tajjuk

Still think we have a big Wanyama sized hole in our midfield. Romeu is a good squad player but just not good enough IMO. Basically haven't replaced Mane, Wanyama and Pelle, not with the same quality. Hojberg certainly looks like he adds something, probably what we lost with Morgan, that box to box midfielder.

Odd to see Hojberg on the bench to be honest, full pre-season and looked probably the best player. Also would say Austin is unlucky to miss out there as well, Fonte presumably just not fit enough rather than moving.

Exactly, for me Benteke is better than Behrahino. lol what? Doubt he's going to be £32 million for a start, but secondly if the player is good enough why wouldn't we pay £32 million? If the club refuse to buy a player because they have some pre-determined limit to their spending then they are making the wrong noises about ambition and progress.

I'd rather sign Benteke.

To get his quality I think we would have to spend more than we'll get in a sale, unless it's another player of similar age. We could have got Williams in for £12 million. Plus a lot of clubs seem to be looking for centre-backs, but you'd hope the club have been tracking replacements anyway considering Jose's age. If he does go then really you are looking at accelerating a replacement process we probably would have needed to do in a season or two anyway.

Good news, a player we really needed to keep. Shame about Fonte if his head is being turned.

Let's hope today for the big announcement.

Also saying anything about amount or position we are targeting does not at all fit with the way we do transfers. So Puel is never going to say anything about an incoming transfer before it's over the line.

Well he likes the crossing and liked Pelle, but was just trying to think of a striker that Everton fans would be annoyed if they signed and he fits the bill.

Just can't see Depay rocking up to Staplewood in his custom Rolls Royce phantom, with his personalised 'M7' brand stitched into the seats fitting too well into our squad.

I know he's 22, but he was very poor for Utd last year and struggled in the league, not to mention his attitude seems poor, he talks a good game and is very flash, but doesn't actually show it on the pitch. Let's also remember LVG managed him at international level for tow years so he can hardly moan about the manager or bad management. He just wasn't very good. he'll think he's way way too big for us anyway.

Because he was woeful for Utd last year? He's a big club reject, but not like say Hojberg where he hasn't got the opportunities, but instead he got plenty of opportunities and showed he wasn't good enough. Not sure how that is an exciting signing? I'd rather sign someone on the up than someone on the way down.

Would Depay be an amazing signing? I'd be pretty underwhelmed to be honest after seeing him play. Can't write a player off after a year of course, but he's been a pretty big flop so far. I doubt Utd would need to replace him either. Behrahino fits on the need replacing and other premier league clubs involved, plus he's the right age, but he's not really left sided. I'd say the 'needs replacing' thing is more common on the continent than in the Premier league, you often see deals in Spain and Portugal that are all linked together. So I'm going for Muniain, Boufall, or Rafa Silva. Have a sneaky suspicion about Muniain just because there is no press news around it, plus his injury would have meant we might have been watching him for a long time, plus we seem to be fairly friendly with Bilbao. But just guessing.

Solid player there is no doubt about that, probably about a similar level to Fonte I'd say, but they've just replaced the best young centre back in Europe with a 31 year old. And he cost more money than we paid for a 24 year old VVD, who is a better defender and 7 years younger. Also just noticed he's about to turn 32 in 12 days. their squad is aging a bit, 32 and 33 year old centre back, 35 year old Barry sat in front of them. So their big spend to push the glass ceiling has so far got them a 32 year old centre back, a back up keeper from Fulham and midfielder from one of the worst premier league teams in recent history. Whilst also selling their best prospect. Hopefully Lukaku will go soon and they sign like Andy Carroll to replace him.

Exciting times, nice to see the transfer thread actually discussing a transfer! Hope it's someone good and high profile to annoy the Everton fans whilst they are signing £30 million Bolasie

Osvaldo was a silly vanity signing, but Ramirez was sound in idea, young attacking player who'd just had a very good season in top flight football and was a full international. I mean Hojberg basically fits a similar profile. He just didn't work out, but he was an exciting signing at the time, not usually the sort of player clubs newly promoted clubs make. Wanyama was a an exciting signing as well, not sure why anyone would have been underwhelmed as most football fans knew about his Champions League exploits, especially against Barca. He was probably one of the highest rated young talents in Europe not playing in a top league.

£30 million would be more about right I think, though depends how transfer deals were set up whether the cash was all up front, but if we let Liverpool get Mane for £34 million and it's instalments then we've been mugged. More and more it's looking to me that we should have strung that one out and with the kind of figures being quoted could have easily pushed that towards £50 million. But £34 million + £13 + £11 + £2 = around £60 million in player sales. Hojberg was about £13 million, Redmond was £11 million, McCarthy probably about £3-4 million. But as you said I'd expect with having had a transfer profit for two years running + new TV deal + new sponsorship we'd have been able to spend £30-40 million with zero sales. I mean if Palace can spend that amount there is no reason we can't unless we have financial issues we are not aware of. Ultimately if we don't spend at least what we have recouped that is a bit disappointing, but we'll see, seems at least 1 signing might be coming, apparently soon and people are saying it's a club record deal. So if it's upwards of £15 million, maybe even £20 million, it's not beyond possibility we could pick up a second player closer to the window for £10-12 million and have spent all our sale money. Question will be whether by the 1st September we have a better squad than we did at the end of last season.

It's not £30 million I'd say it's more around early £22-23 million plus add ons. Still a lot for a very inconsistent player, are they going to get more from Bolasie than Miralles/Delfieou? Think we should have got more than £40 million for Mane, hope we have plenty of add ons and sell ons in that deal if he moves to like Barcelona for £80 million in a few years. Would love us to look at Bony or Benteke, feel those are the sort of strikers that would fill a Pelle hole whilst still being more mobile than him. Wages are probably the main issue though, can't see us breaking that £100k a week fee.

Had a fairly serious knee injury recently, not 100% sure we want two of those players. Also not easy for Bilbao to source replacements with their transfer policy, any other Basque attacking left side transfer rumours?

Still think they have a lot of issues they haven't really addressed. But then Leicester won the league so who knows. I'd go with Pep's Man City.

Jese is going to PSG isn't he?

At £13 million we should be all over that.

Well if we are going to play more possession based/controlling football we'll need some more creativity to break down those teams that will just sit in front of their box, especially at home. So even more reason for to get some extra quality in attack in. We also will not have to aerial and bullying presence of Pelle to fall back on which gave us other options when trying to break these sorts of teams down.

Ayew is a bit over priced but not an awful deal he did pretty well in a struggling team. West Ham just seem desperate for a striker and will probably throw the cash around until something sticks. I'd personally be a bit underwhelmed if we signed him for £20 million though. I'd reckon they've over paid by about £5-8 million there. If you are going to be spending upwards of £20 million on a Premiership striker then I think the money would be better directed at Berahino, Bony or Benteke, though the latter two might cost a bit more they are probably worth it. I'd say with Llorente and this Baston guy Swansea have probably done well there, Llorente isn't super prolific but he's class and we've seen with Pelle what a big target man can do to Premier league defences, not many centre backs these days are used to playing against a proper target man.

Have they signed him as a receptionist? That is an odd photo.