With many of our squad close to peaking, Moyes simply cannot fail to land a top striker to avoid another season of regret and bitter disappointment. The obvious problem is where does the money come from? With £10 million of any funds generated likely to be used to pay off debt, Moyes needs a mass clear-out to begin the next stage of our rebuilding.
There seems to be debate on whether Rodwell or Fellaini should be the crown jewel auctioned to finance this. Personally I'd prefer a player with Jack's pace but Fellaini appears to be the much better footballer and more likely to run games for us as he certainly doesn't hide and go missing. If the reported £25 million is put on the table by Man Utd for Jack then I think we should bite their hand off.
The Yak and Vaughan also look likely to be offloaded and with Eriksson playing poker already on the price I'd imagine we'd be very lucky to receive as much as £5 million for the pair. With the £10 million debt reduction it would still mean around £20 million to spend.
Others who simply have to go are Bily, Beckford and Johnny for the right prices. I'd imagine we'd be lucky to get £5 million for our Russian flop, Jermaine could get us around £4m? And Johnny at least £6m? That's another £15m on top of the £20m giving us a £35 million war chest and several over paid players off the books.
In reality, we wouldn't miss the Yak and Vaughan. Jack's appearances are sporadic and largely unproductive. Beckford will never cut it in the Premier League as his first touch just isn't good enough and he lacks composure and body strength. And Johnny thinks he is much better than we do; he's a good centre half and good cover for Phil and Sylvan but, on wages of over £50k a week, he's well worth off-loading for two younger, hungrier and more loyal and less outspoken replacements.
Bily just isn't tough, quick or mentally strong enough for our league and for his own sake he needs to leave despite his occasional glimpses of brilliance.
This would deplete the squad as we would be four players down effectively on what we have had this year yet probably more than £150k a week or over £6million a year better off in wages. With a thin squad already, we couldn't cope... so, to replace some of these gaps, we have a lot of youngsters coming through our outstanding academy team and many are tipped to make it.
For Jack we have Ross Barkley who is very highly rated and was knocking on the first team door before his freak triple leg fracture. An England youth international, 6-ft 2-in tall and physically ready for the step up.
For Beckford we have Hallam Hope who can't stop scoring at any level he has played at including the current European youth championship.
For Bily we have several kids who deserve a shot at the big time. Maybe Baxter can finally live up to the hype? If not him then Gueye looks promising so far. If not them our championship-chasing academy team has other gems that helped destroy Liverpool's highly thought of Under-18's 4-0 last week and Man Utd's academy 2-1 the week before that can hopefully make the leap.
Vellios also looks like a handful from his short cameo's so far. He's a big lad, has a nice touch, clever movement and I wouldn't be too surprised if he becomes integral to the squad next year.
Overall I'm happy with many players in our squad and with the right additions I can confidently see us challenging the top 6 despite all the gloom and doom from the majority on this site. I do wear blue-tinted specs though... but isn't that part of being an Evertonian?
Look at our results this year against the top 6 for further improvement despite going backwards against the lesser teams. Ok we got no points against Arsenal and only 1 off Man Utd (yes, our performance at Old Trafford was woeful but at least we did better than their opponents in the Champions League semi-final!) but we are unbeaten in 6 against City, Liverpool, Spurs and Chelsea with 12 points from 18. Can we make this 15 from 21 on Saturday? A couple more goalscorers to beat the lesser teams in addition to the following players would get me very excited about 2011-12:
GK: Howard ? I'd only pick three keepers before him in Reina, Cech and Hart from the Premier League.
LB: Baines ? not sure if I'd pick anyone in the Premier League above him. Only Nani, Fabregas and Rooney have set up more Premier League goals in the last three seasons.
CB: Jagielka ? all round definitely in the top 5 central defenders in the Prem?
CB: Distin ? immense at times this year and again there's not many better left-footed centre-halves?
RB: Coleman/Neville/Hibbert ? Coleman at home against lesser teams to attack and Neville/Hibbert to stop/organise against top teams?
DM: Fellaini ? who would you prefer from the Premier League to be our enforcer allowing Baines and Coleman to bomb forward?
LM: Arteta ? simply brilliant on his day on the left with Baines. Gueye as understudy. Next season he'll be back to his sublime best!
CM: ????? ? We need a box-to-box goalscorer? Barkley as cover?
RM: ????? ? Big money signing? Osman as deputy.
