c1982

I agree but every now and again players are thrown in raw and hit the ground running - Rashford’s the best example I can think of in recent years - he was supposedly nowhere near ready when he broke onto the scene; it’s not all been plain sailing for him but it can work.

Fair enough, let’s hope whatever our scouts have seen in him shines through if we sign him then.

Have you seen enough of him to make a statement like that? We’ve clearly been scouting him for a long time, hence the interest in January. Young lad thrown into a relegation battle in a new country… oh and the manager who signed him gets sacked days later. Not the easiest of conditions to shine in.

The purple patch… The Man City links… The big mistake…

Can’t exactly remember when but he had a purple patch and Man City were mentioned (genuinely - sure I’m not imagining this!!!) and he/his agent struck when the iron was hot! We’ve made some poor decisions in recent years!

One will cost £30m and the other is a potential loan - downgrade maybe but at least there’s a plan B, C or D.

Talk of a move to Southampton seems to be intensifying

…and Vlasic.

He won’t - he’ll be a first team option… probably (hopefully) alongside a more experienced option in addition to Calvert-Lewin.

No doubt, we’ll shake on 25%

With Gbamin, Gomes, Gray and Holgate all linked with moves away and even potentially Maupay, we’ve actually got a decent shot at ‘starting again’. These are the top names I’d sell/ let go as don’t think any fit or are of any use to us. Even getting rid of 3 in this window will be a bonus and give us some desperate wiggle-room for players who can actually move us forward/ be relied on.

We’d still need another - 100% but this could be an excellent signing.

Barkley is supposedly living in his north-west residence and has been spotted in the area because of this - I personally think there’s no more than this in the rumours. I can’t see us pursuing this deal as it stands but should Gomes and Gbamin leave, maybe we’d consider him as a short term option.

Adams holds the ball up, harries and wins flick on… different player to Danjuma and Cannon. Wieghorst may be big but he can’t hold up and bully like Adams and DCL. Adams isn’t as good but offers many qualities we miss when Dom is out.

Totally different players in my opinion - I wouldn’t want both but think we’d have been miles better off had we signed Adams last summer instead of Maupay.

As it stands: Gk - fine… maybe more experience to replace Begovic but Virginia seems a decent enough back-up. Defence - okay for the start of the season with Patterson, Tarkowski, Keane, Branthwaite, Godfrey, Young with Coleman and Mykolenko to return - could do with more cover but okay - need to shift Holgate. Central areas - plenty of options in Gueye, Garner, Onana, Doucoure, Iwobi and maybe Dele but need to shift Gomes and Gbamin but okay for now. Maybe bring in some quality when there’s more value in the market at the end of August. Wingers - good starters in Iwobi and McNeil - options in Young, Gray and Danjuma - pretty short in this area but we can probably wait until the end of the window. Strikers - the one area that needs addressing instantly - everything points to DCL here - with him, our system is fine, we’ll get the best out of other players - without him, we’ve got Maupay, Danjuma or Gray lost as lone strikers - they can’t do it in our system. We need a solution now - this is the one position that can’t wait. It doesn’t need to be the DCL replacement - that’d be great e.g Bilal Toure but someone like Che Adams could be exactly what we need in the meantime *Che Adams - he’s shite he is* - he’s not glamorous or exciting nor does he score a great deal of goals but he fits and allows us to develop a system bringing the best out of McNeil, Iwobi, Danjuma, even bringing midfield players in… look at our best performance last season vs Brighton - no goals from DCL but that link up play was incredible. Someone like Adams allows this - hopefully he’d just be a stop gap while we progress and improve and we ‘out grow’ him but he’d be a huge upgrade on Maupay, Danjuma, Gray, Cannon, Dobbin as a main striker in this system.

This one is moving quite quickly for us… by deadline day we may actually make a bid but we’ll run out of time… at least we got the info though.

Probably the most positive post you’ve ever posted - fair play

Harrison’s injured until at least September so getting him now wouldn’t make financial sense e.g extra wages. It’s not meant to be a high risk injury so hopefully we go for him before the deadline.

Myers confirmed Toure as the striker but that seems beyond us now and commented on the Gnonto links which may go on for a little while but confirmed contact.

https://www.goodisonnews.com/2023/07/28/everton-want-to-sign-yuri-alberto-from-corinthians-player-ready-to-move-as-high-fee-mooted/

I don’t think he set the world alight at Leicester but it’s a big ask in a new league and a relegation battle and less than half a season to settle. I won’t be judging him on that.

I watched a bit of Brighton vs Brentford pre-season last night and Simon Adingra stood out in Mitoma’s role - looked incredible actually and scored 2 goals. Turns out, Brighton signed him last summer and sent him on loan to their sister club, just like they did the year before to develop Mitoma so that when they lost Trossard, they weren’t weakened! Proper, forward thinking football club!