I am not totally against this signing although it is a bit like going back to the years of Walter Smith. At the end of the day, I do feel we need more options up front other than the misfired Jelavic and the ineffective Anichebe. However, no matter the transfer fee is £5m or £6.5m, this deal is totally against the blueprint of our survival policy (and business sense) for the last 11 years, which is to buy potential younger players and selling them while their stocks are high. Of course no one knows exactly how much transfer fee we have this season but our past records indicate that we spend an average of £3m net per season. Hence, normally £5m exceed our transfer net spend which represent a huge sum given the budget of this club.
Some posters use Distin as the counter argument. I do not think Distin is a good example to justify the fee in this deal because defenders tend to go from strength to strength after 30 (Weir, Stubbs and Distin were prime examples) while strikers tend to go downhill after 30 especially they will lose pace gradually. When Lescott was sold for £22m resulting a £17m profit, Moyes had about a day to find a ready made stop gap CB so he went for Distin despite he was 31. In our current situation, Martinez has more than 2 months to look for reinforcement on striker and now he acts quickly to purchase Kone. The conclusion is that Martinez may deem Kone is so good to do a job at Everton that he cannot think of anyone for the consideration of £5m. We need to respect his decision and judge after Kone is given chances to show what he can do.
The jury is still out as to whether this transfer is a good one given the transfer fee and the age of Kone. There are always pros and cons. Kone strikes me as a journeyman but looking at his past records, his strike rate was actually decent aside from his Sevilla years. Let's hope Kone will not suffer a PL second season hangover and goes on to do well for Everton.
