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Demarai Gray


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Again, Welcome to the club.

Feel like this one is good business. Don't expect anything exceptional. Doesn't hype me for the season. But, yeah, he's 25. Decent rep. Cheap. Fills a position we know we need more from. Should help us maintain our midtable status 👍

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35 minutes ago, markjazzbassist said:

i'm fine with this transfer, it's 1.5m and he's a squad player, this is more of a lottery ticket type signing, either it goes well or it doesn't but it was a $1 scratch off, no biggie.  i liked him at leicester, i hope he's found some new motivation.

Good analogy. And he's already here in 'Murica with the team I understand.

It's 9am, already 85, heading for 95, and the current heat index is 95. Welcome to the South lads!

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I am not a fan of his. Runs into too many dead ends and is very one footed. He is fairly quick but weak.

He can dribble but I don't think he has great technique with his passing or shooting either.

In my opinion, Townsend is much the better of the two.

At least he is cheap. Hopefully we can sell him on for a profit in a couple of years (if it doesn't work out).

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1 hour ago, Bailey said:

I am not a fan of his. Runs into too many dead ends and is very one footed. He is fairly quick but weak.

He can dribble but I don't think he has great technique with his passing or shooting either.

In my opinion, Townsend is much the better of the two.

At least he is cheap. Hopefully we can sell him on for a profit in a couple of years (if it doesn't work out).

I imagine if we paid £1.6m for a player you were a fan of you would be ecstatic. 

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4 hours ago, SpartyBlue said:

It’s good business either way. Would be like saying it’s only a good pass if you end up scoring. Very low risk, reasonable upside. 

The value of a player matters as much at £1.5m as it does £150m. You want a return for your investment. My guess (and not to put a downer on things) is that Grey will be a frustrating player to watch and we will be waiting to shift him like the rest of the players currently still infesting our squad.

If we pay £1.5m upfront and £2m a year in wages for him, it'll be £7.5m over 3 years wasted. That would not be 'good business'.

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24 minutes ago, Palfy said:

Here’s an obscure stat as a left winger he is ranked 95th in the world 🤷‍♂️

1982-5 we bought in Derek Mountfield from Tranmere (£30,000), Kevin Sheedy (Liverpool reject £100,000), Peter Reid from Bolton (sicknote £60,000), Alan Harper (another Liverpool reject £100,000), Trevor Steven from Burnley (£300,000), Terry Curran from Sheff Utd (£90,000), Andy Gray from Wolves (sicknote £250,000), Paul Bracewell from Sunderland (£285,000) and Pat van den Hauwe from Birmingham (£100,000). Different times I know so the numbers are relative but the £1m barrier had been broken in 1979 so still largely bargain basement and lower league punt signings.

It created a team that was much greater than the sum of its parts, not for a moment saying we're going to hit those levels of success anytime soon, just that buying "lesser" players isn't necessarily the wrong way to go.

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2 minutes ago, MikeO said:

1982-5 we bought in Derek Mountfield from Tranmere (£30,000), Kevin Sheedy (Liverpool reject £100,000), Peter Reid from Bolton (sicknote £60,000), Alan Harper (another Liverpool reject £100,000), Trevor Steven from Burnley (£300,000), Terry Curran from Sheff Utd (£90,000), Andy Gray from Wolves (sicknote £250,000), Paul Bracewell from Sunderland (£285,000) and Pat van den Hauwe from Birmingham (£100,000). Different times I know so the numbers are relative but the £1m barrier had been broken in 1979 so still largely bargain basement and lower league punt signings.

It created a team that was much greater than the sum of its parts, not for a moment saying we're going to hit those levels of success anytime soon, just that buying "lesser" players isn't necessarily the wrong way to go.

Great times Mike never to be repeated again in my life time that’s for sure, even Kendall got the managers job as a gamble, he gambled big style with his acquisitions and I would say not with any real idea, but the football gods were smiling on him and us and it clicked, best years of my life. About time I watched Howard’s way again, always makes me believe all things are possible when it comes to Everton unfortunately it seems to wear off a lot quicker lately. 

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34 minutes ago, Aidan said:

The value of a player matters as much at £1.5m as it does £150m. You want a return for your investment. My guess (and not to put a downer on things) is that Grey will be a frustrating player to watch and we will be waiting to shift him like the rest of the players currently still infesting our squad.

If we pay £1.5m upfront and £2m a year in wages for him, it'll be £7.5m over 3 years wasted. That would not be 'good business'.

