2022/23 Amadou Onana

[allen]

Why do people always want to sell our better players?

Buying young players of promise like Onana and selling them in their prime like Richarlison is exactly how we need to do business.

I just hope we haven't figured that out too late.

 

[Marius57]

Because when we don’t we get in situations where the PL put us on the naughty step, have the shadow of a points deduction over our shoulder and inevitably they have their moment in the sun then turn gash.

Or we sell them and turn gash at their new club.

That happens when we do though, not when we don’t. Sold Richie and Gordon for 100m and that’s what they are doing.

 

[Paul Rideout]

That happens when we do though, not when we don’t. Sold Richie and Gordon for 100m and that’s what they are doing.

if we’d have sold Gordon in the summer maybe this issue wouldn’t exist

 

[Saint Domingo]

We need to find his position and let him get a run of games in it. He’s been the deep holding mid, playing as one of the two pushing forward, and now recently playing in a two with Gueye behind Doucoure.

Personally for me I’d like to see him play as the one holding mid and then we can put Garner or a new midfielder ahead of him. He’s good at making blocks and interceptions and giving it simply. I’ve not seen much from him going forward to suggest he can do a Fellaini role.

 

[yakublue]

Buying young players of promise like Onana and selling them in their prime like Richarlison is exactly how we need to do business.

I just hope we haven't figured that out too late.

Agree with the point in general but given that we bought richarlison for around £50m and sold him for around £60m I don't think we made money, especially with price inflation taken into account.

But at least we didn't take a big loss for once!

 

[allen]

Agree with the point in general but given that we bought richarlison for around £50m and sold him for around £60m I don't think we made money, especially with price inflation taken into account.

But at least we didn't take a big loss for once!

Right, that is the model we need, though.

If anything, you could argue that we got both Richarlison and Onana one move too late.

Watford paid £11 million for Richarlison, and Lille £11 million for Onana.

 

[Zatara]

We need to find his position and let him get a run of games in it. He’s been the deep holding mid, playing as one of the two pushing forward, and now recently playing in a two with Gueye behind Doucoure.

Personally for me I’d like to see him play as the one holding mid and then we can put Garner or a new midfielder ahead of him. He’s good at making blocks and interceptions and giving it simply. I’ve not seen much from him going forward to suggest he can do a Fellaini role.

If we go with the 3 in midfield, I wonder what types of player the other two should be to bring the best out of him.

For me, I'd like to see how he does next to Garner who is an all rounder. Hopefully this comes soon.

Though, if Forest or Southampton go down, Danilo and Lavia will be available. Any of these could sit deep alongside Onana or could alternate with him box to box.

If he was going to be solely used as a pure DM then Garner or someone like Alex Scott (Bristol) could play the Central position.

I do agree that we need to find his best position but to do so may mean we have to bring in a new midfielder to get the most out of him.

We look like we need to not only add a centre forward and a right sided player but also a midfielder partner for Onana.

 

[twoblue]

Buying young players of promise like Onana and selling them in their prime like Richarlison is exactly how we need to do business.

I just hope we haven't figured that out too late.

While I agree, ideally we sell them for a decent profit… unlike richarlison

 

[Zatara]

Agree with the point in general but given that we bought richarlison for around £50m and sold him for around £60m I don't think we made money, especially with price inflation taken into account.

But at least we didn't take a big loss for once!

Right, that is the model we need, though.

If anything, you could argue that we got both Richarlison and Onana one move too late.

Watford paid £11 million for Richarlison, and Lille £11 million for Onana.

It would be great if we could sign the players before their big move to the premier league. This of course has a higher risk.

Danilo went to Forest for £18mil. Lavia went to Southampton for a fee rising to £14mil.

If either were available in the summer for £30mil, would you sign them or spend the £14mil / £18mil and take a higher risk?

My view is that we need to see Onana alongside Garner. If it works well then we could focus on a more attacking player for the trifecta.

Otherwise its imperative we find a permanent partner for him.

