The Jelavic Conundrum

Martinez will want his own players in, so you'd think the fringe players are on the block.

Whilst of course he lacks pace and has a heavy touch the biggest problem is confidence. If ge rehaivs this he will be be the lethal striker we all saw. Surely it's a managers job to ensure he gets confidence. I'd be gutted if he was sold

Time to sell for £6 million plus IMO

I don't think his style will suit a Martinez system. I think we need to find a taker on a straight sell and he needs to move on. We should do so soon as he always gave 100% - in form or out of form. For him and for the Club.

Lumbering CFs are not in our future. And I don't see a return of the one-touch wonder again.

We can't afford to keep him in the team if the 2012-13 Jelavic turns up, but we can't afford to let him go if the 2011-12 player was the real Jelavic. It's not a decision to be made lightly and I'm confident that RM will take his time before making any rash decisions on him. If he does become available I'm sure there are plenty of PL rivals who would take a punt on him, perhaps Swansea or West Ham for instance.

The reason I think he should stay for the next few months is that we've had enough changes in personnel to be going on with. A complete change of back room staff and four new players in. The threat of transfer still hangs over Baines and Fellaini - and if one or both of them go then there will have to be replacements. So be it. But, if we can avoid it, we should do without any further ins and outs before the season starts.

When RM took over, he stated that he wanted to maintain continuity but make some positive changes. Great, I thought, we want to keep what was good and improve on it. But, in my opinion, any more changes will possibly threaten that continuity. Don't forget, as well as personnel changes, the whole team is being asked to learn a slightly (or very?) different way of playing.

Let's keep him for now and give him another chance. Then, if he doesn't score regularly, put him on the market in January.

I think that if Roberto thinks Nik is worth persevering with, then he's spotted something that he likes and I'll be chuffed to see the lad play for a manager who will encourage him. I hope he stays.

With £6-8 million we could buy someone like Jele Van Vossen or someone who RM rates. Don't forget Martinez has a very good track record at being able to spot talent at bargain prices. After all, he signed a younger Kone for £3 million at Wigan

The biggest fear that summer was that he had a stormer at the Euro's and one of Europe's footballing superpowers would come in with a bid of £20m+ which we simply couldn't refuse.

I still can't fathom what happened to the lad since then.

I would love to see him given a chance because I'm convinced there is still a genuine 15-20 goals a season striker in there somewhere, but do we have the finances or patience to gamble on Martinez being the one who can find it.

If he does find thing better, promise him a transfer out in January window!

Hamburg, the club that bought Keegan should stump up the lot in one go if they are that serious in January. The same goes for any dealins with Fernabache over Heitinga.

If Roberto doeasn't think Jelly'll fit in, or that he doesn't rate him, then sold he will be. But I just hope he sees something he likes in the lad and keeps him. I'd love to see him playing in a more attacking creative team and start banging in the goals.

They want to buy him in installments and if he doesn't come to fruition they don't want to pay the full amount,

This is attitude we should take, give him a chance and if he doesn't come up with the goods we've only lost a few million.

Somewhere in the middle lies a championship standard goalscorer who is touch is much clumsier than Anichebe's and who rarely troubles defenders.

I don't know what went wrong last season but IMO he was given more than ample opportunity to get it right and failed miserably.

The Premiership is no place to hide and IMO he needs to be off the wage bill and leave room for a young up and coming striker to flower with us.

Horrible technique. It's not Moyes fault he blew one on ones and open goals galore.

Offside far too much.

No pace.

Embarrassing diver

Get rid

To me, a player who can put the ball in the back of the net -- the most elusive talent in football -- should be given a chance to duplicate his first season before being banished because of his second. Jelavic has always been inconsistent -- he preceded his Rangers brilliance by managing only 27 in 71 for Rapid Vienna. But if RM decides to use two at the front and keep Mirallas on the wing, Jeli might be the ideal partner for an aggressive attacker like Kone, who creates lots of loose ball situations in the box. And if there's one thing Jeli is good at, it's getting to those rebounds.

And if he can't cut it, the deal Hamburg is offering will hardly disappear, because it's not exactly dazzling, is it?

Martinez is already showing he has a different way and, while not soft, I imagine he will be able to bring Jela round................. hopefully.

They will know the type of player needed for success and anyone not fitting the bill will be gradually moved on. All decent new managers do this and hopefully, Martinez is one of the better ones.

He will have already decided what to do with Jelavic,.who will not want to sit on the bench with the World Cup coming up

For me, the Hamburg business has legs. It would benefit all parties and he could well be on his way. .

Now of course this all depends on Martinez wanting him.

Review at the Jan window.

He needs a team flowing at pace and in sync behind him, both Pienaar and Baines fell away compared to the purple patch of the previous season and Mirallas was fitful as mentioned by the OP.

Effectively that is our creativity gone!

That said it's like groundhog day with a long list of strikers disintegrating under Moyes so I'd deffo give him a go under a more forward thinking coach.

The lad clearly wants to do well here (perhaps too well) and contrary to previous pretenders we've had here I reckon that's important.

One thing we can see with Roberto he's decisive and consequently ahead of the game so if he keeps or moves him on there'll be good reason.

Similarly, although the history is different, I think Vellios isn't going to make it either. Bargains in strikers are very vary rare. I think we`re kidding ourselves if we think we can find one. Bringing talented youngsters on like we brought on Wayne is the only "bargain" we are going to have. And who is there amongst our current youngsters?

Isn't this the reality, toffee mates? Sorry to be so negative!

