Everton approach Montpellier's Mavididi

Played for Dijon eh? He and Coleman will get on well.

He is either exactly what we need, or he is completely useless, or he'll just be another journeyman bench-warmer.

That's my expert analysis based on all I don't know of this player I've never heard of.

Played for Dijon, He must be mustard.

Duncan,

They will most probably argue over who is the hottest in form player.

8 goals and 3 assists in 30 appearances as an attacking right-footed left-wing / forward position last season.

At age 24 those are okay but not great stats for the French league.

For context, that's much the same output as Sofiane Boufal who played briefly for Southampton.

He looks like the sort of player Watford sign, rather than someone to get excited about. But this may be the standard this summer if finances are very tight, like last year.

As Robert says, I don't see a great deal here to get excited about. Doesn't look an obvious upgrade to Gray to me. Be surprised if there's much in this.

Didn't make it at Arsenal, didn't make it at Juve, doing okay at a mediocre French team.

In terms of stats, he's a bit like Bolasie only he did it in the Premier League. I can't think of many players who do okay or even above average in weaker leagues, then suddenly improve on coming to the Premier League.

For example, Tomasz Radzinski, Jelavic, Mirallas – or even Bakayoko who also came from Montpellier.

Why?

Fran #2, that is some brilliant analysis.

And still we are guessing on players without any proven ability at the top level. Have we not learned our lessons?

Anybody worked out how this summer is going to go from a budget perspective yet?

Andrew,

Paul the Esk's recent excellent article sheds light. My possibly flawed and non-scientific expectation is that we might spend about 2/3rds of what we bring in from sales of Kean, Mina, Richarlison and possibly Calvert-Lewin. Perhaps about £75M tops and only if all four are sold.

Sales of the deadwood will not swell the coffers by much at all.

Robert,

I've been concerned that we mightn't be able to spend any of the proceeds from the sale of say Richarlison or Calvert-Lewin.

My understanding is part of the £170M Covid adjustment to losses was sale proceeds of one of them that we couldn't complete because of the Covid-hit finances of the buyer.

Therefore we've already ‘enjoyed' the benefit of a deemed sale. To do so again would be double counting.

If this understanding is correct, I fear we'll be shopping around the free-agent market and recycling some of the salary savings.

In turn, if we can't get a benefit from the sale, then why bother and instead just hold on to them for another year to allow a heavy-loss year drop out of the equation?

All conjecture.

This is speculation, we have some players with fight and goals in them, and in contract.

Keep them if we can, and if we can't then hopefully Everton, will go for the best rough diamonds, but for me this is just media hype and speculation.

Surely for Everton, lessons learnt, must have sunk in, after the poor buys under the Clog and Sam.

Stephen #13,

That makes for very grim and logical reading.

We have obviously skirted very close to the wind financially – any more funny business and we'll get a points deduction, relegation or go bust.

Loans, free transfers and a few quid on a rough diamond like Mavididi might be our lot then – even if the big names leave.

At 24, you wouldn't think he was being signed as just a bench-warmer which could be seen as somebody leaving or little faith in the juniors. Or the obvious, there's nothing in this.

As I have said on another thread, Moneyball and loanees! Given our financial situation, this seems to be our only option and we just have to hope our recruitment team can unearth some gems.

There are some possible players from the relegated clubs that may be worth a punt on if the price is right.

Another perhaps high-risk strategy would be to bust a gut and throw big money at Chelsea to get Gallagher who would really improve our team and make up the rest from out of contract players and astute loan deals

Whichever way we go for, it will be squeaky bum time both this summer and next season and I don't expect us to bring in more than 3 or 4 players even if Richardson or Calvert-Lewin (or both!) are sold.

It's crucial we don't get docked points or even relegated for breach of FFP rules.

No thanks; Dobbin is a much better option. We are short of funds. Dobbin could do the striker's role given the chance.

Spend what we have on central defence and a holding midfielder, please — no more wingers!

Leave this one alone. Sounds like another player who cannot settle anywhere for long. Playing for Montpelier doesn't impress me.

NEXT!

No thanks on this one.

Ericksen – free
Gallagher – loan
Zakaria – loan
Hudson-Odoi – £15M

Should sort it tho…

Ahhh... the ToffeeWeb managers are out in force, the ones who know best what the club and Frank need to make us a success.

We have to sell to rebuild and we can't rebuild with world class players. Guess what... we are financially fucked!!

