Steven Naismith

The Equaliser · December 30, 2015

Unsurprising news as there is no room left on our bench and the writing has been on the wall for months. He did well for us overall though so hope he is a success at Norwich where his work rate will be appreciated.

Wonder how his No 1 fan Damo is taking this disastrous news. LOL

maddison · December 30, 2015

Eric Djemba-Djemba said:
As if Yarmolenko will come here while Martinez has hanging around the bottom half of the table for the 2nd season in a row.

I agree, I'm not sure he'd want to come to us because of where we currently reside either. Doesn't he also prefer to play on the right or as a number 10. I'd rather see us go for Cheryshev, he's a better fit for what we need at the moment, especially considering Martinez seems unwilling to play Mirallas

Zatara · December 30, 2015

Have to say that his attitude is fantastic, not only on the pitch and not only with the charity work but also you can tell from Martinez's comments that hes an asset to the changing room.

£8mil is a no brainer of course and i hope this is the beginning of the carousel to include Mirallas,Gibson and McGeady this window.

We need a GK/CM/LW for the first eleven and i hope that Martinez makes one top signing in one of those positions. Just shows the other players that were growing in quality.

Personally i see a LW coming in.

Furey1878 · December 30, 2015

It'll be sad to see him go, however, he isn't in our best 11 and if he needs first team football and the money is right then I can't complain.

Best of luck to him if he goes. Incredible work-rate and scored some important goals in his time at Everton.

daz4matty · December 30, 2015

ilikecheese said:
I think we should also thank Martinez for allowing him to play as a goal poaching forward instead of as a useless winger.

Davey has been gone 3 years and he is still giving.
I think martinez has played him out wide many times my friend

Haston · December 30, 2015

It's only good business if the money is re-invested wisely. Naismith's attitude has been first class, even in his horrible first season. His best times here were when he got played in his proper position. He's been played out of position far too often. He'll be a great signing for Norwich and may come back to haunt us on May 15th.

MartSlinger · December 30, 2015

The fact Martinez has managed get £21m for Anichebe, Jelavic and Naismith is madness. Can add the £28m for Fellaini in there as well as he clearly didnt want him.

Jxg · December 30, 2015

YAR-MO-LEN-KO

clap clap clap clap clap

Pacman · December 30, 2015

Eric Djemba-Djemba said:
As if Yarmolenko will come here while Martinez has hanging around the bottom half of the table for the 2nd season in a row.

This is the thing that alot of people don't realise, at present no top player will want to join a side that is sat in 11th and any rival bid from even a Palace, West Ham or Stoke would arguably be more attractive to those types of players.

The martinez brigade won't realise the extent to what the damage having a dud manager can do until we go down the road of a Newcastle/Villa.

MartSlinger · December 30, 2015

Yarmolenko wanted to come in the Summer. If we wanted him again and their owner accepted a bid im 100% confident we'd get him.

Haston · December 30, 2015

Pacman said:
This is the thing that alot of people don't realise, at present no top player will want to join a side that is sat in 11th and any rival bid from even a Palace, West Ham or Stoke would arguably be more attractive to those types of players.

The martinez brigade won't realise the extent to what the damage having a dud manager can do until we go down the road of a Newcastle/Villa.

The guy is playing in the CL knockout stages with Kiev so I can't see any way he will come to a team that has virtually no hope of even qualifying for that tournament this season. I think the whole 'Yarmz' fantasy needs to be put to bed.

froggyted · December 30, 2015

I think it's scandalous that we're considering selling Naismith when we're clearly in need of more firepower to support Lukaku. Kone has come on a bit this season, but imo Naismith is both more potent up front (by some margin) and a better all-round player. Like others have pointed out, he also has a great attitude, very much a 100 per center, and where he lacks in quality a bit he certainly makes up in effort. Unless we're in the market for a top class striker to replace him this move is imo madness. If Lukaku were to get injured we'd be pretty toothless right now. I can understand Naismith's disenchantment given the number of games he's played this season, and I believe that Roberto has made an error of judgement not playing him more. The same can be said of Mirallas, who i would also tend to favour ahead of Kone in most instances.

Regarding other players, I think that some of the criticism directed towards Howard has been a bit ott, and he seems to be a pretty sensitive guy so it might even have affected his game somewhat. Yes, we need to be looking for a replacement in the coming season or two, but let's not let our shaky defence off the hook and level all the blame at Howard. When is Jags due back? I think he has been very sorely missed and i'm pretty certain we wouldn't have shipped anywhere near as many games over the past few months if he'd been playing. That would have translated into being several positions higher up in the table.

Perhaps another we should be considering letting go over the summer is Barry. The guy is too much of a liability imo, he picks up far too many cards, many of them unnecessary, and i can't seem him ever changing at this late juncture. Ideally, if we keep him he should be coming off the bench rather than being a regular starter.