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The Curious Case of Eric Dier... among others
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I have spent many a summer browsing the web and back pages of the tabloids hoping Everton were to sign the next super star, but have long given up hope of landing pretty much anyone of note many seasons ago. This article is really to create discussion around our transfer policy or lack thereof. I know this topic has probably been debated far and wide, but here goes....
In January of this year, Everton landed the highly thought of talent, Eric Dier, who by all accounts has shown great potential, scoring against Liverpool in the U-18s. However, this appeared to be a short-term loan, and he didn't ever make the first team squad. I presume for a 17-year-old he is on a fair whack (I'm not talking mega monies), and this led me to think what was the point of bringing him to Everton? I'm all for getting the brightest young talents at Goodison Park, but with Sporting demanding roughly £10M, I'm not sure where we can go with this (a tribunal would probably lower that fee significantly).
The same has to be said of Joao Silva; I know he has been debated across many forums but, if the lad is homesick or not up to the grade, surely the £700k we spent on him would have been better spent elsewhere? Do we blame the scouts?
Obviously these transfers have an impact on what we do elsewhere (no matter how small the fee), and I can't help but think of the missed opportunities with Kenwright and the attempts (3??) to sign Moutinho. He was Moyes's No 1 target for many a season, and stated his desire to come more than once also. I know we had central midfielders but he ended up joing Porto for £8M. He is now being touted to join Chelsea for £35M, the price in his contract.
We just simply cant afford to keep missing out on targets like we do, and apparently waste money on developing youngsters who don't cut the grade in the first place.. Harsh but true, no? Jutkiewicz, Spencer, Turner, Agard to name a few... Don't get me wrong ? I'm all for developing the new crop of players to come through, but something doesn't add up somewhere...
Martin Graves, Posted 24/06/2011 at 13:58:42
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Honestly though, I've said it before, we should invest in Asian players. I know of a few young Australian players with immense talent, and they would be super cheap (players cost virtually nothing outside of Europe and the americas). Also Japan and Korea are producing a wealth of talent, soon these countries will be major competitors in world football. Well maybe not so much Australia, we will produce some good players but our football governing body is a bloody joke.
Everton are a team, or a club. Once we start referring to ourselves as a "sports franchise" then the fecking lunatics really have taken over the asylum.
Was the money on those players mentioned worth instead splashing out on the likes of a Moutinho, who would have improved us immensely and possibly pushed us on to the next level.
I have been highly critical of our scouts for years and our academy has not produced any better than other teams have done. We have regularly emptied out our entire academy youngsters and hung on to injury prone and ageing has-beens for yonks.
We had both Jags and Baines and let them go... they were developed elsewhere then we BOUGHT them back for a lot of money. If that shows foresight or good business then God help us. Look at the Gosling fiasco and Pienaar leaving for peanuts when we wouldn't give him parity when he was playing very well for us.
We lowered our wage bill by 12 players last season so why couldn't we have kept him???
None of the above questions have ever been answered by our illustrious board. Where is all the EFC money going when every other club is active in trying to improve their squad? I am so fucking frustrated that our gates are regularly higher than a lot of those active clubs while we dither and bury our heads in the mire.
Get some players in to excite the fans and take whatever we can get for the dross to help pay for them.
*Tut, fancy me thinking that agents don't tell the truth...
Martin (OP) - I'm sure someone will correct me, but I never recall Moutihno saying he wanted to come to us. The interest was obviously serious on our side.
Chris #4, good point re Asian players. I know a couple of Asia-based agents, and they know of some really good Korean and Chinese players who would love to at least try the Premier League (it's more suited to their all-action style!). The problem is, even if you take a player on loan, the club, the agent, have got to make sure he settles, is placed with a good family, so he can concentrate purely on his football.
The other problem is the UK rules about playing in 75% of internationals for last 2 years. Whilst these players are internationals now, they won't fulfill that criteria for another 2 years, and by then, another club in another league will have snapped them up. The clubs in Asia are pretty relaxed about letting their best talent go to Europe (as long as they get a fee). It's all part of their "National Contribution" to making them better players for the National side.
I think trying to sign players like Moutinho gives the fans a boost as it shows ambition. The other side is that, if the interest is half-hearted, the club risks the backlash of the fans and leads to questions being asked of transfer policy.
Most Evertonians have read and heard so much shite that any link with a big name player is greeted with laughter after all the cock-ups.
Most important in scouting players imo is that the men doing the scouting can see the end product in young players and are prepared to back their judgement and are not worried about running everything through the first-team manager. There are always likely to be more failures than success stories regardless of what country the player comes from. Just giving the young players a platform and chance is all we need.
