2025/26 Vitalii Mykolenko

[COYBL25]

Any normal club, this is exactly what you are doing, and you would try and move him on this summer or next, latest.

With us, the pattern has been set, with Keane etc, being extended to be what everyone thinks is “cover” or to protect the value, but that player ends up becoming a first team regular, so we cannot hope that with Myko it will be any different.

These players have underperformed and been mostly horrendous for season after season, but they get retained and played. I’m not blaming the players either, they don’t offer themselves contracts to pick themselves to play do they?

Another thing that I can’t understand - We had signed an option for lb last summer, a talented well thought of young player from a European powerhouse, who was totally dismissed and basically thrown out the squad for the season by Moyes.

I’m not having that you can’t rebuild the squad quickly either - other teams did it last season(and many seasons before that) without keeping any players who they deemed not good enough.

We missed the chance to reset the squad with a poor window where we didn’t sign enough and move out enough of the crap useless players, plus made multiple new signings that Moyes utilised so badly we might as well have sat on the money and not bothered.

I don’t see any ambition to change all the above this summer or beyond.

We don’t lean from mistakes we have made, we repeat them.

We sign a right back, JOB moves back to his natural position and Keane becomes " back up again " ( if we do actually sign one ! )

Most teams have four centre halves on their books nowdays and with Branthwaite looking quite delicate, I can understand the logic, but only of we sign a right back.

 

[AndyP94]

I think it will be Trippier tbh, and he’ll be cover for whatever right back we bring in too.

I really hope not, he's finished.

 

[Furey1878]

They’re not squad players though are they? They’ve both started about 30 games this year and they simply aren’t good enough to do that. I’m more than happy for mykolenko to be stay and be a squad player but there’s no indication that’s what’s happening. I just can’t get on board with the idea that it takes 6/8 transfer windows to change the squad from one that finishes 12th to one that finishes 8th, it’s just not true.

I don't disagree with what you're saying but I just think you're always setting yourself up for disappointment.

We will obviously look to sign a right back this summer before we upgrade on our starting left back and replace our 3rd/4th choice CB.

 

[Furey1878]

There will be significantly better full backs available on a free. He's arguably the worst starting left back in the league.

If there are better left backs available on a free then we'd be fools not to consider them.

 

[Vagner Love]

Bollocks if he gets a new deal, be another season of him and O’Brien as full backs.

‘Oh but we have more important areas to strengthen’, no we don’t our full backs get slaughtered in defence and offer noting in attack, it’s one of our biggest deficiencies

 

[Daytripper]

Bollocks if he gets a new deal, be another season of him and O’Brien as full backs.

‘Oh but we have more important areas to strengthen’, no we don’t our full backs get slaughtered in defence and offer noting in attack, it’s one of our biggest deficiencies

‘Oh but we have more important areas to strengthen’,

Yeah we have a habit of this, probably because they are neglected or inadequately addressed in previous windows. We constantly have to play catch up with ourselves and excuses are always made like “It’s fine”, some glowing endorsement that isn’t it, “it’s fine “.

Jake O’Brien playing right back isnt fine. It’s a clear weakness in the team.

 

[Cels]

If there are better left backs available on a free then we'd be fools not to consider them.

Andy Robertson?

 

[riddick]

This guy isn’t even as good as Hibbert.

In an era when you want your full back as a big part of your attacking set up, or able to play the game in central midfield - we are lumbered with this fella.

He’d be first out of the door with a progressive coach.

For as poor as he was going forward Hibbert was seriously solid defensively. There were only 1-2 wingers a year that really tore him up and usually not for both games. If he was 2-3" taller he would have been a fantastic CB and probably an international. Those weren't the days of a CB needing to be a ball playing CB.

 

[riddick]

We will obviously look to sign a right back this summer before we upgrade on our starting left back and replace our 3rd/4th choice CB.

We literally said this last summer as well and absolutely nothing was done after our one attempt at it first thing in the bleedin window.

 

[Furey1878]

We literally said this last summer as well and absolutely nothing was done after our one attempt at it first thing in the bleedin window.

We went into this season with 2 right backs and a CB who had done a decent job there. We're currently going into next season with 1 less right back, the only one left is clearly unfancied and O'Brien has stank the gaff out there for the majority of the year.

We will sign a starting right back this summer.

 

[mccole]

There is a time and a place for Mykolenko and we need to move on from a low to mid table defender

 

[MACCA75]

Honestly, just pay whatever it takes for two top quality full backs. It’s absolutely killing us.

 

[blueblood]

There is a time and a place for Mykolenko and we need to move on from a low to mid table defender

Fully agree. As long as that time and place is nowhere near Everton’s starting line up.

 

[MACCA75]

There is a time and a place for Mykolenko and we need to move on from a low to mid table defender

We are low to mid table and he’s absolutely nowhere near good enough. The lad is a Championship player.

 

[JimmyJeffers]

Honestly, just pay whatever it takes for two top quality full backs. It’s absolutely killing us.

I don’t know why we’ve found it so hard tbh. Been a priority for about 3 years now. It not like it’s the most expensive position to fill.