Everton' January transfer window driven by regulations or pure financial sense?

So far, the best that can be said on the subject is that it is a work in progress. We have to hope that Marcel Brands's influence starts to affect results positively, and that Silva can get the best out of the staff at his disposal. I think both men have a responsibility to try to dojust that.There is no evidence (yet) that they don't.

The club isn't sufficiently funded to have massive net transfer and salary outgoings every season, particularly with the commitment we are looking for from Moshiri; Bramley-Moore Dock is crucial to the future of the club, and must not be undermined. We may have to temper our expectations of what we want on the field for a while.

Plus we have whoever is promoted from the academy... plus by my count about 30 in or around the current matchday squad, minus Gomes and Zouma.

A lot of deadwood...

I still feel a couple of quick fix signings would suffice right this moment in time and give the players and fans a much-needed boost because we are watching a squad and season just dying on its feet.

I know people are always worrying about five years down the line but I'd like to see something on the pitch here and now.

Moyes worked a bit of magic in 2012 when he plucked out Pienaar, Donovan, Gibson and Jelavic; all four of them injected a new lease of life into a horrid season.

Remember the loan signing of Aaron Lennon and Baines saying his work ethic shamed the rest of the team that was sleepwalking through the 2014-15 campaign.

Who can forget the impact of the loan signing Kevin Campbell in 1999?

We should be more shrewd in the market and try and have options rather than blow millions on overseas lads with no Premier League experience and evident struggles with the pace and frenetic nature of it all.

People say leave the signings until the summer but in all likelihood it will just be more punts on untried players from leagues abroad.

Out of the signings we made last summer you'd have to say the only one so far that has consistently fitted like a shoe is Lucas Digne.

The jury remains out on the other lads, even Richarlison for that matter at 㿙-50 million.

Oumar Niasse,
Cenk Tosun,
Morgan Schneiderlin,
Yannick Bolasie,
Sandro Ramirez,
Mo Besic,
Cuco Martina,
Shani Tarashaj,
Luke Garbutt,
Ashley Williams,
Kevin Mirallas.

Some of them are out on loan, but you can bet your bottom dollar that we are still contributing to their wages at their loan clubs. We need to sort the wage bill out. Let's get rid of some of these bad eggs who are giving us nothing, and get some good characters in.

I'm still hopeful that we can get a striker in on loan if we can get some of these players off the wage bill. But we need to sort this mess out. Who on earth sanctioned giving Schneiderlin 𧴰,000 a week? Or Sandro 𧴜,000 a week? We desperately need to get our house in order.

The man's a parasite. I thought he was leaving last September.

Marco Silva is not the man for the job. I do not know why he was appointed.

If ever a man threw good money after bad, it is he. He should be awarded a diploma for naivety – a 'double first' at that!

Any manager worth his salt, would screw Silva, several times over, if he came sniffing around his players, then the player's agent would put the boot in, demanding higher wages. Yet, some members make it sound as though it's as easy as going to Tesco's for the milk.

I don't know what the answer is, but buying more players ain't it.

Others want to go and get some short-term fix, but that's more money and risk in a season that a lot of fans have written off as a mid-table finish. So what's the point in paying 㿅M for an unproven striker when he'll have the same poor service?

It's great to aim high and in sport you just never know but many fans appear to believe, just like last season, because we have spent 𧴜M on a few players, we are going to challenge the top 4 or top 6.

Hopefully, now realising that was an unrealistic dream, we can continue to to support the team and manager until the end of the season.

Remember, Moshiri went very public in announcing Silva was a big risk. IMO, that was a message, if things do not improve by the end of the season Silvas position will be under threat.

We have some talented players and some young promising players being given a chance and a manager that wants to play good attacking football. We are having a rough period but let's just try and offer support and encouragement to the team so Goodison Park is something to look forward too, not dread.

Williams will not be returning. His three year contract expires in the summer.

Moshiri has overseen the most wasteful expenditure on players since the nineties. If he throws any more good money after bad, it will be time to question his sanity. It is hard to think of more than one or two of our players who have increased their value since joining us over the past three years. Gueye is the only one that springs to mind.

The first task now for Brands is to offload the surpluses as quickly as possible. Given the contracts most of them are on that will take another 18 months. In the meantime he needs to continue looking for players in their early twenties who can be expected to develop and increase their value over the period of their contract.

The previous policy of signing so-called proven talents aged 27 or over has been an abject failure from both a financial and a footballing point of view.

