Everton 'in talks' regarding Lorient winger

Frank loves a winger I would rather have the odd win or two.

I thought it was Terem Moffi we were after?

How many wingers do we want or is it just the Manager reluctant to change his system? At the moment we have three and another on long term injury so is somebody unable to agree a new contract and due to leave or has the wage bill unexpectedly dropped under the record percentage of income? If we are lucky it is just paper talk involving one of two teams who play in Blue.

Don’t pretend to know anything about this guy but yes, we absolutely do need a winger. The ones we possess aren’t fit for purpose at the moment. Gray has upped his game a bit recently but remains a bit of an enigma. Gordon has gone backwards and whilst I don’t think McNeil is as bad as everyone says, he isn’t producing anything either. We need goals, goals and more goals to have any hope this season. Anything or anyone that can help get them is more than welcome.

6 goals in 41 games. Unbelievable

Has Gordon gone backwards or has everyone’s expectations just changed? He did not do that much last year either but he got cut slack as it was his first year. This season it seems everyone just expects more (because he is a few months older?) but he is playing at a similar level to last year (last season he scored 4 goals in 30 off matches and this season he has 3 already). The assists have dried up but he’s got no one to aim at. He’s never been much of a passer or creator really.

The truth is he has never produced much and is limited (at least at this stage of his career) in shooting, passing and crossing ability. But he does work his socks off normally which is his main asset and maybe his work rate this year has dropped off a bit which he can’t afford to do given his other present limitations.

We definitely need an upgrade all across the front 3!

Moffi the Toffee, sign him up.

Anyone seen him play this season, would he cope with the Premier League?

It seems like we are linked with both him and Terem Moffi, the Nigerian striker at Lorient.

Ouattara is exactly the sort of player we should be signing in normal circumstances. Bags of talent, end product (goals & assists) at a very young age and physical attributes to succeed in the Prem.

Whether he's the right player for now I'm not sure. It's asking a lot for a 20 year old to acclimatise and hit the ground running without even a pre season. Summer fine - but January not so sure.

Terem Moffi the striker at Lorient would probably be good right now. He's a bit older and more mature. I hope this rumour has something in it.

Matt @6, to help this seasons stats I personally feel 2 of his goals last season were Richies. This season he has 3, but has also missed some easy chances that have cost us vital points. I'm disappointed that last and this season the coaching staff haven't worked on his finishing in terms of accuracy and power.

The mysteries of ghe Everton coaching staff as we all now goes back many years.

More foreigners I've never heard of!...can we not sign BRITISH players instead?

We need Strikers anyroad,we seem to still be linked to Diaz but I'd go for his team mate instead... Bradley Dack,he has a great footy brain in the final third (which our lads lack sadly) & I'd still chance it with Yates at Blackpool too.

Mosh it seems thinks quality equals foreigners...jeez,maybe we deserve to go down and start again!

SACK THE BOARD

Funny to read that Weghorst could be on his way to ManUre - we could have done worse than nab him in the summer as back up to DCL. Oh yes, now I remember - we did do worse!

Agree Dennis,Would have made far more sense signing Weghorst from Burnley than McNeill for what we needed. Probably would have been a lot cheaper too back then.

Aye, Tony - & certainly cheaper than Maupay

Tony and Dennis Weghorst (I think) was back in Holland injured with no intention to come back to Burnley or England.

You may well be right, Joe, for all I know. Then again, if we'd inquired, how could he turn down Everton & choose Turkey instead?!

Weghorst didn’t like the English weather, food or local talent. He’s Dutch ffs!!

I think Deli Alli, Cenk Tosun and Big juicy lamb kebabs turned his head.

Mmmmm, kebabs!

Matthew, we sign a very unusually high proportion of our players from Premier League clubs. Not all British, granted, but that's certainly been the (massively counterproductive) approach since Moshiri took over. We buy British quite a lot (McNeil, Tarkowski, Coady and Garner in summer) too.

I'd like to see us go for young British talent (like Hickey, Doig and Ferguson) who all went to Italy at very low cost - and young Championship players of talent too (like Eze and Olise).

But the likes of Shankland (who you've previously mentioned) and now Dack are pretty crap and miles off Premier League standard.

I see Qatar are looking for a PL Club to take a minority stake in Levy has been talking to them.No mention of EFC

@paul Hewitt 5 - that’s still 6x how many Dwight McNeil had before he joined us!!

Think the key is he’s young and if he’s got 4 goals and 5 assists in the last 8 games then there is clearly some talent there which I don’t think the likes of our Dwight possess!

Bit early for Everton to sign anyone, we have to wait until the last hour of the last day before we even think about signing someone, and then we usually get someone looking for an easy paycheck

We definitely need a striker, and a creative midfielder is a must. Weghorst would be a handful, did well in the World Cup, didn't look great at Burnley, but probably lack of service. McNeill lacking confidence, I think we should try him at left wing back.

Rumours Weghorst is on his way to Man Utd, money is more important than the weather, would probably have signed if we had made a bid in the summer.

