Bafana Blue

Bottom line is that outside of Chelsea, Man Utd and Arsenal the premier league is very average and a team could just as easily be fighting relegation as pushing for a top 6 finish. There are a number of clubs who over the past few seasons have experienced these contrasting seasons in recent years. Along with West Ham, Charlton, Blackburn, Newcastle etc we have been one such team. The point is that with the right sort of leadership in the boardroom and in the Managerial Hot Seat we could easily become a regular Top 6 team. The reason we are not progressing is because Moyes is unfortunately an average manager. At the time he got the job he was the ideal person to put some passion and commitment back into our team and as a result things improved. However for long term improvements we need more and Moyes is not the man to do this. Tactically he is extremely poor and falls well short of most of the managers in the EPL. On a number of occassions this season he ahs thrown on a 3rd striker with no real plan on how it will help force an equaliser. Shifting a slow, cumbersome BT outwide is not exactly a winning formula!! His other shortcoming is his loyalty to certain players, I can't believe Yobo signed a new contract after the amount of times Weir and Stubbs were picked ahead of him. The fact that they are both still at the club, along with Pistone, is a direct result of Moyes' failure in the transfer market which is my next problem. For all the negative talk about the BK we have not been shy to waste funds in the transfer market. BT, Davies, Teflon were a combined waste of 15 million! Not to mention the loss we took on the Kroldrup deal. As for this seasons signings I agree that AJ and Lescott are good premiership players but I still feel we have overpaid for both of them. With some better planning we could have bought similar quality palyers for far less and had funds to improve the squad in other areas. In the off-season I posted on here that we should go after Benni McCarthy as I rate him on par, if not better than AJ. To date their records are very similar this season and Benni only cost 2.5 million. And if Moyes had kept McBride we would have a better strike force that we have now, AJ and BT, for a fraction of the cost. When you add in the 1.5 million wasted on McFadden who is utterley useless it's not suprising we are struggling for goals. Or perhaps it has more to do with the pathetic performances of Davies and Non-performances of VDM another waste of 6.5 million. Bottom line is Moyes has not been very successful in the transfer market and tactically he is below average. For me he is the type of manager that won't get you relegated but he will never develop a team that plays high quality football.

Being South African myself I have had the opportunity to watch Buckley throughout his career. His preferred position is left wing, he has been used as a striker on occassion but he is not a natural striker. His biggest asset is his pace and skill on the ball. For the South African national team he almost been used exclusively as a winger. As a player he can best be described as a better version of James McFadden. They paly in the same positions, have similar qualities but often do not live up to their true potential. Personally I have always been a fan of Buckleys and feel that he would add something positive to the Everton squad. VDM is better suited to the right side of midfield and Buckley would be a better option than Kilbane and McFadden on the left. Having him and AJ in the same side would add the much needed pace we have lacked in recent seasons!

I stand correted but as far as I can remember Van Der Vaart plays for hamburg and Maniche was at Dynamo Moscow until coming to Chelsea midway through last season. Surely Everton are on a level par with those 2 clubs in the minds of any aspiring footballer. It comes back to the point I have made several time on this site that we need to forget about overpriced average English players and spread our net wider to going after better priced international players.

I can not understand why we seem to be linked with right sided midfield players like Brett Emerton when we have more than enough cover in that position. Andy Van Der Meyde is naturally suited to playing on the right wing and to write him off after one season is a joke! Was not long ago many of you on this site were unhappy with the performances of Nuno Valente now he is on the verge of playing in a world cup final and looked better then Ashley Cole the other night! We also have Leon Osman who I feel is far more influential on the right of midfield than when he plays in the middle of the park. Arteta is also right footed and has been superb when asked to play outwide. In addition to those 3 both Lee Carsley and Simon Davies have played on the right of midfield in the past. Compare that abundance of options with the left of midfield where the only naturally left footed option we have is Kilbane. He is far too slow for the premiership and should be used as no more than cover in this position if we are serious about creating more chances for our strikers. I feel that Moyes should be looking at bringing in either Boa Morte or Van der Vaart to play on the left. Both are top quality players and luckily neither have been given much of an opportunity to shine at the world cup and therefore their price tags will not be inflated. Add Maniche to one of those two, plus what we already have in the likes of Arteta, Cahill, VDM and our midfield will be one of the strongest in the premiership!

