Idrissa Gana Gueye extends his future with Everton

Great news. 2 vital signings.

Please can we have some good news on definite new players incoming because at present I am not sure we could survive a season with the amount of injuries we get...

“We are delighted Idrissa has re-signed. His experience and his knowledge of the Club is going to be so important going forward with the introduction of lots of new players and the new stadium. Idrissa will play a big part in integrating everybody”

Interesting comment from Moyes on the official site: ”introduction of lots of new players”.

Are we now going to see some fresh additions??

Any advance on 'more than 2'?

Anyone bought at online auction on transfer deadline day.

Like Carsley, Gana is an unselfish and unspectacular player who wins the ball and gives it to those who can do the more flash stuff.

Very occasionally, there's a lapse in concentration and he'll be caught in possession; but, for the most part, he's relieving the opposition of the ball and his engine is superb.

I'm delighted he's signed on again.

I don't need to say anymore, I said it enough last season.

Now we can start adding the new faces, hopefully more strength in midfield to sit alongside Idrissa, a right winger and a full-back who can cover both sides. Exciting times ahead.

With Branthwaite, Gana and Keane all staying, may the exciting new additions be arriving soon, to bed in early in pre-season, ready to hit the Hill Dicko Stadium ground running in August.

So for me, 'lots coming in' is 6.

At the same time, we need to either sell or loan Patterson; if Lampard, Dyche and now Moyes don't seem to rate him, he needs to either prove himself somewhere or we cut our losses.

The problem with our midfield over recent seasons is that we don't have enough creative players who can do much with the scarce possession we have. I think last season we had one of the lowest possession stats of all the teams. If we don't fix that problem, then we'll just be repeating last season's lower table results.

So, while everyone is lauding the re-signing of an ageing Gana and saying how valuable he is to the team, we're overlooking the real need which is to bring in a couple of creative younger midfielders who really can "run the show in the heart of our midfield".

Yes, that's his strength. Although he makes the odd mistake (name me a player that doesn't), he can actually play a bit, that he doesn't always get credit for.

I don't dispute we need a bit more creativity in there. James Garner, who also attracts criticism from some quarters, is good at spotting a forward pass.

The way we were playing, it was their jobs to get the ball forward to the 3 behind the striker and let them do their thing. Feed it to the full-backs if they were overlapping. Mykolenko got better at that towards the end of last season.

I'm just pleased he's staying. He's an important player for us and an example to younger players, that if you look after yourself, age, within reason, has few barriers.

Still, with funds likely to be limited and a lot of personnel change apparently coming (from the mouth of Moyes himself today), keeping Gana was crucial. He was our most important outfield player last season, and disruptors will still be vital.

I too like what Alcaraz offers, Liam, but he strikes me as a bit of an opportunist type player, who may go missing a bit, whereas we need an ever-present distributor in the mould of a Peter Reid within a midfield playing in the opposition half – not our own.

Lots of players coming in, Davey?

Now this will be interesting...

Although a jar full would be very nice

As for Alacaraz, I don't think we can accuse him of playing in our own half. Far from it.

Many examples, but the best was Palace away, when he bypassed the entire Eagles midfield and put their defence on the backfoot with his direct running before feeding Beto to score.

And then the coolest head in a cold wet stadium. Everton players and supporters screaming for a penalty. Palace disputing. He kept calm, took the ball and slotted it in. Goal. 2-1.

Mood changed in a microsecond.

Along with Ndiaye, players who get supporters off the edge of their seats when they have the ball

Meaning of Lot's - Things that belong to Lot, such as a pinch of salt !

Think you may be right about Alcaraz being opportunistic. But this may be a positive if we play on the counter mostly.

We are potentially 2 or 3 good players from being a real dark horse for the new season. Some of the names bring mentioned could really change our fortunes.

And, great to see Gana sign a new contract. What an engine he has!

Peter Reid, different players, but second only to Kevin Sheedy. I don't think Sheedy had a defensive bone in his body. He left that to Van den Hauwe.

Maybe not everyone's 3rd choice, but Paul Bracewell.

Too many to choose from with that side.

Absolutely Neil. We have a good core. Ill see at the next few matches and into next season.

The fact that our defence has sat quite deep over recent seasons, particularly when we’ve had a slow defender like Keane on the pitch, means that our midfield has to also sit deeper and that inhibits us from applying a high press.

We in turn end up susceptible to the opposition press ourselves with a marooned forward line. Obviously skilful ball playing midfielders can unlock this but they don’t come cheap of course.

This is one of a number of reasons why I can’t understand why Moyes would spend any money at all on re-signing a defender like Keane.

Seriously, he went to PSG at the top of his ability and did well, but just how many trophy-winning aspirant clubs would now pursue him as vital to that ambition?

Comment above favourably compares him to Carsley but from what I remember of him, Carsley, was that at no stage were we fighting off trophy winning clubs intent on signing him, ever!

There's weeks to go until the last-day madness of the transfer window, so let's just hope that Friedkin isn't Kenwright in disguise eh?

Gueye always has that coolness while pressing and seldom over-commit. Enough to slow you down, force an error but never rush in and over-commit. A joy to watch.

Contract extensions for quality players, and we also signed Michael Keane.

We seem to value the midfielder whose adept at kicking the ball out and stopping the opposition than the ones who can score the goals to “keep us up”.

When can we see an Everton with midfielders constantly wanting the ball to create things rather than ball shy players looking to offload as soon as they get it.

Why is our most “valuable” player best remembered for kicking the ball out?

I cannot imagine anything less relevant. Or more vapidly pointless.

