Atalanta close to sealing Godfrey transfer

Think, like Dom, he’s refusing to sign a new contract so I imagine he’ll be gone by Sept.

Had high hopes for him when he signed but never seemed to be the same player after the injury. Good luck to him, wherever he ends up, just hope we can get a decent part of our £20m outlay back.

Def need to sign a new defender or two…

Eur10m, he’s worth more than that.

Reject it.

A good move for both the player and the club. We need the money and the player needs to play regular first team football.

You never know quite what’s around the corner in football, from both a player and fans perspective. At the end of his first season with us, I believed we had a real powerhouse of a player on our hands, and he rightly won the Player of the Season award. A bad injury and a dose of Covid later on in his career changed everything. He was never quite the same.

Best of luck wherever he ends up.

Snap their hands off and get rid.

Another player who flatters to deceive.

Let’s get rid of all these fringe players. If he thinks he’s worth a start in the team and so he’s not signing new contract, take a look in the mirror.

Get them to charter a flight for him and stick him on the next plane.

Steve #3, Godfrey won YOUNG Player of the Season, and it’s not like there was any real competition (Nkounkou?) for the award.

Yes, he’s had terrible breaks with injuries and Covid, but he’s also a player without a position. He came in as a centre-back who turned out to be hopeless in the air and easily caught out of position. Late last season he successfully reinvented himself as a defensive right back — he was brilliant in the derby with that save off the line — and with his terrific pace and tackling he may have a future there, but he cannot pass and will never contribute in attack.

Seems to me that if Godfrey goes it means Dyche still has hopes for Patterson.

I like Godfrey but I think Mike G is bang on about his (lack of) position. Italians defend differently so I think he’d be better suited to the style of play there.

The issue is our shortage of any players at all. We need 3-4 in on free transfers just to be able to name a full match day squad.

Colin@5

Absolutely correct regarding DCL, nor is their any evidence that we have breached PSR, which many on here seem happy to believe.

I have always assumed he’d leave this summer for a circa £8m to £12m fee. He is a very good recovery defender for a team that plays a high line or 343. However we don’t play a high line or 343.

Consequently, he hasn’t established himself as a first teamer. With him being out of contract next summer, we’d end up paying him a fortune to play about 10 games. We can’t afford to do that.

It’s a financial decision only.

As it happens I’m expecting Patterson to leave too, but perhaps on loan. I don’t think Dyche does rate him.

As Mike has alluded to he has some notable flaws in his game but can play as a very defensive full back (poor on the ball) or possibly as wide CB in a back 3/5 where his pace makes him a good channel defender.

£15m for him would seem a good deal for everyone and might hopefully be reinvested into a RB with some upside.

Mike #11,

Godfrey is in his final year, and wants to go.

Hopefully Dyche will sign a full-back if he goes, but I guarantee if Dyche got an offer for Patterson, he’d drive him there himself.

Also need to remember that Keane and Holgate are in their last seasons so need to move them on otherwise they could leave on a free.
Same goes for Maupay.

Will we have 11 players for that first match at BMD?
🤭

Wow, I didn’t think anyone would come in for him in that range. Don’t like hating on our own players, but aside from his speed and hustle, he just doesn’t have a clear position or skill set, as Mike points out.

Unless Branthwaite is gone, in which case we need him unless there’s another center back lined up, we have to take that money for Godfrey.

Sure, you need squad players, and we’ll be in trouble if we have only Ashley Young, Seamus and Michael Keane as our defensive cover, but as others have noted you have to take £10 million and reinvest it in younger defenders in this case.

Colin 5, think a few outlets said Everton have offered a new contract to Dominic, since May, but talks not progressing. Bbc and Sky off the top of my head.

Given we can’t afford to lose him on a free I cannot imagine we’d let his contract run down. That’s exactly the behaviour that’s gotten us into the mess we’re in. Can think of at least half a dozen expensive buys during Moshiris time that left on a free.

He’s been with us 8 years now so don’t begrudge him a move, as long as we get a decentish fee.

Sky now saying West Ham and Brentford(!) also interested.

Long long way to go till the window shuts. The only single upside of PSR is that clubs are forced to sell players in June so there’s at least something to talk about…..euros at ‘king boring so far.

He’s got a carrying value of about £4m left, so a £15m bid posts an £11m gain for PSR.

For me I’d sell him. He’s a good size and pace, but his positional sense, heading and on ball ability is poor. I know he’s turned down a deal, but he never game me confidence of being a first choice full back or centre back.