You’re making my point for me. The amount invested in an average Everton 1st team player (including transfer fees) over a 3 year span has to be over 25m. Gray costs a fraction so the level he needs to produce to be good value for money is far lower than our average guy. Just being a player we have for cover who gets time in some cup games to give starters a rest is worth 7.5m over several years in today’s market. The frustration comes when you get a Bolassie or an Iwobi who we’ve heavily invested in. Gray is a flier. If it works out then great, if it doesn’t *shrug*. He’s shown enough to be worth a relatively small gamble. There is far more upside than downside here. 

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38 minutes ago, Aidan said:

The value of a player matters as much at £1.5m as it does £150m. You want a return for your investment. My guess (and not to put a downer on things) is that Grey will be a frustrating player to watch and we will be waiting to shift him like the rest of the players currently still infesting our squad.

If we pay £1.5m upfront and £2m a year in wages for him, it'll be £7.5m over 3 years wasted. That would not be 'good business'.

Well it's certainly a better model than spending £8m quid and £130k a week on the likes of Delph isn't it. 

The lad has raw attributes and for me those attributes arent available elsewhere in the squad.  I'd sooner have him than Walcott. 

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8 minutes ago, Hafnia said:

Well it's certainly a better model than spending £8m quid and £130k a week on the likes of Delph isn't it. 

The lad has raw attributes and for me those attributes arent available elsewhere in the squad.  I'd sooner have him than Walcott. 

A far better model, yes. Just need to find the quality for a decent fee now (easier said than done)!

10 minutes ago, SpartyBlue said:

You’re making my point for me. The amount invested in an average Everton 1st team player (including transfer fees) over a 3 year span has to be over 25m. Gray costs a fraction so the level he needs to produce to be good value for money is far lower than our average guy. Just being a player we have for cover who gets time in some cup games to give starters a rest is worth 7.5m over several years in today’s market. The frustration comes when you get a Bolassie or an Iwobi who we’ve heavily invested in. Gray is a flier. If it works out then great, if it doesn’t *shrug*. He’s shown enough to be worth a relatively small gamble. There is far more upside than downside here. 

It is a small gamble, I agree. Evertonians are are never happy though and I don't intend on starting now 😉

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5 minutes ago, Hafnia said:

Well it's certainly a better model than spending £8m quid and £130k a week on the likes of Delph isn't it. 

The lad has raw attributes and for me those attributes arent available elsewhere in the squad.  I'd sooner have him than Walcott. 

I believe Iwobi has untapped potential and talents it will be interesting to see who gets the most game time out of the 2 my money at this moment in time is on Iwobi. Regardless of how much money you cost or your wages every player is brought in to take a position in the squad and improve the team, if you don’t improve the team and stop getting picked you are a failure no matter what you cost, in my eyes failure or success is based on what you achieved for the team not what you financially cost the team. 

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26 minutes ago, Palfy said:

I believe Iwobi has untapped potential and talents it will be interesting to see who gets the most game time out of the 2 my money at this moment in time is on Iwobi. Regardless of how much money you cost or your wages every player is brought in to take a position in the squad and improve the team, if you don’t improve the team and stop getting picked you are a failure no matter what you cost, in my eyes failure or success is based on what you achieved for the team not what you financially cost the team. 

Iwobi has ability but I don't think a position has been invented for him yet 

It seems he likes to do xy or z then fails at them. 

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5 hours ago, Hafnia said:

I imagine if we paid £1.6m for a player you were a fan of you would be ecstatic. 

It doesnt matter of the player costs us a tenner or £100mil. All that matters is what happens on the pitch. 

If you want a squad full of players costing less than £2mil you should watch more of league 2.

 

 

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I think we are definitely seeing a realignment in this squad at the moment. 

Could almost say Gray is a straight swap for Bernard and Townsend for Walcott (who maybe we actually could have done with last season). Halved the wages, but still have two player who will most likely be just as effected as the players they replaced (but perhaps more so). I think the players coming in will definitely be hungrier.  Neither of these player are likely to elevate us to CL, but the two they replaced where not doing that either. 

I know we need better players than 'mid table' ones if we want to improved, but the reality of FFP is I don't think the club have any option but to have a frugal season (or two) and balance the books. These are the rules of footballs governing bodies now, and there is no getting away from it. We just don't have the 'revenues' that allow us to buy big season after season. 

We have had two seasons of massive loses, the balancing needed over 3 seasons comes home to roost this year. It does not matter that we have owners that are willing swallow these loses- its just not allowed now. This season might just have to be a 'pause' on trying to spend our way in to the upper echelons. The club win have to demonstrate this season it is at least trying to conform to FFP rules. 

So in this climate, Gray is a decent enough signing as maybe a replacement for Bernard.. 

 

 

 

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13 hours ago, Bailey said:

It doesnt matter of the player costs us a tenner or £100mil. All that matters is what happens on the pitch. 

If you want a squad full of players costing less than £2mil you should watch more of league 2.