The reality is probably that he's not as bad as he was last season and not as good as the season before. Trouble is that that though he may be a good finisher the rest of his game is not up to much and I suspect RM needs a forward with better touch and agility (such as Kone presumably).

Have we had a season on season successful forward under Moyes? I cannot think of one.

Give him the chance to get his form back and we're all be happy.

As said above, a first season Jelavic is worth more than Everton could ever afford to pay.

You also need to rediscover the arrogance that great strikers have. That was woefully lacking. But the first step is to take chances (that is, to gamble on shots, getting into the right areas of the box and having a go). Also, I was not blown away by the Jela and Mirallas combo in the games they played together last season, either.

Whether Martinez is willing to gamble on Jela may depend on who else is available and gettable. We have attacking midfielders now in Mirallas and Deulofeu - though I would also chance our arm on a one or two-year deal for a much cheaper Donovan again - but require at least three proven strikers. At the moment that reads Kone, Anichebe and Jelavic. Frankly, that doesn't inspire confidence right now. It's a big call for Martinez, and who is out there to take Jela's place? Frankly, it would need to be someone young, not a Defoe.

We absolutely battered teams with both our full backs regularly in and around the 18 yard box - whether the team sheet says one striker or not has nothing to do with how attacking you are, look at Spain for god's sake.

Jelavic simply missed chance after gilt edged chance.

I don't buy the 'tracking back / working the channels' argument either, Jelavic did more or less the same thing in his first season and he certainly didn't have less chances per game in his second season, he just missed most.

I believe all the players need a chance under RM even Vellios. It's sometimes amazing how things can change when a new man is at the helm and we all hope this will be the trend here.

We know Jela can score goals so let's keep him at least until January. Who knows even this new Spanish lad may kick in a few beauties.

All this talk of selling him is madness - we need 3 strikers and Mirallas is as much a winger as he is a striker so that leaves us with Kone and Anichebe - not exactly bundles of goals in those two.

Stick the ball in the box, and Jelavic will score goals. Keep him, massage his confidence back up again and the kid will score more, or at least as many as Kone & Anichebe.

However, presumably you wouldn't be so blatant about it if you were making it up, so can we assume they've had a behind the scenes nod from someone? If this is the case, then for Everton/Martinez to decide to get rid without giving him a chance, and to have said something which will both damage his confidence and decrease his market value is also crazy.

Either Martinez or Hamburg are getting this badly wrong.

I thought the Bundesliga was supposed to be the big financial success story, yet we are led to believe one of their leading clubs can't rub a metaphorical two brass farthings together.

I think we are being led on here. They managed to find around £10 plus big wages for Van Der Vart, a guy pushing 30 with 'refuelling problems'.

Agree with the article, if they want Jelavic, he's £8m cash, otherwise, we'll take the chance he gets back to season one form.

No way would I sell him at present

And keep Heitinga.

Totally against selling Jelavic before we get a chance to see how we performs in Martinez's system.

'Conundrum' is the second in the series, preceded by 'The Jelavic Supremacy' and we're all waiting to see whether 'The Jelavic Identity' will reveal him to be a top-of-the-range goalscorer or a pitifully impotent imposter.

I believe 'The Jelavic Identity' is due out just before Xmas...

By forcing him to run the channels and play out wide, our previous manager ruined him and dulled his killer instinct.

I imagine that he probably had the same amount of chances to the season before but simply blew them, that's why he was dropped. He looked useless and was actually air kicking sometimes.

I hope that he does stay because even though he had an awful season he was still our third highest scorer.

Nonsense to suggest no one was forcing him to play there.

It had the words 'David Moyes tactic' written all over it.

Against some teams you will surrender possession and inevitably 'run the channels' which he is pretty shit at.

He didn't run the channels against lesser opposition because we had the ball in their half, on those occassions he just kept missing sitters.

Jackie> I'm sorry, I insist he had as many chances but just blew them and we played more attacking football in the opponents half last year than we did the year he joined.

Football has been littered over the years with 1/2 to 1 season wonders.
Quality players are consistently good, not streaky.

I also don't think hes a RM type of player.

I just thought from the moment he joined that his all round play wasn't up to much, so was it that he had a bad spell last year or an exceptional spell the year before and now he's found his level?

RM will get him firing again and I think he'll have a fantastic season.

£6 million for him a paltry figure Id say. So who do we buy that is guaranteed to be better for £6 million? We have seen what Jelly can do and I'm sure he'll come good again.

He looked pretty sharp against Blackburn.

Under David Moyes we seemed to have quite a high "turnover" of strikers.I can't believe that all of these players were bad players. We need to show a bit more patience, Jelavic is a good player. Every striker has a bad run.We should remember that before we think of getting rid of him.A new manager and a new start.I would like to hope that with a more attacking minded manager in charge, Jelavic will regain his form.

If we look at our existing strikers, specifically Anichebe and Jelavic, they are both relatively ineffective when played alone up front, which was Moyes' favourite and aggravating style. Personally, I think either player will benefit and improve from playing alongside a 2nd striker, such as Kone. And the new man will no doubt benefit from playing alongside another recognised striker

I would prefer to keep Jelavic and see what kind of partnership he and Kone can strike up, but Martinez needs to voice to both that they are his first choice strike force and have some time to get to know one another. Jelavic doesn't just turn into a load of shite after every he touched turned to gold. You have to look at the Manager and how his formations and style affected Jelavic and spiralled into a confidence and desperation issue the longer the style continued.