Transfer window: how did we do?

I’m deeply disappointed that we didn’t get a CB and a creative MF player.

On the other hand, I’m glad we got rid of some of the deadwood (not including Tom Cannon) who were simply not good enough to wear the Everton shirt

CB is the one area that I am concerned about, we needed a Mina replacement to work with /rotate /cover Branthwaite throughout the season.

Further considerations are that we may, or may not, receive a significant fine in October. Also we may want to keep some finance to activate Harrison’s buy clause at some point later in the season. We don’t know how much up front we’d have to pay for that. He may well become indispensable getting 5-10 goals and replacing and improving on Iwobi’s assists. So getting him in permanently will be a necessity.

It’s a 7/10 from me as the CB issue and possibly another midfielder could have been addressed with more planning. I feel the squad is thin, any injuries will hurt us, and needed more midfield strength in depth due to the Afcon.

A final point, I think it's not just a question of counting individual players coming in but also the synergies that come from the signings. In other words, and just as an example, the stronger forward unit arguably reduces weaknesses elsewhere by taking pressure of those other areas; the more we have the ball with the forwards, the less chance there is of cock-ups elsewhere.

We signed Sigurdsson, Mina, Bolasie, Gbamin, Walcott and Tosun for a combined total of £156.7 million. Total fees Everton received for those players: £0.

Brent, agreed re synergies. Sometimes it just brings one or two characters to come in and change the mood in the changing room and in training.

I am interested to see how Beto gets on. If the forwards can bang some goals in, it must surely breed confidence in other areas of the team.

I agree with McNeil coming inside, I've always thought he doesn't quite have the pace to be a premier league winger and think he looks most dangerous when he floats inside picking the ball up on the half turn in and around the opposition box, would like to see him almost given a "James" free role just behind the striker.

All-in-all, under the obvious financial constraints, I think it was a fairly decent window.

I sincerely hope I'm wrong but this threadbare squad, again, fills me with doubts about staying in the premier league this season.

A win at Sheffield Utd today would buck us all up, and I hope for that, but it won't remove my doubts for this season, I hope everyone travelling to Sheffield comes home with a big smile on your faces, if anyone deserves success it is you lot, best of luck.

So for me we have got the improved forward line we needed but are weaker in midfield and defence.

Onana is the one I would have sold as he doesn't do enough in a game and we don't seem to get the best out of Gueye and Doucouré with him in the team.

A midfield of Garner Gueye and Doucoure is preferred by me.

It makes a lot of sense to me, that the more goals we score and pressure we put on "them" will lessen the "Alamo" effect we often suffer. We've got the goalscorers to do that, McNeil, Harrison, Danjuma and Beto, and not much money to work with either.

It will all look better if we win today of course!

In that respect, we've done as expected with a few loans and cheapo buys resultant of our present Moshiri-induced penury.

No Rooney, Arteta, Rodwell, Lescott, Lukaku, Stones to sell for big money down to a village idiot transfer policy over the past 7 years. Now, is it enough to save our bacon? Very doubtful in my opinion.

We have problems all over the pitch and our circumstances have forced us to fix only the most glaring, in attack. We have now replaced Richarlison and Gordon, albeit with probably slightly less good players, and at last have a striker. Let's face it, no goals equals relegation and at least we now have a chance of scoring them, even more so if Calvert-Lewin ever gets fit.

The lesser but still big problems still prevail. On paper, we are well stocked with midfielders but 3 of them can't or won't play and another may well be needed at right-back. We lack ingenuity and footballing ability with those that remain and two of those will miss part of the season at Afcon.

Branthwaite is certainly a ray of hope but one (back) in does not replace the depth of three out, especially as one of our back-ups (Godfrey) appears to have forgotten how to play the game. A long-term injury to Tarkowski doesn't bear thinking about. The full-back position is as weak as ever and we can only pray Seamus can recover from his bad injury and hit the ground running. That is a big ask.

