c1982

Both on bench… Everton's bench v Blackpool: Crellin; Leban, Holgate, Keane, Allan, Iwobi, Nkounkou, Simms, Warrington, Mills, Price, Dobbin and Welch.

No DCL in the squad - injured? Offski?

I’d prefer younger players but, at the right price, there’s no harm in signing more experienced players. It’s the £20-30m Walcott, Tosun, Schneiderlin and Bolasie type deals that have got us into this mess - £6-8m for any of them and they’d have been long forgotten but as it is the £100m outlay is hard to forget!

I was watching the Premier League Years earlier and looked back at our squad after the £140m spend under Koeman/Walsh… this starting line-up less than a month after that spending spree is sickening… Pickford Martina Baines Keane Williams Jagielka Schneiderlin Gueye Davies Sigurdsson Rooney

With many of the players we’re linked to playing for Chelsea and them being our first game it makes me think that it’s in Chelsea’s interest to drag things out a little. We do need non-Chelsea signings too but I think we’ll end up with at least 2 from Colwill, Ampadu (throwing this name in), Gilmour, Gallagher (late in the window loan maybe), Barkley or Broja.

To be fair, he was also the stand-out in a very good Pokémon side.

Milner wasn’t a ‘find’ though - completely different hence why we never sang, “Free transfer, free transfer, Gareth Barry…”

This may be one to revisit if he misses out on the World Cup squad. He will only be hanging around at Chelsea if he’s getting game time which I think he will. I’d guess, he could be off in January if this doesn’t happen.

A very useful option - will start a lot in the current squad and remain a useful option with the 5 subs rule as we (hopefully) get better. We are desperate for more left-footed quality and his versatility and pace are both key - no brainer in my opinion.

I don’t want Traore but him AND Cornet would at least be fun!

Branthwaite is off to PSV on-loan supposedly - could be a great move if true.

… WOW!

It’s such a minefield of misinformation during the summer window - all the ‘ITKs’ wanting their guess to be correct. It makes a lot of sense, which has made it very believable but it wouldn’t surprise me if there was no interest in the first place!

The good thing about Walker-Peters is that he looks as comfortable as a rb as a lb - he really impressed me last season.

Kenwright written all over this one - “They weren’t booing me - they were supporting Boomen!”

I’ve read that West Ham had a £20m bid rejected. I don’t know anything about this bloke but he’s an absolute giant and sounds like the kind of midfielder we are desperate for.

Is this a new thing? Just whack all the players with the same first name in the same thread to save on space? I hope we don’t get linked to a John, Paul or Michael!

At least you’re consistent!

Looking at last season he played under 25% of the minutes which is shocking but in the games he played we picked up 21/39 (54%) of our points - that is equally shocking as it shows how reliant we are on him. He 100% needs to go but I can see why we may be looking for another CB in addition to Tarkowski.

I think our problem is that any of our current centre backs can play with Mina and look consistently good but Mina isn’t available enough so can’t be relied on. Any combination of Keane, Holgate and Godfrey has been inconsistent to put it kindly. Hopefully, Tarkowski can play alongside any of them but I don’t think we can risk what we’ve had with Mina (look at the win percentages with/without) so Mina and Keane need to go and we need another leader/dominant CB who it sounds like Rodrigo Becao is to ensure there’s not such a huge drop off when one player is out. We need to sort other areas out but if the foundations are solid, it’ll be a big help.

I think we’ll definitely be signing 2 centre backs and hopefully moving Keane and Mina on - I also expect we’ll see a back 3 to Romey’s despair! I also think Iwobi will be our right wing back a lot of the time.

He’s been a class player in Italy and for the national team - I just don’t see him in England - not many Italians seem to do well here bar Zola, di Canio, Carbone - can’t think of many more who have succeeded… I think the Premier League and Serie A are very different and think he’ll stay there or go to a ‘less competitive’ league like France or even Benfica/Porto. On paper, he’s like for like with Richarlison with work rate and attitude but it wouldn’t surprise me if it didn’t work out in this league for him. Don’t get me wrong, I’d be delighted if we signed him.

No chance but yes please!!!