Oh, I won't. I was just felling a bit grumpy the other night. I just wish Dixon could look on the bright side occasionally. His cup is never even half full, it's totally empty all the time.
But he's entitled to his opinion and debate keeps things ticking over on here. Wouldn't be much fun if we all thought the same.

Been a Chelsea supporter for a long while, have you?

What you say is true, I wouldn't argue with that. But I do wonder if we need to jump on this home-grown bandwagon. I realise we have to get the content of the squad right to satisfy the rules, but providing we have some youngsters coming through that meet the criteria do we need to pay vastly inflated prices for players just because they happen to be English.
After all, codeblue is also right. Our £26m offer for Stones wasn't derisory, it was already considerably more than his real "worth" in European football. It's only our bizarrely inflated "homegrown" market in the Uk that rates players like Luke Shaw at £30m and Raheem Sterling at £50m.

It only appears to be a few English clubs who are prepared to pay this premium. Lots of top quality players are changing hands at far more reasonable sums around Europe. Bayern Munich for example, they manage to get hold of real quality without having to go into the stratosphere in terms of transfer fees. We've done the same ourselves of course with Pedro and others before him. Paying close to £40m for a "potentially" very good player like Stones just seems daft to me.

It is daft. The English market is out of control. Look at the values which some championship players are being bought for. It's gone crazy but wont stop as clubs continue to pay these absurd prices.

Buying players from the premership is going to be a very expensive business going forward due to the new TV deal, Even the clubs coming up unless they go utterly crazy will have money to spend so wont need to sell the crown jewels.

We need a defender, Cahill is good very good but is he good enough? Working along side JT yes prob more often then not he will be good enough but we have to look past last seasons fantastic performances from JT and think of the next few seasons, Even if JT has season has a season half as good as last (which would still be great) if he picks up a minor injury at his age and due to his style of play he could be out for weeks, While we could shop around europe for someone and find a cheaper version, How long would they take to settle into football over here? A week is too long, We need someone who has played in the premeirship.

Our game is built on defense, As we have seen in the few games this season if our defense is not on it 100% we are on very shakey ground. Yes its not ideal to pay such a massive fee and its a massive risk IMO its a even bigger risk not doing something.

We have backed ourselfs into a corner, Could we win the title if our current defense was on it? Yes 100% of course we could, Could we win it if our defense was at 70% not a bloody chance.

I am not one for "buying English" for the sake of it (think most of the players lack the ability personailty or intellegence to be top top players) but watching Stones I think he does have the personailly and intellegence to do so. Watching him when he dosnt have the ball telling players where to go and "getting" in players way to stop them getting the ball etc is something we need both as a starter and as bench player. Also I think since he knows he is stepping up a level professional he would not have a problem being on the bench. Yes he is a expensive player to be on the bench but when your behind JT then I think you need to be, You dont replace one of the best defenders around with just anyone

Its a risk a massive one I admit and yes he is overpriced massively but I dont see that many other options out there that if Cahill get sent off against Palace (or was not fit) that would not make me cross myself more times then Bruno did against Tyson for the next game.

Stone's is the type of player if I saw him starting I would not worry about if he is going to perform or not. Yes would perfer JT and Cahill at their majestic best but if we cannot have that? I think someone like Stone's is a very good option. His intellegence for such a young player is very very impressive

You make a compelling case for going all out to get Stones, I'll give you that.
I just haven't seen enough to convince me..yet. Don't forget (as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago) many people were saying the same things about Phil Jones and Chris Smalling not so long ago, and they haven't really lived up to expectations.
I guess if we were talking about Raphael Varane at the same kind of money, I'd have no problems. But that would still be a gamble. It just seems so much money to pay for future potential, more than we paid for Oscar or even Hazard !
If we add in the slim chance of getting Pogba at £70m+ it really will be a make or break double deal that could affect the club's future for a long time. But it's an exciting prospect.

Why would anyone have chosen Everton, a club that has been treading water for decades, no trophy in almost as long and a grubby, outdated, small stadium
Chelsea, a club that had just redeveloped their stadium that was packed out every week.
The 4th most successful club of the previous decade. A team and squad that was getting better and stronger by the year and was going to play in the CL the next season. The club that Sir Alex said was going to become UTD's biggest threat in the years to come.
Oh, and the Kings Road over grim up North
It was a no brainer!!!!

