‘Not for Sale’ – Everton have a bid for McGinn rejected

I'm not sure if this is an old rumour dug out by Sky.

A good player, a proper nark, would give us another leader on the pitch and probably fits Moyess' profile and not done and dusted at 30. And Villa need to sell.

Unless Moyes is planning on Iroegbunam or Armstrong going on loan or thinking ahead for the loss of Gana in January, plus maybe a replacement for the soon-to-be 36-year-old, I'm not convinced by this one.

He may be a decent player but it's unlikely he'd want to leave Villa for us anyway. This is not the type of signing I want to see us make, especially when we don't have the added games of European football to consider.

I'd rather we give minutes to Armstrong if we're going to 'rotate'... and I certainly don't remember Moyes being big on that anyway.

Surely bollocks from Sky this one.

However, Everton definitely need an additional central midfielder before the window closes.

Gana will depart for the African Cup of Nations for up to a month, and we can't be relying solely on Tim Iroegbunam and Harrison Armstrong as cover.

I doubt we even made a bid.

He is central to their team and they haven't made a signing.

File under gossip and clickbait.

Everton's John McGinn transfer stance outlined after claims over £18M offer

Everton did retain an interest in McGinn earlier this summer and there were enquiries last month, but no bid was submitted.

Insiders are 'bemused':

"How do you feel?"

"I feel bemused."

"Me too... can't quite explain it."

"Methinks the Grand Old Name of Everton is being used to try and flush out interest from the Magpies instead."

He's a player. Not a cheap deal, but someone who could help get into the Top 10. Can play multiple positions, and is decent on set pieces.

Hayden Hackney is a better long-term bet. Andrey Santos and Lavia at Chelsea should be considered on loan or permanent for the former.

We desperately need this alongside the young players we have been mostly linked with. A blend of young raw talent with a sprinkling of one or two experienced pros makes a lot of sense, especially in central midfield.

I'm talking more the No 6 or No 8 position where we have Gana and a lot of youngsters. Even Dewsbury-Hall hasn't had that much top-flight experience for a 26-year-old.

It seems Luiz heading to Forest. We still need a defensive midfielder with Gueye turning 36 next month.

I would have welcomed him 5 years ago but now, at 30 and £18M, he would be blocking the progress of someone else – like Armstrong.

Go and get Brownhill on a free for a similar player.

Not necessarily McGinn, but a good nark to help Tarkowski would be invaluable.

Sounds like Moyes wants another midfielder, so I wouldn't be surprised if he goes to West Ham for Soucek now.

Whilst a lot of it is clickbait, there are certainly many instances where we are being portrayed as a desperate unattractive club.

What happened to doing research and testing availability before diving in???

Very unimpressed with the so-called elite recruitment team up to now.

If anything, we need another 6 in the middle. Apparently we bid for Dion Lopy who is an interesting option.

Is he a right back now?!

Trying to get him in for Saturday!

Again.

Do we really need the pudgy little Scot? What will he bring? I've never really rated him.

Bringing his age back into the equation, he's 6 years younger than Gana. Some players age quickly when they turn 30, but Gana remains as fit as a fiddle.

I'm convinced McGinn will still be able to hack it for at least 3 seasons and £20M to £25M would be well spent money in my opinion.

Forest will end up buying him outright from Juventus.

Having missed out on every man and his dog this summer, Newcastle have their eyes firmly fixed on the next person to turn them down. He goes by the name John McGinn and he currently plays for Aston Villa. Everton previously made enquiries about the Scotland midfielder but nothing was doing.

We all know what positions are key to us, we just can't fill them. I'd hoped we would add some real quality; I'm finding it quite frustrating… and I'd wager David Moyes is too.

McGinn is good but, if we upgrade midfield now, it'll be a different sort of player – ideally a proper specialist holding midfielder.

We tidied up Alcaraz pretty swiftly. Brought Barry in reasonably quietly and quickly considering we're not a Champions League club, and Aznou and Dewsbury-Hall both arrived with little fuss.

Southampton are obviously playing hardball with Dibling's future and we're not rushing it. McGinn is old news and probably a Plan C.

I'm quite relaxed now Aznou and Dewsbury-Hall have come in and I fully expect 2 or 3 more.

TFG seem intent on hunting out value and thinking longer term – with no hint at them shitting their pants in the process. All very professional.

