Leighton Baines

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

Okay good old fashioned pros and cons list for selling the best player to put on an Everton shirt in years:

Pros:

• Baines could get a career ending injured (risk: low and we should have insurance to some extent?).
  hello!
• In 5 years or so he will retire (risk: very high ... but we also get 3-4 years of the best LB in the world).
  hello!
• We could get a better player (very, very small chance ... like less than 1%).

Cons:

• We lose the best LB in the world from our team.
  hello!
• We almost certainly become a worse team this season and probably next (even if the replacement eventually works out).
  hello!
• We are being forced to buy a replacement (or are we playing Oviedo?). The money the big clubs have isn't just valuable for being able to buy expensive players; it's value is in choosing *when* to buy players.
  hello!
  Imagine if we'd been forced to buy a LB the year before we bought Baines (and let's say the player we got was a serviceable player) would we then have doubled up buying another LB (to replace a decent one) the next year? With our limited funds? No. There might not be a good LB out there right now but we'll probably have to convince ourselves one of them will work out because we're forced to replace him now rather than wait for the right player at the right price over the course of the next 3 years.
  hello!
• We'll pay more for a replacement than we should because we are known to be in the market rather than picking and choosing.
  hello!
• Even Moyes would miss on players. Good chance some of the 20m goes on a Kroldrup or Bily.
  hello!
• Hell the player could be great on the pitch but a super snide in the dressing room and mess up the team spirit.
  hello!
• Player could turn out great but demand a transfer after one year. We make a modest profit and roll the dice on risk of ruin yet again.

So ... why are we selling? There is enough risk in the transfer market as is but a lot of the time you have no choice as you need new players. We DO have a choice now -- we don't need a new LB. The fact some people think taking all of those risks for almost no reward (what are the odds a new player would be better?) is insane.

If he wants to go then that's that (although you could argue that not allowing players to move just because they want to has some strategic benefits in future negotiations) ... but as far as weighing pros and cons to selling him I see very few pros to selling.

People want to "cash in" ... why? If the money won't make us a better team then what is the point of selling? I know it's hard and we're fighting an uphill battle against these money teams ... but selling Baines is giving up.

Baines is pretty much everything we ask for: didn't cost a huge price but became world class, great attitude, has been healthy, gets along with the squad well, has turned down big teams so he's loyal, seems like a great bloke off the pitch. What more could you possibly want? What do you imagine 20m will get us?

Bottom line: Baines is utterly ace. If you want to sell Baines I honestly don't know why you bother watching Everton.

I agree on the whole mate

Not sure it matters if a player coming in is a snide though. I'm sure there's probably some bar stools who play for us already. You get them at every club

I'm sure the locker room leaders would come down on him if he was causing trouble

 

[thefisch26]

Okay good old fashioned pros and cons list for selling the best player to put on an Everton shirt in years:

Pros:

• Baines could get a career ending injured (risk: low and we should have insurance to some extent?).
  hello!
• In 5 years or so he will retire (risk: very high ... but we also get 3-4 years of the best LB in the world).
  hello!
• We could get a better player (very, very small chance ... like less than 1%).

Cons:

• We lose the best LB in the world from our team.
  hello!
• We almost certainly become a worse team this season and probably next (even if the replacement eventually works out).
  hello!
• We are being forced to buy a replacement (or are we playing Oviedo?). The money the big clubs have isn't just valuable for being able to buy expensive players; it's value is in choosing *when* to buy players.
  hello!
  Imagine if we'd been forced to buy a LB the year before we bought Baines (and let's say the player we got was a serviceable player) would we then have doubled up buying another LB (to replace a decent one) the next year? With our limited funds? No. There might not be a good LB out there right now but we'll probably have to convince ourselves one of them will work out because we're forced to replace him now rather than wait for the right player at the right price over the course of the next 3 years.
  hello!
• We'll pay more for a replacement than we should because we are known to be in the market rather than picking and choosing.
  hello!
• Even Moyes would miss on players. Good chance some of the 20m goes on a Kroldrup or Bily.
  hello!
• Hell the player could be great on the pitch but a super snide in the dressing room and mess up the team spirit.
  hello!
• Player could turn out great but demand a transfer after one year. We make a modest profit and roll the dice on risk of ruin yet again.

So ... why are we selling? There is enough risk in the transfer market as is but a lot of the time you have no choice as you need new players. We DO have a choice now -- we don't need a new LB. The fact some people think taking all of those risks for almost no reward (what are the odds a new player would be better?) is insane.

