genuine champions league quality players are just going to jump at the chance to come here when in all likelihood we are going to miss out on europe this season unless we pick up some consistency at home.
This summer i wouldn't expect anything more than tying down our bigger players to long term contracts, a new GK and a natural left sided player. There is defo other areas that need strengthening but we all know Martinez will be blinded to the drop offs players like Barry, Jags could potentially have with getting on.
If there is any other money invested by the summer id expect to hear about a new stadium, improvements to facilities for the club and clearing any left over debts, can see it taking a season or 2 before we look into hefty transfers but even then unless we get europe people might aswell forget these fm fantasy names they are throwing about.
This summer i wouldn't expect anything more than tying down our bigger players to long term contracts, a new GK and a natural left sided player. There is defo other areas that need strengthening but we all know Martinez will be blinded to the drop offs players like Barry, Jags could potentially have with getting on.
If there is any other money invested by the summer id expect to hear about a new stadium, improvements to facilities for the club and clearing any left over debts, can see it taking a season or 2 before we look into hefty transfers but even then unless we get europe people might aswell forget these fm fantasy names they are throwing about.
toffees1878
Previously banned user
Great post!
Yeah, I also think a lot of people have unrealistic ambitions regarding this investment. We should hope it gives us more money to spend in our first transfer window while also keeping our best players.
That alone will push us towards the top four. Imagine we'd had a top goalkeeper this year, even that would have seen us about 10 points further up the table!
This current squad plus top goalkeeper and one or two more quality players, minus all the rubbish we'd accumulated, and we're easily as good as any side in the country.
After that, we'll know more about the investment/takeover and can start getting really excited at the possibilities ...
I know you've said potentially, but there is literally no evidence of that happening any time soon.
We also have, currently, natural replacements for them both (e.g. Besic).
This squad really doesn't need much more than, as you said, a goalkeeper (either first choice or very good and experienced back up depending on how Joel does for the rest of this campaign) and probably a playmaker for the left wing and back up right back - but without Europe it's hard to get a squad that has that depth as players just don't get the game time.
I'd imagine we'll definitely see a few leave in the summer - Mirallas, Kone, Howard, Osman, Pienaar - and then potentially one of our main stars (Rom/Stones - Del and Barks will stay). It will only be one if it happens though and we'll be getting £50mil at least.
You've nailed it in general though.
The '£100mil transfer fund' is just a headline used for click bait - e.g. transfer rumours sell papers.
Let's say the '£100m' figure is true - and it's an investment in the club:
I see it as...
- We have circa £30mil debt. I'd imagine the priority will be an investment to wipe away the majority (if not all) of that.
- Long term contract offers to Barkley, Stones, Coleman and perhaps even Rom and Del.
- Plans etc for a new stadium
- Hefty investment in commercial and corporate performance (which is the big one and goes hand in hand with stadium build/redevelopment)
The rest would then be put towards signings, I'd imagine - and of course combine that with the TV money.
Basically, the main benefit from this apart from the above list is that, if we do sell Stones or Rom, then we can be certain that we will get all of that money that they go for to invest back into the squad, rather than using a lot of the cash to plug gaps elsewhere.
This money just means that we can be safe in the knowledge that the manager gets all the funds from a player sale to invest back in the squad.
E.g. If we sell Stones for £50mil, and then lets say we manage to accumulate around £15mil in fees/saved wages from the likes of Kev (i'd imagine he'll go), Osman, Pienaar, McGeady, Gibson etc. we'd be looking at £65mil - plus whatever budget we had available.
Also, I wouldn't be so quick to pin on Stones entirely. It's a factor, but our improvement has also combined with Joel (who Stones has looked much better in front of) coming in, as well as the return to full match fitness of Jagielka and McCarthy.
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