PSG in talks with Richarlison's agent

Let's hope that we have some decent targets lined up in the event that PSG decide to cash in on Mbappe and set their sights on Richarlison - as the chance to play regularly with Neymar and Messi in the Champions League is not really something we can compete with.

If they were to pay our asking price then it's probably a sensible decision to sell rather than keep a player whose head is likely to have been well and truly turned. And with our FFP problems I should think £80 million (or so) probably takes a great deal of pressure off the club. Hard to know what is the best move as replacing his energy, endeavour and goals will not be easy.

If only PSG were really interested in signing Moise Kean (like some on here claim) then this would give them the ideal chance to bring in him. But they don't really want him - and supposedly Neymar specifically wants Richarlison.

For £80m+ it might make sense to let him go but there are only seven days left in the transfer window. That sounds like a disaster to me!

I could see us going back for Zaha if he goes and a right back.

Neymar and Richarlison are the best of pals, and Neymar even pranked Rich on Twitch, with some unexpected results:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP5o55z15j0

Obviously if PSG want him, Rich will be gone so fast he'll leave barely a vapor trail behind, but a lucrative enough deal could offer Brands a chance to bring in three or four good players.

Should be an interesting few days if true.

I agree Andrew. The next 7 days must be a hell of a juggling act for Brands & Co. Knowing you need replacements, contacting clubs & agents to register interest but all the time, knowing you can't actually make a concrete offer.

Add to that speculation like this & you'll be like the clowns I remember from the circus, spinning more & more plates on a pole, then running round like a nutter trying to keep them all spinning.

I hope Brands has a bloody big whiteboard in his office to remind himself of all the possibilities.

The origin to this one is out of France: Link

If like me you don't speak French, you can switch to English on the upper right of the screen. The Richi bit is a couple lines below the picture of Mbappe in a hallway.

Apparently, "To overcome any eventuality and anticipate a changing market, PSG has already contacted Richarlison's entourage." Has Richi gone big time on us?

Followed by, "The Brazilian is a friend of Neymar, who blew the name of his compatriot in Paris." Provocative.

Straight swap would be good!!

It'll be tough to lose his five goals a year but you could break my arm for £80 million.

Shame if true and he'll be wasted in the French league, but the lure of Champions League will be too so I would see it from the player's perspective.

For us, if this has legs, get the right money and for once, don't do an Everton. I hate to say, but follow that lot across the park's model and have a replacement lined up.

He says hopefully, but knowing this is Everton! Our sell-to-buy & reinvest strategy has been wanting... to be polite.

I don't know who PSG have got who is surplus to their requirements but if they came in with an £80M bid then ask for that plus a player but can we play Kean with Calvert-Lewin and one of the youngsters as cover or would we up the offers on Dyke, Jebberson, Hoppe. Myself, I wouldn't mind hanging on to Richarlison but other factors may be in play, and when does "contacting his entourage" become "tapping up"?

Would be a big loss, as he's our nearest thing to a talisman - no doubt about that.

Not a classic Brazilian player, but when he's on it he's a real handful. Powerful when cutting in and great in the air. Yes he frustrates at time with theatrics, but he's a very good player.

It's hard to know if he has more in his locker to kick on, or if we are already getting the best he's got. If he goes we certainly need replacement goals in the team, as without James & Sigurdsson we are woefully short.

I'm not suggesting that this is untrue but surely Richarlison will be on a shortlist so only one potential replacement for Mbappe.

Other teams know that too, Ian; the picture of him surrounded by 4 Leeds players on Saturday was telling. Some Evertonians may not rate him and question his sulkiness, but other teams know the danger he presents.

I'd sell him for £100M and then buy Salah for the same amount plus Iwobi and Delph.

I know he can sulk and dive sometimes, but he looks genuinely interested in Everton doing well. I would keep him this season, he links play up and scores some decent quality goals.

A few of us were talking about Everton being dubious sellers the other day. I think with a notable asset like Richarlison it's all about getting the timing right. The ideal is to do what Villa did, get a good fee at the beginning of the summer having made your major purchases beforehand. This would be the opposite. But if PSG were going to offer £80m+ then that's a decent bid for a player who may well run out of legs this season anyway.