Unbelievable this... and, as mentioned above, we're going nowhere fast!

I cannot believe it has come to this!

The dross on the list above cannot be blamed on Silva or even Allardyce for that matter. The only constant for that list is Kenwright and Moshiri.

I can only hope that the promotion of Brands to the board is a signal that Moshiri is stopping taking advice from the buffoon that is Blue Bill.

#17 Ian, I could not agree more, the strategic, recruitment and commercial decisions of the last 3 years are shockingly poor. Belatedly there's a realisation that Moshiri's investment has largely been squandered.

I meant the other Williams (Joe) would be returning, John. I did forget to mention Browning too though.

But, even taking in what has been said, as noted above by a couple of comments and in articles I have posted myself, we still have a whole load of not-fit-for-purpose players to dispose of.

This is a transition season (with, in my dreams, an FA Cup as well), so why have a panicked quick fix in January? Give Silva and Brands this season to fully grasp the job they have on their hands. They know what is needed and will have plans for the summer.

The summer business last year was good and I have confidence they will get it right again this summer. It is a season of transition and learning for them — not a season for any January quick fixes.

Then we had Vlasic letting slip that, as a professional footballer, he'd been startled to see the squad enjoying a daily fry-up for breakfast at Finch Farm after Koeman signed him. He said it wasn't for him. Why are our unfit, weak millionaire athletes able to stodge out in this way in the "training" ground itself? Are they still at it because nothing's visibly changed in nigh on four years on the pitch?

Maybe it ain't ALL the players though (albeit with some of them it definitely is). Maybe it's off-field staff who've been there since, ooh, February 2014 or so. They're the only common denominator after all.

Getting rid of them and the blob who employed them should be Brands's first job.

I am not doubting your source but both are shocking if even remotely true.

Players being kept on longer than they should;

Extended contracts;

Contracts not available elsewhere;

Martinez duds;

Koeman & Walsh – mug contracts and purchases;

Allardyce & Walsh – the same.

Appointing / Tapping Up of Silva, before Brands started.

This has all reflected itself in the accounts and in a disregard for regulations or plainly not knowing.

It's going to be a long haul out of this mess. Hopefully Brands knows what he is doing, no-one else sure as hell does. Silva is in a real tight spot, which he may not have the ability to deal with.

A 5-year plan is now looking like a 10-year plan: 5 years to get stability and 5 years to progress after that.

By most accounts Onyekuru shows up about once every six games. The Anderlecht coach and the Gala coach have both criticized him for that. Nigeria don't exactly have a plethora of wordy strikers right now and he cannot get a game.

Staggering!!!

Unless they are offered parity with what they currently earn, they would rather stay on Everton's books and slaver about on loan or sitting in the stands. Whilst for the fans, Everton is a love affair, for these players it is just a job.

Come the summer (assuming nothing happens in the remainder of this transfer window) we will have the following returning to Finch Farm:

Garbett 㿀k per week
Besic 㿙k per week
Bolaise 㿼k per week
Niasse 㿞k per week
Martina 㿅k per week
Vlasic 㿔k per week
Mirallas 㿲k per week
Ramirez 𧴜k per week
Tarashaj ????
Holgate 㿅k per week
Dowell 㾻k per week
Williams (Joe) 㾶k per week
Pennington 㾶k per week

add to that the players that Silva doesn't appear to fancy (many which we as fans don't fancy) or who are coming to the end of their time:

Schneiderlin 㿼k per week
Tosun 㿼k per week
McCarthy 㿣k per week
Jagielka 㿣k per week
Baines 㿣k per week
Stekelenburg 㿊k per week

I've probably missed a few from this list but that is 19 players, of which only three or four would be expected to be retained (Holgate, Joe Williams, Baines for another year maybe, and Dowell as long as his current loan spell shows he has what it takes; maybe Vlasic). None of this list of players are regular starters for the first team so we would be no worse off if we sold all of them and didn't bring any players back in.

I think Brands will be spending most of his time trying to get 𨀊k a week off the wage bill before he can turn his mind to who we will bring in.

The lack of movement so far this month — except for four more loans and one returning home to roost! — just underlines the difficulties facing Brands. All the signs seem to indicate that Moshiri has put a stop to the crazy spending. I can't help feeling that is a warning to Silva, which he is not responding well to so far.