We are wafer-thin on real quality and the only reason I think we could avoid relegation is that the promoted teams are a poor crop and at least now, we might be able to score some goals. However, I would be truly astonished if we got as high as 13th. 16th or 17th would be okay and a decent achievement.

We dumped wages with Holgate, Maupay, Iwobi, Mina, Coady, Davies, Townsend, Begovic. That's nearly £400k a week or £20m+ in wages.

Kean, Nkounkou, Cannon, Simms, Iwobi, realising decent fees and gains in cash and ffp.

Muddling through till the stadium, and then it will be sold.

Hard to criticise Thelwell and Dyche for this though, when your net spend is less than Luton Town.

I think the plan is simply to add more goals to the side and make do in other areas. I suspect it will take at least 2 more summer windows before we've properly turned over a really badly assembled squad and built something interesting.

But let's be honest, compared with the end of last season it is nice to be going into a fixture with the likes of Beto, Danjuma, Chermiti and Dobbin available. Sheff Utd are no mugs - and have bought well themselves in Archer, Souza, Hamer and Thomas - but hopefully the win in the week has got us going.

It is risky but that will play well for Dyche as he trusts the players and they respond. We have absolutely turned our reputation around and rid ourselves of the weaker minded players that were never going to recover here.

Other than not being able to get rid of Gomes, Keane and Gray (reaching a contract buy-out with Gbamin is still a win and an addition-by-subtraction), I actually like the work done by Thelwell & his team, despite my membership in the #ThelwellBrigade might have blinded my assessment.

The sales of ISS & Cannon might look bad on paper but like the Humphrey Bogart "This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship" quote, this might just be the very beginning of Thelwell adopting and implementing the strategy that has made the Red Shite & Chelsea a lot of money: getting youngsters out every year out of their "famed" academies, with the "blue blood" ink still wet on their heads. Then sell them for good money before they are found out. If Bruce Wayne's coffer needs to be replenished, so does ours. Although we are really late into this game, but better late than never.

#ThelwellBrigade remains open for new membership applications!

I think offensively we are stronger, the rest of the side is about at the same level and financially we are better off so a net positive.

The lack of depth is reminiscent of the Moyes era when a few injuries meant a central midfield of Jagielka and Baxter. I suspect we will live or die on injuries. If we avoid them for six or seven better players, we should be okay; if we lose Beto, Danjuma, Pickford, Tarkowski etc for any length of time, we looked screwed.

Under the financial contraints, we’ve done good business. We can't sort out the whole team in one window. The priority was to bring in players who can score. We did. My only concern is that we'll be vulnerable to injuries snd suspensions

We signed a geriatric fullback, a winger who didn't want to know us last January, a winger who is injured probably until October and whose wages we are paying in their entirety, a centre forward who we apparently have to give back next summer if we can't afford the payment and a kid who has played 15 games in Portugal.

If I live to be 100 I will not understand why we signed Chermiti for £11m when we had a very similar forward and are absolutely crying out for a decent fullback.

We sell Ellis Simms to pay off our God awful directors and send Warrington and Mills out on loan and then put 5 outfield players on the bench today.

Where you get 8/10 is beyond me. We are just amateurish and scattergun at best.

I'm prepared to bet that no one from the club ever spoke with Gnonto's agent. Just another pack of lies and smoke screen put out by Teary Bill's media contacts.

Maybe Chermiti is like one of those old Clough deals that conclude with someone handing him a brown paper bag at an M62 service station?

Lack of a creative central midfielder still does my head, why do our scouts never seem capable of searching the globe for one?

I was surprised that we didn't use up at least one of those four available loan slots too.

However, what worries me is the midfield and too much time we dwell on the ball. I do feel we needed to sign a creative midfielder. When we get pressurized by the opposition, we tend to make mistakes. So far we were playing Garner on the wing. Now that we have got McNeil back and Gray / Harrison about to join we are well stocked at wings. Garner can now play in the midfield and could be our answer to creativity. Doucoure / Onana and Gana can just stay behind and break up the play. If Dele discovers his form it will be a dream scenario and maybe next season onwards we will be much more stable. We have had too much bad luck and this chain will break soon. Cheers COYB

We have a better starting 11 and a better top end of the bench than before the window. And we have a better balance in the squad.

