15 Jun 2016 16:10:50
Recent seasons have shown that clubs can come up from the Championship and compete with the established Premier League clubs. Leicester City I guess are the prime example. Bournemouth, Watford and Crystal Palace all did reasonably well last season. Burnley, Middlesborough, Hull, Birmingham, QPR, Reading and Wolves have all spent time in the top flight. This season Newcastle, Norwich and Villa will be joining the Championship.
That is a minimum of 13 clubs who should be in a much more precarious position than us. Their "star" or "quality" players would surely prefer to be playing for Everton. I trust that the 200 or so players at these clubs would have at least a few players who would improve our squad greatly. Ok tempting someone from Leicester might be difficult, but the rest should be ripe for picking and I would expect to target aat least a few players from these clubs. 100 million would go a lot further than if going for the superstar ones cast off from the so called bigger clubs in the UK or abroad.
15 Jun 2016 16:28:50
That works in theory Degs but, apart from a couple at Newcastle, I'm struggling to think of any players from them that would be economically viable or that would improve our current squad. Our targets may change depending on if we get a DoF to work alongside RK.
15 Jun 2016 16:37:39
Until we prove ourselves to be serial trophy winners and serial Champions League qualifiers, we won't necessarily have enough to attract the top players from those clubs. We might be about to start paying massive wages, but every other Premier League club is benefitting from huge broadcast income and could do likewise. Please don't think that Mr Moshiri is going to give a large part of his personal fortune to fund the club's activities. Most, if not all, of the transfer spending (and corresponding wages) will surely be funded by the club's broadcast and other commercial income and any outgoing transfers. Also, notwithstanding massive wages, what would persuade a player to come to be a squad player and bench warmer at Everton If he's a crowd favourite and regular starter elsewhere? Once we start winning domestically and internationally, then we'll surely see loads of players - egged on by their agents - wanting to join us, but for now it's a case of let Mr Moshiri, Ronald Koeman, and everyone else at Everton get us moving towards that goal.
15 Jun 2016 20:06:35
Players from the Championship won't come to Everton? I am not on about bench warmers anyway. The only alternatives are foreign leagues or lower leagues. ie League 1 or 2? Each of the teams I listed must have a player or two who would improve our squad.
After all we are not top 4 just yet. Stoke, West Ham and Leicester and Southampton all finished above us. Swansea Watford WBA Crystal Palace Bournemouth etc all finished with similar points totals. In the top 10 teams of the Championship there is 150 players to choose from. With the 150 or so in Premier League squads I cannot believe there are no players that would improve our squad and who should be targeted by us.
I don't want to make this a Moyes debate but in his time he targeted Baines from Wigan, Jags from Sheffield United (both in seasons when their teams were relegated if I remember correctly) Coleman from Ireland, Stones from Barnsley for peanuts (not Pienaar) .
So to suggest these type of players are:
1. not available
2. not good enough
3. won't come to Everton is naive in the least. I list our back 4 as the example. These are neither bench warmers nor reluctant to be with us.
15 Jun 2016 23:16:12
Yes Degsypulford that worked under Moyes but it doesn't happen as much as it used to and Moyes isn't our manager anymore.
The main reason it worked under Moyes imho was because of the way Moyes had the team set up. Not only were they bargain buys they fitted the system Moyes had. It was very much a team effort. Collectively they were good as a unit but individually not so good.
That's why I think most players if not all that left while Moyes was here for better things didn't work out. Like Pienaar, Lescott etc. People will say Lescott has medals but he wasn't a success. They didn't keep him too long and he got relegated with his current team.
The team unit wasn't evident under Martinez. It was more about individuals and for me that was a major difference in why the defense worked under Moyes and not Martinez.
Basically united we stand tall, divided we fall. Moyes having a united team and Martinez having individuals.
I think Koeman is somewhere in the middle which suits me. I wouldn't expect many championship signings though. Moyes more or less had to do it. Thank god he was good at it.
I don't think Koeman will. The thing I love most about the transfer market is getting bargains. I think Koeman will be a middle of the road type buying players. Imho his signings will be in the £10 plus million range but for value. I hope anyway.
16 Jun 2016 04:51:22
Degsy I agree with all you say about those players we signed. But I think we signed those because our budget dictated that we could only go for these players. But then you could argue that it worked well because they have also been courted by richer clubs for way more than we paid for them, and I'd agree with that too.
So if that continued, and we found more gems from lower teams than us then so be it. But my point is this, we now have the option to aim higher. The heights that we look on with envy at other clubs who could take Lescott because they could. Or Arteta because they could, or our very own Rooney because they could. We can now afford to flex our dollars and get better players who will fit in with other better players to take us to the next level.
No longer will we be little old Everton. We will be the big club being viewed by many through green envious eyes.
16 Jun 2016 07:23:38
I agree with the Arteta comments. He was another bargain who was improved with us.
16 Jun 2016 07:28:13
I agree with the Arteta comment and he wqas improved no end with us. However, I do not agree with players leaving us not doing well. Lescott has a championship medal. Ask him was it worth it. People mock Fellaini. He was best player on the pitch in the semi against us and for a big man has a great touch. He was best for Belgium too. Rooney won just about everything. Yes there are examples of those who could not make the step to regular games in a Champions League qualified club. But a player does not perform brilliantly just because he plays for Everton then become a bad player because he moves clubs. If that was the case we would win the Champions League every season!