2020/21 Marcel Brands

[mill]

Depends on what your agenda is.

Either way, the club as a whole seems to have learned from the mistakes of large contracts being given to mediocrity.

Exactly.

People can focus on the short term opportunity because of what’s going on in the league this year but there is clearly a longer term strategy being implemented.

Fix the books, get wages off the bill, plug gaps without a big outlay and consolidate for the summer.

it makes me confident that ancelotti is here for the long term and that we are trying to get to the top of the table organically (rather than putting all our eggs in one window and ones season).

I think king will be sound as a second striker btw.

 

[KaiserEFC]

Probs because signing him in the Summer would have cost us £15m+?

He was available for £11m so I’m told. If we finished one place in the table higher because of a late winner from him or something I’m sure that would offset that. The fact is we needed a backup striker since the summer

 

[kenada_blue]

Youth development wise it’s been a decent window. Moving Bolaise on, although I suspect we are still paying a percentage of his wages, is good. Only problem with loaning Tosun & Kenny out is they will be back in July and even harder to shift.

I get the principal. On paper its very good as it's deadwood or younger players going out for game time. Wages too. It's a step to fix things.

But wow. We're bare bones now.

 

[maccavennie]

I think its a case of him sitting back now with fingers crossed and hoping this squad somehow makes Europe.

If we do, it will be classed as a successful season and he will say he's done his job properly. If we don't, fingers will be pointed at him, Ancelotti and the board for leaving the squad threadbare in certain positions and the failure to generate money from sales instead of just loans.

 

[Toffe3m4n]

I’m not usually particularly critical of him as I think the business he does is usually good however I would like to know why it’s taken us until the final hours of the January window to sign Josh King who was seemingly there to sign in the summer. We all knew Tosun wasn’t good enough and would never play himself into a permanent move so why didn’t we simply get King in earlier?

The business with the 6 month deal with an extension is as ever very good but Brands has a horrible habit of leaving us short

He would've cost us close to £15m. Bournemouth rejected a bid off West Ham for more or less that much.

 

[JMT]

We wont be the only one's mate.
Liverpool signing Prestons finest and Arsenal shifting loads of players and borrowing 120 mil to pay the bills tells a story .
This Covid has scuppered it for most clubs.

exactly yet people are expecting us to just hand Ancelotti 50m this Jan because we did it for Fat Sam, Times have changed we're in the pandemic era we have to tread carefully.

 

[Lanolin]

Exactly.

People can focus on the short term opportunity because of what’s going on in the league this year but there is clearly a longer term strategy being implemented.

Fix the books, get wages off the bill, plug gaps without a big outlay and consolidate for the summer.

it makes me confident that ancelotti is here for the long term and that we are trying to get to the top of the table organically (rather than putting all our eggs in one window and ones season).

I think king will be sound as a second striker btw.

I don't really agree. I don't mean there isn't a long term strategy, but I don't think it's clear if there is. Our dealings still seem a little bit haphazard to me to be honest. That isn't necessarily Brands' fault, it may come from above, but I don't think we've really seen a clear blueprint for what we're trying to do.

 

[Nymzee]

Youth development wise it’s been a decent window. Moving Bolaise on, although I suspect we are still paying a percentage of his wages, is good. Only problem with loaning Tosun & Kenny out is they will be back in July and even harder to shift.

Celtic don’t have a RB really now. If Kenny plays well they’ll buy him.

 

[Nymzee]

He was available for £11m so I’m told. If we finished one place in the table higher because of a late winner from him or something I’m sure that would offset that. The fact is we needed a backup striker since the summer

West Ham got £14.5m rejected in October.

 

[Toffe3m4n]

I don't really agree. I don't mean there isn't a long term strategy, but I don't think it's clear if there is. Our dealings still seem a little bit haphazard to me to be honest. That isn't necessarily Brands' fault, it may come from above, but I don't think we've really seen a clear blueprint for what we're trying to do.

I do think the whole Covid/Brexit situation has thrown a spanner in the works over the last 12 months like. All clubs have clearly been affected by it in terms of their short-medium term plans.

 

[Lanolin]

I do think the whole Covid/Brexit situation has thrown a spanner in the works over the last 12 months like. All clubs have clearly been affected by it in terms of their short-medium term plans.

