Everton Banter Archive February 14 2014

14 Feb 2014 20:13:36
Amazing! Fulham sack yet another manager, and replace him with. yet another manager, Thank Goodness our stability!

I'm glad. Can't stand Fulham. Ever since they came up they have brought absolutely nothing to the league. Most boring team to watch on the planet. Hopefully the league is shot of them soon.

He deserved to be sacked. Only drawing 2-2 against the laughing stock of the league is pathetic. Well done Fulham.

14 Feb 2014 13:46:33
just putting this out there
i was thinking of our injured players and have come to the conclusion that we seem to have three sicknotes

gibson
kone
alcaraz

don't get me wrong here I love gibson he's very good at his job but is to prone to injury
however kone and alcaraz just have to see a football and hey presto downtime
in my opinion we need to clean house this summer and get rid of the sicknotes

I could not see the logic in selling Victor Anichebe 24/25 years old, then replacing him for an almost identical fee with Kone 31 years old and probably on a lot higher salary. Victor had had some serious injuries when younger and was just getting over them and starting to mature. Whilst Victor has never been a prolific goalscorer, neither has Kone. 2007 - 2012 he played 82 times netting 18 times. Less than 1 in 4. For Wigan he netted an average of 1 in 3. Kone has also always been injury prone. The one thing Victor had on his side was age. I suspect Kone will have cost us about 11 million with his transfer fee and wages. He is not likely to play again for quite a while, so will be on limited time considering his age. Mike Ox Long tells me Kone is nothing like Victor and much better. I honestly have not seen that any time I watched him play. Victor has scored 4 in 13 for WBA. which is what I would expect from Kone. ie 1 in 3 or 4 games.
With regards to Alcaraz, I have not been impressed, but he also seems to be injury prone as you rightly point out. Likewise Gibson seems to be continually injured. I suppose the only positive I can think is that Peter Reid was similar, then had a great last few years of his career.
Final point. Clear outs are bad news. Only get rid when you already have better lined up. We could clear out then find we are short of players.
Degsypulford

Thats my point we need replacements for these players whether we buy or loan come summer time
surely we can't gamble on them next season
their absence is costing us now

14 Feb 2014 17:04:27
Kone scored 11 goals for wigan last season, not bad considering he was mostly played right wing, anichebe scored 8 last season, despite 'getting over his injuries' despite the fact he already has had 3 injuries at west brom already, anichebe was also lazy, couldn't finish and despite being 6 foot 3 he couldn't head the ball, remember the 2-2 draw with newcastle?, kone is fast (ask kompany, heitinga or distin), works hard and despite being 30, he is a much better footballer than victor, maybe not much better out and out striker but he contributes more in overall play, let's look at the 2, who is stronger? Probably vic despite granero putting him on his a*se against qpr, kone is still strong though, outmuscling zabaleta, nastasic and ron vlaar with relative ease, who is faster? Kone easily, vic would only run if there was some chicken at the other end of the pitch, better passer? Kone, vic struggled with simple five yard passes, better in the air? Both poor, more skillful? Kone, again ask zabaleta, better with weaker foot? Kone, he can control it very well with his left foot, better finisher? Neither clinical, kones goals for wigan showed he can finish but not all the time, vic can finish his dinner, that's about it, who works harder? Kone, is this debatable? All vic has is maybe more power and is younger, but ashley young is younger (no pun intended) than ronaldo, who would you rather have? Exactly, just my opinion degs, kone is much better

Crackin post swan. But degs has a point with the last few lines of his post.imo vics hold up play was crackin on his day. Just never seen enough of it

Listen no point even going on about kone and about how good he was last season, he's played a handful of games and at his age and cosy its been a waste

Hey Mike, you have some valid points. But I will remind you of your post earlier in the season. You bet me that Kone would score more than Victor this season. So far it is 4 nil to Victor and I can't see Kone coming back in time to even challenge this. I do agree with some of your comments particularly about speed, but I don't think it is as cut and dried as you seem to think. Kone is quicker than Victor. It is a bit like saying a dumper truck is quicker than a tractor. LOL. I think both are similar players. but we have had this discussion previously. I refer to quality and ability. The big difference I see is one is 7 years older than the other and coming to the end of his career. and has a serious injury.
Degsypulford

Time will tell with Kone. I personally know a nice drain we could have poured 6m down. Complete and utter waste of money. As for Alcaraz when he first started playing I thought he looked class, but after the game against Liverpool it is evident he will get destroyed by anything quick with a bit of skill. He will cost us in big games. Trust me. Hopefully Jags and Distin stay fit now and if one does get injured Stones steps in. But out of blind loyalty Alcaraz will no doubt play in this situation.

