And Begovic makes it two new players for Benitez

Begovic announced on official site. Good solid business imo, Demarai Gray next.

Begovic confirmed on the official site.

Begovic now done. It's like waiting on a bus. Two come along at the same time. And they're both free.

Excellent understudy for Pickford.

I hope that Brands has got a decent club lined up for Virginia to be loaned out to, mind.

Pat K, when is the 10, 11 and 8 due ? 😜😂🤔

National teams always call up 3 goal keepers for the national squad. Everton will have 3 goal keepers in the first team squad: Pickford, Begovic and Virginia.

Derek, 10 Gylfi, 11 King, 8 Delph all look like being taken out of service.

Pat @7
The number 7 is finding it difficult to make its way back to the depot due to a major diversion from its main route and there's no guarantee that its final destination will be Finch Farm, very similar to the number 19 which is also awaiting its final destination to be confirmed.

Good first interview with Begovic. Everton are a massive Club... very ambitious blah blah. Delighted to be here despite the new goalie's shirt.

Begovic wife on her Instagram account dressed up her horse in Everton Colours and she has an Everton shirt on!! Crazy times

Steavey, that's all well and good, but unless Virginia's going to be playing in the Carling Cup, he's going to be stuck with u23 football. I can't see that doing his development any favours.

Barry @8, I'm sure the Fat Controller will sort it out.

Arsenal have pulled out of Florida cup, due to an outbreak of positive COVID 19 tests that have hit their squad.

Ian 10

I saw the picture his wife put on twitter of her in an Everton shirt and the horse with an Everton scarf round his neck to be honest I would get more excited to see her and the horse at Goodison than her husband. Probably cant believe their luck, they thought where do we go when our contract finishes at Bournemouth, when his agent rings and says Everton want to sign you, he probably thought bugger going all the way to Chile.

Can the horse play right back? Such underwhelming times.

Robert, Virginia will be training with Pickford and Begovic everyday with the goal keeping coach. But if Everton decide to send Virginia out on loan they still will need a 3rd goal keeper.

According to Everton's OS, Fabian Delph will miss the Florida cup due to his having to self-isolate having been in contact with a person who has tested positive for Covid.

I thought you were going to say, Delph had been in contact with a football, Barry.

Don't be ridiculous Colin, you know they don't allow footballs in the treatment room 😀

Klopp will not be happy, competition for his nashers, from our goalskeepers, wife's horse.

Thread's developed an ‘On the Buses' theme, starring Rafael Benitez as Blakey ? He could pull it off with a little moustache and a cap.

Colin, Delph often treats a football like it's infected with something.

This is a good signing. A few years ago he was one of the best keepers in the league at Stoke which led to him going to Chelsea. Maybe Virginia can get a championship loan and play regular 1st team football to see if he can be no 2 to Pickford a year down the line.

The S*n report that Delph was wrongly outed as the arrestee based on his age, marital status, home, and his current quarantine. Apparently he's being hounded and Everton spokesperson says it's “unfortunate.”

These signings and the rumors of Gray leave me just:

Meh.

I fear we're looking decidedly mid table moving forward. I don't see James being with us either, not that it's any great loss as he's superb for the first ten games and then continually injured the rest of the season (seems that way, anyhow).

I've seen a lot of comments on various threads saying something along the lines of Rafa is going to have to turn around our fortunes with the squad we basically have.

If he can do that, it'll be a miracle. And he'll win my respect. Until that time, I'll never be happy with this appointment, and I see owners simply solidifying their position in the table until the monumental financial hurdle of the new stadium is cleared.

I fear we are in for a few seasons of meh.

Meh.

I've made my reservations for Orlando, bought tickets, and we're all set to go. I'm really not excited about it. I should be, as I don't get to see Everton play live. It should be counting down the days like a Kid during the Christmas Season. It just isn't. The only thing I'm looking forward to is meeting TWers - which will be fabulous if it happens. But the football and the squad and the manager? Meh.

I've never been this uninspired about Everton. Life is cyclical. Surely my mood will improve?

Jamie, snap out of it then! Its amazing what a bit of natural speed and width will do to a team. PLUS you may well be one of a select few Evertonians that get to see James in a blue shirt. You lucky lucky baaaastard

I have just finished listening to Asmir's first interview. He came across to me as an intelligent level headed character. I think he will bring something to the dressing room.