I'm not sure PSG are likely to sell Mbappe at this late stage anyway but this may well be a transfer chain that enacts next summer. Or even January.

Can't see it happening in this window although, like Ancelotti, these things can develop quickly so he'll probably be gone by this time tomorrow.

He must've been with us for 9 seasons then, Kieran, to rack up 45 goals for us.

In reality, we are at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to transfers.

If we 'contact a player's entourage' we'd be fined money we don't have for tapping up. But in Uefa it is one rule for the elite, a whole raft of different restrictive rules to keep everyone else in their place.

As everyone and his dog knows our situation, we will be held to ransom on fees and salaries. (£100k per week is not a wage!) If an offer comes in that is not derisory, we have to agree deals for the 3 players we'd have to bring in before any pen is put to the paper.

Most importantly, we have to stick to the kind of contracts that we managed to offer last summer. We can't be left with panic buys on massive sums of money with no motivation to play. The Bernard & Besic model as I believe it is known.

I don't see PSG breaking up their own version of the Holy Trinity before it even gets going either.

My biggest fear is that we do an "LFC Torres/Carroll" by getting £80M for Richarlison and then spunking £65M of it on Saint-Maximin.

We could certainly live without Richarlison if we spent well the money we got for him.

Martin, #18, we seem to have gone from one extreme to the other. From mega deals to joke offers for Patterson and Jebbison which are never going to happen.

Patterson is in the Scotland squad at 19 and is being touted as a major talent. We offer £5M which is less than we paid for 16-year-old Gibson 4 years ago. No wonder Gerrard called it a joke. Makes me think it was just a stunt to fool the fans. Pathetic.

I think this speculation has come about because Mbappe seems reluctant to sign a new contract; if he doesn't sign, I think next year his contract is up. So it seems to make sense that, with such a talent, if he won't sign, then PSG are not going to let him run his contract down.

They have already had an offer from an EPL side and its widely tipped that our neighbours would love to sign him. I think I read last year that Klopp had actually spoken to Mbappe... now, if that isn't tapping up, I don't know what is.

But it seems as if Mbappe has his heart set on Real Madrid but, seeing they are in the same financial boat as Barca, it looks impossible for them to get anywhere near PSG's valuation.

Clive, you could look at it another way. We want him, Rangers need cash due to getting knocked out of the Champions League and, regardless of what Gerrard might think, the Rangers board might say you can have him for £10M, which is what we actually value him at.

We're hardly going to go in with a huge bid initially. This highlights our interest to the player.

Or another way of looking at it is that it's a non-story from the paper.

Mbappe is a free agent next summer, so it would make sense for PSG to cash in. If they do, they'd still probably ask for a huge fee, and I'm not sure who would be buying at this point.

Richarlison is only one option anyway, so I'm not too concerned right now. However, I'd rate him as our best player by a country mile, and he doesn't have a buy-out clause in his contract (or so I've read). We can name our price if it comes to that.

Mbappe is going nowhere -this story is bull.

Anyone welcoming his departure is off their rocker!

Eddie I think his move to Spain is inevitable. It's more a case of when not if.

And as the Spanish giants are a bit short on cash right now I wouldn't be surprised if somebody has had a whisper in his ear and offered him an insane personal deal if he sits out this year and moves without a transfer fee next summer.

It would be foolhardy to sell Richarlison with only a few days remaining. We would need time to reinvest wisely to keep us strong. Like Villa atoned for Grealish before he left. It's surely too late for that and the last thing I want to see is panic buying when clubs know we've got 100m in our pocket. It's a recipe for expensive mistakes. Worse still is the nightmare that Real Madrid try to offload some vastly overpaid aging deadwood as makeweight. I think (hope) we are a bit wiser than that these days and tell Madrid he's going nowhere this season.

I'd taken my eye off the ball, this one is about PSG, same goes for them too!

There's just a handful of clubs that can afford Mbappe. Chelsea, MCity, MUtd and PSG. RM and Barca are broke. Chelsea has spent on Lukaku, MCity has spent on Grealish, MUtd on Sancho. So... where's the taker?