 

 

Schmichael £1.25m

Simpson £2m

Fuchs - free

Morgan - £1m

Huth £3m

Kante £5.6m

Drinkwater £0.675m

Mahrez £0.4m

Albrighton free 

Vardy £1m

They did ok didn't they? 

No-one is saying that buying cheap is the model for success - but buying players with talent with something to prove is. 

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1 hour ago, Hafnia said:

Schmichael £1.25m

Simpson £2m

Fuchs - free

Morgan - £1m

Huth £3m

Kante £5.6m

Drinkwater £0.675m

Mahrez £0.4m

Albrighton free 

Vardy £1m

They did ok didn't they? 

No-one is saying that buying cheap is the model for success - but buying players with talent with something to prove is. 

I quite like that, but let’s wait and see what Gray and Townsend have to offer if anything before we get entrenched in battles of their worth to the squad, personally I think Brands and Co aren’t sure what we are going to get very much a gamble how calculated we will have to wait and see. 

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25 minutes ago, Palfy said:

I quite like that, but let’s wait and see what Gray and Townsend have to offer if anything before we get entrenched in battles of their worth to the squad, personally I think Brands and Co aren’t sure what we are going to get very much a gamble how calculated we will have to wait and see. 

That's my whole take on it.

If Rafa and brands have identified them as being players to offer us something we need.  Which quite evidently is width and pace then we need to see how they do.  

Lets be honest at a total cost of £1.6m and the combined wage of less than what Bernard is probably on it represents very low risk. 

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51 minutes ago, Hafnia said:

That's my whole take on it.

If Rafa and brands have identified them as being players to offer us something we need.  Which quite evidently is width and pace then we need to see how they do.  

Lets be honest at a total cost of £1.6m and the combined wage of less than what Bernard is probably on it represents very low risk. 

It just feels like we’re replacing deadwood with deadwood, just cheaper. Not necessarily a bad thing but I expected more progression this summer.

Like I’ve said, though, if these signings aren’t the sum of our transfer window and we do supplement with one or two quality signings then they won’t feel so disappointing.

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3 hours ago, Hafnia said:

Schmichael £1.25m

Simpson £2m

Fuchs - free

Morgan - £1m

Huth £3m

Kante £5.6m

Drinkwater £0.675m

Mahrez £0.4m

Albrighton free 

Vardy £1m

They did ok didn't they? 

No-one is saying that buying cheap is the model for success - but buying players with talent with something to prove is. 

I can make you a list of a lot of other players that cost less than £2mil and aren't at this level as well though and plenty of them have a point to prove too. You are going around the houses again instead of addressing the point.

The question is over talent. Price tag doesn't really matter. There is no doubt that financially this is a good deal in that Gray is worth more in today's market. I talked about the opposite in the Lingard thread about where his value is and from that point of view signings like this are better because no matter what happens, the player will be worth more and he will still have years ahead of him. I should point out that they paid around £2mil for him as well and he went there with a point to prove. How did that work out?

The problem is, I just don't think he is a particularly good footballer. Rodgers couldn't improve him and Leverkusen stopped playing him pretty quickly. I have watched some videos of him and he looks brilliant for the U21's but you see the space and time he has. You then watch the clips for Leicester and not only are there not a lot of impressive ones, they mainly show him running into dead alleys and making poor decisions. He has good acceleration and he can dribble, but I am not sure he beats too many defenders at this level with those skills and the rest of his game is below average in the league. There has been a lot of talk made out that Dom will love him because he will get crosses in but I think he is unpredictable and not a good crosser of the ball. Dom will be timing his run to expect the ball in and I can see Gray trying to take a man on again. There is also a very good chance he plays on the left and cuts inside all the time, because he looks even worse on the right.

Hopefully he proves me wrong and can show that he is a much better player than I think he is.

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29 minutes ago, Bailey said:

I can make you a list of a lot of other players that cost less than £2mil and aren't at this level as well though and plenty of them have a point to prove too. You are going around the houses again instead of addressing the point.

The question is over talent. Price tag doesn't really matter. There is no doubt that financially this is a good deal in that Gray is worth more in today's market. I talked about the opposite in the Lingard thread about where his value is and from that point of view signings like this are better because no matter what happens, the player will be worth more and he will still have years ahead of him. I should point out that they paid around £2mil for him as well and he went there with a point to prove. How did that work out?

The problem is, I just don't think he is a particularly good footballer. Rodgers couldn't improve him and Leverkusen stopped playing him pretty quickly. I have watched some videos of him and he looks brilliant for the U21's but you see the space and time he has. You then watch the clips for Leicester and not only are there not a lot of impressive ones, they mainly show him running into dead alleys and making poor decisions. He has good acceleration and he can dribble, but I am not sure he beats too many defenders at this level with those skills and the rest of his game is below average in the league. There has been a lot of talk made out that Dom will love him because he will get crosses in but I think he is unpredictable and not a good crosser of the ball. Dom will be timing his run to expect the ball in and I can see Gray trying to take a man on again. There is also a very good chance he plays on the left and cuts inside all the time, because he looks even worse on the right.