One of my favourite players during my 60 years as a fan was Nigel Martyn. He was about 36 when he joined us and made a big difference to that 2003 team.

Very sensible signing given experience and back up. ~£6M less than Olsen.

I have previously said I wanted a better keeper to seriously challenge Pickford. He's not the one to do that but I welcome him to try.

Welcome, all the best of luck, don't mess up.

Next.. hopefully a top quality midfielder.

Ps Nigel was one of the best and most underrated keepers in the Premier league. Solid, dependable, no fuss, no mistakes and a top shot stppper.

Always comfortable with this one as soon as it looked probable. We've had worse first team keepers than this over the years, let alone backup. A decent squad signing.

Keep strengthening the squad, but come on, put two fingers up to FFP Mr Moshiri, and give us a couple that get us hopeful and full of expectation. It's hope right?

Sound back-up signing for Jordan Pickford, IMO.

Not saying Begovic is a bad acquisition as reliable back up if needed, my only concern is that will he keep Jordan as focused as when Olsen was breathing down his neck?

That goes for the other signing in Andros Townsend, many on here not being impressed, but I think he could turn out to be another Paul Power, where people expressed similar doubts and he soon had them thinking differently. Give the man a chance before slating him.

It looks as if the others will all come off, Dumfries, Nunes, Bailey and Gray, we will have a hard working side capable of upsetting a few, just hope it is not us the fans being upset, but I don't think so.

Another sound piece of squad support collection. I recall a good number of his games while playing for Stoke City. He looked fairly solid then and shouldn't be too old for a keeper

I think he would make an excellent second choice goalkeeper, its a very good deal for the club and great value. I'm expecting Benitez to stamp his mark on the club with another 6 to 8 signings this window.

Decent keeper but prone to many a mistake. Think he's a decent backup to Jordan though.

Justin [30], if Begovic turns out to be as good as Nigel Martyn we'll be overjoyed: easily the best keeper we've had in the past quarter century.

No, Steve, Begovic will not be as good as Nigel Martyn (let's hope we never have to find out), and Martyn was not as good as Tim Howard.

Jamie C, enjoy your weekend mate, and just remember all the things you've looked forward to in the past that have turned out shite, whilst the times that you can't really be bothered, that end up being the times you remember the most!

I've heard that Benitez, is going to get money to spend, so I just hope he spends it wisely, and also hope that Brands can offload a few, which won't be easy, because of the massive contracts he's helped to give, to a few average and very inconsistent players.

In 2003 we signed a 38 year old keeper as backup to Richard Wright. He ended up being (in my opinion), the best keeper I've seen play for Everton since Southall.

Okay, so we have a better standard of keeper in Pickford now, despite his faults (but he is still young for a keeper so will get better).

But as with Nigel Martyn and what I said about the Townsend signing, we can, and should now, only judge Begovic on what he does, or doesn't do as an Everton player.

The optimist in me can't believe there isn't money and there won't be more high profile signings. This is getting easy business out of the way early and adding depth. The more complex ones will take longer.

Mike,

I have to disagree with you there. Martyn was the best I've seen since Southall, and on a par with Gordon West. Pretty good company.

Tim Howard was not.

And the sorry thing is that we could, should, have signed Martyn years earlier.Wasnt it something to do with him being unimpressed with Xmas Club hampers ?

Alan,

Possibly unimpressed with Cliff Finch, who stood in for Peter Johnson and gave him directions to Leeds.

Great keeper. Moyes reckoned he was his best signing from memory.

Chris@41

Chris, Albert Dunlop was in goal when I started going the match and since then, in my opinion, Southall, West, Martin and Howard have been our best keepers. In that order. Howard, unfortunately, was still played after he'd peaked leaving some people with the unfair opinion that he wasn't a good keeper. He was. Apart from the three keepers I named (and Pickford) can you name a better keeper?

Not the most exciting signings but no worse than what we've got currently. Hopefully we're filling out the squad with decent pros, on frees, with a view to getting fees for the underperformers - Bernard, Delph, Iwobi, etc. I guarantee that Begovic and Townsend are on way lower wages than the current dead wood too.

Makes a lot of sense in the world of FFP. And then hopefully a couple in to improve the first XI and provide some optimism before the 14th.

Ray,

It was Jimmy O'Neil when I started. Then Dunlop.

Thinking back, we've not really been that well blessed with top class keepers over the years., but we've been compensated by the best keepers we've had playing for a decade or more.