Great believer in players having a 3 year shelf life at one club if he moves it could be good if we spend the dough correctly. He's not in the irreplaceable bracket as a matter of fact I don't think he's all that. Last season he was very moderate

I'm sure PSG are weighing up every practical option when it comes to their most valuable asset.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Mbappe agree to sign a new contract if PSG set a reasonable release clause that would guarantee them something equivalent to the fee they would be forced to sell him for now (£100 million?) - that way they have more time to plan his replacement, more time to convince him to stay, while also removing the danger of losing him for free next summer.

Any news on He Who Shall Not Be Named? I presume we are still paying his wages?

I haven't seen anything Colin. I was expecting a statement from his legal team but I don't think there has been anything. Are there negotiations going on for an out of court settlement, confidentiality clause and all charges dropped? Who knows?

Tony 34 – I think this is a criminal charge in which case I can't imagine there would be an out of court settlement.

On Richarlison, I would be hugely disappointed to see him go at this late stage, it is a panic disaster waiting to happen. There is no way we would be able to put together a trio of acceptable replacements (right-back; striker; centre-back etc) with the money we would receive. So surely the answer to Richarlison is yes Okay – in January, once we've had time to look at replacements.

Lester @30 – I think you have may have overlooked them on the other side of the park. They could afford him, I presume.

Tony, knowing Everton this will probably drag on until he reaches retirement age before being offered a coaching position with the youth team.

Like a lot of South American players particularly Brazilian suspect he has no say in where he moves too.
For us it will be ensuring we get good value for money and we do not waste it on the "for sale shelf" at Man United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool, Real Madrid and
Barcelona on their unsuccessful signings or former youth team player that are surplus to requirements and you are stupid enough to spend £20 million plus i.e. Iwobi or like Bournemouth you blow your transfer budget on reserves from Liverpool for your record club fees and get relegated.

If we did sell Richie the prices for any late targets would all go up accordingly. If he was being sold, we would have got it done and like Villa, we would have got our recruits in early.

The only guy going is probably James, even Kean has put his Everton pics back on his Instagram. Might see him go in the next window.

One week to go in the transfer window, why would we sell one of our top players. Totally ridiculous especially as other clubs would add on at least £10m for a rash replacement.

It's ok saying that selling him for big money would be good business, as we could bring in others. But selling one of our best players is hardly going to entice other big names to come to us. It makes us look like a selling club, rather than a club with big ambitions.

Neil, considering we have to sell to buy we are already back to being a selling club. Unfortunately if we do sell him l don't have any confidence in us replacing him with the quality we need. Thing is, l doubt very much our best player will be going anywhere till next summer. Pity we can't do a Chelsea and raise £100mil by selling a few reserves.

David surely Awobi and Delph could raise us £100m

Sorry, didn't mean to put the m on the end of that figure.

Rumours that Real Madrid have bid €160M for Mbappé. Not sure where they stand finance-wise, thought they were potless?

Not sure what the ruling in France is for players to travel to red-listed countries but, with the Premier League voting on no Premier League players being allowed to travel, this could tip a move to France for Richarlison, if it allows him to play for Brazil in the three upcoming matches.

So apparently Real Madrid did indeed make a €160M offer, which PSG promptly threw back in their faces, basically saying "Yeah, try €200M – as a starting point."

How on earth is broke-ass Real Madrid throwing around that kind of cash? And unless they think Mbappé might reconsider his refusal to sign a new deal, PSG have a curious concept of how leverage works.

This is now looking a possibility, which is a worry so late in the window.

Along with Calvert-Lewin, Digne, Godfrey and Pickford he's one of the very few quality / reliable players we are building around.

And as we've seen, the money can easily get frittered away if you don't have your replacements at the club before you sell.

Hopefully it doesn't happen.

Bill @ 46. I didn't think PSG have responded one way or the other yet.

Bill @46, without understanding the underlying financial dimensions, to a mere supporter like me, it's another mysterious application of FFP.

A club literally in nearly a billion worth of debt can allegedly throw money around like that.

We're worried about spending £13M on a right back.

Because we'd be made an example of. They won't.

Paranoid / bitter from Speke.

Andrew (48) - I was going off what was reported on ESPN, no idea how accurate it is --

Real Madrid see €160M Kylian Mbappe offer rejected by PSG

I'm skeptical there's enough time for all these dominos to fall before the deadline. And even if we sold Richarlison in, like, the next 10 seconds, that would still barely give us enough time to reinvest in the squad. Letting him go at this late hour would be madness.

