2 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Luiz would have been signed regardless, Conte wanted a ball playing CB

This is correct 

on twitter Evertonians have started the #FreeZouma hashtag - I am sure Marina Granovskaia is ok with that but under one condition

Money is of no use to us right now.

We need a 4th centre back more than we do money, especially after the Hazard sale.

And with Ampadu on a season long loan we have no other alternatives as cover.

6 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

We need a 4th centre back more than we do money, especially after the Hazard sale.

David Luiz, Kurt Zouma, Andreas Christensen, Fikayo Tomori & Rudi is on the mend - I count 5

49 minutes ago, robdog said:

David Luiz, Kurt Zouma, Andreas Christensen, Fikayo Tomori & Rudi is on the mend - I count 5

I think it's more likely we will send Tomori out on loan before we would sell Zouma

1 hour ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Money is of no use to us right now.

We need a 4th centre back more than we do money, especially after the Hazard sale.

And with Ampadu on a season long loan we have no other alternatives as cover.

Tomori or even Azpi as emergency (especially if both James and Zappa stay) .

Keeping a player who could command £40m is a waste of resources even with the ban, it's not exactly a position for heavy rotation either.

13 minutes ago, Argo said:

Tomori or even Azpi as emergency (especially if both James and Zappa stay) .

Keeping a player who could command £40m is a waste of resources even with the ban, it's not exactly a position for heavy rotation either.

Maybe some will disagree with me, but I don't want either of our 2 first choice CBs playing much of any domestic cup games.  If we want to have success in the league and CL, then rotation in those games is a must.  Combine that with the inevitable injury bug, and I think keeping Zouma is a no brainer, even if he is 3rd or 4th choice (he'll be 3rd choice at worst IMO).

21 minutes ago, Argo said:

Tomori or even Azpi as emergency (especially if both James and Zappa stay) .

Keeping a player who could command £40m is a waste of resources even with the ban, it's not exactly a position for heavy rotation either.

correct that warchest could come in handy next summer

18 minutes ago, mwblue10 said:

Maybe some will disagree with me, but I don't want either of our 2 first choice CBs playing much of any domestic cup games.  If we want to have success in the league and CL, then rotation in those games is a must.  Combine that with the inevitable injury bug, and I think keeping Zouma is a no brainer, even if he is 3rd or 4th choice (he'll be 3rd choice at worst IMO).

Let's not forget Rudiger is out and Luiz is on his last legs. Letting Zouma go for 40m makes no sense imho when the club will probably be needing two new centre halves in the near future should he leave, both of whom will likely cost twice that fee given the way the market is going (unless Tomori develops into one). 

27 minutes ago, mwblue10 said:

Maybe some will disagree with me, but I don't want either of our 2 first choice CBs playing much of any domestic cup games.  If we want to have success in the league and CL, then rotation in those games is a must.  Combine that with the inevitable injury bug, and I think keeping Zouma is a no brainer, even if he is 3rd or 4th choice (he'll be 3rd choice at worst IMO).

Tomori will be fine for those circumstances in my opinion. Not only would it be an economic waste i think eventually Kurt will start getting restless, especially with it being a EC year.

I hope he won't be 4th choice, our current three are much more suitable.

9 minutes ago, Argo said:

Tomori will be fine for those circumstances in my opinion. Not only would it be an economic waste i think eventually Kurt will start getting restless, especially with it being a EC year.

The January window would be good too. I am thinking if Maquire went to manure for £85 then Kurt could go for £60. Hell I wouldn't be surprised if Real Madrid come a calling.

Needs to stay and be a starter, needs to be trusted with regular game time, based on potential and physical condition/strength he is much much better than the rest of the CB's.

We dont need 40 million and surely to replace him or CB in the future anybody half decent will command a much higher price than 40 million.

We need to be selling our junk/scrap not our assets.

18 minutes ago, Argo said:

Tomori will be fine for those circumstances in my opinion. Not only would it be an economic waste i think eventually Kurt will start getting restless, especially with it being a EC year.

I hope he won't be 4th choice, our current three are much more suitable.

To me, I don't see Zouma getting restless - even if he does I don't think he's the type to cause outwardly issues.

Another reason I want Zouma around - this is a matter of opinion, mind you, as I know some seem to think Tomori is on the same level but I disagree there - we have 4 CBs that are PL starter quality, in Luiz, Christensen, Rudiger, and Zouma.  That means whoever is picked as the first choice pairing is always going to have 2 behind them breathing down their necks.  We're creating competition within the squad, which forces the first team to be at their best.

If we aren't forcing competition within the squad, and players no they are going to get picked to start regardless of performace, we've seen first hand how that can hinder their play, with Willian last year, and perhaps Pedro a little bit as well.

12 minutes ago, robdog said:

The January window would be good too. I am thinking if Maquire went to manure for £85 then Kurt could go for £60. Hell I wouldn't be surprised if Real Madrid come a calling.

I mean, if we get an offer that big, it would be hard for Marina to say no I'm sure and I wouldn't be too upset at that decision.

If we got 60m for Zouma, combined with our other sales along with those still to come, we would quite easily have north of 250m in profit from this summer window alone.

43 minutes ago, tmarmsi said:

Needs to stay and be a starter, needs to be trusted with regular game time, based on potential and physical condition/strength he is much much better than the rest of the CB's.

We dont need 40 million and surely to replace him or CB in the future anybody half decent will command a much higher price than 40 million.