A bit like Funes Mori, our lack of proper money cost us. Instead of signing van dyke we got funes mori. Instead of Gabriel who has done well at Arsenal, we bought Godfrey. Poor scouting or ability to complete deals being the resounding issue again.

I rate Godfrey highly. Personally I hope we get him to sign a new contract.

If he doesn’t get more game-time though he has to go for his own good.

Godfrey is by far our least technical footballer. His effort and speed have made him a very lucky boy.

If we move him on for any sort of fee I would be more than happy. Hopefully Holgate and Maupay next to exit.

We need a few quid in the door – if the sacrificial lambs are players like Dobbin and Godfrey, then we should probably all accept that.

Better them to balance the books, than Calvert-Lewin, Branthwaite, Onana et al.

Keep your better players, flog your less-used players. It makes total sense as far as I see it.

Godfrey had his moments this past season, but I think Dyche persisted with him far too long at right-back and it coincided with our increasingly dire winless run.

As others have said, he provides versatile cover defensively, but he’s basically a “Jack of all trades, master of none” and has been for a while. Moving him on would be sensible business at this point.

But I’ll continue beating the drum that, if we discard Patterson, it will be very foolish.

Yes, I am with James, Robert and Sam on this.

Mike’s summary is difficult to get around and £15M is too good to pass up.

I think it is a bit harsh to demerit younger players for not having kicked-on in what must have been a chaotic and stressful environment at Goodison / Finch Farm over the last 3 or 4 years or so.

However, Dyche needs players who are both capable and committed to his cause if he’s going to improve things overall. Ben Godfrey has question marks in place for both attributes but he is someone I can see getting back on track in the near future to the extent we will feel we would have been better off keeping him.

The Red Echo are linking Bayern Munich with a move for Onana and Everton are supposedly going for out-of-contract Wilfred Ndidi.

We could be fielding a very changed starting 11 next season.

Ben Godfrey has been buggered about from pillar to post by successive managers, physical injury and long-term Covid ever since he arrived as a speedy, astute, calm, all but two-footed footballer sought by many.

I hope we keep him but given the financial quagmire long since dumped upon us by Usmanov’s monkey – led by the ever insufferable liar he allowed free rein – I suppose we now just have to sell him to even try to claw back any iota of financial credibility under the Premier League’s wholly unfit for purpose, in a respectable sense, “rules”.

I wish £millionaire Ben well, in a way.

Colin 5,

Has Everton offered Calvert-Lewina new contract? Yes.

Has Calvert-Lewin signed the new contract? No.

Everyone is therefore correct, he has refused to sign a new, not to say he won’t sign but we are in a shit position as we have to satisfy him if we want to keep him, satisfy the mean if we let him go and satisfy PSR.

I too would prefer us to keep Ben Godfrey, but we have no say in it.

He is a useful player to have in the squad. The only thing I have, and it’s not a criticism given his effort and commitment, is that I’m unsure what his best position is.

If Branthwaite is kept, he won’t get past him and Tarkowski, so it will be makeshift fullback or backup in my opinion. Probably useful given the injury to Mykolenko.

I won’t second guess what the club are going to do business wise over the next month or so, as for me it’s pointless. I’ll just wait and see.

Ian #20, there was no “instead” there.

Neither Van Dijk nor Gabriel ever had the slightest interest in joining Everton. And our owner could never have afforded half of the £75m that Van Dijk cost the Liverpool.

I think the rumours about Van Dijk surfaced when he said there had been interest in the past from clubs including Everton while he was playing in Holland or at Celtic – not sure which.

Whatever interest there might have been, he chose to join Koeman and other Dutch players at Southampton which at the time were showing signs of ambition.

As for Gabriel, don’t know about any interest, but as with many potentially highly regarded players, given a choice of going to a top 4/6 club or Everton, it’s not a tough choice.

We have to get used to being used as a stepping-stone club at the moment.

You have to wonder if players like Onana are that highly regarded, how do they end up with us… apart from the obvious lure of money.

I don’t see any rights or wrongs on here. I can’t question Godfrey’s commitment, effort, speed etc but he’s short on positioning and passing skills.

If he still had 2 years left on his contract, I would suggest we keep him for next season but, with only one, it’s probably sensible to let him go for a bid above £10M.

Mike, we would have needed less than half the £75M as Van Dijk only cost Southampton £13M when we were close to signing him reportedly. We opted for Funes Mori instead who cost almost £10M. Arguably Southampton got the better deal there!

As for Gabriel, reportedly he was happy to sign for Everton and had agreed terms. Arsenal played their hand on him quite late, which of course was always going to trump us.