The ones you missed off, by the way, are Robinson and Onyekuru, with Ashely Williams, Joe Hilton and Callum Connolly the only loanees (out of 18 so far this season!) whose contracts expire this summer.

The quote from Baines was in the Echo, “Before Saturday, his (Lennon's) work-rate had, in some respects, been the catalyst for us to get the results.

“We haven't played great but if you think about the games with Newcastle or QPR and the amount of times you see him tracking back and nicking the ball off people and doing that work, it makes a massive difference.”

Baines added: “It starts to embarrass people into doing it as well. If you're not doing it and someone, who is not only giving you loads at the top end of the field but is also coming back and doing that, it embarrasses people into doing that.

“It is infectious but it is also encouraging when you see someone who is renowned for his attacking threat working so hard, it makes the other lads want to match that. He has been infectious.”

It's comments like those that really caused me to turn against the Kenwright lackeys at Finch Farm, as well as some players, as well as Kenwright.

Maybe the weight of this problem and the potential length of time it will take to resolve is part of Silva's issues with finding the right players from what he has to fit into the system that he wants to play.

We all applauded Brands and Silva's approach to buy younger, hungrier players during the summer, but younger players are more inconsistent and can have periods where their form dips. When you try to integrate so many over a short period of time you need the more experienced players to step up and support them; unfortunately ours (Sigurdsson, Coleman, Walcott, Tosun, Schneiderlin) are also playing below par. Couple this with Silva trying to introduce a different style of play and it is easy to see why it is currently not working.

Silva can see, just like the supporters, that we need a pacey, strong centre-forward, we need a sitting defensive midfielder (Carsley style rather than Gueye), and we have to address the right-back situation. But, until we offload a substantial number of the players mentioned in my previous post, we won't be signing anyone despite the obvious need for them, and that could take two years due to the contract lengths on some of the players we need to transfer.

Silva needs different players to fulfill his style of football and he can only coach so much into players who on match days can't string two passes together. No amount of coaching can change poor play and bad decision-making. He has a limited number of players he can choose/rotate and if 6 or 7 are playing poorly every week then it is difficult for any system or team plan to work.

Sacking him will not be a solution as who else will take the reins if they are told they have no transfer kitty and we have to offload 10 or 12 players before sanctioning any incomers? Despite what we would like, we have to stay patient and trust that Brands and Silva can over the next two seasons continue to bring in younger, hungrier players who might just have some re-sale value if they don't work out. I think thoughts of breaking into the top six are not realistic until all the deadwood are gone from the books completely.

The wages that some players are on is ridiculous. . . Ramirez – 𧴜, 000 per week; Bolaise, Scheiderlin, and Tosun – 㿼, 000 per week. An absolute joke. These are very average players. What a mess.

Definitely 5 years to find stability and 5 years to rebuild.

Aaron Lennon was a good player for Everton, far better than Walcott. He should never been sold; he would make a difference to the present team.

No wonder Vlasic wants out, all the young players will want out. Lookman has his eye probably on a move as well.

The backroom management of Everton is rotten to the core and clearly is not contributing to Everton's play; Silva should have been able to develop players more but, with these backroom boys, there is no chance.

There are reports in Spain that Mina is looking to go back.

Could I just say where is the justification of attacking Bill Kenwright all the time? Look at Mike Ashley at Newcastle Utd, they have an owner who is arguably a lot richer than Bill and contributes nothing.

I am more worried about what happened last season. Under his stewardship we have had some decent attacking teams and we think about who we were purchasing, something that benefitted the team at the time as the change was gradual.

The money we have wasted under Koeman and Walsh is almost criminal. We have had the money now and I feel now we are a bigger laughing stock as we don't know how to spend it or use it to buy out-of-their-depth managers.

Time will only tell if Silva is the right appointment, for me I think not. Scorn me for my comments but I think we should have gone hell for leather for Rafa. He is always consistent and has discipline something sadly lacking at our club since the Moyes era.

Brands I do have faith in, although the football is not great at the moment I do believe, with the right direction, these players we have are capable of at least challenging the top six in games. One last thing: I always thought that playing players in position would get the best out of them, let's put some strikers on the field instead of playing wingers up front!!!

I don't know what you think to that, everyone, just my state of mind at the moment.

How about the renaming of St.James Park for sponsorship purposes?

Or go talk to a Rangers fan about their merchandising woes.

Kenwright is no saint and is a root cause of a lot of our long-term problems. But he is an absolute godsend compared to that Ashley charlatan.