If he wants to go then that's that (although you could argue that not allowing players to move just because they want to has some strategic benefits in future negotiations) ... but as far as weighing pros and cons to selling him I see very few pros to selling.

People want to "cash in" ... why? If the money won't make us a better team then what is the point of selling? I know it's hard and we're fighting an uphill battle against these money teams ... but selling Baines is giving up.

Baines is pretty much everything we ask for: didn't cost a huge price but became world class, great attitude, has been healthy, gets along with the squad well, has turned down big teams so he's loyal, seems like a great bloke off the pitch. What more could you possibly want? What do you imagine 20m will get us?

Bottom line: Baines is utterly ace. If you want to sell Baines I honestly don't know why you bother watching Everton.

Agree with all this, but would also like to add that football is much more exciting to watch when the players on the pitch are... ermmmmm... exciting. And I really don't know how much I'd enjoy watching this team without him -- just think back to two seasons ago before Jelavic and Pienaar came in, when Baines was pretty much singlehandedly our offense.

 

[Julian Carax]

There are a few more pros to add to selling him:

It would be good business.
We might have seen the best of him.

 

[caught]

I'd like Baines to stay as much as anyone, but he's not the best LB in the world. Offensively he's certainly up there, but his defensive game, while above average, isn't 'world class'. The likes of Luis and Lahm have it all, while Marcelo is probably a better attacker.

The difficulty we will have if/when he goes is in how we're to replace the creative loss, not the defensive.

 

[royalblue66]

Transfer rumour,Chelsea in move for Baaines, caught offside website

 

[Arteta10]

Okay good old fashioned pros and cons list for selling the best player to put on an Everton shirt in years:

Pros:

• Baines could get a career ending injured (risk: low and we should have insurance to some extent?).
  hello!
• In 5 years or so he will retire (risk: very high ... but we also get 3-4 years of the best LB in the world).
  hello!
• We could get a better player (very, very small chance ... like less than 1%).

Cons:

• We lose the best LB in the world from our team.
  hello!
• We almost certainly become a worse team this season and probably next (even if the replacement eventually works out).
  hello!
• We are being forced to buy a replacement (or are we playing Oviedo?). The money the big clubs have isn't just valuable for being able to buy expensive players; it's value is in choosing *when* to buy players.
  hello!
  Imagine if we'd been forced to buy a LB the year before we bought Baines (and let's say the player we got was a serviceable player) would we then have doubled up buying another LB (to replace a decent one) the next year? With our limited funds? No. There might not be a good LB out there right now but we'll probably have to convince ourselves one of them will work out because we're forced to replace him now rather than wait for the right player at the right price over the course of the next 3 years.
  hello!
• We'll pay more for a replacement than we should because we are known to be in the market rather than picking and choosing.
  hello!
• Even Moyes would miss on players. Good chance some of the 20m goes on a Kroldrup or Bily.
  hello!
• Hell the player could be great on the pitch but a super snide in the dressing room and mess up the team spirit.
  hello!
• Player could turn out great but demand a transfer after one year. We make a modest profit and roll the dice on risk of ruin yet again.

So ... why are we selling? There is enough risk in the transfer market as is but a lot of the time you have no choice as you need new players. We DO have a choice now -- we don't need a new LB. The fact some people think taking all of those risks for almost no reward (what are the odds a new player would be better?) is insane.

If he wants to go then that's that (although you could argue that not allowing players to move just because they want to has some strategic benefits in future negotiations) ... but as far as weighing pros and cons to selling him I see very few pros to selling.

People want to "cash in" ... why? If the money won't make us a better team then what is the point of selling? I know it's hard and we're fighting an uphill battle against these money teams ... but selling Baines is giving up.

Baines is pretty much everything we ask for: didn't cost a huge price but became world class, great attitude, has been healthy, gets along with the squad well, has turned down big teams so he's loyal, seems like a great bloke off the pitch. What more could you possibly want? What do you imagine 20m will get us?

Bottom line: Baines is utterly ace. If you want to sell Baines I honestly don't know why you bother watching Everton.

I agree with you overall mate, but I dont think you can say we will almost certainly become a worse team if we lose him. I know he's one of the best in the world in his position but at the end of the day he is a left back....its a massive bonus for us to have a left back who provides so much more than what is expected of the average LB, but its not the be all and end all. There are ways of playing football which dont rely so heavily on the Left back as an attacking outlet.

Say for arguments sake we sold Baines for 20 mil, replaced him with oviedo and spent the 20 mil on an outrageous striker who was gonna score us 20+ goals, are we really worse off as a team on the whole?

