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The worrying thing is, there is no reason why other clubs couldn’t be trying now to buy the players you would think we want/need to off load, it’s not as if any of them are at the World Cup.
They themselves could be in a similar situation whereby they need to offload: transfers are like dominoes and sometimes one move will be a catalyst for more.
Yet, there may also not be much interest for some of our dross and where there is, I worry how the contracts we've given such players will hamper our efforts.
Williams for example is meant to be on £75k p/w and being at the twilight of his career, I expect that he'll be looking to ensure his last contract is a good one.
So with Stoke apparently sniffing around how much can they afford to offer him? Will he try to see out the rest of his days here? Or will there be a compromise?
Either way, it's going to lengthen the process which will in turn potentially block or hamper our interests to bring people in.
Albertini78
Player Valuation: £10m
- According to The Chronicle, Ki Sung-Yueng snubbed Everton and West Ham before signing for Newcastle United on Friday. The midfielder signed a two-year contract with the Magpies after suffering relegation with Swansea.
No he didn’t the Crayonicle have a long history of crap like this “Oh Everton & West Ham were briefly linked so let’s big up our average signing”
No he didn’t the Crayonicle have a long history of crap like this “Oh Everton & West Ham were briefly linked so let’s big up our average signing”
CahillsCornerFlag
Player Valuation: £70m
Bored of seeing [insert club] have signed Everton target [insert player]. If he really was our target, and we really wanted to sign him, 9 times out of 10 we would do based on the clubs mooted.
Used to be bluefox on here
We most likely haven't missed out on them though.
Unless it's from reliable sources (Hunter, Joyce, King, Bascombe (on EFC side) or the likes of Jack Pitt-Brooke, John Percy, Ed Maylon (who are well connected at other clubs that we could do business with, for example) then it's just generic transfer-bot trash.
Exactly. It's just easier to spin a story out of the same old clubs always been mentioned.
Yet people (grown men/women) still fall for it. It baffles me.
toffeejack
Player Valuation: £100m
Hahaha you can't possibly believe that bull.
Mate we get thrown in by agents and clubs all the time to make deals look better
I'd rather Brands/Silva actually looked at the 35 players in our squad in training for a few weeks before actually deciding who we sign.
Just because Koeman/Allardyce style football didn't suit them it doesn't mean they are useless.
We could well end up with Vlasic, Dowell, Lookman, Klaassen, Sandro as first team regulars next season. Dare I say it, like 5 new signings.
The obvious area to strengthen is left back but again if Robinson/Gibson really impress in training who is to say that they won't be seen as good rotation options with Baines?
Just because Koeman/Allardyce style football didn't suit them it doesn't mean they are useless.
We could well end up with Vlasic, Dowell, Lookman, Klaassen, Sandro as first team regulars next season. Dare I say it, like 5 new signings.
The obvious area to strengthen is left back but again if Robinson/Gibson really impress in training who is to say that they won't be seen as good rotation options with Baines?
catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
Good post again mate. I think we have to move away from the idea that signings are the sole or even main way to resolve problems within the squad. I don't think that approach ever massively works and more importantly, with the structure we've put in I'm not sure that is what they will go for.
A high turnover of players, with 7/8/9 lads arriving each summer I can't see leading us to success. It will probably lead us to feeling very excited each summer and being very confident and happy, but I am not sure it will foster a team ready to compete.
If Brands is laying plans for the medium to long term, it's important that rash moves are not made, before he has information available to him. The same goes for Silva really. I would hope he will have a good look at the squad and then make decisive decisions later in the window. I can only hope Brands has a decent list of players who he felt could be good enough for PSV who could come quickly from unorthodox markets and these can be used if things get tight. If they are good enough for PSV they are likely good enough for us.
At present it's very difficult to know what the future holds. We have essentially ripped everything up and started again. I don't know if Moshiri has permanently withdrawn funds and we are back to sell to buy. I don't know if that is now a long term strategy or just for this window. I don't know if it's an accounting exercise from Moshiri to be seen to be balancing the books before another big spending spree. I don't know if Brands himself has seen the books and said to Moshiri before we move forward with signings we need to radically address salaries being paid. They are just some of the scenario's and all of them have very different practical implications, so I'm not sure it's fruitful to make big judgements before we are really aware what they are playing with.
All I will say though, is I'd be very surprised if it is major cost cutting across one window, never mind several and if it were I believe Brands and Silva are very much on board with it. I can't imagine Brands trading what he had for "sell to buy" in anything other than a short term hit. I also think if he has been misled he would likely walk as he doesn't need to damage his reputation and is not (frankly) very fortunate to be offered the job as Steve Walsh was. I also think Silva would leave if he had assurances that can't be met.
Brands seems extremely calm about the situation and there is very little if anything leaked to the press suggesting otherwise (not the case two years ago with Walsh where there were murmurings in the press). He has said he will look to reduce the wage bill, wants to develop younger players and also create pathways for lads from the academy. I don't feel anything that has been done yet has not been consistent with this.
I suspect we will be quite cautious this window. We may not fill every position in 1 window, but if the choice is buying someone who is the wrong fit, or not buying someone at all then the latter option may well be taken and I don't believe that to be a bad thing at all. It's how Moyes operated very successfully, likely how Silva has had to operate in the past, and what Brands had to do in Holland successfully.
Your final point is good too. Many have written lads off on the back of a nightmare season. Sandro, Klaassen, Keane etc were all highly rated young players. I don't believe they have become bad players over 12 months. If the right offer comes in, and the right replacement makes themselves available then we may consider doing a deal, but if that doesn't happen then we look to our coach, selected for his proficiency in improving players on the training ground (particularly younger players) to see if he can integrate them. We should learn a lesson from Niasse here, who looked much worse than the above 3 and yet has proven himself a very useful member of the squad when utilised properly and given time to settle.
I'm very relaxed about the whole window. The Vida links worry me a bit but other than that we seem to have knocked on the head paying massive fees for players operating in England. If we stop making mistakes this window then we can slowly start to put things right going forward.
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