scouse

as above

I think we wont bid that much unless Stones goes and by bidding weakens our seling position - other areas to spend big on and I would only spend big in defence as other areas to focus on.

No I'm suggesting it's human nature to hold slight bitterness when a player turns his back on the club. It's certainly not insanity.

just look at what happened with rooney

_{this thread/transfer is painful, in my view if he wanted to sign for us he would have done so by now.}

used us a mechanism to get more $$$ fair play to him I say, I wont lose sleep over not signing him

not getting excited till I see him in a blue jersey

30m euros sounds great to me. plus he's coming from portugal so he won't want massive wages ala Witsel. Witsel might have fucked up his situation due to his greed.

if it was greed id say he would have signed for us, think he wants to play in Italy moreso?

think like Stones he will be gone sadly. I'm sure we will have someone lined up

Kante 32mill Sissoko 35 mill ermm no thanks

oh lord

Would take him but if we got him, Mata and Witsel cant see them all starting be interesting what formation Koeman is looking to play next season, also great that he is building a squad too!

Would take him, think every season he is getting better and better and looks more like his old man each season too. Would take Leno but I think that would prompt a European club to be in for him especially if that price is true

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the 1990s-2010s period more of an exception than it is the rule in our history? Weren't we one of the clubs that paid players and made record signings before the Premier League era? Didn't we have a reputation as a moneyed club? So, maybe the provincial notion about us really being a club of crafty penny pinchers who know how to punch above their weight on a shoestring budget has less depth than we think.

 

There tends to be a correlation in this world between one's place and practices and an ideology that justifies, legitimates and rationalizes them as morally superior and just. Sure, maybe we've been convinced of our moral victories in a world gone crazy with cash, as at least we still haven't sold out. But, football is about winning and losing on the pitch. Those who manage the club need to please the fans. If they can't win on the pitch, they need to do whatever they can ideologically to make the fans continue to care about and even believe in the club. This takes the form of media campaigns that tell us how special this club is and how it's unlike those other clubs who lack the integrity (or class, understanding, belief in certain principles, etc) that we have. Thus, many of us can point to loving Everton for some reason or another that only makes sense in a field of other clubs that are unlike Everton in X/Y/Z ways. "Those clubs are soulless. They have no heart. They're plastic. Etc." But, whether or not these statements are accurate, they say more about US than they do about THEM. What I think we are dealing with and will be dealing with in this transition (from "plucky little Everton" to being a club with major expectations and money that allows us to compete in the contemporary game) is a change in culture and mindset and coming closer to what we've all trained ourselves to hate and made the butt of all of our inside jokes for years.

 

The soul of the club, or of any club (if there is one), has never been the players (at least not since this became a game that you didn't have to work a side job to survive in). Their job is to go out and compete as professionals and bring home a win (or a performance worthy of winning). The soul is in the people who give their days, weeks, months and years to caring about the club and its fortunes as if their own personal happiness depended upon it. The soul is in the people who go to the games (if they are so lucky), wake up early or go to bed late to watch from afar, participate in a community of other supporters, and who support the club through thick and thin as if they have a familial connection to it.

 

Sure, money has changed the nature of how clubs and players operate. But, it's really always been about the fans and the community. And, this is something that (for all their failings) I think Everton have recognized and done a solid job with. As long as the club remembers that it is ultimately about delivering something the fans can be proud of, then it will still have its "soul."

 

That said, I'm not convinced Witsel is worth what we are apparently going to pay for his services. Though, I admittedly know very little of him as a player beyond his work history and appearances in international matches, where he's looked decent but not world class.

Great post and agree with it all, I guess the fear as you note is around paying 120k a week for a player who isn't by all accounts a 120k player for me that's a truly world class player and Witsell is a step up but not a that level yet, we don't want to do a Man City and throw money at above average players.

he is on last year of contract?

Haha he's available then?

yes but we have Coleman?

id take him for the right price, big powerful midfielder but as said 30 mill for 1 year of contract is a no go.

Koeman

Jose

I would maybe add Ossie to this list to.

He's getting on a bit.

yeah maybe first on that list :wind up:

Spot on. Plus he's an actual evertonian.

So was Rooney

Silence as always from the board

i was add the game he done nothing in it

it looks like we are all on the same page,

1. I would go for Leno over Heart, younger and I wouldn't say Heart would go to a none champ league team (not sure Leno would either).

2. De Boer is a great shout I would go for Lucien Favre over him done a great job who ever he has been out seems to be a hybrid between Moyes and Martinez.

3. Stadium long term plan

4. Buy back academy

5. Retain the squad

6. Centre mid (Carrick is out of contract in the summer worth a free transfer move?)

100% agree with all of the above

medical passed

signing young keepers can be a risk we missed the boat with Butland he is becoming a excellent keeper. would love this deal to come off