Kone has done nothing to justify his price tag thus far. Yes, he has been injured for a large amount of the season but the games he featured in gave us nothing in terms of confidence. If Vic or Osman had missed some of the sitters Kone has then I'm certain Mike's head would have exploded. Kone is not a prolific goal scorer, is injury prone and offers us nothing that we don't already have. I wouldn't be too bothered if we get rid for half of what we paid come the summer.

And I just had another thought. Anichebe played most of his games on the wing too Mike. I still do not see how we have improved with signing Kone.
Like most of the other posters on here, I think the money has not been well spent. My initial post on this subject (about 3 months ago) said we should have put the Anichebe money with whatever other monies we have (Felli money) and bought a real proven goal scorer. Eg we could have broke the bank and gone for Michu or even Bony. There must be others out there in Europe with better goalscoring statistics. I think that would have been a better way of re-investing the Anichebe money rather than buying a similar player for the same money who is 7 years older and coming to the end of his career. We will have to replace Kone in a year or two.
Degsypulford

15 Feb 2014 16:20:29
I don't think kone will need replacing quite as soon as you think, look at miroslav klose and antonio di natale, both in their late 30s, di natale is still as fast as a lion and klose can still leap as high as a kangeroo, if kone was fit this season he would of scored more than vic, and will do next season, i'm not saying it was 6m well spent, in fact, I wish we would of brought someone else in, but at least give him a chance, he is the finished article, anichebe will not improve, I promise you he will not develop anymore than he has now, plus anichebes injuries by themselves have destroyed enough time and will continue to do so for the rest of his career, if I was a manager and you offered me anichebe for 6m or kone for 6m I would take kone every time, 6m for kone was a little too much, west brom paying 6m for victor, well, we straight up ripped them off, I just see anichebe as one of the worst strikers to play for everton, bar angell and bakayoko, we will have to agree to disagree degsy, I think kone deserves a chance, anichebe had 8 years of chances, and never took it once, and about alcaraz , the boy is quality, I don't see his lack of speed being what cost us against that horrible lot, I see it as our 2 centre backs injured and us playing a high line, alcaraz is a wonderful footballer and a good defender, for free and likely on less than half of johnys wages, I say its a bargain, such a shame injuries have held kone and antolin back, if it happened to mccarthy or joel we wouldn't be having this conversation, the way I see it we paid a total of 19.5m and got wigans best four players, one of the best ball playing centre backs in the league, a striker with white hair, a young goalie, and a midfielder who would get in any prem team, not bad imo

Nice post Mike. I agree with some bits and disagree with others. Yes I may be writing Kone off a bit too prematurely. but only time will tell. Re 6 million for either. that's where we disagree. Victor is probably on a 5 year deal. so it works out at 1.2 million per year and he will still have a sell on value in 3 or 4 years. 6 million for Kone at 31 years old. well if we get 3 years out of him we will be lucky and that equals 2 million per year with no sell on value. Added to which he is injured for the 1st year. but I guess that is just bad luck. I can't say I have watched Alcaraz much, but his display against the sh*te was awful. He played alongside Jags and you are right to say holding the high line was partly to blame. but to me he looked totally unfit. Jags did too. We are told Alcaraz now has muscle fatigue. so I guess he was unfit. By the way did you know Kone has malaria? I don't know if this will have an impact on his playing days? But that's another reason to question whether it was good business. This thread of posts was started by 1968 saying we had sicknote players in Alcaraz, Gibson and Kone. Whilst it is a bit harsh on Kone, I still think we would have been better spending more on a younger regular goalscorer. We did have the cash, so perhaps there was no-one available at the time? I know we disagree on this and I respect your view, but I would have been happier holding on to big Vic and having his 4 goals to date contribution. Maybe I will eat my words next season when Kone bangs 15 goals in? If so, I will humbly eat my words.
Degsypulford

Mike I know we've discussed this before but we should taken a punt on Danny Ings during January. He's still banging them in for Burnley and will probably get promotion in May. His price will then soar and will then be in a host of other club's sights.
We should have speculated when we had the chance especially with Lukaku's drop in form before his injury.
I truly hope this doesn't come back to bite us come the end of the season

15 Feb 2014 21:00:22
Okay degs fair enough, daveboy, ings has ability which cannot be doubted, but it will come into doubt when he joins the prem when he may well fail, again I bring up matej vydra, outpacing players and scoring goals for fun in the championship, tried it in the prem and was put on his arse, the same thing could happen to ings who would cost a lot more than vydra did, big risk, if the risk comes off great, but we cannot afford to take daily risks on championship hotshots and hope for the best, we need security and guarantees in that department, which ings does not give us, I know you like him mate, he might be worth the risk but we cannot afford to take it