2019/20 Marcel Brands

[Khalekan]

Some of you seemingly need to work out that the summer business is done and nothing can change it, not even spending your days whinging about it to people who don’t care on the internet. Maybe if you started getting behind the team and enjoying football Everton wouldn’t be such a negative force in your life.

Couldn’t agree more.

I can barely contain my excitement regarding Saturday......yet half the posts I read on here right now would nearly make me give up before I experience the annual fantastic feeling of walking out from the passageway into the Bullens and seeing Goodison’s emerald green pasture stretching out before me for the first time in months.




COYBB

 

[catcherintherye]

It's not just that.
Brands had a list of targets but waited until the last day to do business, he got away with it last season because the teams wanted to sell those players.

This time they didn't. He was left with little time trying to bring in a host of targets.

Also what happened to getting rid of deadwood by any means necessary.

Well I don't think another centre forward was ever on his list. He clearly feels Calvert Lewin, Richarlinson and Kean is enough.

He has got rid of 20 players so far. He's not doing a bad job. Unfortunately you need to have someone wanting to take your players in order to move them on.

 

[CRIMHEAD]

Well silva said it was 28m the other day, we’ve just sold Henry for 12m, so that brings it down to 16m net spend.

I believe he was already factoring in his sale.

 

[catcherintherye]

I think the issue in part is that people want the summer transfer window to represent one giant leap in terms of making a breakthrough, and then get progressively frustrated as results and performances dictate that that will not happen. I am definitely guilty of this myself, it just comes with the realisation that another year will pass, another year of flatlining and nothing of particular note in terms of concrete achievement.

Considering the limitations of doing business in January, the bulk of our spending now gets done in a two week window, once a year. If you consider the amount of rebuilding work that Brands and Silva have had to plan for and implement, and if we look at things over the context of the length of Silva's contract, then roughly speaking, in terms of an overhaul, we are not doing badly. You can't make predictions on the outcome of one game, but the issues were depressingly familiar on Saturday. We must give the new signings time to bed down though.

The main issues as I see it are twofold 1) We have begun the last two summers needing, depending on argument, 4-8 new players. With a finite budget, it is difficult to spread that around amongst so many new recruits 2) Making a big-money signing, flash signing, such as we tried for with Zaha, is inherently difficult due in part to the resistance faced from the selling club, and the impact that a single large spend would have on our ability to spread the budget elsewhere.

Without selling any of our better players next summer, and I think Richarlison will be likely to leave if he can improve this year, we still need at minimum another CB, a creative option in midfield, and 2 forwards. That's assuming all of this summers new signings can come good.

If these things happen, then perhaps this time next year, with further good recruitment, we may realistically find ourselves in a position to mount a proper challenge to the top six. I think the ultimate goal is to get to the stage where we can spend all of our budget on one or two top class players as Spurs can now do. Before that, it's a bit chicken and egg. We have to hope the signings are a success, we can't attract the highest quality players, but we also need Silva to mould a team that is better collectively than the sum of its parts. It's not all about money.

This is a good post. It's unlikely for us to have that Eureka window whereby we just jump into the top 6. I think we can get too fixated on certain things. Our first job this season is to avoid falling back to square 1 like we did under Koeman in his 2nd season. The next step is for progress to be made, ideally to the 60 point+ mark. We have to hope someone, such as Chelsea or Manchester United have a poor season and that gives us an opening.

There is a lot of talk about the next season begin the one we have to break the top 6. We've heard it for 3 seasons, not actually done it, and each summer the world doesn't cave in, we just go again. We do need to keep the sense of momentum moving forward though.

 

[CRIMHEAD]

It's not just that.
Brands had a list of targets but waited until the last day to do business, he got away with it last season because the teams wanted to sell those players.

This time they didn't. He was left with little time trying to bring in a host of targets.

Also what happened to getting rid of deadwood by any means necessary.

He's still got time to move the deadwood.

 

[CRIMHEAD]

Was a v good window for the future with only one glaring miss. If Everton's center halves can stay healthy until January, no one will care. Big if, tho.

Spot on.

The team is better now and even more so in the future.

 

[davek]

If you think not getting the CB we needed and to a lesser extent the left footed right wiinger is a disaster then heaven help us if we have to depend on Holgate for 4or 5 games

No CB, a youngster leading the line, Iwobi as RW, a speculative punt on the Gueye replacement, a crock from Man City.

All in all, you have to wonder WTF Brands has been doing since September last year if that's all he could come up.

 

[catcherintherye]

I can’t have that, catcher.

Our aim ought to be to finish as near the top as we can.

If that is 7th then so be it....but we must always be aiming higher.

Of course. The aim is always to win the league, but acceptable progress would be continued improvement.

 

[Frang]

No CB, a youngster leading the line, Iwobi as RW, a speculative punt on the Gueye replacement, a crock from Man City.

All in all, you have to wonder WTF Brands has been doing since September last year if that's all he could come up.

selling Gana , easily our best defensive midfielder and not getting Zouma or a very near replacement will prove very costly as we are a weaker team at the back now. very weaker.

a couple injuries away from playing kids infact.

 

[granter79]

Some grade A wumming or whinging here again. I cant decide Not sure how people function in everyday life judging by some of the negativity in here around football of all things. madness!

 

[Benedict]

One game into the season and already moaning.

I was moaning before the season even started.

 

[caught]

No CB, a youngster leading the line, Iwobi as RW, a speculative punt on the Gueye replacement, a crock from Man City.

All in all, you have to wonder WTF Brands has been doing since September last year if that's all he could come up.

I was away and primarily without internet for the last 4-5 days of the transfer window and, checking after the event, the final 72 hours read like something of a chaotic scramble. I might be completely wrong on the legitimacy of this, but the supposed bid for Doucoure seems most curious considering we'd already spent £30m or so on Gbamin and Delph, plus the Gomes deal. Add to that the apparent back up to Zouma being Chris Smalling and a picture starts to appear of something less that seamless in the approach to the window.

Some last minute manouvres aren't necessarily unexpected but these seem a little desperate.

 

[Khalekan]

I was moaning before the season even started.

lollollol

 

[Bob Elstone]

Still cannot understand how the hell he didn’t manage to get a cb in! Very poor from Brands.

You draw up a list. If it includes Zouma, lock in a cut off date where you move on.

Chelsea are competition and have it in their interest to drag it out. So risky if we get an injury in that department.

 

[Frang]

I was away and primarily without internet for the last 4-5 days of the transfer window and, checking after the event, the final 72 hours read like something of a chaotic scramble. I might be completely wrong on the legitimacy of this, but the supposed bid for Doucoure seems most curious considering we'd already spent £30m or so on Gbamin and Delph, plus the Gomes deal. Add to that the apparent back up to Zouma being Chris Smalling and a picture starts to appear of something less that seamless in the approach to the window.

Some last minute manouvres aren't necessarily unexpected but these seem a little desperate.

and i thought Brands role was to have players lined up , during the season to land as soon as the window opens, now I know most teams struggle landing their number one targets straight away, but yet again we were found wanting and panicking when our number one targets didn't come.

we are very short at CB ….

we are an injury or two away from disaster in CM ...

Strikers … are we much stronger than last years striker disaster ??? we have a very very promising but a very inexperienced 19 year old.

as ever we were linked with late bids which ultimately failed.

did we really have 80m to blow on Zaha.... if so then why the hell didn't we get a quality CB and defensive midfielder??

a lot of questions will be getting asked as this season unfolds...