We got rid of some terrible players in Holgate, Iwobi and Maypay.

Very important was that we got rid of some of the players on fantasy wages like Iwobi, Gbamin and Mina. I think the wage structure is very important for the culture in the squad. High earners should be top performers and effective players. There is still a way to go to get a long term healthy wage structure.

Downside is that our squad dept is worrying. We are probably ok with our top 16 players but very vulnerable to many injuries. But given our financial situation again I think it is an OK priority.

I agree regarding the comment on the balance of our midfield. There seems to be no clear roles. In fact it is a bit strange for in Dyches first match against Arsenal I thought our midfield was outstanding and the way Doucoure and Onana pressed high while Guye kept the balance was so effective. I would like to see Garner in the middle. I think he is a really clever footballer.

I am happy that Branthwaite finally became first choice. He looks really good and Tarkowski is rock solid. Young I have always disliked but probably a good all rounder to have. Worry is that both Keane and Godfrey has lost all selfconfidence and you really don’t want to see them on the pitch at the moment. However again considering our financial situation I think it is an OK risk to take.

So overall a very smart transfer window from Thelwell.

4 million is nothing these days especially considering centre halves can go on playing at a good level until 34 or 35.

Finally Gbamin has gone off the wage, shame we didn't get some permanent offer for Holgate, who should never be allowed to wear a Blue shirt again (echoing what Saint's fans are saying after one game lol).

Gomes should have been moved on too, clearly another that is a thing of the past, surely someone could have made a 2 million offer from Portugal no?

Then on Friday we sold Iwobi for a good price and a lot of fans were happy with that, but the central midfield and defence were completely ignored, not even any loan players were considered, I mean seriously considered, which left us with a very weak and threadbare squad, we will struggle even if there are no more injuries or suspensions, if there are then I fear the worse.

4/10 Stephen? A bit harsh, I think 4and a half out of ten is fairer!

As expected from you Robert a very well written and articulated piece.

We've managed to reshape the squad and given us much needed forward reinforcements.

The comment on lack of depth and having a thin squad is something I've been banging on about for a few years. Even when we had numbers, once you scratched the surface and went past about 14 players, we were down to the bones.

I don't know what's happened to Godfrey. He seems to have totally lost his confidence. Could he do a better job for us a right back?

Ashley Young is obviously causing a bit of division because of his age, but Gareth Barry didn't do a bad job.

I commented on Michael's match report that Branthwaite looks extremely promising, but let's remember his age and be patient with him.

Maguire. I have to disagree with you. An expensive version of Michael Keane. There's my Michael Keane moment for the week. I'll go to the swear jar.

I too am very disappointed we didn't get Warrington and Mills involved with the first team this season.

I'll be up for the Arsenal match. It's on my Birthday, which is also Neville Southall's.

Godfrey was never that good even under Carlo.

He was a fine athlete that had pace to burn but through the injury and apparently his bout of Covid it seems to have taken a large chunk of that athlestism away.

He's not actually a very good footballer at anything else, his reading of the game is poor, his awareness is poor and his passing is poor.

I would take 15th spot at the end of the season if offered it now! Beto is a major plus but we are going to need to have some luck with injuries. The big minus was the sale of the young talent that we could have developed and improved. I don't think Sean is a believer in the theory that you can win things with Kids!

Hopefully, this will be the final year where we will have either a minus or a break even spend and we can start to move things forward next season.

Given the poor quality of the sides that have come up, we should be okay but I am hard pressed to name any other teams that I would be confident of finishing above come the season end, maybe Wolverhampton if pushed but that's about it.

He doesn't look like he's enjoying playing football.

One thing I've always thought is that I don't know what his best position is. He's not comfortable at centre-back.