This club was in it deep with many wounded spirits. I never saw Gana giving in to the pressure and playing tight. He is limited, as the players around him are, but he lead the team with a tremendous work ethic.

As an Evertonian, words cannot capture the respect I have for him.

With players like Branthwaite and O'Brien good on the ball, players with technical ability (Ndiaye, Alcaraz, McNeil) playing ahead of him, if Moyes can add 2-3 quality players in midfield, right wing, right back, then the whole dynamic of the team changes, and Gueye may be able to start dictating play.

My only quibble with him – "Please kick the ball inside the goal"; this is not American football, where the 2 sticks are up in the air! ;-)

Players like Idrissa are rare. He is still playing brilliantly despite his age. A great asset to the team.

I believe it was Colin Harvey who asked Peter Reid why he was sitting deep, when we weren't playing well. Reid's response was that he was protecting the defence.

Harvey's response was along the line of, well don't do that. Leave that to the back four. Go to the ball and win it back.

Gana has more to his game than some give him credit for. I wouldn't compare him to Carsley or anyone else for that matter.

If he didn't break up play, win back possession and give the ball to the likes of Ndiaye and Alcaraz, our attacks wouldn't start.

Any team is full of different ingredients and Gana has been an important one for us.

"There's weeks to go until the last-day madness of the transfer window, so let's just hope that Friedkin isn't Kenwright in disguise eh?"

I'm sure TFG have got a good supply of fax paper ordered.

What we need to do in the next 12 months however is find his replacement hopefully, moving forward.

He's obviously not a De Bruyne type but he was one of our most accurate passers last season and moved the ball forward just as much as Garner, who many will see as more creative.

Not the best passer above 10 yards, though. Its similar to his shooting!

The other common misconception is that he just 'sits' in front of the back four. He doesn't always. He gets round the pitch and when we press he's at the forefront of it. After Moyes came in, he did this a lot more, with James Garner holding at times.

Gana has been our most underrated player since we got him. He makes players around him better as we seen in his first stint with Gomes.

With a limited budget and areas to fill I don't think we will be thinking about an upgrade or a replacement until his contract ends. Christy is spot on if that rumour is true. Douglas Luis and Gana would be a tasty midfield with Charly in front.

Hopefully exciting times ahead and Gana and Jarrad are as important signings as anything that comes through the door. Mike may just be right- these guys may just know what they are doing!!

Weird choice of words.

Glad we have got him signed up for a year with an option for a further year.

The new recruitment team need to start looking at fullbacks and a winger.

I would also be inclined to push Armstrong into the first team squad instead of buying someone like Ndidi.

And, is this out of respect for the player and his family? Thoughts?

Think you're reading too much into that.

As tragic as it was, football clubs are pretty ruthless. Arsenal, Chelsea and a few others are still buying players.

Clubs are shit scared of PSR, that's the main reason transfers have slowed.

As Rob says, it's probably more that clubs are cautious of PSR and FFP. Although that doesn't seem to be bothering Chelsea on the back of their recent fine.

I am one of those Evertonians who heard Valdano's comments at the press conference when Tommy Grav signed for Real Madrid. All about how they'd signed someone with great discipline who would sit deep and win the ball back before feeding it to one of their roster of galacticos for the flashier bit. I thought Gravesen was a cracker, but also one of the least disciplined midfielders I've ever seen at Goodison.

I'm pretty certain I wasn't the only one who thought “They've signed the wrong baldie!”

To this day, I'm convinced that they had meant to buy Carsley. Cockup on the scouting front …….

As long as he sticks to the simple stuff he does very well I've got no complaints about his play at all.

I agree totally about Gravesen but couldn't see Real Madrid looking at Carsley either, he was never an outstanding player for me and I think a lot of his popularity with Everton fans came from that derby game goal.

I thought he was very indisciplined with his tackling but he was master of the 3- and 4-yard pass!

The Dane was a real character, slightly mad, but a good player.

Yes Carsley was understated and reliable, but probably overstated because of that derby goal. Other than that, I thought he was okay, but thats about it. He's doing well as a coach. No way do I believe the urban myth that Real Madrid meant to sign Carsley.

I’ve written my position on Lee Carsley above.

It must have been great to see the Everton people negotiating that transfer of Tommy to Real Madrid and keeping straight faces!

These footballers just lose it when they retire.

Didn’t take them long.

Stephen #72, that to me looks like the charge has been paid off. Could be to enable improvement works to be carried out, remember the debacle under Chairman Bill when they wanted to build a new structure? Can't remember what for but there was a charge against it and it wasn't allowed.

Gravesen lived in Las Vegas for some time playing poker I think. Now he is a pundit on Danish television.

He is quite entertaining and sometimes quite mad. And in fact a good pundit.

That is on the BBC as well though they are saying Villa have no desire to sell him. But with them being fined by UEFA for FFP perhaps a bid would entice them?

That said, he is 30 years old so would we offer enough money to help them out in that respect minus his original cost? And would he want to leave Villa?

Good player though if we got him at the right price.

Any sale would be pure profit for Villa now.

Expect Gana to play until he's 40.

Alistair @84, watching Gana, I wouldn't disagree with you. He's not showing signs of slowing down just yet and as I've said before, he's got at least 2 seasons left in him, so I'm pleased the club gave him 2 years.

That gives us time to find his clone. It might be difficult, but he must be out there somewhere?

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/thierno-barry-sends-emotional-farewell-32022687#source=breaking-news

This means we'll likely be without Gana, Ndiaye and maybe Beto from mid-December and across the busy Christmas schedule potentially until around 20 January.

That's going to be tough.