Mike G – it was when Van Dijk was at Celtic and went to Southampton. We went for the cheaper option and the report that not all the transfer fee went to the club selling with $5M supposedly skimmed…

We wouldn’t pay the £15M for Van Dijk.

We were heavily linked with Gabriel and Dunfries but didn’t have the money to complete those deals, or quite the pull. So cheaper deals like Godfrey and Patterson, and lost a fortune compared to what we bought buying inferior players.

Penny rich, pound foolish. Big clubs get their targets, and keep their better players. It is a talent that has haunted us broadly for 40-odd years.

Ralph, all I’m saying is I haven’t heard a peep from either party claiming he’s refusing to sign a new contract.

As I understand it, both Godfrey and Calvert-Lewin will be entering the last year of their contracts next season; both apparently have been offered new contracts and so far neither have signed.

So, if neither are sold in this window, it is highly unlikely they would sign a new contract in January, so they would walk at the end of the season and the club wouldn’t get a penny for either. Which on current estimates would mean the club would potentially lose £50M in transfer fees.

For reasons unknown to most of us, he has been on the fringe of the starting eleven.

Cash in for £25M and invest in Jacob Greaves from Hull for £15M.

Ian @13

Regarding PSR, you are right that no-one knows the actual situation, other than (hopefully!) the club, but I think there are reasonable fears that we likely would breach it unless we get a net transfer profit before end of June.

It is shown in previous accounts that we are or have been a loss making club and, while we are shifting a couple of high wage earners off the books, that may be traded off against some of the recent activity buying Beto, Chermiti etc on what appears to be the never-never, with delayed payments. Added to that, we do know we have substantially increased our debt to continue work on the stadium and the revenue gain from that is a full year away. That debt carries interest costs, possibly at punitive levels.

Hence many of us suspect that is what is driving our transfer strategy and business. I think we have at least one more challenging year, financially. After that, hopefully the owners can re-structure the debt and with a hopefully lower cost base and somewhat higher stadium revenue, we can look forward to not scratching around to survive.

I do feel that he is worth more – just based on the fact that he has Premier League experience, is only 26, has great speed, physicality and versatility.

Really, with a good run of games and a change of scene, he might flourish again. $12M + sell-on fees is the minimum.

Friedkin has cleared a substantial amount of debt outside of Moshiri. This is debt for debt, but he is likely to either convert it to a long-term mortgage on the stadium or convert it into equity.

We don’t have a clue if we are in PSR breach. Even if we are and it’s relatively small, we have suffered points deduction for 2 of those 3 years already.

So the penalty could well be down to a point or 2. The club might well be prepared to take that on, rather than give away players cheap.

My sense is Godfrey will go, and that will be enough to get us over.

Ian @42,

Hopefully you are right and it only needs a Godfrey type sale to keep us under, not an Onana or Calvert-Lewin sale (unless there are contract issues and the funds are all re-invested).

I’m not aware that Friedkin has yet cleared any debt, given the sale process is still ongoing, but for sure, the key to our future stability will be his operation restructuring, with reduced debt levels and reduced cost of servicing the debt.

Newcastle outwardly saying they want to sign a younger striker than Calvert-Lewin, smacks of an internally very different issue IMO. My bet is they can’t afford to splash the cash because of PSR and the Sunday deadline.

They may well have bags of cash, but that doesn’t mean they can spend it until they sell some players. Have they sold anyone? Not as far as I’m aware, thus they can’t buy Calvert-Lewin, so they tell the press it’s because of his age — which apparently wasn’t a problem a couple of weeks ago, so I smell bullshit. He’s only aged 2 weeks.

Pat @49,

Do a Barkley? Calvert-Lewin has been with us about 8 years now – in the modern game, I’d call that pretty loyal. Players almost always come and go, I’ve never understood the anger towards players when a lot of them leave without saying thankyou or sucking up to supporters with a fond ‘so long and thanks for all the fish’ message on Instagram.

I wouldn’t begrudge Calvert-Lewin a move to another club. He’s been decent for us, and if he moves on, so be it. If he chooses Newcastle, good luck to him – there’s more to a player choosing a club than the club itself.

It comes down to things like location, as well as the club in question. Calvert-Lewin has a new baby, and is getting married so if him and his partner see their lives in the North-East in the near future, who are we to argue?

Brian @47, the Premier League have made such a mess of PSR that clubs like Everton, Villa, Newcastle are offloading young or fringe players to satisfy the accounts due in by 30 June.

Come July, I can see all the above clubs entering the transfer market, to get players in once the 30 June deadline has passed.