Christopher, I'll put it out there. 10th and win the League Cup. Why not?

We haven't see an Everton attack for years, this one looks capable of giving us a chance of staying up. If Gray stays (?), then it would be a shame not to use him in the squad.
Gomes, don't think so, Dele, it's wait and see.

Defence/Midfield? Well it looks like Thelwell has been told "You've got nothing to spend above X amount, including, wages and what we bring in by selling, getting rid".

I go along with the emphasis on attacking goalscoring players. My view it's no good spending whatever money we've got, for wages and transfers, on defenders, if that means we lose any of the players that Thelwell's brought in. The one we all wonder about is Chermiti? I haven't got a clue on that transfer. I think, for who he's brought in/got rid of, a 7.

Overall, I'm fairly optimistic that we can score enough goals, to draw/win matches, that we lost/dre last season. IF we steer clear of injuries, as we've had an awful run of them.

The Chairman? -10. Kenwright brought in an investor/owner who he thought he could twist round his little finger, after refusing the offer from Sheik Mansour to buy the club. Prick!

Moshiri? Spent hundreds of millions that other clubs would have relished but should have got a proper Chairman in years ago. He let Kenwright guide our club to near oblivion. 4 for the money he put in mainly. For getting involved in the recruitment process: 0

Too many obstacles in the way both with the deal we have him on and the injuries and troubles with Dele's mind himself.

I cannot believe the squad is now significantly lighter than it was previously. The squad is threadbare and, while we may have gotten rid of some deadwood, the fact that we have not signed quality players for the full-back positions and midfield is unbelievable.

The lack of quality within this squad makes me very concerned for the season and, if we get any injuries to our limited quality players, we are doomed. The board need shooting.

During the transfer window he got fees for young players that in the past we'd have given a three year contract extension to and then sent them all out on loan. He got a significant fee for a much-maligned player with just a year left on their contract, rather than allowing them to leave for nothing (and answering some of the points raised above regarding Walcott, Tosun et al).

There were a number of TWebbers who reckoned we should cash in our best players in order to fund a rebuild, but who is to say that the money generated would have gone into the first team? My point is none of *really* know the financial situation we are operating under. Thelwell has delivered a more balanced squad with some actual goal threat, while retaining the players of genuine quality. I'm sure, like us fans, he'd wish to have more cover in defence and full back, but again, unlike Thelwell, us fans have no idea if we can afford those extra players.

In my opinion Thelwell has likely done exactly what was required balanced against what he was able to do. Judging his individual performance is a waste of time because football is a team game. It's up to Dyche & Thelwell to blend the squad, Dyche to integrate the players and get the tactics right, the fitness team to ensure the players are able to play 90+ whatever minutes required and crucially the players themselves to perform as required by all of the above.

The fact we seem to be behind Brentford, Brighton and a number of other clubs is not down to Kevin Thelwell.

Also, I'm probably the only fan that would have kept hold of Maupay as I think he would have shown more playing in behind Beto or alongside him. I think we have made a mistake letting both him and Cannon leave.

If Beto, Pickford and Branthwaite get injured, we are in big trouble. Surprised we never got another centre-half in. One point from 12 is an awful return and we have already played Fulham, Wolves and Sheffield Utd.

But I do think we've cut very deep on the squad numbers and left ourselves exposed at centre-back, full-back, right-wing and if I could have prioritised one signing over any other, it would have been a true No 10 to sit in behind the striker and be the link from midfield to attack. Someone creative with an eye for a pass and who could take set pieces too.

(Is it just me or are our set-piece takers some of the worst in the Premier League? We hardly ever beat the first man on free-kicks and corners; with the size of our team, we should be scoring for fun from set pieces!).

Look at Hamer at the weekend for Sheffield Utd, the likes of Pereira at Fulham, Morgan Gibbs-White at Forest (I'm deliberately not calling out players like Maddison, or Foden as we could never afford or attract them!) and think we have missed a trick by not having a player like this in our squad.