The hugely overrated Poga, for 70 million plus huge wages is equally absurd!

Here we go, im sure he will be the new willian

Couldnt you make the same absurd argument against Man City. A club that had won nothing in decades. A club dwarfed by its city rivals and a club stuck in the Grim north.

I guess Tottenham would of been a better choice.

I see Alex Witsel could be about to leave Zenit for around £22m, Man Utd and Juventus are interested. Now that would be a sensible signing for us in my opinion. An upgrade on Mikel or Ramires, cover for Matic. Powerful and technically sound, he's always stood out when playing for Belgium. With the Abramovich connections at Zenit, we should be able to agree a deal ?

Wasn't it a toss-up between Spurs and Chelsea for Roman ? I believe wily old Ken Bates got him to see sense. Probably didn't need much persuading if he spent any time driving around the area surrounding White Hart Lane.

I think when we really have invested so little in our central defence over the years I think we can afford a risk.

Although I would not normally look at passport when picking players for central defence part of me thinks at we should have at least one CB being English.

I don't think we can put one transfer fee against another player (more so when we have done so many good signings lately) too many factors come into play. Everton are in a strong position you could argue as strong as many clubs apart from the very top clubs (although they should remember their place) so was always going to push for a very good deal

The only thing Tottenham would be a decent choice for if you was making a list of places to drop a nuke

Man City did indeed strike it lucky and had done nothing to deserve their luck!
They hadn't won anything in years and were a team going nowhere fast !
Their attendances were really starting to fall fast. They were given a stadium.

Chelsea FC had dragged themselves out of a 20 year slump by investing and a longterm plan set in motion by Ken Bates that did include a big financial risk, but it was either take that risk or stay as a yo yo club for even more years to come.
Also, let's not forget that before Roman and along with the trophies, we were attracting the likes of the Gullitt, Vialli, Zola and the heart of the French defence that won the World Cup.
Our situation was nothing like that of Man City!

Pogba. is a good player who would improve our team.
But he's a £40 million player, not 70.
As wildly ovetpriced ad Bale was!

Didn't Chelsea rack up huge debts under ken Bates?


Not exactly a great plan of investment and strategy.

Mourinho latest " Once again Chelsea have been cheated, the CL draw has meant we have to go to the far flung corners of Europe while Man City only have to go as far as Turin. It is a conspiracy, UEFA are in league with the Manchester. Everybody hate us but we will be strong and overcome the bias."

To be fair he did get one thing right.

Not one for defending Dixon normally but he did not say it was a great plan but it did pay off as we did beat Liverpool and get Champions League football which was one of the attractions for Roman

High risk. but one that had to be taken if we were to get where we wanted to be.
Rebuilding a stadium in West London doesn't come cheap and neither was attracting those top quality players.
Bates made a promise his plan - attract top quality players. success. rebuilt, full stadium. CL qualification. showing huge ambition - would work and make very ripe for a major takeover, and it did! That is all that matters now!

I actually agree with you !
I have mixed feelings really. The prospect of having a player with his unique ball skills is exciting. But those YouTube video compilations are a lot different to the player you see over 90 minutes against serious opposition. He wasn't even Juve's best player last season, not even their best midfield player. He doesn't influence games half as much as some people appear to think.
Even forgetting the transfer fee, to pay him £300k a week (as reported in various media outlets) would be ridiculous. Of course, he could go on to become one of the greatest players the game has ever seen. But he's nowhere near that level yet.

We are Everton, we reject all bids.

Fair enough, that's your prerogative.
I like the your Everton badge Latin user name by the way.

If we need a CB enough to pay £40m for Stones.....surely the club has other options to fall back on? We've made 4 bids and Everton aren't budging...time to move on already

Playing in the premiership.
Good enough to play but also willing to sit on bench
Decent resale value

I don't think there are that many options out there.

But I would agree it's time to move on and just have to settle with what we have until at least the next window when we might be able do a deal