Pure comedy seeing EFC fans stating we should have signed Weghorst. As though they have been calling for his signing for months. Those exact same people would have been incandescent if we had have signed him in the summer :-D
And apparently we have too many wingers? I count 3... and only Gray has done much of note so far this season. Some people just love to moan, don't they.

& some people like to post shite, moaning about other people "moaning", Jordan

I've just watched the highlight reel for this guy, he looks absolutely gash. We'd be better buying the players who keep nicking the ball off him... on his own highlight reel!

We need a striker.

In fact, the last thing we need is a winger. I'd play a four in midfield with with the width provided by the fullbacks.

Jason Hewly

Seconded.

I do wonder if our scouts have any idea about football this lad makes Bolasie look like Ronaldo he is another in the Doucouré, Gana, Onana mold being an athlete first and footballer second.

Absolutely shocking.

Don't think we're spending this sort of money in this window unless the selling club are daft to accept payment on the drip for twenty years or it's the sale of Gordon or Pickford first.

Ah yes, we're all scouts now. I think we're going/have gone mad. Fair enough, of course.

Number 10s, wingers, lupins.

But not a striker.

Another expensive unknown. Happy to throw £20m at Lorient for this lad who plays in the least competitive league but won't look at spending £15m on the likes of Diaz who has consistently performed.

6 months ago he wasn't in the team and was worth less than a £1m.

Even McNeil had 1 half decent season which had them talking about a £40m move to Chelsea 6 months before we wasted £15m on him.

Don't understand them.

I watched B'burn play a couple of games on TV over the Christmas, Diaz played on the left wing with Gallagher at 9, and to be honest he didnt stand out.

Orsic just went for £8m and Fofana to Chelsea (who pay premium) for £10m…….why would anyone pay double that? Seems young French playing wingers are all the vogue. Surely better markets out there?

Gary, Orsic is a risk because he's 30 and not done well outside of China, Korea and Croatia. Fofana is cheaper because he's a teenager coming from Norwegian football. Ouattara by comparison is showing good form in a much more competitive league. Hence more expensive.

No idea about this bloke. Blind Freddy could see we need someone who can lead the line.

Last season I though Josh Sargent looked like he is capable and has potential. Didn't pull up trees at the world cup. Didn't look out of place either.
With Norwich dropping, you would think they might be willing to listen to an offer to get rid of the high wages?

If we don't buy a striker, goal scorer in this window but get another winger that proves to me that Kenwright wants this club relegated.
He'll hoover up the shares, remain chairman and makes himself King of the new Kenwright stadium.
Lampard allows this then he's in on the plan too.

Perhaps the club realises they cannot hold down Gordon long term with his $100k per week request. So we're lining up a replacement before we sell Gordon.

Robert -

Orsic scored in the World Cup 3rd place play-off and is an established International in one of the best international teams about. He has 1 goal in 2 for his club. Fofana also has 15 goals, and has walked straight into the Chelsea first team squad…..the fact this kid plays in France has no other relevance whatsoever.

I think Outarra is exactly the sort of player we should be looking at. A great age at 20 whilst he has already done pretty well with the chances he's had.

He's a fantastic dribbler and has some pace and power and the ability to both create and score.

The two big downsides are that he's unlikely to hit the ground running and is overpriced at £20m. However we need to keep an eye on the future as well as the present. If when Moshiri first arrived we had been buying players for the future rather than for the present then maybe we'd have bought Zaha instead of Bolasie or De Jong instead of Klaasen or Rashford instead of Schneiderlin!

I'm being facetious of course but trusting to well scouted young talent with big upside is what has got the likes of Brighton and Brentford ahead of us.

Sam, good point about Brighton and Brentford. No coincidence that they were also early adopters in using data analytics largely as a result of the backgrounds of their owners. Crunching the numbers before even considering watching a player. Quickly emulated by Liverpool and Man City.

Maybe it's an action on our 120-point plan!

Mislav Orsic to Southamption – sigh. He's an "over age" player, but has experience at a cheap price.

We actually started these gambles Sam mentions moons ago, with Vlasic, Lookman etc but then moved onto late-20 somethings who milked their contracts – it wasn't exactly mAN City signing Robinho either!

Orsic is definitely talented but at 30 he only has club experience of playing in very weak / non-physical leagues. He also plays in the same position as Gray and Gordon so I can't see he's a missed opportunity.

If he was a left-footer playing on the right, perhaps. That's where we could do with an upgrade.

With Brighton & Brentford it's not just statistical – it's about shopping for particular profiles of players in specific low-cost markets such as Caceido, Mac Allister, Buonanotte and Encisco (direct from Ecuador, Paraguay and Argentina) in the case of Brighton. They generally buy young and they generally spend between £5M and £15M on players. They've only spent £20M+ on a player twice.

If this horrifies traditionalists, Brighton have also bought in 6 Republic of Ireland youth internationals for their academy as part of a clear strategy – including 18-year-old striker Evan Ferguson who caused us plenty of problems.

This is allowing Brighton to build up a really good squad at low cost.

Anthony @ 2,

"I thought it was Terem Moffi we were after?"

They had a think about it, and Moffi the Toffee, got a massive Fuck Offy!