Vlasic makes Moscow move permanent

But clearly he has found a home, and you can't blame him for wanted to stay there. And the return isn't bad for a two-year investment.

£14m is a snip these days for a hot, Croatia international who's already one of the best players in Russia at 21.

I reckon we may regret this in years to come but it seems his heart was very set on a move so maybe not that much that could have been done. Could have been a worthy successor to Gylfi but time will tell how far he goes. I'll be expecting a decent sell-on fee in 2 years time when he moves to Italy or Spain.

No point keeping an unhappy player but I think Silva has let a real talent go by not giving him a chance to play.

Bye bye

Would want all our talented youngsters to remain at the club, but thrres only so much bitching anyone person can do before you cut ties.

Ps watched him for Croatia u21s the other day, there best player by a mile.

He did not knuckle down and force himself into contention. Hard work, determination and talent would of walked into our team at that time - he didn't.

He's an irrelevancy now...

Buy back clause would be best used in cases like Pennington (although I don't believe will ever be good enough for us) and the likes of JJ Kenny, Holgate, DCL, Dowell and other homegrown youngsters if there ever moved on.

Moved a player on who added nothing on a Saturday afternoon, bringing in Gomes on a perm deal in return.

£14.5m transfer fee, plus a loan fee, plus a sell on fee = ~£17/18m.

Throw in £5m if Lukaku moves on, and that Gomes signed without weakening the squad at all.

Jags, William's and Vlasic all gone off our first team wage, most likely Steklenburg to follow and only Gomes and the Huddersfield keeper in seems good business.

Lots more players to go still but we are doing the right things atm.

Miralas, Martina, Besic, McCarthy, Niasse, Bolasie, Steklenburg, all still big earners need moving on also along with a few almost over the hill kids (Pennington, Garbutt) but imo were going the right way.

For me the whole of the above could go without replacements being brought in, due to the development of our youngsters for one and secondly there lack of games them lot played last season for us.

Players such as Tosun, Walcot, and Schneiderlin also should be moved on imo to make way for a squad freshen up.

Mina will be like a new player and hopefully an adequate replacement for Zouma, and Holgate coming back gives us all the cover at centre half we need into especially as we are not in Europe, and also due to the emergence of Feeney.

Plenty of moving parts still but I'm genuinely excited by the level of player we are linked with, players like Neres, Malcom and Bernard Traore are quality,, much more refreshing than past few seasons links of Rooney, Walcot and Williams !

Also links to the young Juve forward Moses Kean is refreshing and exciting too, even if it's only a loan deal, hes a real promising player and could be massive for us in later stages of the season if brought in.

I cant blame him for that in fact it shows a better attitude than the hangers on on huge wages who say they want to "fight" for their place and then stink the joint out.

Good luck to the lad.

Brands: "Nikola, you've had a great season with CSKA and we've exercised our buy back clause and I'm here to agree terms for you to return to Everton."

Vlasic: "Thanks, but I don't want to go back to Everton".

Brands: "I have spoken to Marco, he has been very impressed and we can guarantee you first team football, you can have Gylfi's position and shirt and I promise things will be different this time."

Vlasic: "Sorry Mr Brands, I did not like it at Everton, I felt disrespected and bigger clubs are interested".

Brands: "but we have a buy-back clause".

Vlasic: "But I refuse to sign the contract"

And so on …

We're not Barcelona or Real Madrid, we can't persuade players to go back like Deulofeu did.

Could be anything, this kid, so I'm glad we will make some more profit, if he fulfills his potential. Hopefully it shows we are becoming a much more professional club.

No loss really.

You sign a young prospect who doesn't settle and gets frustrated. Next season, you loan him out and he has a good season, so naturally he thinks ‘This is where I'm supposed to be.' and makes it clear he wants the move made permanent.

Older, wiser heads realise it's not worth battling him on it but say ‘Okay, if you really want this, we won't stand in your way... In fact, we will make it easy for you. Only thing we want in return is the opportunity to speak to you first should you ever change your mind about playing in Russia.'