Everton's youth policy appears to be good with the aim of one youngster a season joining the first team squad being achieved, so imo let's try and higher the standards which I imagine the coaches are, and take the next step and bring two and three through and get more into the first eleven.
Look at Coleman, cost us £60k, how much would we get if we sold him now, 100x? Furthermore, if he moves to right-back and carries on his success, we could probably get 200x in 12 months for him.
However, I must admit I don't like the club signing average youngsters that cost us money, players like Coleman for a bargain fee or a 16-year-old potential World Class like Fabregas would be fine, but £700-£900k is a bit different. I would prefer that money was put into training our own youngsters like Rooney, Hibbert, Osman, Vaughan, Anichebe, Rodwell, etc.
Even if we manage to sell deadwood like Yak,Yobo,Victor etc the money will just go to stave off the banks as in my opinion only not fact or rumour just what I've gleened from noises made by the club ,Moyes himself etc,the money situation is far WORSE than first thought.
I mean 7th place is worth approx £35 mil,season ticket sales roughly £15 mil and we'll probably bring in about £15 mil on transfers,so roughly £65 mil or thereabouts generated before other things such as spnsorship etc are brought into play,yet there is NO cash at all for players! Come on surely they could spare £15 mil?!
Anybody have a brighter outlook on this than me?
If we manage 7th or even 6th again it'll be a bloody miracle!
Sorry for being so gloomy,maybe their is a sugar daddy just waiting to buy us as Big Bill is searching 24/7 Napoleon was just telling me he's interested!
He's sitting in my room next to Nero!
Where's me pills!
Yes you get the odd duffer but if 1/3 of them develop into first team players you are doing a cracking job and at far less than buying the finished article
And if they don't fully make it, à la Vaughan, you can sell them on and pay for the next 10 to come along.
As for Eric Dier, I don't think we paid anything for him. He is young player who is a bit lonely & homesick in Lisbon and so we keep him for a couple of months, play in our teams, keep him happy and then send him back to Portugal. They hope he has gained some good experience and comes back more settled.
We get a decent player for our U-18s for a couple of months and hope that if he does ever come available he will look on us slightly more favourably (assuming we've finally found that 'investor' by then).
Both Jags and Baines were improved elsewhere... is that not stupid ??
Players learn more by playing regularly - hence why we try and loan players out (and 'bigger' teams loan us players)
It isn't always straight forward with young players though is it - Drogba for example was still playing very low league in his mid twenties. Chris Smalling went from non-league to Man Utd in less than 2 years.
Point is - getting them in gives you more chance than not getting them.
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/multimedia/everton-fc/everton-fc-news/images/2011/05/11/everton-fc-s-stars-of-the-future-100252-28675599/
Hopefully these youngsters realise their potential and really become stars for us.
I think our scouting network is flawed; we seem to miss out on a lot.
As for Dier, I'm amazed we entered a loan agreement without setting a buy price at the end of the loan. I think he could be quality in the future and in 6-8 years time this conversation may be brought up again when he makes a £20m move to Arsenal or Man Utd!
It had nothing to do with that feckless bunch of nomarks from across the park, and Oslo, "protesting" that got them out of the crap. The RS fans weren't responsible for Hicks and Gilette leaving,it was the banks. They were hours from administration when the cavalry arrived so don't start having a pop at blues fans and sy that we have a lot to answer for. What have YOU done?
There's probably loads of stories of clubs releasing players who went on to be stars. It doesn't always mean the club screwed up!
Who are all these youngsters that Moyes has released and gone on to be huge successes elsewhere? The reality is that more will not succeed at the highest level than do. The money we will get from Rodwell (this year or in the future) will be what finances the next prospect. Then another 20 youngsters will fall by the wayside till the next youngster of value comes through... and so it goes on.
Even what Manure achieved in the mid-90s with their youth team was a freak. They haven't been able to replicate it since and in fact haven't even been able to produce a decent youngster worth mentioning! And they a supposed to be the yardstick.
The reality is that the club will look at and give trials to a huge amount of youngsters (from home and abroad) in the hope of finding something special. Some develop early (Rooney) and the talent is very evident. Others develop later (Baines) and need to grow... but need to leave the club to do so, maybe join a smaller club where pressure isn't aS big.
I for one have no problems with our youth set-up. Even if it means having a look at a player for 6 months and then deciding he isn't right for us at this time. Maybe Dier was sent back because he wasn't going to fit into our plans in the near future and it was best for all concerned if he was allowed to develop elsewhere...
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1 Posted 24/06/2011 at 17:03:51
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Naturally there will be players who don't make it through but, compared with other clubs who spend a hell of a lot more on mere 'potential', we come out with better value than almost anyone from young players we buy.