Hopefully he proves me wrong and can show that he is a much better player than I think he is.

I don’t think he will prove you wrong history is on your side, but we have to give him the opportunity and time to fit in and maybe some focused coaching from Benitez and we will see a decent player for not a lot of money. I think we will have to get used to bargain basement buys for a bit as we try to work within FFP rules. 

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1 hour ago, Bailey said:

I can make you a list of a lot of other players that cost less than £2mil and aren't at this level as well though and plenty of them have a point to prove too. You are going around the houses again instead of addressing the point.

The question is over talent. Price tag doesn't really matter. There is no doubt that financially this is a good deal in that Gray is worth more in today's market. I talked about the opposite in the Lingard thread about where his value is and from that point of view signings like this are better because no matter what happens, the player will be worth more and he will still have years ahead of him. I should point out that they paid around £2mil for him as well and he went there with a point to prove. How did that work out?

The problem is, I just don't think he is a particularly good footballer. Rodgers couldn't improve him and Leverkusen stopped playing him pretty quickly. I have watched some videos of him and he looks brilliant for the U21's but you see the space and time he has. You then watch the clips for Leicester and not only are there not a lot of impressive ones, they mainly show him running into dead alleys and making poor decisions. He has good acceleration and he can dribble, but I am not sure he beats too many defenders at this level with those skills and the rest of his game is below average in the league. There has been a lot of talk made out that Dom will love him because he will get crosses in but I think he is unpredictable and not a good crosser of the ball. Dom will be timing his run to expect the ball in and I can see Gray trying to take a man on again. There is also a very good chance he plays on the left and cuts inside all the time, because he looks even worse on the right.

Hopefully he proves me wrong and can show that he is a much better player than I think he is.

Not going around any houses.  You say £2m is league one or two.......  It's not and so many broad generalisations are being made 

You haven't even seen these lads in a blue shirt yet .... But you have been talking them down as if they are going to be shite 

No one knows!!!!  Not even you 

All we have is positivity in the sense that we are signing value players with attributes that are massively missing 

You can say I told you so if they turn out to be crap but like Palfy said you are using history to predict their impact under a manager who knows what he wants.  

So. .. in short,let's see eh. 

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2 hours ago, Palfy said:

I don’t think he will prove you wrong history is on your side, but we have to give him the opportunity and time to fit in and maybe some focused coaching from Benitez and we will see a decent player for not a lot of money. I think we will have to get used to bargain basement buys for a bit as we try to work within FFP rules. 

Not forgetting we are a mid-table side, hardly attractive to top players who also expect European competition. We really have to prove ourselves this season or twelve months down the line it will be, same old. Hopefully the new faces will be keen to do just that.

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7 hours ago, Hafnia said:

Not going around any houses.  You say £2m is league one or two.......  It's not and so many broad generalisations are being made 

You haven't even seen these lads in a blue shirt yet .... But you have been talking them down as if they are going to be shite 

No one knows!!!!  Not even you 

All we have is positivity in the sense that we are signing value players with attributes that are massively missing 

You can say I told you so if they turn out to be crap but like Palfy said you are using history to predict their impact under a manager who knows what he wants.  

So. .. in short,let's see eh. 

Footballers just don't change stripes overnight. I don't need to see them play in an Everton shirt to find out what they are good at otherwise what would be the point in having a scouting department! 

You say the attributes are missing but we already have Iwobi to run down blind alleys and spoon a cross over the bar! 😂

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
 

Still think Demarai Gray would be a good signing. He has quicksilver feet. Only 22. Impressed me every time I have seen him.

No idea how to quote one topic into another (it was in General Weekend/Midweek Football) but glad my impressions weren't wrong. What a super footballer - pace to burn, great balance, great feet. So glad we picked him up.

 

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He looked really good on MoTD and interestingly had the highest pass accuracy out of all the players who started the game, suggesting he didn't often waste possession.

Be interesting to see if he can keep this form up. He's come here as a kind of "make or break" signing, so has a lot to prove.

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On 23/07/2021 at 10:57, Hafnia said:

Schmichael £1.25m

Simpson £2m

Fuchs - free

Morgan - £1m

Huth £3m

Kante £5.6m

Drinkwater £0.675m

Mahrez £0.4m

Albrighton free 

Vardy £1m

They did ok didn't they? 

No-one is saying that buying cheap is the model for success - but buying players with talent with something to prove is. 

How could you forget our very own captain! 😳

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