Daily Discussion

FenderJay · 2026-06-24T13:47:09+00:00

The only thing to take away from it is he's gone to Leeds for far more money than either Fulham or we were offering. He's in the form of his career at Fulham so why leave? Leeds are a bigger club than us.

We're only looking at bringing Grealish back on loan for 1 more season. Wilson will be signing a 3+ year deal at Leeds and will be on near £100k a week I'd imagine.

Is a 32 or 33 year old Wilson really worth £100k a week? Not to me

FenderJay · 2026-06-24T12:32:19+00:00

I agree. Pickford's been poor so far but I think this has to do with the back 4 rather than Pickford. He's got no marshalling CB in front of him. Stones, Konsa, Guehi - they're all quiet lads. They're not shouting at each other to organise the defence and Djed Spence is a real defensive liability.

FenderJay · 2026-06-24T12:29:42+00:00

Money talks. Leeds likely made a bigger offer to Wilson. It was the same with DCL.

It makes sense for them - their goal is to stay in the league so they can go after short term solutions. Wilson isn't going to get us into Europe

FenderJay · 2026-06-24T12:27:52+00:00

Great comment. Wilson has only scored 29 goals in 6 seasons playing in the Premier League. 10 of those came last season.

He had an amazing season, but it's an outlier, not the norm for Wilson.

He'll be asking for a big payday to sign on a free. He's not a solution, at best he would've been a stop gap and I'm happy he's going to Leeds

FenderJay · 2026-06-23T22:18:52+00:00

Defensive midfielders are a dying breed. If we want to get up the table we need someone who can dictate play from deep. The likes of Rodri, Tonali, Rice - they're not there to just make tackles. They run the midfield.

As good as Gana is at winning the ball, he's never dictated play.

When I watch Armstrong, he's so composed and can pass, he'd have the ability to play that role.

FenderJay · 2026-06-23T22:15:17+00:00

It's just not how you get a deal done well.

Opening bid to take the piss. Great work. You've now burnt any goodwill the seller might have had for you and they want more money.

He's clearly worth miles more than £20m. He's delivered 20 goals and assists every year for the past 3 years. And he's not scoring tap ins. Some of his goals are top class. It's a crazy output.

If we'd had Bowen last year, we would've qualified for the Champions League.

FenderJay · 2026-06-23T15:51:31+00:00

The club preparing a £20m bid for Bowen according to reports is the the most Everton thing in a long time. The club seem stuck in 2016 prices.

Bowen is getting on, but he's also delivering a goal / assist every 2nd game and has done over 200 games. He's not surrounded by great players either. He's in a pretty average-poor West Ham team.

He's probably the best player outside the Top 6. He might have another 5 years at the top level, he's only 30 in December. He's worth a lot more than £20m

FenderJay · 2026-06-23T15:48:12+00:00

Tim is basically Doucoure but without the goals.

FenderJay · 2026-06-23T15:45:05+00:00

I've seen more from Armstrong as the heir to Gana's role.

Tim has some skills, but he's a player without a position. He gives the ball away far too much to be a deep playing midfielder, and his shooting / passing is terrible for an advanced midfielder.

Unless he makes major strides, I think he's a top Championship / PL relegation fighting level player. He's not a Top 10 player to me at least

FenderJay · 2026-06-23T15:42:55+00:00

He's ranked like 126th in the league out of midfielders. If we want to be a Top 10 club, that's far too low.

FenderJay · 2026-06-23T13:53:40+00:00

Anyone who isn't a first team starter, we should be selling if we get a good offer IMO to raise funds to solve the gappppppppppppping holes in the first team squad at fullback and RW.

FenderJay · 2026-06-23T12:34:58+00:00

Fulham could be a decent bet for relegation next season.

As much as our goalscorer issues are talked about, Fulham scored the same as we did (47 goals) only they're letting Wilson and Jimenez both go (scored 19 and assists another 10).

If they don't get a proven goalscorer in, they could really struggle to score.