I'm not saying I wanna sell Baines at all and I think we should reject anything less than 20 mil but life will go on without him is all im saying

 

[davek]

Transfer rumour,Chelsea in move for Baaines, caught offside website

We might get a sensible bid from the Chelsea director of football unlike the one we received off the United tea lady Moyes has to defer to.

 

[royalblue66]

We might get a sensible bid from the Chelsea director of football unlike the one we received off the United tea lady Moyes has to defer to.

Ye right there,could you see him going to Chelsea tho?

 

[Zatara]

18mil for a left back when we have oviedo/garbutt to come in is good business.

Imagine what player you could sign for 18mil in midfield or attack...

 

[Gwladys St. Glory]

I just love how people seem to gloss over the fact that a football club who could pretty much nick any left back in the world are after ours and yet, somehow it'd be OK to sell him if the price is right.

[Poor language removed] off, every single one of you...bunch of Kenwrights. Talking sh*t about ambition and completely ignoring the fact that we'd be selling one of the best in world football who, by all accounts, is also a good PERSON to have around this great club. Ignorant...

Gladly take a red card for this, I just don't give a [Poor language removed]...I'm tired of people making up bullsh*t excuses for this boards inaction.

 

[thebluefox]

I just love how people seem to gloss over the fact that a football club who could pretty much nick any left back in the world are after ours and yet, somehow it'd be OK to sell him if the price is right.

[Poor language removed] off, every single one of you...bunch of Kenwrights. Talking sh*t about ambition and completely ignoring the fact that we'd be selling one of the best in world football who, by all accounts, is also a good PERSON to have around this great club. Ignorant...

Gladly take a red card for this, I just don't give a [Poor language removed]...I'm tired of people making up bullsh*t excuses for this boards inaction.

well said lad

 

[Blues Harp]

I just love how people seem to gloss over the fact that a football club who could pretty much nick any left back in the world are after ours and yet, somehow it'd be OK to sell him if the price is right.

[Poor language removed] off, every single one of you...bunch of Kenwrights. Talking sh*t about ambition and completely ignoring the fact that we'd be selling one of the best in world football who, by all accounts, is also a good PERSON to have around this great club. Ignorant...



Gladly take a red card for this, I just don't give a [Poor language removed]...I'm tired of people making up bullsh*t excuses for this boards inaction.

Well said - we do the boards work for them - Martinez's first task is to say feck off to Moyes and then try like hell to keep the lad - then deal with Kenwright - not easy I admit

 

[Arteta10]

I just love how people seem to gloss over the fact that a football club who could pretty much nick any left back in the world are after ours and yet, somehow it'd be OK to sell him if the price is right.

[Poor language removed] off, every single one of you...bunch of Kenwrights. Talking sh*t about ambition and completely ignoring the fact that we'd be selling one of the best in world football who, by all accounts, is also a good PERSON to have around this great club. Ignorant...

Gladly take a red card for this, I just don't give a [Poor language removed]...I'm tired of people making up bullsh*t excuses for this boards inaction.

That might have something to do with the fact that hes one of the best in the world in his position.....we on the other hand are not one of the best teams in the world, we've gotta expect clubs to come knocking.

Its horrible that this is the case but its reality. I dont want Baines to leave whatever the price and I wouldnt sell him unless he asks to leave but if we get 20+ mil for him its really not the end of the world

 

[D410]

I just love how people seem to gloss over the fact that a football club who could pretty much nick any left back in the world are after ours and yet, somehow it'd be OK to sell him if the price is right.

[Poor language removed] off, every single one of you...bunch of Kenwrights. Talking sh*t about ambition and completely ignoring the fact that we'd be selling one of the best in world football who, by all accounts, is also a good PERSON to have around this great club. Ignorant...

Gladly take a red card for this, I just don't give a [Poor language removed]...I'm tired of people making up bullsh*t excuses for this boards inaction.

True, A certain player refused to come out for the second half this season, baines showed him his foot/ankle swelling at half time and told him to get his arse on the pitch. You may recall some comments from our manager in the paper about a certain players attitude.

 

[pfim]

I just love how people seem to gloss over the fact that a football club who could pretty much nick any left back in the world are after ours and yet, somehow it'd be OK to sell him if the price is right.

[Poor language removed] off, every single one of you...bunch of Kenwrights. Talking sh*t about ambition and completely ignoring the fact that we'd be selling one of the best in world football who, by all accounts, is also a good PERSON to have around this great club. Ignorant...

Gladly take a red card for this, I just don't give a [Poor language removed]...I'm tired of people making up bullsh*t excuses for this boards inaction.

I agree to an extent, but every player has a price.