We need to be selling our junk/scrap not our assets.

I disagree, he often tends to fall out of position, mistimes his jumps and while his last ditch tackles are great there's a reason he's constantly put in that position. I rate Rudiger higher, Luiz's ball playing skills alone puts him ahead in this system and if AC4 can continue his trajectory from the end of season and hit the pre Barca form he's very much a better option.

35 minutes ago, mwblue10 said:

To me, I don't see Zouma getting restless - even if he does I don't think he's the type to cause outwardly issues.

Another reason I want Zouma around - this is a matter of opinion, mind you, as I know some seem to think Tomori is on the same level but I disagree there - we have 4 CBs that are PL starter quality, in Luiz, Christensen, Rudiger, and Zouma.  That means whoever is picked as the first choice pairing is always going to have 2 behind them breathing down their necks.  We're creating competition within the squad, which forces the first team to be at their best.

If we aren't forcing competition within the squad, and players no they are going to get picked to start regardless of performace, we've seen first hand how that can hinder their play, with Willian last year, and perhaps Pedro a little bit as well.

While i am 100% with you on the competition thing we have to be careful we don't go too far the other way (like for example in 2013 when we wound up with 5 attacking midfielders competing for two spots), the first 3 should definitely be in intense competition with eachother however number 4 should be a know your place type squad player (like Huth when we had JT, Ricky and Gallas). As much as i don't rate Zouma as high as some, he's much better than that.

46 minutes ago, robdog said:

The January window would be good too. I am thinking if Maquire went to manure for £85 then Kurt could go for £60. Hell I wouldn't be surprised if Real Madrid come a calling.

Most transfers i can sort of see why the money was that high be it marketability (Pogba), young potential (AWB) or long contract but this is bonkers for a slow CB phrone to defensive lapses.

Edited August 2, 20196 yr by Argo

1 hour ago, Argo said:

I disagree, he often tends to fall out of position, mistimes his jumps and while his last ditch tackles are great there's a reason he's constantly put in that position. I rate Rudiger higher, Luiz's ball playing skills alone puts him ahead in this system and if AC4 can continue his trajectory from the end of season and hit the pre Barca form he's very much a better option.

Also rate Rudiger and Christensen but going forward as a club with a look to the future I dont think Luiz should be playing as much as he has he should be there as experience and cover.

I dont see Rudiger improving much beyond his current ability where as Zouma could become the better of the 2, for me I'd start with Zouma and Christensen.

4 hours ago, Argo said:

Tomori or even Azpi as emergency (especially if both James and Zappa stay) .

Keeping a player who could command £40m is a waste of resources even with the ban, it's not exactly a position for heavy rotation either.

Tomori isn’t good enough (yet), especially as we have Champions League football.

One injury and without Zouma there centre back looks really thin. Dave’s not going to play there anymore, not in a back four.

I don’t understand selling Zouma just for the sake of income. We don’t need income but with Rudi coming back from a pretty serious injury and Luiz creeping into the twilight years of his career and showing no signs of the defensive brain farts letting up quality competition for the centre back positions is definitely something we’ll benefit from.

21 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Tomori isn’t good enough (yet), especially as we have Champions League football.

One injury and without Zouma there centre back looks really thin. Dave’s not going to play there anymore, not in a back four.

I don’t understand selling Zouma just for the sake of income. We don’t need income but with Rudi coming back from a pretty serious injury and Luiz creeping into the twilight years of his career and showing no signs of the defensive brain farts letting up quality competition for the centre back positions is definitely something we’ll benefit from.

In an ideal world i would agree however i think 4 CB's of this quality is overindulgence. Yes we could get injury's but equally we won't which will leave one CB facing the infamous KDB treatment (ie cup games once a month). Although that said i didn't really think of it from the angle of the last paragraph before so it probably is worth keeping him atleast for now.

People are debating whether he should be a 4th place backup or sold, but I bet he will start against Man Utd and if anyone displaced Luiz when Rudi is back it will be him, people are badly underestimating zouma and underestimating how frank rates him.

Edited August 3, 20196 yr by WalterWhiteCFC

35 minutes ago, WalterWhiteCFC said:

People are debating whether he should be a 4th place backup or sold, but I bet he will start against Man Utd and if anyone displaced Luiz when Rudi is back it will be him, people are badly underestimating zouma and underestimating how frank rates him.

Totally agree honestly think he will be our best CB this season by far.

Anyone else irritated by the hypocrisy of Everton?  They seem to forget that they went apoplectic when we expressed an interest in Stones yet do it to us all the time.

36 minutes ago, Beerqueen said:

Anyone else irritated by the hypocrisy of Everton?  They seem to forget that they went apoplectic when we expressed an interest in Stones yet do it to us all the time.

Completely agree, I was actually surprised we loaned them Zouma in the first after the whole Stones saga. 

51 minutes ago, Imran_CFC said:

Completely agree, I was actually surprised we loaned them Zouma in the first after the whole Stones saga. 

I think it was to cushion the blow what was basically tapping up through official channels and stealing of Ross Barkley. 

I’m glad we screwed them there to be honest 

15 hours ago, robdog said:

The January window would be good too. I am thinking if Maquire went to manure for £85 then Kurt could go for £60. Hell I wouldn't be surprised if Real Madrid come a calling.

lol what

3 hours ago, tmarmsi said:

Totally agree honestly think he will be our best CB this season by far.

If pre season is anything to go by Zouma absolutely will not be our best CB.