toffeeblue9
Player Valuation: £35m
Struck me this morning how the squad that we've got (on paper at least) seems to me to be the strongest we've ever had in my memory of supporting Everton. Genuine quality all over the pitch, cover in every position and a nice blend of youth and experience.
It got me to thinking about where the squad had been when Martinez took over last summer.
Following Moyes' departure, we saw the exits of Phil Neville and Thomas Hitzlsperger as they retired, along with Jan Mucha's departure as his contract ended.
The squad that Martinez took over was pretty thin and, as far as senior players are concerned, it looked like this:
If I were Martinez, my initial concern wouldn't have necessarily been about the quality of the players at his disposal (they had finished 6th the previous season), more the fact that the squad was simply too small. This had often been a problem under Moyes.
Martinez addressed this and we finished Martinez's first transfer window with the following first team squad:
Martinez had raided Wigan for a number of players like Robles, Alcaraz and Kone to supplement the squad numbers, along with 3 loans. Our only significant "signing" was James McCarthy
It was only a month or two into the season that we lost Darron Gibson and Arouna Kone and the squad depth that Martinez had assembled was already stretched and key areas like in attack and central midfield were stretched.
Going into January, Martinez asserted that if the right deals weren't available, he would rather hold onto the money we had and save it to spend in the summer window. He was true to his word and Everton's only signings were Aiden McGeady for a nominal fee and Lacina Traore on loan - allowing Johnny Heitinga to leave on a free and selling Jelavic to Fulham. At the end of the January window, Everton's senior squad was as follows:
And so we arrive at this summer. Everton's loan players departed (Lukaku, Barry, Deulofeu and Traore) and Martinez was again tasked with trying to improve the quality of a squad who had finished 5th with a record points total but also to try and keep as much continuity as possible from the previous campaign and ensuring that we had a squad large enough to compete on 4 fronts next season. Signing Gareth Barry and Romelu Lukaku on permanent deals made a lot of sense since they were the two loan players who had contributed most in the previous campaign. As of today, Everton's first team squad is:
It's the biggest squad we've had in as long as I can remember and the players returning to fitness like Gibson, Oviedo, Pienaar and Kone (who all missed large spells of last season) will help, but the question is, is this squad big enough? How much better is it in terms of quality than the one Martinez inherited? Could/should he have done anything different?
Personally, I see a squad that has 2 senior players in every position on the pitch, with 3 in the number 10 role and centre forward. Theoretically speaking, that should be enough, especially when supplemented at times by the likes of Browning, Garbutt, Ledson etc who Martinez seems to think may all have an role to play this season.
It's the best squad I can remember and it's the biggest squad I can remember us having and I think we're right to be cautiously optimistic, given that Premier League teams are only allowed to name 25 man squads these days (excluding U21 players), how many of our rivals have significantly bigger 1st team squads assembled?
It got me to thinking about where the squad had been when Martinez took over last summer.
Following Moyes' departure, we saw the exits of Phil Neville and Thomas Hitzlsperger as they retired, along with Jan Mucha's departure as his contract ended.
The squad that Martinez took over was pretty thin and, as far as senior players are concerned, it looked like this:
If I were Martinez, my initial concern wouldn't have necessarily been about the quality of the players at his disposal (they had finished 6th the previous season), more the fact that the squad was simply too small. This had often been a problem under Moyes.
Martinez addressed this and we finished Martinez's first transfer window with the following first team squad:
Martinez had raided Wigan for a number of players like Robles, Alcaraz and Kone to supplement the squad numbers, along with 3 loans. Our only significant "signing" was James McCarthy
It was only a month or two into the season that we lost Darron Gibson and Arouna Kone and the squad depth that Martinez had assembled was already stretched and key areas like in attack and central midfield were stretched.
Going into January, Martinez asserted that if the right deals weren't available, he would rather hold onto the money we had and save it to spend in the summer window. He was true to his word and Everton's only signings were Aiden McGeady for a nominal fee and Lacina Traore on loan - allowing Johnny Heitinga to leave on a free and selling Jelavic to Fulham. At the end of the January window, Everton's senior squad was as follows:
And so we arrive at this summer. Everton's loan players departed (Lukaku, Barry, Deulofeu and Traore) and Martinez was again tasked with trying to improve the quality of a squad who had finished 5th with a record points total but also to try and keep as much continuity as possible from the previous campaign and ensuring that we had a squad large enough to compete on 4 fronts next season. Signing Gareth Barry and Romelu Lukaku on permanent deals made a lot of sense since they were the two loan players who had contributed most in the previous campaign. As of today, Everton's first team squad is:
It's the biggest squad we've had in as long as I can remember and the players returning to fitness like Gibson, Oviedo, Pienaar and Kone (who all missed large spells of last season) will help, but the question is, is this squad big enough? How much better is it in terms of quality than the one Martinez inherited? Could/should he have done anything different?
Personally, I see a squad that has 2 senior players in every position on the pitch, with 3 in the number 10 role and centre forward. Theoretically speaking, that should be enough, especially when supplemented at times by the likes of Browning, Garbutt, Ledson etc who Martinez seems to think may all have an role to play this season.
It's the best squad I can remember and it's the biggest squad I can remember us having and I think we're right to be cautiously optimistic, given that Premier League teams are only allowed to name 25 man squads these days (excluding U21 players), how many of our rivals have significantly bigger 1st team squads assembled?