 

[GoldenToffee]

It's quite a high-risk strategy buying young players for £30m and hoping they turn into £60m players within a few short seasons. We really need to be following Brighton's example, but much easier said than done of course.

 

[allen]

It would be great if we could sign the players before their big move to the premier league. This of course has a higher risk.

Danilo went to Forest for £18mil. Lavia went to Southampton for a fee rising to £14mil.

If either were available in the summer for £30mil, would you sign them or spend the £14mil / £18mil and take a higher risk?

My view is that we need to see Onana alongside Garner. If it works well then we could focus on a more attacking player for the trifecta.

Otherwise its imperative we find a permanent partner for him.

I hope that we’ve had a recalibration in our targeting.

I think Moshiri saw the new-to-a-major-league transfers as beneath Everton, which is why we bought so many “Premier League proven,” players for over the odds.

That’s absolutely not the pool we should be fishing in now. We need to be much smarter, much leaner and more ambitious with our signings.

The glaring unknown in that, though, is whether we have the scouting skill to pull it off.

 

[GoldenToffee]

It's quite a high-risk strategy buying young players for £30m and hoping they turn into £60m players within a few short seasons. We really need to be following Brighton's example, but much easier said than done of course.

To add to this, we barely made a kin penny on Richarlison and he improved no end while with us. What did we pay, about £40m, and told to Spurs for about a £10-15m profit? An utter pittance.

 

[Zatara]

It's quite a high-risk strategy buying young players for £30m and hoping they turn into £60m players within a few short seasons. We really need to be following Brighton's example, but much easier said than done of course.

Surely that depends on what youre trying to achieve?

If we had signed Kudus (21) or Gakpo (23) last summer for £30mil each, what would they be worth now?

Lets say for arguments sake £50mil each. You then have a £100mil pairing which improves other players in the team, results and overall club standing benefit as well.

The reason youre paying those amounts (like Onana) is because youre very confident. In that sense the risk (in theory) is much lower than signing players for say £15mil each.

Its also perhaps more likely that paying the premium to lower risk also increases the chances of the player improving to a far higher standard.

I think there has to be a balance between prospects (Nkounkou/Branthwaite) who may take longer to develop, then those who may need a year or two (Garner/Patterson) and players considered oven ready (Onana).

In the position were in, I'd like to see us go for less players this summer but of the Onana type.

 

[Zatara]

I hope that we’ve had a recalibration in our targeting.

I think Moshiri saw the new-to-a-major-league transfers as beneath Everton, which is why we bought so many “Premier League proven,” players for over the odds.

That’s absolutely not the pool we should be fishing in now. We need to be much smarter, much leaner and more ambitious with our signings.

The glaring unknown in that, though, is whether we have the scouting skill to pull it off.

The one thing that sticks with me is signing a lot of players each summer.

I dont think we need that. We have to improve CF and RW which is obvious.

But we also need to build around Onana which makes another CM player imperative at the moment.

Just 3 signings could massively improve us.

To add to this, we barely made a kin penny on Richarlison and he improved no end while with us. What did we pay, about £40m, and told to Spurs for about a £10-15m profit? An utter pittance.

I agree. But the other thing to consider is that we spent £35-50mil on him and still generated a profit.

We had him for 4 full seasons.

Due to other mistakes in the market the FFP numbers generated from his sale covered those losses.

So, if we were to have signed say 2 or 3 players like Richarlison instead of wasting funds on others. The team in theory would have performed better...so the players would improve together, their values would also increase to a higher level.

I think for us the 2 sweetspots are the Onana/Richarlison price/potential signings and also the low punts Nkounkou/Branthwaite/DCL etc.

If we have a budget we shouldnt throw wages and fees across 5+ players. Stick to 2 or 3 players each summer but make sure theyre the very best young ones we can afford.

 

[TheBigIguana]

To add to this, we barely made a kin penny on Richarlison and he improved no end while with us. What did we pay, about £40m, and told to Spurs for about a £10-15m profit? An utter pittance.

He really didn't