The club have already lined up Rondon and other similar journeymen for centre-midfield, right-back and centre-back. Nobody should fear this potential sale, it's all under control and part of the plan. The club know what they are doing, of course, and we should all trust them.

Danny, FFP seems to be more about costs vs revenue rather than actual debt which is why Everton are struggling right now as our salary as a percentage of income is way over the permitted threshold.

That said, if Madrid were to bring in Mbappé, it could only have a negative impact on their salary vs income threshold.

Andrew. PSG are apparently paying Messi £1M a week. Surely that will have a massive effect on things?

Hardly needs saying but £1m a week is fucking ridiculous.

Football (other than things EFC) is rapidly losing its attraction to me.

Ray that's ridiculous but also a reason that Mbappe may want to hold on until next summer. If Madrid can get him without the transfer fee they'll be able to offer him a much bigger package.

I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised to see him go. He is our most important attacking player by far, and with the amount of running he puts in, quite important to the defence as well.

It's always made me laugh how some Evertonians don't rate him – as well as the hard work, he plays up front (and scores goals) for Brazil! We're lucky to have him. I also shudder to think who we'd blow the proceeds on; but we'll have to cross that bridge sooner or later.

To sell Richarlison would be utter madness. He is the best player in the current squad barring none. No! No! No!

Consider Levandowski, could be in this mix so I reckon, an interesting few days lie ahead in the transfer window.

I'd like to think that Everton have a plan, A, B and C, for such a scenario, but we shall see.

Ray @ 5, " PSG are apparently paying Messi £1M a week. "

Does that mean he can't apply for Housing Benefit then ? :-)

So all summer long we've known that we have to get James and Kean's (plus the other deadwood) wages off the books to allow us to purchase anyone new. Now if Richarlison goes, are we still dependant on at least either James/Kean having to go too, just so we can bring in a replacement on semi decent wages? These are going to be a very interesting few days.

Whilst I can see why PSG would definitely sell, I don't think Madrid will buy Mbappe this season tbh.
I know they are all about Galacticos, but why pay 220M for a player who'll be available for a fraction of that next season as their contract counts down? Also, don't they have serious financial issues (hence desperation of the ESL move)?

That said I do think we have to understand that Richarlison is one of the few assets we could use to balance the books. £80-100M would be decent business for the player. It would weaken the side, but I'm not sure he'd be quite as much of a fundamental miss as some would suggest, especially as the plan currently is speed on the flanks and into DCL.

Kia Joorachiban (?) has allegedly told Moshiri that a club is about to make a bid for Richarlison and Everton should prepare themselves and start sounding out replacements.

I would suggest that if Mbappe goes to Real Madrid and thats a mighty big if and PSG make a move for Richarlison, then Moshiri adopts the same stance that Levy did with Kane at Spurs. You put a price on his head that would transform our finances if PSG met our valuation, given that Richarlison is our best player by a long way then we have to set his price at around £150 million.

The ideal would be that PSG sell Mbappe and decide to replace him with a certain young Italian who did well on loan there last year but I think if Mbappe goes they will need a bigger name to appease the fans.

Apparently Salah is top of their list but not keen, Ronaldo is keen to move but they want someone younger. Haaland is not moving so that may lead Richie as a viable, high profile alterantive. Obviously this is all speculation but if it comes to pass then I wonder who Brands has lined up. Madueke would have been one of my faves but he signed a new contract yesterday. Cunha would have been a good move but just went to Athletico. Mcneil? Very expensive apparently? Antony? Very raw. Diaby? Could be interesting but not that many goals. Maybe a known quantity like Raphina, Sarr or Pedro Neto though PL talents come costly and all those could be £40m+ and hard to push through so late.

If the Mbappe move does go through i'd expect it to kick off a flurry of moves certainly. Wouldn't be suprised to see Pogba head to PSG with maybe Camavinga replacing him at United or something like that.

Pogba would be a very unpopular choice Sam, given the classic banner some fans unfurled in the summer, but the biggest change in football that started all those years ago with Bosman, is just how much the ball is in Mbappe's court, right now?