I take your point about Tim Howard, Ray, and I would agree he is the fourth best I've seen, but for me he lags a bit behind the other 3.

Just wondering do you think the club made a mistake in making it known that the player spoken to by Manchester police was one of our players. The reason I say that is the club have suspended the player so when our players board the plane today for Florida it will be quite obvious who the player is.

A little bit of dick waving there Chris, trumping my Dunlop with your O'Neil 😁
I used Dunlop to illustrate that I had seen the likes of West and not just Wright etc! Or Scotland's Number I.
Howard was a good keeper for us and never misses a chance to sing our praises.

Brian, apparently it was all over social meejah last Sunday with the player named so maybe we were just taking the initiative.

Alan @42, apparently Everton were his first choice and preference, but he was completely underwhelmed by the reception he got from the club and Johnson, so opted for Leeds.

Not to worry. A couple of years down, we got Steve Simonsen from Tranmere.

Call me a cynic and I know it was within the rules at the time, but that transfer was effectively money laundering. Johnson took £3M (not insignificant back then) from one, richer, bigger asset and placed it into his smaller, less profitable asset, not long before he pulled the plug and sold out to Bill.

But we got the next young up and coming young England keeper right? We can call Moshiri naive and ill-advised for the way he has spent, but that was ruthless business and exploitation of a system that allowed him to do it by Johnson in my view. Caveat, it's an unqualified and non-informed perceptive view!

How dare you Ray! Implying I was waving my dick about.

Mind you it's the most exercise it will get today!

What about Lawson? Record fee at the time.

I agree Tim did well for us, and I agree he was kept too long. I think after that World Cup (?) he was poor, plus I think he was believing in his own publicity a bit, and had other distractions too, with a fair few transatlantic trips that season.

But yes, the 4th best, over a period with hopefully Pickford set to overtake him.

Pickford reminds me of West in many ways.

Just thought I'd check in to see if we'd signed Titus Bramble yet. No?

I'll come back tomorrow…

Chris,Good point about West and Pickford, neither particularly big but athletic and brave.
Not sure if Pickford's got a handbag though.

Possibly not Ray. I bet he could ask Tom or Dom for a loan of theirs!

Danny (50) - I think your instincts re: Simonsen were right.

He cost us £3.3m which was a record price for a goalkeeper at the time.

Gentlemen please. All this talk of waving our gentleman around could go downhill and end up in the gutter very quickly!

I vaguely remember David Lawson, but my first real memory was George Wood who I loved, but probably just because he was Everton's keeper. At that stage of life, I had no ability to rate him on ability. Likewise, I thought Jim Arnold was decent.

Tim Howard is 3rd in my lifetime after Southall and Martyn. I always thought his main flaw was decisiveness, particularly about when to come off his line. But he was a really good keeper.

Outside shout, but I always liked Thomas Myhre. Not the best but steady. Not sure if many would agree with that.

Pickford, if, as he has shown, can relax and calm down, can go on to be a top keeper. And in the context of a keeper, he's still very young so has time to develop and do that.

When did Jim McDonagh go all Gaelic and become Seamus ? And why did Jim become Roger McGuinn ?
Keep tuning in. TW will provide the answers.

Where would (those old enough to remember), Dai Davies rate in our pantheon of keepers?

Alan,

Jim became Seamus when picked for Ireland I think. He got picked because his granddad once had a pint of Guinness!

I'm told Jimmy became Roger, because he thought it sounded like Rajah when the Maharishi said it. I've never seen anything to corroborate that, but given the times and tide, it could be true.

Danny, I think it was Billy Bingham signed Lawson, but could be mistaken. He was a poor manager but a good player for us. He was signed after Micky Lill and Tommy Ring were both lost to bad injuries.

Joe Harper used to call him Billy Liar

All through the painful 70 s we had to endure Lawson and dai the drop. Both let us down when it mattered. Rankin slightly better but hopeless at the fa semi 71 v the shite. Cruising one nil up then labby goes off and he flaps at a cross. You all know the rest I'm sure albeit great in pen shoot out in European cup same year. Big nev then westy. Not worth opening up old wounds on the rest.

Brian...agree with you totally, about Lawson. And didn't we pay a record fee for a keeper, for him ?
Think Dai gets a poor press...he was OK but again, after having had West between the sticks for ten years he was always judged unfavourably.
Chris..love the McGuinn explanation. That'll do me !

