Kever10
Player Valuation: £20m
Good god man go and jump in the river and cool down.
We've signed Gomes on a permanent. Brought in one of the best young attackers in European football. Added quality depth to our midfield and potentially brought in a quality player (if he can prove his fitness) to challenge Seamus at right back..
I'm disappointed we seem to have missed out on replacing Zouma in the squad but Gbamin can cover there and Mina and Keane first choice is not a downgrade on last year. I'm disappointed that we lost Geuye but we have Delph and Gbamin that offer different qualities.
I think we have a better all round squad than last year and a better starting XI as we've sorted the striker situation out. I think that we can break the top 6 but it will be a struggle and we'll need to be lucky with injuries to key players, especially up top. If we come 7th and get closer to the teams above with a points total in the mid 60s, then that's a success yes. If you look at where we were under Allardyce just over 12 months ago then we've made fantastic strides forward. When you consider that this summers business has probably broken even, we have money to spend in the next window if the right player is available.
I don't give a toss about the bids we've made. It shows we've been aggressive in the market and no way are we a laughing stock. The one thing I'm not happy with is that we don't appear to have had a proper back up plan, but the window is still open so fingers crossed we can still bring in a decent wide man before it shuts.
I was hoping this window was going to be a 9/10 this morning, but for me it is still a solid 7/10, especially when you consider we have broken even cash wise.
First of all, making it look/sound like I'm flapping is disingenuous. I'm not happy, but that is basically my default position with Everton. You know we will always do something to disappoint, it's the Everton way, and why I try not to let myself get excited by anything.
But other than Kean, which I already said in my 1st post, I genuinely don't see any reason for the positivity some have. I think people are trying to be all cool and Zen over what is a massive missed opportunity.
The squad improvements you mention boil down to Kean. Gomes we had last year, and he did OK, but hardly pulled any trees. I'm glad we signed him, but hoping for more this season. Gbamin and Delph replace Gueye, Mccarthy and possibly Schneiderlin but 1 of them is injured, and the other 1 is also our cover for Centre half.
We have sold Lookman and not replaced him, regardless of how many games he played or didn't play, and we have possibly improved our RB cover by sending 1 out on loan and bringing another in on loan.
I really hope Kean settles and becomes the player we hope, but the worry is, without any other reinforcements, a lot of pressure will be put on his shoulders, and you know what it can be like if he doesn't hit the ground running.
The fact that we broke even is neither here nor there.