I can not understand why the majority of you would like him to stay. We need to improve the quality of our squad yet we seem to often renew contracts of players who are well below premiership standards. Last season we renewed the contracts of Kilbane and Naysmith and now we are trying to keep McFadden and Weir - for a club talking about pushing for a Top 6 finish that does not make any sence. He is one of those players that offers NO END PRODUCT and never will!!!

No-one is talking about taking chances on little known players. Benni McCarthy has scored 30 international goals and spendind 2-3 million on a player who has won the champions league, finished top scorer at an African Nations Cup, played and scored at a world cup, played in a successful Porto side etc etc is far better business than 8.5m for an average English striker. Not every foreign purchase will alwayd be a great success but the reality is Scottish, Irish, Welsh and the majority of English players do not have the technical ability to takt this club furhter.

Andy Johnson is a good striker and his performances in the 2004/05 season were very impressive but he is not worth 8.5 million. One good season does not make a player and he hardlyl set the Coca Cola championship alight last season. Marcus Stewart also had 1 great season in the premiership and then faded away very quickly, can you imagine having spent 8.5 million on him. We all want Everton to progress as a club and to do that we need to improve the quality of players in our squad but spending the whole transfer budget on an average striker will not achieve anything!! If the asking price was 4 million I would say thats good value for money but like so many English players Johnson is over-rated and over-priced!! Look at the performance of The England B side last night against Belarus! Anyone of the English frontline would probarbly cost more than the entire Belarus squad yet there was little if any difference in ability. Every season we seem to chase after over priced English players and it seems most people on this website are in favour of it. How many of us would bid 5 million for Sean Davis today or the other inflated bids we have been encouraging the Board to chase after in recent seasons for English players who do not even represent their country. The reality is that we need to look overseas for quality players who are available for far less than their British equivalents. Arteta, Cahill, Yobo and Valente are all bargains at what we paid for them as oppossed to the likes of Wright, Davies, Naysmith who have been a total waste of money. Bottom line is English players are totally over-priced and Scottish, Welsh and Irish players (with the odd exception) are not good enough as proven by their inability to qualify for major tournaments. I can assure you than Benni McCarthy and John Utaka (the nigerian international at Rennes) would be far better value for money than Johnson!!!

I must agree with Raccyboy with regard to the value of Yobo to this club. Yobo has proved since his arrival that he is one of the top centre backs in the EPL. Given his age and the fact that he has managed to look so impressive playing alongside Weir makes one appreciate his value even more. From reading the posts on this issue it does make we wonder if we have all been watching the same palyer!!!

Agree with you 100% Raccyboy. Moyes is loyal to a fault, I remember earlier in the season he left out a fit Arteta when he was returning from suspension and we went on to lose the match. Van der Meyde should also have been brought back into the starting line-up ahead of Kilbane. Bottom line is there isn't a football manager on the planet who would choose Weir and Kilbane over Yobo and Van der Meyde! For me Yobo is one of the top 3 centre backs in the EPL and I would personally like to see us making him captain for next season and building our defence around him. As for Richard Wright he should never be in goals for Everton we are serious about becoming a top 6 club. Last week he gifted Villa a soft goal and his reward was to be kept in ahead of Turner - whi can't be any worse. He was at fault for the second goal and that effectively killed of the match for us. Its not the first time he has come charging off his line, chasing a ball he will never get to first, exposing his goal and gifting the opposition a soft goal. I would like to see us bring in Dudek from across Stanley Park.

Who are you calling a prick?

