Alistair Johnston

[Gash]

I dont think we're spending 20 million on him.

I dont even know if he'd be a good buy, certainly not the level that the club has been talking about.

But we have people in here saying hes worse than Obrien or Patterson which is absolutely incorrect.

Like myself with Scottish players, we need to remember that you'll have a bit of Canadian bias in this.

You're probably right in that he's an upgrade on Patterson and O'Brien but it's marginal and I don't think it's worth us spending any decent money on him for what would be a limited improvement. It smacks of a fairly short term 'band aid plaster' signing in the hope it's enough to put the problem to bed for a year or two. It's just kicking the can down the road for me.

[Toddacelli]

I feel like Canadians and Scots are almost the same thing.
I feel like the English went to America and the Scots went to Canada.

[Bluedylan1]

I feel like Canadians and Scots are almost the same thing.
I feel like the English went to America and the Scots went to Canada.

It's true. Many Scottish people settled in Canada. Apparently 14% of Canadians have Scottish heritage.

[777Kidnappings]

Like myself with Scottish players, we need to remember that you'll have a bit of Canadian bias in this.

You're probably right in that he's an upgrade on Patterson and O'Brien but it's marginal and I don't think it's worth us spending any decent money on him for what would be a limited improvement. It smacks of a fairly short term 'band aid plaster' signing in the hope it's enough to put the problem to bed for a year or two. It's just kicking the can down the road for me.

Feels like theyve realised its got to the point of ridiculous and we wont stand for it so they've just thought anything will do. Feels like a year of scouting never happened

[Toddacelli]

Feels like theyve realised its got to the point of ridiculous and we wont stand for it so they've just thought anything will do. Feels like a year of scouting never happened

Yep. 100%.

No way have we been tracking Alistair Johnston for the last couple of years. He’s a panic buy at the till when you’re already at the checkout. Somewhere between the bubble gum and sugar free sweets.

[AjaxAndy]

Does just suggest we have very limited spending ability unfortunately.

We've spent £16m on Hackney, had to complete the Rohl signing due to the obligation, and most likely signed George in case Ndaiye leaves and Grealish doesn't come back.

The George one is sensible as really we could be extremely short out wide come the start of the season if things fall a certain way. So I don't disagree with getting that done instead of spending the money on an RB.

If Ndaiye really isn't leaving for Saudi though, and we don't get a decent bid elsewhere, we might well be almost at our limit for purchases, which would make the Johnson one, providing the fee is max £15m, unsexy but maybe all we can do

I don't really think anyone at the club is to blame necessarily if this is what happens, we just can't spend money unless we sell someone. However we have so little actual quality that doing so hampers us unless it's for serious money.

This is just the product of a decade of mismanagement, and whilst the new owners may be better they're still suffering from a historical hangover from the previous regime.

[Audrey Horne]

It's just absolutely shit at the moment.

I also don't understand why we have like a tenner to spend??

I thought we had money now....and also making money with the stadium and extortionate prices

[Cozzie]

It's just absolutely shit at the moment.

I also don't understand why we have like a tenner to spend??

I thought we had money now....and also making money with the stadium and extortionate prices

Somewhere, can't remember the thread, but @Bluedylan1 mentioned the new SCR rules are screwing us massively, we have the money just not allowed to spend it. Basically just another way of keeping the top 6 happy.

[777Kidnappings]

Does just suggest we have very limited spending ability unfortunately.

We've spent £16m on Hackney, had to complete the Rohl signing due to the obligation, and most likely signed George in case Ndaiye leaves and Grealish doesn't come back.

The George one is sensible as really we could be extremely short out wide come the start of the season if things fall a certain way. So I don't disagree with getting that done instead of spending the money on an RB.

If Ndaiye really isn't leaving for Saudi though, and we don't get a decent bid elsewhere, we might well be almost at our limit for purchases, which would make the Johnson one, providing the fee is max £15m, unsexy but maybe all we can do

I don't really think anyone at the club is to blame necessarily if this is what happens, we just can't spend money unless we sell someone. However we have so little actual quality that doing so hampers us unless it's for serious money.

This is just the product of a decade of mismanagement, and whilst the new owners may be better they're still suffering from a historical hangover from the previous regime.

We spent 35m on dibling last summer. Even forgetting what a disaster thats been we spent 35m on what was intended to be a substitute. If weve no budget for a right back its absolutely the fault of people at the club for not budgeting properly. Well unless its come as a surprise to them that we need 1

[Cozzie]

http://www.nsno.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=188235#p188229

@Audrey Horne

[AjaxAndy]

We spent 35m on dibling last summer. Even forgetting what a disaster thats been we spent 35m on what was intended to be a substitute. If weve no budget for a right back its absolutely the fault of people at the club for not budgeting properly. Well unless its come as a surprise to them that we need 1

We all know your thoughts on last summer though, I'm talking about our spending ability this window.

I fully appreciate that last season the Dibling money could have been spent elsewhere, but that's been and gone. The actual transfer of Dibling may or may not end up being fruitful, no one knows right now. If we sell for £100m in 2 years time people might see the decision to buy him very differently.

[AjaxAndy]

It's just absolutely shit at the moment.

I also don't understand why we have like a tenner to spend??

I thought we had money now....and also making money with the stadium and extortionate prices

I still think we have some to spend, but we need to spread it over 3 players which is the issue.

So far we've spent approx £50m, which over 5 years contracts (not sure if that's what the signings have been given tbh) would equate to £10m spent so far. Add in maybe the same for last season's incomings, and for good measure sake again for existing transfers from before that, and we've spent around £30m.

We definitely should have room to spend further, but the number of players we need makes what we can spend on each player an issue.

If we spent another £50m on an RB and a CM combined, and added in £12m - £15m on Grealish's wages, we've now brought out spend up another £25m.

Realistically we need a big sale, as most clubs do to really make any serious inroads in to squad building, but we have very few saleable assets.

[Toddacelli]

It's just absolutely shit at the moment.

I also don't understand why we have like a tenner to spend??

I thought we had money now....and also making money with the stadium and extortionate prices

Relax - we’ll get megadosh for Ndiaye at the last second and then spunk it all on an overpriced January window panic buy.

It’s the master plan and it’s never failed us before, has it?

[Indiantoffee75]

Relax - we’ll get megadosh for Ndiaye at the last second and then spunk it all on an overpriced January window panic buy.

It’s the master plan and it’s never failed us before, has it?

We'll get megadosh for Ndiaye last minute but won't spend in January. We very rarely do.

It'll disappear like the Arteta money

[TrevorSteven]

The signing of this lad seems more and more likely. Of all the exciting right backs out there - Moyes go for this guy? Thats just a shame. If its him or nobody I think Everton is better off with nobody. Patterson is better.