FFP, is an absolute farce and an even bigger contradiction, especially if a club in so much debt can go and sign a player for €180 million, before they even begin to pay him, his absolutely astronomical wages.

Really Tony? I thought he'd be a popular signing given his standing in the French team. There's certainly been gossip about it as a possibility.

As for FFP, there are seperate threads here about it but my understanding is that debt has little to do with it; it's about revenue and sales. They've not bought anyone for notable transfer fees for the last 2 seasons and have sold in the region of £150m hence being able to spend a chunk without FFP worries. Our problem is we have bought but not sold anyone notable for a year or two.

Do we think the PSG owners care what the fans think if means they can add another stellar name to their pet project?

Interesting that being in debt, has got nothing to do with FFP, just as long as you are selling someone of value every so often, which reminds me of why I couldn't get no credit rating, until I started using the banks to pay my bills, rather than paying by cash at the post office!

I read that PSG fans unfurled a big flag at their stadium in the summer Sam, which said, “Listen to your mother Pogba, because we don't want you to come here either!” Which was a lot more witty than the scouse version that greeted Benitez!

It's all getting a bit late in the day so replacements are going to be at inflated prices. If this transfer happens then PSG will have to pay us an inflated price to reflect this. I agree McNeil, Sarr, Diaby, Doku, Neto all should be considered. They are going to cost us 10-20m more than we'd otherwise expect. So whatever figure they would initially be thinking for Richarlison add 30-40m on top due to the increased costs we will incur.
Anyway, I love the player and would rather keep him, but there's a lot of factors to consider. I trust the board to do what's best for Everton.

I would be sad to see Charlie go, but even late in the day, FFP pressure may just force the issue, 80 Mil sterling plus Gana back would not be a bad result, leaving cash to bring in a RB ( rangers lad has been earmarked) Forward ( shef utd youngster and Rondon muted) and another wide player to replace Charlie.
If we can then offload at least James's wages then I personally won't be that disappointed.

Absolute worse case scenario would be to sell Richarlison but not be able to offload James and Kean.

RIcharlison is our most important player. Lose him and keep those two wasters on the books and we're fucked.

Everton now linked to another loser - Maupay at Brighton. Can this window get even more depressing?

You mean we gonna sell Richarlison James and Kean... and replace them with Gray, Townsend and Maupay.
Say it isn't so. It must be Bills fault, he was visiting the ladyboy circus in Brighton and accidently caught the game... or was it the other way around? Anyway. Whatever. Way to go Bill.

i don't think he will leave this season - not after allowing him to play in the Olympics. However I can see him going next summer. Maybe Kean will sit up and take notice; hard work, the right attitude (despite his sulky demeanour), coupled with an abundance of talent, pays off eventually.

If PSG were interested in Richarlison they would have been watching him play for Everton, not so much Brazil, with that in mind I think any interest they had in him will have ended.

If he wants to go, let him, not all that he's made out to be. Yes, he tries but his finishing is erratic and he is not exactly an assist machine. He might be one of our better players but can be a very frustrating selfish player at times. If we got offered £70 million plus, I'd snap their hands off.

Well Correa has just gone to Inter to join up with Dumfries, so he won't be the Richarlison replacement.

Still plenty of deals to be done but hopefully Richarlison's departure isn't one of them.

Perchance the offer of a near nine-digit transfer fee off PSG would suffice to attract Harry Kane to us. I mean he's just had his best seasons waiting for a stadium to be built hasn't he, whilst winning sod all? He'd fit right in.

I can't see us doing any incoming business in this window. As it stands, there might not be too m,any outgoings either. Maybe a couple of surprise outs but that's about it.

Having said that this season may turn out to be better than expected as Rafa seems very hands-on and good with player management.

Funny rumours yet unsettling...

Richarlison to PSG, Kean to Juventus..

Incoming we are said to be pursuing Maupay from Brighton. 'Great'... 'Inspiring'...

Sounds like we are a feeder club now, imagine these shit transfers went through. God have mercy on Everton FC this season.

Maupay is only a rumour. If just half the rumours were true we would have bought three new teams by now. Calm down and trust Rafa- he knows what he's doing.

Dave 81.

