We were very close. I think it was to do with 3rd party ownership that we lost out. Didn't want a West Ham/Tevez situation
We've had a 20m bid rejected for Stones. A lot of us have pointed to going for a defender, acutely aware of Terry's advancing years etc. The home grown element must be playing a part here as well. Worth another bid or not. Thoughts?
Not for me. 20m on a defender, i'd rather get a top quality one than one on potential. This would be the equivalent of Sterling but not as highly rated. If you bought him where does that leave Zouma. For me Zouma should be our first choice back up (i'm actually in favour of starting him). I would rather have a veteran cb who is 4th choice.
I think Stones is a cracking player, not worth the £20M but if that what it takes then I'd go for it.
Stones is a great player, very highly rated it seems (not much on here apparently). It will take a bid of £30m+ though surely to get any movement from Everton...maybe we can offer them Mikel.
Haven't seen enough of him in truth but anymore than 20m seems a lot for someone relatively new to the scene and with no experience in the C.L. I agree that it would take more for Everton to sell as fees between English clubs are ridiculous at the moment if the club doesn't want to sell. You'd probably get Hummels for around 30m.
I think he's done a job as a squad player but I think it's time for him to move on so we can allow someone like Ake or RLC to come through.
Axel Witself rumours going about now. Seemed like an exciting player a few seasons ago but I can't say I know how he is now...
20m was a reasonable bid for Stones. I think if we can manage to get him for anything less than 30, long term, we'll get a bargain. I wonder if we'll offer Moses as cash. They're still after a winger i think since Lennon left or maybe that changed since they signed the lad from Barca? Could be worth a go anyway. During the U21 tournament i read about Gareth Southgate saying how good Stones was at playing the ball from the back and how composed he was on the ball, something which is popular these days. But he then said defenders need to go back to doing everything they can to keep the ball out of the net and IMO we have the best manager in the world for coaching that. If we sign Stones he'll become one of the worlds best. Stones and Zouma as a partnership in a few seasons time could be one of the best ever, if given the opportunity.
Martinez is an absolute cock, isn't he? How dare a club bid for a player in the middle of a transfer window.
He is angry that you've publicised it, not that you've bid. It is called tapping up and even though everyone does it now, it is a poor practice. Teams like Everton have a right to compete as well.
It's the transfer window and he was supposedly angered by it. That's acting a cock. Publicising a bid is not tapping up. Going directly to a player behind a clubs back is tapping up. I'm sure Spurs or Everton have done neither.
What drogs said. Martinez is a fanny. Its the transfer window. We made a bid, if he is not for sale they just need to say "no" and leave it at that. No point getting all humpy about it, you are allowed to bid for players. Making the bid public is not tapping up by any stretch It was made public AFTER the bid had been made, so Everton were already made officially aware of our interest before the media. As Drog's said, tapping up is when the buying club approaches the player or his agent directly and bypasses the player's current club, like Jose did with Ashley Cole all those years back, which is why he got in trouble. There is nothing in the rules about not publicizing a bid
Behave. He's just telling you publicly - given that you've chosen to make it public - to **** right off. I suppose clubs like Everton should just roll over to the oil monied eh? Martinez is merely marking his ground and there's **** all wrong with that.
Did you even read my post? Where did I say that they should let us have the player? He should have just said, "No, we are rejecting the bid", instead of getting arsey about it being public.
