if drinkwater was foreign, would we even be discussing him? We seem to be targeting him for his homegrown status, rather than him being the best available ability wise. 

He's a decent player, but for the prices being talked about, surely we can get better? 

Of course we wouldnt, but we are lacking players with HG status so we dont have much if a choice really. 

We have lots of choice, and Drinkwater shouldn't even be in the reckoning.

The fee being touted is outrageously high this though is the going rate for home grown talent. Which beggars belief that we let Chalobah go so cheaply even with him entering the last year of his contract unless we have a serious buy back commitment. As for Drinkwater himself could he do a job for us? Of course he could, he's a player who likes a tackle and has a good engine as a fourth choice CM he could fit into the team when required. He isn't the big name many would like but he does have premier league experience something Baker at present lacks. In the nightmare scenario of both Kante and Bakayoko injured or suspended who would you have as partner for Cesc, Baker or Drinkwater shielding the defence?

How to have choices, when it`s so late in the window? The board f**k** once again. And of course everyone will want big money for their players now.

For 37m. Barkly is 10 time better choice then Drinkwater. Atleast Barkly is young.

 

Edited August 6, 20178 yr by brakeit

What are our choices exactly? We are desperate for another CM and we nost likely need someone with HG status that doesnt mind sitting on the bench. What are our options exactly?

1 minute ago, brakeit said:

How to have choice, when it`s so late in the window? The board f**k** once again. And of course everyone will want big money for their players now.

For 37m. Barkly is 10 time better choice then Drinkwater. Atleast Barkly is young.

 

Barkley is a rubbish CM, completely different player to someone like Drinkwater

1 minute ago, Xfaxtor said:

What are our choices exactly? We are desperate for another CM and we nost likely need someone with HG status that doesnt mind sitting on the bench. What are our options exactly?

From Press speculation Ox, Barkley, Drinkwater, Wilshere and my favourite of the speculated Homegrown options Tom Davies. I also imagine Delph is available and McCarthy for Everton would also be a good option

We could also pick up any CM born after 1/1/96, and not take up a BPL non-HG squad spot although that may mean registering a youth keeper instead of Eduardo for the CL.

3 minutes ago, PedroMendez said:

From Press speculation Ox, Barkley, Drinkwater, Wilshere and my favourite of the speculated Homegrown options Tom Davies. I also imagine Delph is available and McCarthy for Everton would also be a good option

We could also pick up any CM born after 1/1/96, and not take up a BPL non-HG squad spot although that may mean registering a youth keeper instead of Eduardo for the CL.

For a CM role, Drinkwater is by far the best alternative. Everton would never in a million years sell us Davies. Absolutely no chance and Wilshere isnt a fit for us and is as durable as a wet paperbag.

1 minute ago, Xfaxtor said:

For a CM role, Drinkwater is by far the best alternative. Everton would never in a million years sell us Davies. Absolutely no chance and Wilshere isnt a fit for us and is as durable as a wet paperbag.

I don't think Davies is unobtainable there has been a lot made by Everton fans that Koeman is only looking towards short term fixes rather than the long term, as they don't expect him to stay to long. But either way one of Davies or McCathy could be picked up.

I'd rule out Ox, Barkley and Wilshere as they aren't good enough defensively.

But that still leaves Davies, McCarthy, Delph and Drinkwater as Homegrown options, and we aren't necessarily restricted to homegrown CM options anyway.

We currently have (Courtois, Willy, Eduardo, Luiz, Azpi, Rudiger, Alonso, Kante, Bakayoko, Hazard, Pedro, Willian, Morata, Bats and Remy) 15 out of 18 Non homegrown spots used if we get a striker Remy will be replaced so we would still have 3 non homegrown spots for WB and CM options.

Further if we go for Dembele to replace Remy that gives 4 non-homegrown spots available. 

I am not saying that Drinkwater isn't a good option I am just pointing out that we do have options available and therefore aren't in a position where Leicester can bend us over.
 

Personally I'd go for McCarthy but seeing as we aren't linked I don't see it happening.

 

Unless we want to spend 50+ million, and even then I highly doubt it, Davies isnt available. Not sure were you have read that Koeman doesnt want him. Hes been signing his praises at every corner and hade some very nice words to say when he signed a new deal towards the end of last season. Im far from a fan of Drinkwater, like at all.  But if the options are Delph and McCarthy hes by far the best alternative. He would be mostly squad depth and having a non HG player in that position would be stupid. Personally I would have hoped we kept Chalobah, but he clearly didnt want that role sadly. 

Can Barkley not do a job in central midfield at all? Otherwise I'm struggling who we can buy.

12 minutes ago, Xfaxtor said:

Unless we want to spend 50+ million, and even then I highly doubt it, Davies isnt available. Not sure were you have read that Koeman doesnt want him. Hes been signing his praises at every corner and hade some very nice words to say when he signed a new deal towards the end of last season. Im far from a fan of Drinkwater, like at all.  But if the options are Delph and McCarthy hes by far the best alternative. He would be mostly squad depth and having a non HG player in that position would be stupid. Personally I would have hoped we kept Chalobah, but he clearly didnt want that role sadly. 