For me, I'll give it a rating of 6 out of 10 – not bad, got some dead wood off the books and got money in for Iwobi which was a good move – but I do think we are at least 2-3 players short in the squad so I can't believe we couldn't get more loans over the line for the season to help us.

Beto is a big strong agile lad at a good age. Finally competition for Calvert-Lewin.

We have 2 loanees to replace Iwobi and Gray.

We got rid of the very poor Maupay and brought in a youngster from Portugal.

A 39-year-old full-back that up to now hasn't performed attacking or defending.

Financially we are in a better position, selling players and reducing the wage bill.

Football-wise, I think we are slightly better off but only slightly with the addition of Beto and emergence of Branthwaite. The rest are pretty much like for like.

We do have the feeling of a rudderless sinking ship. How Many more defeats until Moshiri pulls the trigger again?

We need to get the financial hearing out of the way in October and Moshiri to sell up asap.

Ironically the accountant's accountancy skills have put us up shit creek without a paddle.

I expect us to be fighting relegation with Luton, Burnley and Sheffield Utd – 3 from us 4.

All my marks out of 10 were for Kevin Thelwell; without his input in the transfer window, my marks would have been 0/10 because we have been put in this financial position by Moshiri.

But more so by the borrowing, again, and at huge interest rates which are down to Kenwright — but not out of his pocket.

“Of the five new signings that arrived this summer, two were loans (Arnaut Danjuma and Jack Harrison) and one was a free agent (Ashley Young). Strikers Beto and Youssef Chermiti were signed for significant fees — a guaranteed €25million (£21.4m; $27m) and €12.5m (£10.7m; $13.5m) respectively — but, in both cases, Everton are not due to make a payment until the next fiscal year.

In total, the only fee they will spend on a new signing this year is the €3million owed to Villarreal for Danjuma.

Due to the sale of Iwobi to Fulham for £22million ($27.8m) and the departures of high earners like Yerry Mina and Jean-Phillipe Gbamin, Everton took £40million ($50.5m) off the wage bill and generated £45million ($56.8m) in transfer fees. The decision to terminate Gbamin's contract alone is worth in the region of £3million this year.

Including other departures like those of Richarlison, Anthony Gordon and Moise Kean, Everton stand to receive around £180million ($227.2m) in transfer fees from sales made in the last 12 months.”

We wonder why certain players are still on the books but apparently will no longer be regular performers due to certain reasons that we just guess about.

Yes, some intel is bona-fide but it does seem that the hierachy have been remiss in their running of the club for many years otherwise they wouldn't be in this position.

The team overall seems to be better equipped to get up the table as Dyche gets his mind set on what he expects but there are still problems to resolve to be competitive every week.

No need to be a rocket scientist to know that the Gunners game will be very difficult despite the fact that we snatched 3 points last season.

They play a great passing game which is a joy to watch and with the likes of Saka, Odergard and Rice in the side they will be formidable, to say the least, but football is a funny game and in the Premier League, any team can get a result on any given day.

This time next year Harrison will have gone back to Leeds, Danjuma will be back at Villareal, I honestly can't see Young or Coleman lasting beyond this season and can anyone guarantee that we will be able to pay Udinese the €10m that has been agreed. So once again we will be reliant upon DCL's glass legs and our only back up will be an untried Portugese lad since we have seen fit to sell Cannon and Simms mainly to pay off our God awful board. Will Maupay return for a last season?

Unlike most on here I find it hard to castigate Moshiri, OK the guy has been naive in the extreme in the trust he has placed in Kenwright, but he has done exactly what he said he would do and invested heavily.

Kenwright on the other hand has headed up a board that presumably knew all the FFP regulations and what the limits of the club's spending capabilities were and has completely chosen to ignore them. He and Ingles are culpable beyond belief.

The club's accounts for 21/22 spell out the consequences of relegation and the administration that would follow.

As the Esk has pointed out if our borrowing from R&M extends to its full limit we will be paying north of £22m pa in interest alone and the loan is secured on the whole of The Old Lady, Finch Farm and basically anything that isn't nailed down.