Nah, it is norm for me not to expect anything great as long as Brands is in charge. News of Richarlison's agent spotted in Paris doesn't sound great to me...

Yes, Rafa knows what he is doing, no argument on that. My concern is: Do club owners understand and stand together with him? I won't be so confident if money is on the table (FFP). After all, it is not debts but revenue vs Sales & Purchases balance check in creating problems for us.

Buy low(ish), sell high. This one feels like another time we're going to lose a top player who'll probably be replaced by three who join at the last-minute and then leave with little fanfare a few years later. Klaassen, Niasse, etc

Oh, and I still think signing Zaha would be a good move – more so under these circumstances

Just read in the paper that PSG ''see it as an easy deal.''

Why does every club assume we will sell cheaply and easily?

Benitez has hinted that FFP – or some such – will limit the club's signings in this window although many of us suspect it is more to do with priority being given to funding Bramley-Moore Dock.

This morning's news is again headed by the limitless activities of the 'big' clubs who appear to totally disregard attempts to cap their transfer expenditure. And if Richarlison really is on the cusp of leaving in the quest for 'top team glory', it will confirm my suspicions that Everton are happy to be 'also-rans'.

I have seen many posts on here advocating for buy low and sell high. Well, we could more than double our money if we sold Richarlison. It would be a shame but ultimately this is a prime example of what buy low and sell high actually means. But, as always, saying it and doing it are two different things because it always means sell your best players and nobody wants to do that.

It's really down to the player. He still has 2½ years to go on his current contract so we are under no pressure to sell. But if a massive offer came in and he wanted to go, then it would be best to let him go and use the cash to strengthen the squad.

Richarlison is one of the only players in world football who has ability and enough work rate to cover for Neymar and the ageing Messi when PSG don't have the ball, I'm very worried as he would be ideal for them to replace Mbappé. Neymar is probably in the ear of the owners as well.

Perhaps this was all part of PSG's plan all along, they know Everton are potless so make a derisory loan offer for one of our only saleable assets; now, when we are struggling to buy players, they have us by the lovespuds.

Going on previous experiences, it's clear we have too many meddling influences in recruitment. I'd rather the club keeps its best first-team players at all costs as the club won't get this right.

If PSG want him, PSG will get him. We are football Krill when it comes to the giants. They can gobble up whoever they want and we can't do anything about it.

I was hoping football would collapse during the Covid pandemic so we could all reconvene on a more level playing field. But like the drugs trade, football is addictive and there's too much dirty money behind it to fail.

I'm not a huge Richarlison fan but, if we do sell him, I hope we show some self-respect and get a decent wad from the petro-dollars drenched owners.

Interesting that a lot of the Twitterati find it hilarious replacing Mbappe with Richarlison but, as Andrew @87 says, he might be the ideal workhorse for a team featuring Messi and Neymar. I think Richie is one of those players best appreciated by the fans who watch him week in week out.

Personally, I think he'd be as big a loss to us as the likes of Lineker and Rooney. He's the best player in the team by a mile and, without him, we go from a potential top 6 (at a massive stretch) to a potential top 12.

I also don't relish the sight of us scrabbling around and paying massively over the odds for yet another cast off from ManUre's bench or the second best player in a shit club's first team.

Can't blame him at all if he goes to PSG. Play with Messi or Iwobi? No-brainier. We've just got to get the best deal we can for our stand-out player.

This is the way it's gonna be till the stadium's built, I think. Selling the Crown Jewels and hoping we can unearth some talented kids or get something out of players considered past-it.

Moshiri has spunked hundreds of millions on players that haven't worked out. None of them off the top of my head have been sold for profit... maybe Gana. I for one understand this cautious and sensible new approach. UTFT

I don't think that Richarlison will go in this window; however, next summer he might well leave. It's a little too late in the window for Everton to be selling an asset they might struggle to replace.

Mind you, I could be wrong and Richarlison could be in a PSG shirt come Wednesday and Kane in a Man City shirt, who knows?

I don't want to lose Richarlison, he's one of my favourite players in the last few years. But timing is key.

If PSG sell Mbappé, they will be under huge pressure to replace him and I'd rather sell Richarlison now for £85-£95M than for potentially £50M next summer after a mediocre season because his mind is elsewhere and he's knackered by playing so much footy.