Howard was a decent keeper but absolutely no way on this planet was he better than Nigel Martyn

Chris Williams, your Jim to Seamus and Grandad's pint of Guinness explanation could be applied to a lot of Jackie Charlton's Ireland team of the 90s.

Chris @64
Comes as no surprise really, but do Everton FC have to keep their promise to ensure the stadium blends in with its surroundings?, seems little point in that now if World Heritage Status has been removed.

Is anyone old enough to remember Geoff Barnett? I never actually saw him play but he was West's understudy for a while in the sixties before joining Arsenal.
He made 49 appearances for Arsenal over several seasons and was effectively Bob Wilson's deputy.

Barry,

A good question. I don't know, but I guess they got planning permission for the existing plan, so maybe they do. It'll be interesting how it looks finally.

Mhyre was a decent keeper. Howard was good in his day but we got him towards the end of his career. Robles was just as good - stood in well for Howard who was injured and out for about 3 matches in which Robles kept 3 clean sheets (?) as soon as Howard was fit Bobby shitshoes put him back in and the flapping started

Andy Rankin pulled off the best save I have ever seen, by any keeper, anywhere.
I was half way up the Anfield Rd terrace at Mordor when we bet them 4-0.
It was Hunt hit it from the edge of the box. It was going into Andy's top left hand corner and he got to it. I can still hear the slap as he got a glove to it and put it over the bar. Some memories never leave you.

Link

I think Geoff Barnet passed away recently..Did he ever play in the first team ? Played in the 72 Final when Leeds beat the Gooners

Laurie. I would kill for any footage of that game ( even pics or report ) my older bros where in the kop
And said it was like a fire drill when the third went except for pockets of blues going nuts. Too few and far between eh.

Well, there is a reason why Olson costs £6m and Begovic nothing! Not as reliable as Olson.

Brian @70
Not the original match report but a decent article about the game from 1964.

4-0 Everton

Best: Southall, West, Martyn, Howard, Pickford, Wood in that order.
Worst: Jason Kearton, Lawson, McDonagh, Baardsen

When you look at our recruitment v Villa/Leicester does it worry you?

Three in now Gray's signed. Doesn't seem as over the moon as Townsend did in his interview.
Obviously a quiet lad. Good luck to him!

Good news all around for DCL. More options now for more crosses. Gray was a decent player for Leicester. Remains to be seen if Rafa will get the best out of him.

This is very reminiscent of one of Howards spells were he signed Ainscow, Biley, Mickey Ferguson all completely useless.

Welcome to Demarai Gray. We are due a master stroke of a signing, it feels like a long shot but this lad could be it. He's had some great experience and just coming into his prime at 25 years old. The time has come for him to deliver his potential and he will be loved at Everton if he can tear away from defences with his pace and create goals. For the 1.8m fee it's good, shrewd business for the club.

I hope he turns out to be a great signing but reading the interview with him, it sounds like he sees us as a stepping stone.

Tony @79
I'm afraid that's what Everton has become, any player around 25 or younger sees the club as a stage in their career, if older, we are a nice way of topping up a pension. Benitez has to somehow alter that view by making Everton competitive again.

I get that Barry. I just don't expect a new signing to outright say it.

Tony @81
Your comment piqued my interest so I watched Gray's interview, which is the type of stuff I try and avoid, but I can't see in this video anything that suggests he's looking to use Everton as a stepping stone, perhaps the text you read is from a different source?

New Signing

Remember Koeman's first summer? A conveyor belt of money out the door.
I feel so much better getting three players for less than 2m, all with premier league experience and in positions I think we can all agree needed addressing.

I imagine that'll be that until we get a bit of clarity regarding Bernard (imminently it appears) and James, Iwobi, Delph.

I think we'll be getting a striker in considering our only two won't be ready for the Southampton game.

Barry, Tony. I watched the interview and he seems quite a laid back guy, not going overboard in his comments. I liked the way he came across, sounds like a player who has got something to prove, and realises he has been handed a good opportunity.

Barry & Tony- I retract my comment!

I read the interview on a site with loads of ads breaking up the text. When he talks about Everton helping him get into the England squad I misread it, partly because new ads kept appearing between lines of text.

I'll just remain underwhelmed instead!

Fair enough Tony :) Who knows the two outfield signings may prove all of us doubters wrong.