Nothing has changed.

[GwladysBlue]

Did the second most productive player not get offered a new contract?

We don't know what happened in negotiations.

All we know is that Moshiri could not convince them that this was the club to progress their careers.

 

[applecrumble]

Did the second most productive player not get offered a new contract?

Doesn't seem like he's able to form decent relationships with the players and talks negatively in the press. I can't see us getting into top 6 under Koeman. Abraders makes lots of good points above as to why we are weaker than last season.

 

[ijjysmith]

I don't enjoy us not doing well.

I want change from what I have seen my entire life (which is precisely nothing).

We look to have been led a merry dance by our majority shareholder.

He has: kept the old guard still around despite numerous failures, he has sold off major assets, despite saying they were the future to build around.

I'm yet to see where it really has changed now.

There is no point burying our heads in the sand, just so we don't come across as negative.

It's a forum of opinions, my opinion is now that we have a fraud and a liar as our major shareholder, backed up by a whole board full of liars from the previous 20 years.

Like I say, it's not that I don't agree with some of what you say, I just don't fully get the purpose of saying it all the time.

But don't worry about it.

 

[bluekangaroo]

Have to admit it's funny but very sad to know that Jagielka, Williams and Rooney will be starting most games this season. Some new era.

 

[nsno-chris]

Have to admit it's funny but very sad to know that Jagielka, Williams and Rooney will be starting most games this season. Some new era.

Morning @FABlue

 

[Osamabindiesel]

Like I say, it's not that I don't agree with some of what you say, I just don't fully get the purpose of saying it all the time.

But don't worry about it.

 

[Lanolin]

Net spend really isn't the issue. We could have a negative net spend every season and so long as the team improved and closed the gap on the elusive top 6 then who cares?

The problem is though, that it's likely that our wage bill has increased significantly - yet our overall team actually looks somewhat worse. Not only that, our best players don't seem to give a flying one about the extra money and want to leave/have left anyway because ultimately it's peanuts comparatively to the others anyway.

Pickford, Keane and Sandro were good acquisitions. This was a good use of a chunk of the Lukaku money, it's just missing the key ingredient... Lukakus replacement.

Signing some young lads for the future is always great to see, especially when you're ousting elite teams to obtain them.

But for me, not sorting key areas of the squad that were largely obvious and pushing out decent squad players despite supposedly wanting to challenge on all fronts, is absolutely not ok.

Strikers? Wingers? Centre back? Left back?

We're an injury to Pickford away from playing Stekelenburg every game. As we have seemingly pushed out Robles for no reason whatsoever.

We are an injury to Keane away from playing Jags and Williams every game.

We are an injury to Rooney away from having the least potent attacking force in the entire league... if we aren't already, that is.

Injury to Baines and we have no left back?

You catch my drift surely.

We were an injury to Lukaku away from having to play Kone etc prior to his departure, and we got very very lucky the lad stayed fit for almost the entire few seasons he had with us. I'm not so sure we'll get that lucky this time, when all things considered if it's going well we are definitely looking at 3 games a week etc.

I have to say it's the Baines one which has me wondering whether things have really changed.

As soon as Koeman said he was looking for 1 player to cover left back and centre half little alarm bells started to go off for me. It just doesn't make sense. To not have specialist cover for a player who is 33 before the midway point of the season, and who has started to suffer more and more niggles over the last couple of years, just seems really bizarre to me. The fact that Koeman likes to use wing backs makes it even more bizarre, because there's not many centre halves who can also play that role - certainly not someone like Vermaelen. The only reason I could think of was we didn't have the money to sign players for both positions, which with the influx of cash we've had really would be odd.

 

[PaddyG]

Last year we were in transition, with the squad needing a complete overhaul, and the majority seemed to accept that 7th was an improvement after the shambles that came before it.

The problem is, by selling our best player(s) this summer, the transitional period is extended. We've brought some good talent in, but the squad still needs building in quite a few different and key areas.

To improve, we need to get to the point where we no longer sell our best players AND improve the first team at the same time.

Alas, Rome wasn't built in a day...

 

[ijjysmith]

Still brilliant.

 

[Lanolin]

It's a bit hard to have a big net spend when you've sold a player for 75 million, or is it 85 million.

It really isn't though. City have brought in around £75m in sales but have spent over £200m.

I'm not suggesting we should have done that, or that net spend is the key, but some of the excuses people put forward for why things haven't happened just don't make sense. This is one of them. By all means say net spend isn't important, but let's not pretend it would be impossible for us to have a positive one.

 

[The_La]

I'm sure I'll regret getting involved in this.

But in terms of "selling assets" - do people think that selling stones and lukaku is down to moshiri? No owner in the world could have kept them with the exception maybe of the City fella. They both were desperate to leave and Everton maximised their income for the pair of them.

Barca couldn't keep neymar, ffs. Sometimes players want to go and that's that.

 

[Lanolin]

I'm sure I'll regret getting involved in this.

But in terms of "selling assets" - do people think that selling stones and lukaku is down to moshiri? No owner in the world could have kept them with the exception maybe of the City fella. They both were desperate to leave and Everton maximised their income for the pair of them.

Barca couldn't keep neymar, ffs. Sometimes players want to go and that's that.

I agree that selling them was hardly shocking (although they were both under contract for 2 years+ so to say no owner in the world could have kept them is a bit of a stretch).

It's all down to what happens next though isn't it. If you sell Stones for £50m and sign Koulibaly for the same amount then you've just replaced one asset with another. If you sell Stones for £50m and replace him with £10m Ashley Williams then you haven't. Same with Lukaku, if we go and spend £40m on Batshuayi or £25m on Dembele or whatever it's different to bringing in Rooney on a free and Okaka on loan. We'll see by the end of the day just how much the current regime want us to be successful on the pitch.

 

[Jeff Jones]

Have we just sold our best player and about to sell the second most productive player of last season?

When he came in, in March of last year, if we had of known that he was going to sell: Lukaku, Stones and Barkley, there would have been uproar.

FGS. They've all made it very clear that they don't want to play for Everton. What's wrong with you all?

 

[sageyefc]

Our transfer dealings are exactly as they were under Kenwright, only difference now is we have the overdraft to sign the players first before we sell to recoup the wedge instead of selling first before spending

 

[Donald Twain]

Our transfer dealings are exactly as they were under Kenwright, only difference now is we have the overdraft to sign the players first before we sell to recoup the wedge instead of selling first before spending

the times they are a changing, man.