'Blue Wiz' - An Evertonian in Sweden gives his view on Evertons performance in the transfer window.
Okay, the transfer window has passed and is now closed for 4 months... so let's look back at the happenings this summer...
[imga=right]http://www.grandoldteam.com/forum/imagehosting/146d956cdf300d.jpg[/imga] First we secured the services of Cahill and Arteta for 5 more years. Both players, especially Arteta, are very good players, offensive and can score goals.. and are, in my eyes, among the best midfielders in the league.
When we look at player transfers, I'm going position by position.
Goalkeepers: We let Wright go. Not a big loss in my eyes... He has potential, but never lived up to it here, when he got the chance to prove his worth in the starting lineup.. he failed. Instead we got Wessels. A bit older, but with more experience.. a worthy understudy to Howard.. In my eyes a good trade, especially since he didn't cost us anything. An increase in quality.
[imga=left]http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41816000/jpg/_41816776_leightonbaines203getty.jpg[/imga]Defenders: First and foremost.. Pistone & Naysmith were sold. While Pistone had his moments a few years ago he didn't show much in the end, Naysmith was the opposite... Was the one most often getting the stick before, but started last season well.. but not good enough to be a blue any longer.
Instead we went for Baines, who had a cracker of a game when he got the chance for us... a very promising LB that can both do the defensive part and the offensive part. On the other side we got Jagielka. He hasn't had much time to prove his worth for us yet, but hes looked promising when he got on as a sub. So all in all an improvement.. if not in numbers then at least in quality.
[imga=right]http://www.grandoldteam.com/forum/imagehosting/146d956ce04ad2.jpg[/imga]Midfielders: Didn't really loose one here during the summer, except Fernandes who's loan ended. But we lost Kilbane in January. To cover that we got Pienaar & Gravesen. Fernandes showed magic from time to time and Kilbane... well.. he always tried his best and was the only left winger we had on the team that were fit. Pienaar is an unknown for me. He has potential, as he showed in Holland, but it didn't come to be in Germany... I hope he will find his form here in England.. but a part of me doubt it, but would love to be proven wrong. Gravesen found his platform in his last 12 months for us during his last time here.. but that was in a 4-5-1 formation. Now we play more of a 4-4-2. Still our quality in midfield have improved so he might get more out of that this time than before. He's also more consistent than Fernandes, so that cancels out his lower skill-levels. For me it's an unknown if we've improved our midfield or not.. If Pienaar comes through and adapts to this league.. it's a definite improvement.
[imga=left]http://www.grandoldteam.com/forum/imagehosting/146d957b7b7f8e.jpg[/imga]Strikers: BT out, he played his socks off, but didn't know where the goal was. We've signed Jutkiewicz and Yakubu. Jutkiewicz is for the future, but might figure in a cup game or two if we face lower league teams. Yakubu is a proven goalscorer, if he can continue his average goalscoring for us, he's a great addition. Can't wait for him and AJ to get a partnership going. A definite improvement in quality, but also quantity if Jutkiewicz can follow fellow youngsters Vaughan & Anichebe.
Add to this transfer business that Everton will continue to work towards a new stadium that might be finished in 3 years time, and has shown that they have a spending purse now to compete with the other teams in the transfer market and not just look for cheap bargains. I'm not saying those are bad, since Moyes have found some real diamonds before (Cahill, Arteta, Bent..) for a low fee.
So as a conclusion.. we've gotten rid of the players labeled as "Deadwood", with the exception of Andy van der Meyde. Can't believe he still hangs around here... he must be having a great salary for him to wanting to stay even if he doesn't play. We've instead signed players that can fight for a starting position and won't be considered a weak spot if they are there.
However.. with the exception of the strikers we've not increased the size of the squad in any position, if we don't count the youngsters that has been promoted to the first team. But we've built a solid base for future transfer windows where we don't have the need to get rid of players and can instead focus on increasing the size of the squad with players that are an improvement. Not many of our players are old either, so there won't be many that will fall to the age barrier in the near future either.
All in all.. I give Everton a 8/10 for this summers activities. If Pienaar comes through it's a 9.. and if we had signed another creative midfielder with technique.. it would have been awfully close to a 10.