Then they make the official contract with CSKA who are the ones who can be made to sell to Everton should the player ever decide he would like to give it another go with us.

Everybody's happy, nobody's forced to do anything, and we sensibly keep our options.

Did you even read my comments?

I can only assume you never even made it to line 2 yet you wrote a full make-believe discussion up.

Crazy.

It is encouraging that Marcel Brands has included a sell on clause like the one with Lukaku, so should the player get better or move on for a larger fee we will get a chunk of it, or even a small nugget.

The lad was given limited chances, albeit in a different position to which he prefers, but like many have mooted he didn't impress, kind of had the impression that he felt he'd made a mistake, or rather Koeman & Walsh did among many bringing him in the first instance.

Wish him all the best for the future, and he may net us another bonus should he improve and be in demand.

At least Koeman played him, albeit out of position and considering the leap up in quality, from Croatia to the EPL and the challenge of a first move away from home he was far from our worst performer when he featured. Consider that the experienced Sigurdsson also struggled, despite being a far more regular selection. After Koeman's departure he was consigned to the rubbish bin, along with Lookman by the visionaries that are Unsworth and Alladyce. Ironically in the dead-rubber final Europa game both players looked different class to everyone else on the pitch and ran riot. They were not given a second look.

I think he did not react well to what would have been a depressing first season and was eager to move on. Maybe Silva sensed this (or just didn't rate him)? From what I read about Vlasic he comes from a sporting family, his dad secured private 1:1 sessions for him with a coach in Croatia when he was just a little kid to develop his talent. He was Captain at Hajduk Split as a teenager, scouted by top teams like Real Madrid and Milan at 16 and clearly believes in his own ability and future. It looks like he was used to being held in high regard and was not getting that over here. Clearly he did at CSKA.

Anyway, he wouldn't be the first young talent who's first big move didn't work out, but who came good after a reset. Likely he moved a year too early and most definitely to the wrong club! Too bad as if we'd signed him last summer I think things would've worked out very differently. It's easier in some ways for a young, physically dominant (powerful, fast) player to make an immediate impact (though often they fade away as their game does not improve), whereas ball-players like Vlasic and Modric are more nuanced and can need a bit more development and perseverance. I believe this is especially true of the EPL Modric, for example was older and had more games under his belt when he moved to Spurs. A year or two can make all the difference.

He was really quite impressive in those Europa League games and when we signed him I thought to myself "This could be interesting..." but it never really got interesting.

Good luck to the guy. It may just have been the Premier League wasn't for him. He wouldn't be the first.

I'll file this under FIIK.

Where, in your humble opinion, should Vlasic have been playing? Ahead of Siggy? Hardly.

The problem with Vlasic is he was given opportunities when the seniors faltered and failed to impress. Same could be said of Lookman.

If the kids want to move on and play regularly, good for them, but they gave no manager pause to include them at the expense of better players.

Good luck to him.

I wish him well!

He also had a sister who (famous on a small scale) made herself busy on social media telling the world how much of a superstar her brother was and how EFC was ruining his career and that he should play every game.

Goodbye to both of them!

You took the effort to quote me but clearly failed to understand my post.

Where do I say he'd be replacing a starter? I didn't. Squads need depth, to cover for injury and loss of form. Sigurdson, one of our key men, had a slump mid-season. We had no cover, he carried on playing but looked stale, noticeably improving after the international break.

If Vlasic was with us, he could have rotated in to spell him. We had no-one that Silva trusted. Maybe he wouldn't have trusted Vlasic either, but seeing how he's played this season the lad clearly has a bit about him.

Cover can be vets, like Baines or preferably younger players with some upside. Vlasic and Lookman have upside. No guarantees but both have shown potential (at CSKA and Leipzig). Few youngsters will deliver when given 5 mins, here then 10 mins a month later. Both were given some opportunities before Koeman got sacked and neither looked worse than the established pros that were struggling 2 years ago. Allardyce couldn't wait to offload Lookman and Vlasic rotted with no football for 6 months. No wonder both were desperate to leave.

Youngsters, if part of the first team, need meaningful playing time to evaluate progression. Neither had that.