SpartyBlue

Well it’s clear that he’s much better with the ball than Gana but that was a low bar to be sure. If the signing of Kean is true it’s well timed. Those who are disappointed at Idrissa’s departure will be distracted a bit by adding an exciting young striker.

If that’s the deal it’s a spectacular bit of business.

Highlights make him look amazing, for sure. Nobody is likely to be the tackler Gana was but he’s certainly in a whole different class on the ball.

Yeah that's a big offer, particularly as it allows them to pay Man U less for the sell on fee. I can't imagine us going beyond that.

*Puts on tinfoil hat

Little bit of an unfair comparison for me. Bolasie was less established and then obviously suffered a devastating injury. Who knows how his career might have progressed. I don’t expect Brands to be making moves just to get a “name”. Whether a transfer works out or not I think we can trust that they are making decisions in an effort to move up the table.

I think it’s smart to it add the players until later in the negotiations. If we started at 55m and McCarthy we wouldn’t have much room

I think he’s doing a good job considering his age and experience level. You’re right though that for a side with top 6 aspirations in the toughest league in the world he’s just OK as a front man. It’s a tough ask for anyone given that in order to be someone we’d be satisfied with in that role he’d have to be a top 15 or 20 striker in the world. Nothing wrong with being a solid premier league striker but we do ultimately need a bit more than that if we are going reach our goals as a club.

I like DCL and think he has a chance to develop into a very good all-around striker but I’m not sure you can equate the two. Kean is mentioned alongside some of the best U-20 talent in the world and he has been linked to some of the biggest clubs there are. It’s about as consensus as it gets around here that we need to bring in a striker and that wouldn’t be the case if everyone was confident DCL could do the job. You’re certainly right that it’s a gamble but I’m my opinion it’s one worth taking.

The problem is who fits that bill? How many sure things are out there who significantly improve on DCL and would be willing to come to a club without European football? For me, we have to accept that the spot we are in necessitates taking a bit of a gamble. We aren't going to get the finished article at this point. We are going to have to focus on getting someone talented but young or a situation like Lukaku's where he was 3rd choice and angling for regular starts. Hopefully over the next 2-3 years we will have European football and a new, world-class stadium under construction. At that point we may be able to attract players who have less question marks around them. Until then I think we just have to trust management to make good decisions.

We don’t really have the ability to attract elite, proven strikers at this point. As such, we have to take chances on youth (like Kean) or players who are on the outside looking in at their current club (like Lukaku was). By all accounts this kid is a serious talent so I say trust management to exercise good judgement.

I would guess a lot of it is to do with the various tournaments. Once some of the big dominoes fall everything else will fall in line, as usual.

What do you think solution is though? As has been pointed out, very few big signings have been made at this point. Remember we had nobody in last year until July 24th. I imagine our staff wants these signings in as soon as possible but wanting it doesn't get it done. As you know there are a lot of factors that go into transfers and we can probably all agree that getting the right players in is more important than a week or two of time. In my opinion, it's actually less vital we get players in early than most years, given our soft early schedule. If there is criticism to be had it should at least wait until we actually see what they are able to accomplish in the window.

I’m just trying to determine what the basis for your opinion is. We were very good with DCL up top for a long run of games at the end of last year. I appreciate (and agree) that we need to bring someone in who is better in front of goal. I simply find your negativity puzzling given that we did have success with him in the squad.

I agree that we need to bring in a striker but the idea that we can’t win with DCL up top is demonstrably false. We had our best run of form vs. top 6 competition in years with him as our striker.

How do you explain our run of form the last couple months of the season with DCL up top?

Being able to buy outright is preferred, of course, but the buyback option isn't terrible. I imagine we'd make 10-15m to take him on for a year. If he's as advertised it might be hard to keep him more than a couple years anyhow. Better than a straight loan.

Surely we'd accept 50m.

I don't see how we could have replaced Lukaku before selling him. It's unlikely we would have had the money for any big time striker and even if we did it's difficult to attract players of that type without CL football. Beyond that, it hurts our leverage in any negotiation if other clubs know we've already bought a replacement.

I wish people would hold off speculating on Delph's state of mind or what conversations they imagine he might have had with Marco or Marcel. None of us know what his motivations for coming to Everton are beyond what he's stated himself. Maybe he wanted to stay in the same area of the country. Maybe he wanted to play for a winning club where he had a better chance to start. Maybe we were the only club willing to offer him the wages he wanted. Maybe some combination of all of these factors and ones I haven't named. His role here will be made clear soon enough.

We will know very early where we are headed this year. Our opening 10 or so games are very favorable. I would be surprised if any team has an easier start to the season. If we aren’t in a European spot after the first 2-3 months it’s gonna be a struggle to get there.

Reading a bit on their forum I would say the majority opinion on him is that he was a very useful player who will be remembered well. Struggled with injury and isn’t likely to get into a side like theirs very much at this point but everyone seems to agree he’s a good character to have around and very much still premier league quality. Most were quoting prices £12-£20m a month or two ago so excellent bit of business for £8m. We get an experienced leader with some versatility who provides depth to our squad and they get a player they aren’t likely to use much who only had a year on his contract off the books. Doesn’t hurt that he’s English either.

Given the small fee I wouldn't think the wages should be too much of a concern. I see it reported as a 3 year deal which seems about right. I agree that this might spell the end for MS. I'd expect Besic and McCarthy to move on regardless.

If I read correctly we didn’t sign our first player last year until July 24th and the vast majority would say we had an excellent window. A lot of players were gone for major tournaments as well. Patience.

Agreed. This is true of every issue. During the election Trump famously said that he could “shoot a person on 5th Avenue” and his base would still support him. Obviously hyperbole but it’s not far off. He’s been able to convince his supporters that every bad story, every scandal is just lies from the liberal media who are out to get him. Once a person believes that there isn’t much anyone can say to change their mind. Even if other republicans turned on him (unlikely) it would just be seen by many as sign of a deeper conspiracy against the man. He’s already breezed past a dozen controversies and scandals that would have felled any other politician. Consider that just in the last year he’s repeatedly insulted a dead war hero, been accused of rape (his 16th allegation of sexual misconduct), stood up in front of the world and taken Putin’s side over his own intelligence community, refused to hold Saudi Arabia responsible for the brutal murder of a journalist etc.. None of it sways his base. Fortunately, (from my point of view), his base isn’t large enough to get him re-elected.