CF: Saha ? for 10 games? And/or and impact sub with Vellios/Anichebe/Hope getting a go too.
CF: ????? ? Big money signing!
Subs bench: Gueye, Neville, Cahill (to go to 4-5-1 when 2-0 up or an extra striker when trying to save a game), Hope, Vellios, Anichebe, Osman.
This leaves in my humble opinion three key players to find with our £35 million kitty:
1. Goalscoring centre-forward with pace ? £15-20 milllion? 2. Right midfielder with pace ? £8 million? 3. Box to box central midfielder who loves to shoot ? £7 million? Andy King? James McCarthy? I'd also suggest Moyes needs to find some cheap or Bosman squad fillers...
1) Cover for Baines; 2) Experienced utility player (defender or centre-half); 3) Bosman striker: experienced goalscorer ? must be one somewhere? Even for one year whilst we develop Vellios/Hope/Gueye What else do we need?
1) A few lucky breaks at the start of the season to build momentum earlier... 2) Fewer injuries... 3) Better support at home? I like some of the noises Moyes is making already, talking about repeating the summer of 2004-05 in the States which got us ready for our best ever Premier League season. He's also mentioned getting players in quickly which sounds promising.
I'm sure the pessimists out there will get stuck right into my 'glass half-full' hopefulness just as they did last time I wrote something positive about the team we love. Evertonians are born not manufactured and after 33 years of going the game surely I'm entitled to dream and hopefully infect others with my enthusiasm and optimism?
Roll on the summer of 2011! It really is now or never for Davey.
Anti-abuse shields are powered and ready so give it your best shot and let me know your thoughts on what we need to challenge at the top. I'll continue to dream and be hopeful no matter what you come back with anyway ? even if I'm alone in thinking next season is the beginning and not the end of David Moyes.
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A boring comment of mine but one too often ignored I'm afraid.
I am NOT impressed!.
The reality of this summer will be Yak out and Vaughan out. Moyes will fight tooth and nail to keep everyone else. We'll see one big player go very late on (probably after the season has started) and we'll use a fraction of the money to sign an injury prone old striker. We may also sign full back cover of the quality of Lars Jacobsen. We'll come close to signing a very good Spanish player on loan but some dodgy 3rd party agreement or 'Arry Redknapp gazumping us will scupper the deal.
There'll be rumours of Moyes walking but in the end he'll stay. Moyes will then declare that he's happy with the squad. Neville will talk up the quality that already exists in the squad and how this is Bily's season to shine. Anichebe will have scored 6 in pre-season.Odds on this is what will happen...
Nick it would be nice if a lot of that happened although I tend to agree with Alan with what will probably be the case. All I would hope is that someone offers £25mill or more for Rodwell and we accept it in time to spend some of it and not have to sell some of our more important players, ie Baines, Felliani and Jags instead.
So, if I was Moyes, I'd save all the money he has, and spend it all on a ball-winning holding player. Then watch us go next season.
We all know what is needed and we all know that it won't be happening. Nothing to dream about; nothing to raise the pulse. The financial circumstances dictate that this summer it will be about who we sell: Rodwell, Fellaini, Arteta? It doesn't matter... We loaned out half a squad for cost-cutting reasons. If we sell, it won't be to buy, it will be to pay debt.
There is no vision with this board, no plan, just day-to-day fire-fighting. If there was a plan, I could just about swallow all this. Our agenda this summer will be doing what is necessary to survive another year. Cost cutting is now our imperative. Slow stagnation is our fate.
I cannot believe that we are letting James Vaughan go! I mean I know the guy has had injuries throughout his short career and I know it's a gamble but ffs he's in the England U-21s ? not a 33 year old ready to be taken out into the field and shot!
I really believe that if we can stick by Anichebe and hope he comes good (as if...) we should keep this lad or at least tie a buy-back clause with whomever we sell him to. He's never so much as uttered a word to the media with a negative slant, or been embroiled in boozed up brawls; however, Anichebe poo-poos contracts and is still the golden boy.
This seems madness to me and needs sorting. We have no strikers it seems already but this summer we're going to sell two? MADNESS!
The players that will probably leave are Yobo, Mucha, Yakubu, Rodwell, Vaughan & Bilyaletdinov. Make up your own values but that should give the manager (not sure if Moyes will stay) about £20 mill.
We have a good crop of youngsters, but a LB,CH,CF are musts. If we get a decent CM, great... but with Fellaini, Arteta, Cahill & Osman available, not that crucial.
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