Makes sense to wait a week or so, then they can add it to the next financial year’s accounts, spread over 3 to 5 years. It also enables the clubs to hold out for a higher transfer fee, instead of having to sell certain players for a low fee, or a fire sale.

Seems Everton have learned from the forced low transfer fee for Richarlison.

Ian, #20 & #35, great post with real substance, I’ve felt for a very long time that the VVD scenario had far reaching implications for our club. Having been the first club to express an interest in signing the player we were very much in the driving seat but became involved in a protracted negotiation with Celtic as we continually refused to meet their valuation. At the time VVD simply stated his ambition was to join a premier league club thus allowing Southampton to enter race. Our refusal to meet their valuation ultimately proved to be disastrous with Celtic insisting they would sell to Southampton if the club refused to match their offer. this allowed Southampton to progress the deal and steal him from under our noses.

From my recollection he signed for Southampton for a reported fee of 11.5m, there may well have been add-ons which may have inflated the fee over the length of the contract. As you rightly state we signed Mori as an alternative very late in the window for a reported fee of 9.5m. What was galling was the fact that the club brought Mori in at what they thought was a bargain price, initially believing they could capture him for around 8-8.5m.
However they apparently learned late in the negotiation that there was a third party interest and they had to cough up another 1-1.5m to buy them out, hence it proved to be a panic buy.

The net effect of this was we lost out on the signing VVD for the sake of 2m, penny inching at its finest when you consider the fee Southampton received on his subsequent move to the team across the park.

I think Martinez had pinned all his hopes on bringing him in if the tabloids were to be believed at the time. Martinez by his own admission spoke openly about our vulnerabilities in defence at the time and his desire to bring him to the club. He really was the missing link needed to transform our fortunes and the rest is history.

Lyon are in for Niakhate and Mangala from Forest for £20M each, so I guess that might be them out on Godfrey.

Moise Kean going to Fiorentina for €13M.

Chelsea are in for a Barca kid for £6M release clause for Marc Guiu. That looks good business.

It’s good to see we have a plan… Where we have fallen down in the past is reaching too high too quickly – that’s unsustainable.

It appears that the signings made so far are part of a short-medium term strategy to ensure we are comfortably mid-table but in a stable and sustainable way.

Once achieved, next phase – qualify for Europe through the league then who knows, perhaps Champions League in say 5 to 7 years?

Martinez had the chance to sign Van Dijk at Groningen for £2.5M a couple of weeks after he joined us. The Dutch club actually offered him to us… he preferred Alcaraz. Van Dijk went to Celtic for the same fee.

His first summer, he had a £30M kitty and gave Wigan over £20M of it for McCarthy and Koné.

He also had the opportunity to sign Alderweireld at the Brazil World Cup in 2014 for £4M… he signed Besic instead.

If certain players aren’t committed to our club then it’s best to move them on and get our Scouts do there stuff and look around the world for ideal replacements.

Our business has been okay atm, at the very least we seem to be going in the right direction on many things, which makes a nice change.

Atalanta offer £6.5M. Lyon offer £12.5M. Everton, being Everton, appear to be willing to accept, wait for it, the Atalanta offer…

I think Godfrey will do well in Europe. Good luck to him.

Regarding Van Dijk, when he was at Celtic, we scouted him regularly. The Celtic rumour mill had him nailed on to join us. Then we decided to buy Funes Mori for slightly less money.

Anyone involved in that choice should never be involved in any of our transfers. Van Dijk went to Southampton, and we were left with an Argentinian yard dog. We missed out on a top young defender and making a fat profit.

Sin miedo, Colin.

I’m certain we can knock them down to £5M.

Godfrey wants to go to Atalanta so he’s in the driving seat because he’s only got 12 months to go.

Alan, we might end up paying Atalanta too. Take him. You know EitC and all that. Bloody iPad doing my head in…

As for Van Dijk I was shouting in the wilderness for Everton to take him but was told he’d probably be crap in the Premier League.

Colin, I remember that.

£17M from Celtic wasn’t it?

I think it a pity Godfrey is leaving, he played so many games out of position at full-back, usually as cover for an injured player and got a lot of stick when his limitations in that role were exposed.

Yet, there he was, week after week, doing his bit to help the makeshift teams that were fielded because poor management decisions had left the squad bereft. He was a fall guy for the failings of others and wasn’t rewarded with enough chances to show what he could do as centre-back.

Godfrey’s been a victim of the poor running of the club over many years.

On the plus side, he’s probably helped us to avoid further PSR trouble.

It’s a shame and his effort and energy last season proved valuable.