I don't see there's a scenario in which Richarlison is still here next season so I think it's about sensible decision-making and maximising our most sellable asset. I have a feeling that may mean selling him now makes some sense but obviously there's a lot of factors that are hard to predict.

Like I said, I'm a big fan but he was possibly not in our top 3 or 4 players last season so we will cope without him so long as we recruit well. (A big 'if'!!)

Talksport (who are usually wrong) saying we are keen on Luis Diaz at Porto and willing to offer £22m plus James Rodriguez (who they like). That could be a great deal if any truth in it. Diaz is a very exciting player.

Sam,

A pragmatic post. Also, a big factor is what will Richarlison's reaction be if we turn down the move? He will want to play in an attack with Messi and his friend Neymar Jnr in the Champions League.

No-one knows what the future holds; for him, it could be now or never. I'll be very upset to see him go, even worse at this late stage, but all factors have to be considered and the board has to do what's best, on balance, for Everton.

Luis Diaz for James is an interesting development.

Barry 91, that's what we thought about Arteta and even Indiana Jones has been unable to find the fabled £10M.

Rafa has just said we are not considering selling Richarlison.

Sam, Fabrizio Romano has just tweeted that this on if James agrees to a loan switch the other way.

Diaz is a very good player, worryingly similar to Richarlison. I really hope it's for squad depth and not a replacement for our Brazilian.

We are a selling club nowadays, especially with our FFP position so anything could happen. We had better have a replacement lined up.

I half expected PSG to be after Ronaldo.

I like Sam's reasoning as well. It isn't as though we are breaking up a productive front line. I think Diaz is better on the ball and while giving up Richy's goals and defensive prowess now might be the time for taking the premium on him and attempting a reload.

I would like to see Richy get some regular service and touches under Rafa's system but if the market calls we have to take an honest look at the situation.

This just in....Ronaldo goes back to UShited.

Makes me sick that Cristiano is going back to ManU. I hate anything that makes their fans happy.

Note to the Yanks on this board -- yesterday it was widely reported that Weston McKennie was headed out of Juventus (perhaps for Spurs) because Allegri didn't fancy him. Today Allegri told a news conference that he wants McKennie to stay.

Ooh PSG has gone 5/4 on odds for Richy

The language coming out of Benitez; as it was meant and we're not selling him? Or pushing the price up?

I don't know too much about Diaz, but from what people are saying a 3 of Diaz, Richarlison (10) and Day, behind the forward could be an exciting prospect, as much as I'd hate to see James go if that is true.

All rumour and speculation. Who knows and in honesty, I'm just always glad when the circus is over and we know what we're dealing with.

If he does go, then the money we get will be enough to buy three or four players on top of getting rid of three or four. Financially it could be sound, but he gives us an edge to our game. Difficult one for me.

What state will Richarlison be next summer, over-worked? YES injury prone because the body can only take so much? Possibly? ghis lad believes he is invincible and his injury record is pretty good AT THE MOMENT. How saleable is he going to be if VVD and other cloggers decide to put him onto crutches?

EFC have got to stand firm, sell him at our price and tems, as well as Misery Kean, no loans available. If necessary we rebuild with that money when the time is right, and hope that the signs of greater determination under Benitez continue with the current squad!

Last season, this squad went AWOL too many times, get that sorted and Europe is not a too far fetched target!

99.99% he's staying is the word from Rafa. Shipping Kean out it is believable, decent business if we can get Diaz and either M-N or Patterson in. UTFT!!!!!

I just went for a walk and thought about this logically. Whatever actually happens, I can only see that Diaz is a swap in case we get an offer for Richarlison we'd be mad to refuse. He doesn't make sense as a replacement for Kean. James perhaps... but I think he's a back-up in the event Richarlison goes for stupid money.

Used to think 99.999% of these predicted moves were probably rubbish because there are supposed to be rules about how you approach players.

An 'in the know' bod on radio the other day stated that, these days, no-one is shy about making sure the player is well primed for a move well before their club is officially approached.

Seems like very few of the cheeky sods ever seem to actually put in an official transfer request though, do they?

Danny O'Neill,

“Day” in the three behind the forward? As in Mervyn Day the goalie? Or Doris Day the singer?