I don't see any evidence that affected us much in the summer to be honest. We spent a fair bit of money and didn't bring much in, so I think it's fair to assume that while we might otherwise have done slightly more of it, the summer business was at least a fair reflection of what we were aiming to do. This window has undoubtedly been impacted by covid though. Worth saying though that there's no real reason to believe that will have changed by the summer, so the idea that we're 'setting ourselves up for the summer' is a bit fanciful if that's the case.

As I said though, i'm not criticising Brands, I just think our transfer dealings seem a bit disjointed and personally I don't think it's clear what it is we're actually aiming for. I hope, for example, that we know exactly what our plans for King are. Either we want him long term or we don't. I don't want us bringing him in as a short term option but then deciding to offer him a 3 year deal just because he scores a couple of goals.

 

[Nymzee]

I don't see any evidence that affected us much in the summer to be honest. We spent a fair bit of money and didn't bring much in, so I think it's fair to assume that while we might otherwise have done slightly more of it, the summer business was at least a fair reflection of what we were aiming to do. This window has undoubtedly been impacted by covid though. Worth saying though that there's no real reason to believe that will have changed by the summer, so the idea that we're 'setting ourselves up for the summer' is a bit fanciful if that's the case.

As I said though, i'm not criticising Brands, I just think our transfer dealings seem a bit disjointed and personally I don't think it's clear what it is we're actually aiming for. I hope, for example, that we know exactly what our plans for King are. Either we want him long term or we don't. I don't want us bringing him in as a short term option but then deciding to offer him a 3 year deal just because he scores a couple of goals.

Do you think the Summer’s signings were haphazard though?

 

[Lanolin]

Do you think the Summer’s signings were haphazard though?

Yeah definitely. I'm not talking about the signings as individuals, I'm talking about the strategy. I was responding to a post about us having a clear long term strategy by saying I don't think we have. I don't think you could look at the business we've done and say 'oh Everton's plan is to do x'. It seems a bit like some signings are Ancelotti's picks, some are Brands, some are with a very short term plan in mind, some aren't, there doesn't appear to be a specific style of play that we're bringing in players to play in etc. Again, I'm not saying there isn't a plan, just that I don't think it's obvious what it is.

 

[Drico]

I don't see any evidence that affected us much in the summer to be honest. We spent a fair bit of money and didn't bring much in, so I think it's fair to assume that while we might otherwise have done slightly more of it, the summer business was at least a fair reflection of what we were aiming to do. This window has undoubtedly been impacted by covid though. Worth saying though that there's no real reason to believe that will have changed by the summer, so the idea that we're 'setting ourselves up for the summer' is a bit fanciful if that's the case.

As I said though, i'm not criticising Brands, I just think our transfer dealings seem a bit disjointed and personally I don't think it's clear what it is we're actually aiming for. I hope, for example, that we know exactly what our plans for King are. Either we want him long term or we don't. I don't want us bringing him in as a short term option but then deciding to offer him a 3 year deal just because he scores a couple of goals.

Surely he is an emergency purchase - one that offers decent options and cover when we otherwise have none? If he is a big hit in his few months here, why wouldn't he be extended if both parties were agreeable? I said on Sunday that players had to be arriving on Monday given the outgoings. Sure enough, Josh King came in. He might not be a glamorous signing, but he's a practical one that is clearly here to plug some obvious gaps (pace, depth). I was critical of Brands yesterday for seemingly leaving Carlo short of basic cover up front. While I wonder why it had to wait until the last minute, the reality is he got King in to address that, so I'm putting my pitchfork back in the shed and quenching my torch...for now.

 

[Nymzee]

Yeah definitely. I'm not talking about the signings as individuals, I'm talking about the strategy. I was responding to a post about us having a clear long term strategy by saying I don't think we have. I don't think you could look at the business we've done and say 'oh Everton's plan is to do x'. It seems a bit like some signings are Ancelotti's picks, some are Brands, some are with a very short term plan in mind, some aren't, there doesn't appear to be a specific style of play that we're bringing in players to play in etc. Again, I'm not saying there isn't a plan, just that I don't think it's obvious what it is.

We had no midfield.

We signed a midfield.

That's a plan enough for me.