Summer 2007

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Blue Wiz

Player Valuation: £25m
Ok, the transferwindow has passed and is now closed for 4 months.. so lets look back at the happenings this summer...

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.

GK: 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 porve 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.

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 gotten as much time to prove his worth for us yet, but it looked promising when he got on as a sub. So all in all an improvement.. if not in numbers then at least in quality

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 playform 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 consistant than Fernandes, so that cancels out his lower skill-lvls. 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.

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 cupgame or two if we face lowerleague 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 transfermarket 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 excpetion of VdM. 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 transferwindows 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 agebarrier 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.
 

Excellent summary Wiz apart from the fact that Killa went this time last year not in January, remember him coming home from Wigan to watch the Derby from the stands, honest lad imo
 
I think we have enough players to get through to January. It's the second half of the season where fatigue may set in if we don't have sufficient numbers to rotate players. By the time of the January window we'll know roughly how many games we have left in the season plus any injury concerns so can strengthen accordingly then.
 
Excellent summary Wiz apart from the fact that Killa went this time last year not in January, remember him coming home from Wigan to watch the Derby from the stands, honest lad imo

So he did. Remember that as well, now that you mentioned it. Knew he left during the season, but mixed up when.
 
So he did. Remember that as well, now that you mentioned it. Knew he left during the season, but mixed up when.

It was quite odd when he showed at the Derby, so many on TW had been made up he'd gone but then thought "well he is a good guy afterall, he is still one of us" (y) (y)
 

it's been a great summer. our defense is easily top four in the league now with baines coming in for naysmith.

the attack looks as dangerous as any other team also.

it's just that damn midfield. it's not quite up to the standard of the rest of the team. hopefully we wont be playing 5 in there to compensate but i think moyes has decided to take his time and wait till january for the right player to come along.
 
Good thread- it does illustrate what 99% of us are thinking. I actually dont think we have as good a squad as this since the 80's.

We have pace, power, craft in a team full of internationals. We are now looking at replacing the replacments in that I mean players like Neville, Ossie and AJ- these players were once a given for the starting 11 now they could easily be dropped and no one would bat an eye lid.
 
Great post BlueWiz.

\as you say, its numbers that are the real worry. Do we really want to see someone like Jags play in the centre of defence is there are injuries with Stubbs, Yobo or Lescott. Its a squad that has very limited possibilities when it comes to rotation.

I think Moyes' probably tried for Riquelme/Appiah last night, but the transfer fees quoted (due to the impending window closure) probably took the piss, so he decided to bank the money and see where we stand this January.

He may have to invest then though (with the African Nations coming up) depending on injuries and cup competitions.

Yes creativity is limited in mifdield (although arteta arguably has more creativity in his right foot than some entire midfields in the prem I could mention) but gravesen should provide something.

Ultimately, moyes didn't want to blow all the money away, when the price was wrong. Maybe the big signing will have to wait until next summer.

Still, we did get the most prolific striker in the league over the last four seasons and broke our transfer record.

None of us figured that was going to happen at the start of the window.

time to get behind the team. Getting all excited about signings in deference to supporting the team playing matches, is a fairly modern phenomenon anyway.

Teams like Newcastle and Spurs, buy ten players plus every window to appease their fans.

They never win [Poor language removed] all, but it makes the fans happy.
 
Don't shoot me down but we still might see the best or near best of VDM so he can't 100% be counted out. As we have seen fro other threads he is having terrible times with his daughter. This may change him as a person and he may knuckle down. Alot of maybe's I know but we can only wait and see. As for Pienaar, he looks good. I saw him play against Scotland recently and he looks like the player to link up the midfield and can pick up a great pass. We can't discount our midfield yet as we now have 2 strikers for the opposition to look after. 2 strikers with pace that will inevitably give the midfield more space to operate in. If we played Jags covering Peinaar, Arteta and Graveson I think the midfield would work. We know how good Graveson can be and the only reason he didn't cut it up here was that he fell out with Strachan(who wouldn't). I can't wait for this afternoon. Feed the Yak......
 
Awesome read Blue Wiz.

Its been a good end to, at times a frustrating transfer window.

And Ive no doubt that the guys behind the scenes at the club will say the same thing. It doesnt suprise me, because Ive seen the way some of the scumbags can operate. Same principle in movies.

The stadium debate had an important landmark, Im sure there wil be more.

The best thing about the window was finding out we had some cash. Thinking about having to sell to buy was a depressing thought.

The worst thing about the window was the thought that the addiction for information had taken over, the collective social frustration, feeling it was our right to advance further in the game we love so passionatley, and voicing our concerns for months. Am I mad? Its a game! Or am I right, and the success of the team is that important to my life??

COYB!!!!
 

The worst thing about the window was the thought that the addiction for information had taken over, the collective social frustration, feeling it was our right to advance further in the game we love so passionatley, and voicing our concerns for months. Am I mad? Its a game! Or am I right, and the success of the team is that important to my life??


top post.(y)

answers on a post card.
 
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