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Okay, the transfer window has passed and is now closed for 4 months... so let's look back at the happenings this summer...
[imga=right]http://www.grandoldteam.com/forum/imagehosting/146d956cdf300d.jpg[/imga] First we secured the services of Cahill and Arteta for 5 more years. Both players, especially Arteta, are very good players, offensive and can score goals.. and are, in my eyes, among the best midfielders in the league.
When we look at player transfers, I'm going position by position.
Goalkeepers: We let Wright go. Not a big loss in my eyes... He has potential, but never lived up to it here, when he got the chance to prove his worth in the starting lineup.. he failed. Instead we got Wessels. A bit older, but with more experience.. a worthy understudy to Howard.. In my eyes a good trade, especially since he didn't cost us anything. An increase in quality.
[imga=left]http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41816000/jpg/_41816776_leightonbaines203getty.jpg[/imga]Defenders: First and foremost.. Pistone & Naysmith were sold. While Pistone had his moments a few years ago he didn't show much in the end, Naysmith was the opposite... Was the one most often getting the stick before, but started last season well.. but not good enough to be a blue any longer.
Instead we went for Baines, who had a cracker of a game when he got the chance for us... a very promising LB that can both do the defensive part and the offensive part. On the other side we got Jagielka. He hasn't had much time to prove his worth for us yet, but hes looked promising when he got on as a sub. So all in all an improvement.. if not in numbers then at least in quality.
[imga=right]http://www.grandoldteam.com/forum/imagehosting/146d956ce04ad2.jpg[/imga]Midfielders: Didn't really loose one here during the summer, except Fernandes who's loan ended. But we lost Kilbane in January. To cover that we got Pienaar & Gravesen. Fernandes showed magic from time to time and Kilbane... well.. he always tried his best and was the only left winger we had on the team that were fit. Pienaar is an unknown for me. He has potential, as he showed in Holland, but it didn't come to be in Germany... I hope he will find his form here in England.. but a part of me doubt it, but would love to be proven wrong. Gravesen found his platform in his last 12 months for us during his last time here.. but that was in a 4-5-1 formation. Now we play more of a 4-4-2. Still our quality in midfield have improved so he might get more out of that this time than before. He's also more consistent than Fernandes, so that cancels out his lower skill-levels. For me it's an unknown if we've improved our midfield or not.. If Pienaar comes through and adapts to this league.. it's a definite improvement.
[imga=left]http://www.grandoldteam.com/forum/imagehosting/146d957b7b7f8e.jpg[/imga]Strikers: BT out, he played his socks off, but didn't know where the goal was. We've signed Jutkiewicz and Yakubu. Jutkiewicz is for the future, but might figure in a cup game or two if we face lower league teams. Yakubu is a proven goalscorer, if he can continue his average goalscoring for us, he's a great addition. Can't wait for him and AJ to get a partnership going. A definite improvement in quality, but also quantity if Jutkiewicz can follow fellow youngsters Vaughan & Anichebe.
Add to this transfer business that Everton will continue to work towards a new stadium that might be finished in 3 years time, and has shown that they have a spending purse now to compete with the other teams in the transfer market and not just look for cheap bargains. I'm not saying those are bad, since Moyes have found some real diamonds before (Cahill, Arteta, Bent..) for a low fee.
So as a conclusion.. we've gotten rid of the players labeled as "Deadwood", with the exception of Andy van der Meyde. Can't believe he still hangs around here... he must be having a great salary for him to wanting to stay even if he doesn't play. We've instead signed players that can fight for a starting position and won't be considered a weak spot if they are there.
However.. with the exception of the strikers we've not increased the size of the squad in any position, if we don't count the youngsters that has been promoted to the first team. But we've built a solid base for future transfer windows where we don't have the need to get rid of players and can instead focus on increasing the size of the squad with players that are an improvement. Not many of our players are old either, so there won't be many that will fall to the age barrier in the near future either.
All in all.. I give Everton a 8/10 for this summers activities. If Pienaar comes through it's a 9.. and if we had signed another creative midfielder with technique.. it would have been awfully close to a 10.
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Want to get your opinion out to the world wide web? Get in touch
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