Leave the team to Lampard, it's what he's paid for and I'll wager he knows a little big more about professional football and what players we need than anyone on here.

This sort of hype, which will necessarily beget the signing of various nobodies for next season, is a legacy of the total cock-up Moshiri has allowed his designated 95%-accountable Kenwright (given Moshiri's chosen indolence and evident stupidity) to once again damage us now and for seasons to come.

Unlike Paul Daniels, who actually performed "magic" on TV whilst stating "You'll like this, but not a lot!", our Frank might as well get used to spouting the same line, but with "magic" beyond the reach of him or any manager on the planet given the incompetence at the top.

We never learn, do we!

This one's got Moshiri's fingerprints all over it.

Avoid.

Hopefully this is nonsense.

Just like Harry Winks who will apparently ‘consider' a move to Everton.

No way a manager if Conte's pedigree would let go of a decent player.

For context, should Everton sign Winks we can look forward to a player with 2 Premier League career assists and 4 goals in 128 games. His last assist came in 2018, 4 years ago.

Remarkably he has 10 England caps. Quite what anybody sees in this player, I do not know. I'm hoping this one is nonsense and doesn't work out.

By contrast, Tom Davies has played 136 games and has 6 goals and 7 assists.

Another journeyman. Just what we need.

Duncan #1 - They will be keen like Moise.

As I understand it, the 2 covid years 2020 and 2021 are averaged out and counted as 1 for FFP purposes, which in our case comes to about –£130M. I've seen estimates for the current year as anything between –£50M to –£90M but, as this year will replace a -£13M year, this is not good news.

Given the high level of scrutiny that our interpretation of FFP regulations has attracted, we would probably be well advised to not stretch the regs any further.

I do hope that I am wrong, but personally I am not expecting anything other than freebies or loans, unless of course we go for broke and sell two of Pickford, Richarlison and Calvert-Lewin.

Hi Dave [22] I think along the same lines as yourself, we are in the position where we can't sign mega-stars, I don't think that it will serve any purpose to play the blame game, 'we are where we are', and hopefully lessons will have been learned.

I have often felt out of my depth when I have read posts that imply that the posters are experts in stadium design and construction, man-management, team selection and tactics, some even suggest that they can read the minds of whoever the manager is at the time.

Then there are some who predict what's in store, I have often said, tongue-in-cheek, that the day will come when a designated player will bide his time on the bench until a penalty kick is awarded, whereupon he will enter into the game, returning to the bench after the success or failure of the spot kick. Although 'written in jest' there is no guarantee that it won't happen.

I get more satisfaction from recounting the stories and events of yesteryear, some related to me by my forebears, others from personal experience, and the rest from football publications. I do so, hoping that it jogs the memories of the older generation, and gives the younger fans an insight of what football used to be like for us.

Don, 23,correct. There is no chance of progress with three football idiots running the club.

When Moshiri took over, I thought the first thing he will do is sort the business side out. He hasn't and it has even gone worse.

If Lampard does a decent job and gets us mid-table or just above over a few seasons, he will move to another club that will give him the financial backing that EFC can't.

We will never progress with the incompetence at the top.

We have had the Kenwright era of mediocrity, which finished us as a footballing force, and we are now in the Moshiri years of financial incompetence.

Our only hope is that Lampard can build an effective team of upcoming players on a low budget It has been done before but not since the Premier League was formed and that is the problem.

Is it even possible to build a good side without mega bucks? The evidence so far says No. Look at the teams that win trophies – their financial situation is in another realm to the rest. Watch Newcastle go now with their Saudi backing.

As a more optimistic footnote to my earlier post, I think that, with the new stadium being built, we have got to be an attractive option for any one looking to buy a football club.

So things could still change for the better in the not too distant future.

I'm with you, Andrew Clare @32, we are off to the USA shortly and that should present us with some big spenders and corporations that are always on the lookout to buy into the money machine that is the Premier League.

Just look at Chelsea and Liverpool, hard-nosed businessmen who left the playing side of things to the professionals. This could be a great opportunity to showcase Everton to the US public, they do love football over there. Just something to browse over for the coming weeks.

ps: We have a bit of a head start with Dan Meis who must be well-connected with big business over there.

He should cut the mustard, he'll be great in the kitchen when he gets injured. Apologies if I've repeated any jokes.

I don't know the player but sometimes an unselfish, hard-working, talented team player can make a huge difference to a team's performance.

Stats... don't judge or be fooled by them alone.