I haven't read that Koeman doesn't rate or want him and that isn't in anything I have written, I merely mentioned that according to some Everton fans he isn't interested in the long term future of Everton (which I have interpreted as developing players in the same way Everton have been doing over the last decade +), but this isn't even my view as to me it looks like he has been and has given a lot of talented youth players game time over the last season, however even if Koeman did rate him I don't think that makes Davies unobtainable, I also don't think Everton would be the stumbling block the hardest part of the signing would be to convince him away from Everton to sit on our bench.

On your next point surely spending over the odds on an average back up just because you have decided to limited your options and therefore giving away some of the negotiating initiative is more stupid than bringing in someone non-homegrown especially when we aren't actually having issues with the Home grown quota.

All I was aiming to do was merely point out some of the other options that might be available to us, given you asked for them. And we have plenty.

 

Yes, because Everton has proven to be fsirly easy to deal with. I dont think signing Drinkwater is a good idea either, but from the options you mentioned, its to me the best option we got for s back up CM, by far. So I can def see the predicament the board is in

Edited August 6, 20178 yr by Xfaxtor

3 hours ago, PedroMendez said:

From Press speculation Ox, Barkley, Drinkwater, Wilshere and my favourite of the speculated Homegrown options Tom Davies. I also imagine Delph is available and McCarthy for Everton would also be a good option

We could also pick up any CM born after 1/1/96, and not take up a BPL non-HG squad spot although that may mean registering a youth keeper instead of Eduardo for the CL.

I would prefer Fabian Delph if home grown status is a deciding factor.  Drinkwater is another Steve Sidwell albeit a very pricey one.  Another sh*te transfer by the board.

3 minutes ago, lchk said:

I would prefer Fabian Delph if home grown status is a deciding factor.  Drinkwater is another Steve Sidwell albeit a very pricey one.  Another sh*te transfer by the board.

If Drinkwater is another Sidwell, then what the hell is Delph???

We can still sign 3 more non home grown players, im not so sure are hands are tied. We have 3 non home grown goalkeepers, so even if we were struggling, we could easily just register Courtois, Cabellero, and use u23 goalkeeper as 3rd choice. 

I can understand the club wanting to increase the English core, however signing drinkwater, Barkley, or Ox, isn't a necessity to comply with homegrown quotas. There is ample leeway. 

7 minutes ago, big blue said:

We can still sign 3 more non home grown players, im not so sure are hands are tied. We have 3 non home grown goalkeepers, so even if we were struggling, we could easily just register Courtois, Cabellero, and use u23 goalkeeper as 3rd choice. 

I can understand the club wanting to increase the English core, however signing drinkwater, Barkley, or Ox, isn't a necessity to comply with homegrown quotas. There is ample leeway. 

We need to fill 5 spots:

2nd LWB, 2nd RWB, 4th CM, 5th CM, 3rd ST.

I would have guesses one of the CM spots might go to Baker but apparently even Scott is ahead of him. So we dont have much leeway.

20 minutes ago, Zeta said:

If Drinkwater is another Sidwell, then what the hell is Delph???

I am not a huge fan of Delph either but between him and Drinkwater, I would plump for Delph.  This is about homegrown status.

On 8/4/2017 at 20:17, coco said:

I wish @PloKoon13 was here, he could put us right on Drinkwater.

Paul Scholes' natural successor - bring him home Marina!

1 hour ago, didierforever said:

We need to fill 5 spots:

2nd LWB, 2nd RWB, 4th CM, 5th CM, 3rd ST.

I would have guesses one of the CM spots might go to Baker but apparently even Scott is ahead of him. So we dont have much leeway.

I highly doubt we will be signing 5 players in the next week 3 though. 

At the very most, I would expect 3. 

Why not sign 3 foreign players that are better priced and have more ability than the likes of Barkley, ox, and drinkwater. Then if we still feel we are short, we can either

A) sign a homegrown player

B) sign a player under 21 

C) sign a foreign player, and only register 1 of Cabellero or Eduardo. 

I think there is no real need to worry about the homegrown rule at the moment. Hopefully we can get 4 squad players at least out of the vast amount of talent we have coming through the system. 

15 hours ago, lchk said:

I am not a huge fan of Delph either but between him and Drinkwater, I would plump for Delph.  This is about homegrown status.

I wouldnt, Delph is avsolutely awful. At least Drinkwater can pass the ball around a bit. 

Delph is terrible.

 

I hear Gareth Bale is homegrown if we need the quota - sign him up!

After yesterday, Drinkwater suddenly became a very attractive proposition to me.

I think having Drinkwater on the bench yesterday would have made a world of difference, Fabregas can't defend plus he can't keep going for 90 mins.

If we had Drinkwater I think he would have helped us control the match abit more, being better at defending than Fabregas. Plus him having a great partnership with Kante it makes a lot of sense! Make this happen.

At this point i would take him too. Which is quite sad as we should be aiming so much higher than Danny Drinkwater but we need someone right now.
Can you imagine Kante gets injured in training this week? We'd have to face Burnley and Tottenham with Kyle Scott and Fabregas as our midfield pair..