Kenwright out NOW.

By my count, 13 players have exited Everton this summer - Nkounkou, Gbamin, Mina, Davies, Holgate, Cannon, Isaac Price, Townsend, Begovic, Simms, Ishe Samuels-Smith, Iwobi and Maupay. I also believe we received the Moise Kean money and some performance related John Stones money.

And, we got in 5 players - Young, Danjuma, Beto, Harrison, Chermiti. In addition, Dyche seems to be relying on Dobbin and Branthwaite to play major roles this season.

I also believe that Dyche is trying to get Alli back in the squad and therefore, 10 million may be kept aside for that possibility. Dyche - even without being asked in the last presser - said that Alli is training on the grass. I also noticed that Alli was a keep observer during our 1st game against Fulham, and he 'looked' connected and eager.

Also, on the Demarai Gray front, I fully expect Dyche and Gray to bury the hatchet and work professionally with each other. After all, if Gnonto - after downing tools and bad mouthing his club - can be reintegrated in the Leeds squad, no reason why Gary cannot. Of course, if he shows the right attitude and professional approach.

I am really worried about:

The Goal Keepers scenario - we should have got in a decent PL experienced backup for Pickford. I would be very, very nervous if Virginia were to be called up for action - not because I think he is a bad goalkeeper (he actually did very well against Man City a couple of seasons ago), but because he has hardly played any top level football in ages.
The Centre Back scenario - I have zero confidence in Godfrey, in fact, he should have been got rid of in the transfer window. So, essentially we have 3 CBs - Branthwaite, Tarkowski and Keane. Huge gamble by Dyche & Thelwell, in my opinion, unless we are able to sign some out of contract CB.

The squad:

Centre Forwards: Calvert-Lewin, Beto, Chermiti
Attackers: Danjuma, McNeil, Harrison, Dobbin, Gray (?), Alli (?)
Midfielders: Gana, Onana, Doucoure, Garner, Gomes (?), Onyango (?)
Centre Backs: Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Keane, Godfrey (?)
Full Backs: Young, Mykolenko, Patterson, Coleman
Goal Keepers: Pickford, Virginia

Let us pray that the injury gods are kind to us this season.

There was only one sub back then of course, but nevertheless nobody really had massive depth in their squad.

If we don't get any injuries or drops in form, we could still finish bottom half but clear of relegation. For once, we look relatively strong up front - assuming we get DCL and Harrison fit at some point. Midfield is massively undercooked though - come the African Nations we'll probably be starting Gomes - and defensively we look very weak, with two shaky full backs and one geriatric, and only two half decent centre backs.

But Branthwaite is indeed like a new signing, and he looked marvelous second half against Sheff U. Of course we will have to be forgiving of youthful errors, but he looks the real deal long term.

Beto might be the centre forward we've lacked since Lukaku, and Danjuma is the reincarnation of Mirallas - talanted but selfish.

The main problem is it's not 1985. It's not even 2015. Every club in the league has strength in depth - just look at Forest. As it is, I can only see the three promoted teams and possibly Wolves being in the mix with us.

Three of five go down. Best we can hope for is 16th.

Yes, there's been an element of short termism.

Yes, the squad is still thin.

Yes, we're still reliant on poor or developing or inconsistent players.

I don't believe Thelwell could realistically have done much more in the circumstances and he could most certainly have done plenty worse.

As for Cannon, I hope he does well but I doubt we'll see this as a particularly significant departure once a bit of dust has settled.

As for Alli, I'd be extremely surprised if he ever plays Premier League football again for us or anyone else. It's very sad but as of now, I expect his best chance is a short-term loan in January to a club like Luton if they'd have him.

Why on earth would we go to £25M for Gnonto when we could've tried Hudson-Odoi for £3M? Very baffling to me.

Leeds didn't want to lose Gnonto anyway, but they definitely wouldn't have lost him to us on a promise of future payments.