Thats exactly my point - mose top english / european players would not see Everton as an attractive option which is why we often miss out on our transfer targets to Clubs like Spurs and Newcastle nver mind the Big 4. However for most African players a move to any EPL club would be a dream come true. In South Africa for example the EPL gets more coverage than other league, even more than our local league, each and every premiership game is shown on channel 23 which is a 24 hour soccer channel. As a result the EPL is massive in SA and all young footballers gorw up dreaming of playing in england and scoring the winning goal in the FA Cup final etc etc. Benni McCarthy is a perfect example of an African player who desparately wants to play in England and I have no doubt would jump at the chance to join Everton. He has played in Holland (Ajav), Spain (Celta Vigo) and Portugal (Porto) but England is where he and many others want to play. Get the scouts to Cairo instead of raiding the Scottish / Lower divisions for inferior British players.

Sam Allardyce may be complaining about losing his African players but Bolton have built a big part of their success around their African players like Okocha, Diouf, Jaidi, Faye and Fadiga. No club likes to lose their players to international matches, but put it into perspective. Would you rather have a quality defender like Yobo (who should be club captain by the way) eventhough he misses a month every second season or a cart horse like Weir. Bottom line is African players are good value for money, particularly those from countries like Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Senegal who are physically built to suit the demands of the EPL. The important thing to remember when bringing in these players is that the culture, climate, language ets is totally new for them and one needs to be patient ang give them time to settle. Dutch and particularly French clubs understand this and have been benefiting accordingly for years - its time EFC became pro-active and did the same!!!

The AFCON is starting in a couple of weeks and I have no doubt there will be loads of talent on display. With EFC in desparate need of some top signings I really hope Moyes is sending a couple of scouts over to Egypt. Admittedley Bakayoko and the Ghanaian (can't remember his name at the mo) were flops at Goodison but Yobo has been brilliant and there is lots of talent coming from Africa which can often be snapped up far cheaper than European players. All the games are being shown live here in South Africa so if Moyes wants to give me a call I can do the scouting job for him from infront of my telly!!!

For too long now we have made "panic" signings instead of waiting for the right players to become available. I feel that with Martyn closing in on FORTY and Wright being one of the worst there is when it comes to taking crosses and installing confidence in a defence we do need to bring in a quality keeper for next season. However Mark Schwarzer is not the answer - he is one of the worst keepers in the league and would not be an improvement on Wright or Turner and therefore a complete waste of money. I posted a week ago that we should look to bring in Niemi and to have him going to Fulham at well below his market value is very dissapointing. Surely Cudicini can't be happy for much longer warming the bench at Chelsea and an offer for him would be worth considering.

Having watched each game this season - albeit on Supersport in South Africa and not at the live games - I stringly feel that we need to strenghten in the following positions: Right Back - Hibbert gives 100% but he is awful going forward!! Left Midfield / Wing - Arteta is far more influentuial in the centre of the park and to play him outwide on the right is a waste. His performance against Charlton highlighted this. Therfore a fit VDM must play on the right - which is his natural position leaving us short of quality on the left. Striker - We need someone with pace and an eye for goal to partner BT. He seems to be getting back to form and with the right strike partner he return to form should continue. Admittedley there are other areas which need strengthening but for now these are the most vital if we are to push for a top 10 finish. Here are some suggestions on who we could bring in to fill these problem areas: Right Back: Carr (Newcastle), Volz (Fulham), Johnson (Chelsea). Left Midfiels: Boa Morte (Fulham), Van de Vaart (think he is at Hamburg). Striker: Johnson (Crystal Palace), McCarthy (Porto). In my opinion we should bring in - Carr, Van de Vaart and McCarthy. Realistically I think we could get all three. Carr is out of favour with Souness, Van De Vaart would surely see a move from Bundesliga to the EPL as a step up and Benni has always wanted to paly in England. Bring in those three finish top 10 then in the off seaon bring in the following to push for top 6. Niemi, Upson, David Dunn, Dean Ashton.