Ric Flair

Nelson RCB, Coady central and Doyle on the left.

It's been not much better recently for our preferred XI.

I don't recall us ever making a massive loss on a player within the 1st couple of years of them being here. Instead we'll keep them or loan them out until their contract is pretty much done here and then either release on a free or get a nominal fee for. See Silva, Slimani, Perez etc.

And you're presuming we can't now either? We raised over £90m last summer and spent less than half of it. We still need to sell to buy but the financial flexibility of making vast profits on some players to also be able to move other players with no futures here is a viable decision.

I can base that statement on watching Ben Nelson a lot in the academy, im a huge fan of him. It's understandable to be surprised by my comments for those that havent followed his acadamy career and his exploits last season but i'll die on this hill. Nelson is a huge talent. Doyle is promising, his ability on the ball going forward is top drawer. However Doyle is just 6 months older than him with 2.5 full seasons worth of senior football under his belt and yet I think the defensive side of the game is what he needs to sharpen up on. His lack of pace cannot be changed and isn't a massive concern as there's plenty of attributes that can make up for that. He's been beaten in the air for 4 goals now which we'd be naive to ignore. Anyway, as you and others have said it's his 1st start for 3+ months and he put in some excellent displays before his injury, as well as a few iffy ones. At this level I've no doubt he's good enough. But as he isn't our player, Ben Nelson is and not been given anywhere near enough 1st team football yet, the dilemma is what to do with Doyle, Nelson and Justin for the rest of the season. The logical and most likely move is Nelson on loan to a quality League One team, then Doyle to challenge Justin for that LCB role. What we gain with Justin's pace for bailing out the defence, we lose Doyle's ability on the ball going forward. It's a nice problem for Maresca to have but of all the academy players coming through, Nelson is the most ready and we shouldn't hold him back.

We actually can, but it has an obvious knock on effect that you have to juggle. We chose to quite quickly ramp up the largest wage bill outside of the big 6 instead, as well as cash in on a high value asset most seasons, which other teams around us didn't or weren't able to do. Both of those decisions could have given us the financial flexibility to cut our losses on some unwanted players in an attempt to keep the conveyor belt of the squad improvement going. Instead we maxed out our wages, made a number of poor signings for big money and then couldn't move certain players on and eventually couldn't bring players in. Let's not pretend FFP is completely unrealistic to adhere to. It is irritating for sure, I'd tweak it, but the decisions we make have not been forced upon us.

I read the same drivel from posters defending our appalling set piece defending under Rodgers until we finally started struggling in the league and it became to them a major issue. Its not good enough currently and we have 5 months to sort it before we have our kegs pulled down in the Prem.

Well pointed out. Conceding 44% of goals at set pieces is under performing. We're no longer a small team either like perhaps has been the case at times under Rodgers.

Yeah something very comforting seeing an Albrighton assist and general efficiency.

£15m over 5 years means as it stands anything less than £12m this month is a loss on him and our club does not negotiate such a deal.

Defensively we improved at set pieces when he came in, attacking them we were still extremely poor.

Massively overpaid for Souttar, even though I'm a big fan of his. The sort of defender that if unwanted is going to be valued at far less than we've paid, which means we won't sell him. Loan him out for the next 18 months and then take a smaller hit at the end of 2024/25 is my prediction.

1 central midfielder in is about all we need, if that.

We had a bid for Soumare that was more than his book value (£15m) in the summer of 2022 if numerous reports are to be believed. But I understand the difficulty they are in, but others seem to be better at doing it than we are. I provided a detailed list of PL clubs who sold unwanted players in the last 4 seasons and we were without doubt the worst.

Hahahahaaaa it's going to be difficult not to do something.

Went almost full strength and then made a load of subs early-ish.

Yes it is. Its going to be interesting what Maresca does as he's got a bit of a headache now. Not only Justin but then whether Nelson deserves more chances too. The one area of the pitch we are blessed with options and nearly all of them reliable fitness wise and performance wise.

Sadly old enough to be.

Ben Nelson (C)

Everton have had a howler here. The £7.5m was only about half up front as well. Similar to what they sold Ellis Simms for 😂

Looked aggressive, confident on the ball and determined to drive us forward. Better.

Not saying he isn't a quality player, but his current strengths are not the defensive side of the game. That is a concern. Ben Nelson is a better defender than him and we own him. Doyle needs to improve defensively for us to consider purchasing him and use him in the PL if and when we go up. But the dilemma for me is, shouldn't we use this opportunity to develop Nelson between now and the end of the season?

Correct. The worry is, he made a number of errors prior to getting injured though, especially at defending set pieces and crosses.

His dad deserves waltzing round the boozer tonight telling all and sundry about his son, he's a huge talent.