Can't possibly be true can it? Must be some ‘client journalism' from someone – Villa? McGinn's agent?

I'd be chuffed if we ended up with Dibling, Grealish and a right-back.

Carvalho went to Brentford for about £21M last summer.

Elliot is being touted as £40M (+) this summer.

How much is too much for Doak? £20M?... £25M??… £30M???

Where would we draw the line?

Are we just going to buy one with whatever change we have left after paying too much for someone few of us have heard of?

Stuart #36, what makes you think we haven't? Do the names Tete, Maitland-Niles, Juanlu ring any bells at all?

We've signed a goalie, a striker, a left-back and 2 midfielders. Yes, there's still time and I know it's complicated, but I'm reading a lot less about right-backs than I thought.

How do I know? Cos he told me.

I know we bid for Tete in the early part of the window, but I haven't seen anything firm about Maitland-Niles. And I thought Juanlu Sanchez was a winger?

He's not just a RS player. He, and his family are huge Liverpool fans. He comes across as a bit of a GS and the worst kind of Liverpool fan. One from out of the area (Surrey in his case) who thinks the way to show their RS support is to spend their spare time trolling Everton and Man U fans online.

Of course he doesn't do this but you know he would be doing it if he wasn't a professional footballer.

He was giving Richarlison the 3 0 hand gestures for 30 years when the RS played Spurs, so good player but not in an Everton shirt.

We need 1 or 2 players in the middle… but 6???

I did not expect him to try for the real McCoy!

Point is that you can have a big squad, but they have to be better than you have let go, or we are going to be back at square one, a big enough squad that is not very good.

He's 30, so Villa will be looking to cash in soon, hope we don't get Argoed and pay way too much.

Elliot is a horrible RS, I don't want him anywhere near Everton. Yes, he is a good player, but a gobshite who hates us.

I think it's an ACDC.

The squad would benefit from a No.6 with premier league experience - knows the standard, speed of the game and physicality without having to spend months adapting.

I am a fan of McGinn and he would have a positive impact on our midfield. 18 million is not a big fee for that level of experience and he is playing to a high level still. Unfortunately, Villa won't sell him as they rate him very highly.

Harvey Elliott is your usual Southern gobshite who jumped on the Liverpool bandwagon - the out of towners RS supporters are without doubt the biggest bunch of wankers going. I read that he and his father attended the CL final in Istanbul? That just means you stole 2 tickets from proper scouse supporters.

They just try too hard to justify their support when there is no reason for it. I sat next to some bloke wearing a RS jacket on a long-haul flight who turned out to be from Bournemouth - he embarrassed himself over his lack of knowledge which I pointed out to him.

It would be would be tolerable if they had any idea whatsoever about the city or the club's history.

A lot of players, even from the so-called weaker teams in the last Club World Cup would not be out of place in the Premier League, showing a lot of the players stood up to the pressure of playing against the bigger clubs.

Columbian forward John Arias just moved to Wolves for a small fee. I just hope when all new arrivals do manage to rock up, with it being so close now to the start and not much time to gel with team mates, that we don't get off to a bad start, because every team coming to our new fortress will want to beat us for the first time in our new stadium.

What do we do when Gueye and Ndiaye go to the Afcon for a month?

Does anyone really believe we've got goalscoring covered with Beto, Barry and possibly Chermiti??

Where are our wingers and right-backs??? Does anyone realistically think we will get anywhere with only Jake O'Brien as our right-back for 90 minutes every game this season????

And you question the negativity.

Thelwell as a one-man band was far more effective than the so-called elite recruitment team.

I am not convinced this 'new crew' are anywhere near the unsung Kevin Thelwell in getting things sorted.

We could do with a No 6 but that wouldn't be McGinn unless he finishes his career there once his legs have gone.

For the time being, he's a No 8 and largely duplicates what we've just bought in Dewsbury-Hall.

He has a face that you just want to slap.

That's what Dyche said.

I would rather say, you cannot win fuck-all without goals.

But you say ‘defensive players, Moyes all over?'

Which ones?

I'll judge him by who we actually bring in not destroy him based on rumors on news now for players we may not even have a passing interest in.

Oh an by the way. McGinn isn't even a particularly defensive player!!

I think trying to get Morten Frendrup from Genoa would make a lot more sense for defensive midfielder.