That said, it feels like the club has a plan and strategy under Thelwell and Dyche more than we’ve had for years.

Keane the only back-up centre back when Godfrey goes and our only left-back will be the injured Mykolenko.

At right-back, we have the 47-year-old Seamus Coleman and the young but a bit useless Natthan Patterson. Of course we do have the 61-year-old Ashley Young to cover across all positions.

I think we need at least two new defenders.

We have been linked with quite a few defenders.

Jacob Greaves, Hull
Jake O’Brien, Lyon
Max Esteve, Burnley
Issa Kabore, Man City
Wan Bissaka, Man Utd
Linderloth, Man Utd
Jayden Oosterwolde, Fenerbache
Federico Gatti, Juventus

Of those, I can see them going in for Greaves and possibly O’Brien.

According to his Wikipedia page he has already gone

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Godfrey?wprov=sfla1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Godfrey?wprov=sfla1

Just saw a little rumour, on the Everton page, (The Loony Toon, could be any of about 50,000 Geordie Lunatics, though) that the deal involving DCL, going to Newcastle and the young Newcastle player coming the other way could be back on?

It makes sense if we are signing the kid from Marseille, and might even offload Beto? And Maupay, (who will probably go in the last week? Because it will surely help the PSR, and this will also help give us some room to manoeuvre, once that sinister looking deadline has passed!

So who is going to fill in now that Mykolenko is becoming a sick note.

Branthwaite is coveted, Godfrey on the brink and two
others ( Seamus and Young) being highly susceptible.

Tom # 74, I expect we’ll have a few reinforcements to cover Godfrey and other departures by the end of the window.

Not many Premier League clubs have done business yet. There’s the peculiar Dobbin / Iroegbunam deal and Newcastle have Lloyd Kelly on a free. Otherwise just a few interesting young players going to Forest (Stamenic), Wolves (Rodrigo Gomes, Pedro Lima), Palace (Riad) and West Ham (Guilherme) for fees between £5m and £20m.

The encouraging news is that, touch wood, it looks like the 30th June is going to come and go without any major departure. That at least suggests we’re not in desperate financial straits or up against serious PSR woes.

Good news. Him and dobbin makes a solid PSR gain. Cash reserves possibly less of an issue with Friedkin so if we can just stay the right side of PSR then there should be money to spend from July onwards.

And that’s before Onana has left, which seems the likely big departure.

My guess after Ndiaye is a starting RB(Kabore and Wan-Bissaka mentioned lately) a RW (Minteh?) and a squad CB (Greaves). If we could pull off anything like that we’d be looking stronger than last year.

Iain, #55
Thanks for providing yet another example of the club’s penny pinching. Alcaraz arrived at the club as a free agent as I recall, though I’ve no recollection of VVD being linked to the EFC around that time or any discussions surrounding any possible fee which should come as no surprise as he hadn’t made any appearances for his national team.

He rose to prominence following his success at Celtic as I understand it, similarly don’t recall us being linked to Alderweireld or what kind of fee may or may not have been discussed.

As for the signings of Mc Carthy and Kone I’m not sure why you’ve alluded to the fees involved Mc Carthy (13m), Kone (5m). Martinez was criticised by some pundits for the fee paid for Mc Carthy but he proved to be a very astute signing and easily one of our best performers in years gone by, sadly his career was blighted by serious injury which he sustained whilst putting his body on the line for the club.

Kone had a respectable scoring record at Wigan and was signed for what would have been considered a modest fee for a striker back then however the fee largely reflected the fact that he was known to be carrying an injury however the club didn’t have a lot of cash to splash around and they were prepared to take a risk on his fitness.

You could also have thrown in Gareth Barry brought in on loan and later signed for 1m, what an acquisition he proved to be. I’d go as far as to say he was probably one of the best value for money signings in our history or Lukaku brought in on a loan and later signed for 25m and subsequently sold for 75m, not a bad bit of business that by anyone’s reckoning.

The two things that did for Godfrey in his Everton career was

1) That bout of Covid during the summer of 2021 when he’d just broken into the England setup.

2) The leg break on the opening day of 22/23 against Chelsea, completely derailed the start of his season.

We seen a fine athlete in his first season under Carlo, early doors I genuinely thought we’d signed another Lescott type gem.

But the deficiencies started becoming more clear, the lack of being able to command in the air, not being very good at all infact with heading the ball doesn’t do much for a defender, coupled with his not very good passing ability.

As I say, absolute immense athlete, loves a hard old school tackle, but I couldn’t ever see him nailing down one particular position.

I wish him all the very best at Atalanta and hope it goes as well as can.