It shows how bad times are/were if we have to use Ashley as a comparison to make Kenwright look good.

Same with the still unproven coaching staff. We had a fearsome man-mountain of a striker in Lukaku who, we can assume, was Big Dunc's remit to turn into the next Drogba type. Never happened...

And it is the same with Calvert-Lewin. His meek half-a-smile after having a good goal ruled out v Spurs proved he's still another timid one. The Red Shite's forwards would've been screaming, chasing the ref, including the manager.

All this is connected to the mentality and acumen of the staff at our club.

Brands has a terrible mess to sort out, no doubt. To have that many average players on high wages speaks terribly of the stewardship under the likes of Koeman, Walsh, Kenwright and Moshiri. I guess retrospective blame is easy.

Plenty of fans on here were celebrating the signings of Bolasie etc with comments like 'it's not our money!'. Except its our club. And now it's in a mess. Expect more loans while those players run down their contracts because no-one else will match those wages whilst paying a transfer fee.

I think we were always about 6th in the league for wages, we didn't pay mega money for anyone, but we did pay them well. This kind of counteracted the fact that we had no money to spend on transfers. It at least enabled us to keep hold of the players when they were here.

Nowadays, we pay huge sums because we can't offer them anything else. And players become lazy because of it.

I did a little cursory research and looks like our wage bill jumped from 㿤m per year in 2016 to 㿺m in 2017. That's a 40% increase!! In the league, we went from 11th to 7th.

The big thing that changed in 2016 of course being the arrival of Moshiri. And Koeman and Walsh. Somewhere therein lies responsibility for this mess.

Kenwright was taken off transfer dealings after negotiating the Sigurdsson fee up from 㿇M initial offer to 㿙M. Most generous with someone else's money rather than his own.

Now it has been rumoured he is complaining about being sidelined. It was a bad day for EFC when he became involved with the club.

One of the main reasons for our poor results is the lack of a striker. If you agree with the “can't afford to buy any more players” take on things then you are effectively condemning us to mediocrity at best, or the threat of relegation at worst.

Look at where we are. Whether or not we sold any players in January, a striker should have been the absolute minimum to have brought in. Of course, a loan deal would have been fine if the right player was available. Failing that, we should have spent money.

I agree that we have players who we should have attempted to sell. Leading these being Schneiderlin who is very poor. Despite this, it appears that no attempts were made to sell him from the Manager's comments.

I have no idea who is paying the wages of players on loan but not all of those players are poor. Besic, good; Keiran Dowell, good; Holgate, good; Garbutt, career ruined; Williams, promising; Vlasic, promising; Pennington, promising.

If you had a choice between a hardworking Besic and Sigurdsson, who would you choose? Alternatively, Vlasic and Sigurdsson. What about Banigime? Sometimes, we need genuine commitment, drop players like Sigurdsson and Richarlison for a few weeks until they can commit themselves properly and recover some form.

We have problems at the back, particularly Keane, but we send Holgate on loan. We have problems in midfield because of inconsistency but Besic has gone and McCarthy is left rotting on the bench.

We haven't got a striker but we don't buy one and let Niasse go. Niasse is a better striker than Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison and Tosun. He isn't great but does provide a different choice. Niasse has been known to score despite his rather erratic performances.

Keep Moshiri out of football decisions (including Manager appointments), give this to Brands + the manager's job – get rid of the Director of Football idea because we don't need one – and sack Silva.

I might be exaggerating because the European ban killed Kendall's great side, and possibly stopped us dominating for a longer period, but the greatest ever Evertonian, hasn't even had to use all his acting skills, to hoodwink the masses, and make his fortune along the way.

This fella was even prepared to move Everton to Kirkby, although to his great credit, he said he was glad when this move wasn't allowed to happen!

Besic over Sigurdsson? Not only is it lazy to say he isn't hard-working – his goals have been key to us this season. What would Besic add except yellow cards?

Holgate over Keane? Do you remember when Holgate was playing regularly? He looked so far out his depth.

McCarthy rotting on the bench? He's only been fit for a month and his natural position would be Gana's. Are you seriously suggesting he is better than Gana?

Niasse better than any of the 3 mentioned? Now you need your meds, fella.
Baningime has been injured.

Has Brands ever been a football manager? Or is his reputation built around performing in his current role? And in many ways, his influence is already showing.

You're off ya bean, lad!!