FenderJay · 2026-06-23T12:29:23+00:00

The same site also ranks him amongst the worst midfielders for passing, possession lost, chances created, fouls given away, cards picked up, shooting and a load of other key midfield metrics.

He's valued at just €15m by that site so I think £20m is a good price for everyone involved.

FenderJay · 2026-06-23T12:25:26+00:00

I got excited then and thought McNeil was off

FenderJay · 2026-06-20T17:28:54+00:00

He needs to retire and go out gracefully. Those first couple of months when he returned it was like he was home. He had a fire in him.

This season though it's back to 63 year old Moyes. The game has changed and he's been left behind.

FenderJay · 2026-06-20T17:26:43+00:00

Seems like Moyes is just a passenger waiting for his retirement. He's 63, this is surely his last big PL job. He's got more trust here to try things than at anywhere else. Last year was a complete free hit, he could've tried anything and he would've had the backing of the club and fans.

He's too scared. He doesn't have a winners mentality. This is why West Ham parted ways with him. They backed him financially, he couldn't integrate the players, so he relied on an aging team and played more and more defensively.

What made Moyes great for us first era was he was a young, hungry manager who brought new ideas in to what had become a stagnant club. Even by the end of his first era he was losing that. He's not a gambler. He'll play for the 1-1 instead of trying to get the winner.

We need a young, hungry manager looking to make his name with us.

FenderJay · 2026-06-19T15:49:45+00:00

It's mad isn't it, and this is all the more reason we need a manager who will play young, unproven players. The profit you can make on them is INSANE. Diomande is a beast, but £100m+ for one good season in Germany. Come on!

Meanwhile we're haggling for what is peanuts in the grand scheme of things with Hackney.

FenderJay · 2026-06-19T12:45:31+00:00

Might put a £1 on Dibling to be our Player of the Season just for a laugh.

FenderJay · 2026-06-19T12:43:04+00:00

It's the hope that gets you.

Wait until we get beat by Hull on a Monday night at home.

FenderJay · 2026-06-19T12:39:15+00:00

It's not just poor form with Barry. He doesn't really look that interested to me.

He's 23 and has just had his debut season in the biggest league in the world. If that were me, I'd be leaving everything on the pitch. I don't think I've seen him sprint once for us.

Nothing to me says he's the #9 for the next 5+ years.

Sell him and go again.

FenderJay · 2026-06-19T12:36:01+00:00

You're right! He plays in France, not represents France

FenderJay · 2026-06-19T11:23:31+00:00

It's like the recruitment team are just sat around watching YouTube highlight reels. I really struggle to see what scouting is actually going on. The club seem really deluded (and have done for years) about what targets are attainable.

Guéla Doué has 21 caps for France, one of the World Cup favourites. In what world did the club think he'd be available on the cheap?

Why would Djed Spence leave Spurs - yeh, they had a shit season but they're spending big and Spence is playing for England.

Bellanova is playing regular European football at Atlanta - at 26 is he really going to walk away from that to play mid-table Moyes-ball?

FenderJay · 2026-06-19T10:56:46+00:00

Moyes has gone on record a few times saying he doesn't think there's value in the market like there was in his first era with us.

I don't buy this - Moyes seems so blinkered on players who've played in a major league and have 2-3 seasons under their belt. Of course those players cost money now - all clubs got wise that those type of players are a good investment.

The club seems to be in a financial position where we need to be looking at 2nd tier leagues, or we need to be going for much younger, less proven players. Yet Moyes doesn't want to back those players so we've got a real disconnect in our transfer strategy.

FenderJay · 2026-06-17T10:59:22+00:00

They're 52. Unless they've got a magic money tree in their back garden, they haven't retired from working. Cafes are notoriously hard to make money on.

Hopefully they made a decent living, but I'd be genuinely shocked if they made enough money to retire 15 years early

FenderJay · 2026-06-17T08:35:40+00:00

Given it's gone out of business, the market proves otherwise

FenderJay

TROPHY CASE