Verbal Kint

If. If. If. What "if" we sign a replacement for 15 million that scores 15 goals next season and helps us win a trophy? That's the whole point, the club back themselves and their scouts to find the right replacements. Lovren went, we got Toby who was better. Lallana went and we got Tadic AND Mane for the money, both of whom are better. We haven't always got it right, but we've certainly got it right more often than wrong, and that's why we consistently improve and finish above Liverpool despite them 'raiding' us.

Selling him this summer rather than next is probably worth about 15 million extra to us. So more than what we paid for Mane in the first place

Why not? These are not world class players we are talking about. Selling the likes of Suarez and Bale will lead to regression because the reality is you will not be able to replace them with a player of equal ability. But do people think the likes of Wanyama and Clyne are that incredible? They are good players but not outstanding and I refuse to believe we can't replace them with players as good as them. Whether we actually deliver on that is up to the recruitment department, and we invest enough money in it for them to get it right. Mane is a very good player on his day, but the fee reflects that, and the reality is that he IS leaving at some point as he won't sign a new deal. We either let him walk for nothing in 2 years and then have to replace him on the cheap, sell him in a year for about 15 million probably (and he's likely to miss 2 months next season for ACON) or we sell him now for 32 million and reinvest. On balance I think the board are making the right call

I don't think coaches should have much say to be honest. I'd rather head coaches got on with coaching, and our scouts do the job of identifying talent. People doing the job they're paid to do. If it had been up to Koeman he would have kept Wanyama for the last year of his contract, watched him walk on a free next summer and then demanded the board spent 15 million replacing him. Not exactly a sound financial model moving forward is it? Bla bla bla we can't sell our best players bla bla bla. All of it ********. None of the players we sell are world class, irreplaceable players. You probably said the same when we sold Lallana for 25 million and we then spent half of that on Mane and had a better player. Big clubs are lazy and we should carry on exploiting it

Nobody has a clue who our first choice was/is apart from the board. I doubt we set out with a clear first choice in mind, just a list of managers we liked and wanted to speak with them all before deciding

A club that realises just because a manager has had success in the past doesn't mean he will be a success at ours. A club that maybe realises getting a manager who is on the same wavelength as them is more important than getting a big name necessarily. The board went a bit off piste with Koeman as they knew we would be selling a lot of players and we therefore needed a big name manager to steady the ship and be able to attract players instantly. We aren't in that situation anymore. Pellegrini did a very average job at City (had everything handed to him on a plate and still failed), came across as unbelievably dull, uninspiring, old and didn't really bring through any youngsters despite having some of the best young talent in Europe at his disposal. I'm looking forward to us having a manager who will trust and develop our youngsters and won't be constantly undermining the board in the press as regularly as Koeman did

Pellegrini would have been a lazy choice. Not remotely suited to our club. Puel, Silva, De Boer are much more likely types and I'd be encouraged if we went for one of them that we would have done our homework on them. Pochettino underwhelmed everyone and turned out to be one of the best PL appointments of the last decade. Les Reed has proven he knows what he's doing and deserves a bit of faith from the supporters

The fact only Spurs are in for him despite being available at a decent price says a lot. Not good enough for the big boys

I'm sure we did want him to stay, but that doesn't mean there weren't issues the board felt uncomfortable about. We know that to be true as Guan was posting about it in January

They didn't want rid of him so badly. They probably appreciated he was doing a good job overall but there were aspects they were concerned about

Do we know this for sure? Frankly I'm not sure I believe a single thing any player/manager says any more. If he's offered more money elsewhere he'll probably be threatening to go on strike to get away

No Oliver, what we can't afford is to pay our manager 7 million a year

Arsenal? Barcelona? Koeman won't be interested, haven't you heard about Everton smashing glass ceilings?

The most bizarre thing about the whole episode was K billy's suggestion we would put him on gardening leave. I've still got no idea why we would do this but with these reports coming out now maybe something is up

Except that isn't really what's happening. RK has done a good job and is a good manager, that's why we offered him a new deal. We also know though that for a while now there have been issues the board weren't completely happy with, it was posted on here in January. They aren't making stuff up and releasing it now, these rumours have been around for months and months

Not all the players hate him clearly. He's fallen out with a few though, we know that much is true. And despite his methods not being in line with how the board would like things done, he has led us to two fantastic finishes so I can see why they would want him to stay despite having these issues

I don't know, I'm just saying the reasons given for a hold up don't make much sense, unless as you say Ron himself is having doubts... Maybe everything is actually done, the ITKs have been misled and Everton are simply waiting for him to get back from holiday to announce it?

A lot of it sounds about right but I really don't understand this gardening leave thing. Everton are prepared to make RK one of the best paid managers in the world and give him an enormous budget, but yet they can't agree a contract for his assistant? Equally, are we even sure that this no poaching clause is legal? How do you enforce it? It just seems like Everton are desperate for RK (hence the money on offer) and I'm struggling to believe minor things like this would stop a deal being done

We're a very poor defensive team so we're going to have to score at least twice to win games. Despite that, of our three attacking players two of them are appalling in front of goal. All very well saying Lallana had a good game, but the fact is it doesn't matter how well he plays when his end product is consistently abysmal. Sterling is woefully out of form and lacking confidence. Vardy needs to play up front with Kane, Alli needs to be further forward as well. Roy will simply have to find a formation to get the best out of them

So we don't get the compensation, we have to carry on paying the Koemans to not work AND pay for a new manager and his staff. It would cost us millions. Seems like madness

What a disappointing list that is

Is that quote genuine? Load of these "quotes" on Twitter are just made up

"I like to continue my contract"

Behave yourself. We've had plenty of experience of losing managers, it normally results in us improving

Go smash that glass ceiling