Everton’s deal to sign Alistair Johnston hits a brick wall

 Posted
05/08/2026 at
21:39:35

Just reading that Celtic won’t budge on their £15M asking price for Johnston, and no progress because our offer is £12M +add ons.

Nothing is straightforward with our recruitment team!

 Posted
05/08/2026 at
21:49:31

Christy — he might well be the back-up plan.

We’ve no idea if he is the first choice or 5th/6th on the list.

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
15:36:30

To read that the proposed Johnston transfer from Celtic has fallen through is not only extremely disappointing, but unforgiveable! Quibbling about the cost of acquiring a first-class defender is tantamount to penny-pinching on the grand scale, either by the recruitment team or more likely, the Club owners.

Moyes desperately needs a new full-back. Aznou must finally be used properly and regularly and not as a bit-part player. The same applies to Armstrong, Dibling and Alcaraz, otherwise we will end up with a repeat of last season’s finish and 50,000 frustrated, not to say, angry fans!

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
15:47:27

They want £14M???????

Surely there has to be a dot between the 1 and the 4??? Nonsense, absolute nonsense!

At that price, I’d put Merlin there and tell Celtic to do one.

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
16:00:31

You haven’t been very impressed with him over the years you have been watching him play then John?

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
16:41:05

Tony, I have indeed. I’m up here in Edinburgh so balancing games at Hibs and Everton is a real challenge. However, I have seen him in the flesh a number of times and obviously on the TV.

In my opinion, he is a decent right-back and nothing more. Certainly nowhere near bloody £14M!!! Ridiculous!

You have to understand that Celtic and Rangers buy players for nowt but want top dollar selling them on. They have this old-fashioned idea that they can get anyone for nothing because they’re Celtic and Rangers. Look at their net spend.

Sorry but not for me, I’m afraid.

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
17:20:50

I’ve watched Johnston at Celtic for the last few seasons, even in the World Cup he impressed for Canada? So are we looking for “A” fullback for £12M, or less?

I see where West Ham signed the Brighton full-back, so is Wan-Bissaka available, for me the best choice by far for £15M-£20M. We’re 3 years trying to buy a full-back?

Our owners, by the way, have no problem spending big at Roma.

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
17:30:25

Christy, I agree.

I seem to remember Roma have acquired 2 right backs that we were linked with while our elite recruitment team have sat on their arses and assumed they can just go and get targets.

It also doesn’t help that the media are calling Everton a second-rate Premier League club and advising players to swerve EFC.

Someone needs to address that too.

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
17:55:55

If you take the number of teams in Europe’s major leagues, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany and Netherlands, with each having c 20 clubs, there’s 120 right-backs. Taking the top clubs in lesser leagues adds, say another 40. Then the best clubs in the rest of the world, has to be another 40. 200 in total, not including any reserves.

You can probably filter out a couple of dozen because they play at bigger clubs than us and/or in the Champions League. Some of the remaining 180 may not be good enough but surely among the 100 plus that remain, we can find one good enough and interested in playing in the best, highest-paid league in the world?

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
18:09:56

I wouldn’t call Johnston a first-class right-back. He’s a right-back, which means he’s probably better than what we have, but I’m not in the camp of “Just get any right-back!”

Everton were probably thinking he could do a job, fill the gap for around £8-10M… then if they are looking for £14-15M… move on.

It’s like Norgaard: he’s not one for the long term, he’s there to fill a gap. If you’re paying £15M, you can get better than Johnston in my view.

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
18:15:58

In fairness, if you’re a right-back and Everton and Roma come for you, where are you going?

Come on, Champions League or 13th in the Premier League with no European football?

I think Roma are after a different level of players to us, or can attract a different level of player. I don’t think Dan Friedkin is picking what right-back is going where!

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
19:36:46

We already have a Scotland full back but no one seems to rate him.

Is he so bad, Moyes won’t play him? I must admit it’s got me somewhat puzzled as I didn’t see a bad player when I have watched him. Either play him or sell him, what’s the point of keeping him here and having him rot on the bench?

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
20:18:51

Raymond,

I saw a bit of our unwanted full-back when he was at Ibrox and was very impressed. When we signed him, I was extremely happy and thought it was a great long-term deal.

Something has happened along the way. I haven’t a clue, don’t think any if us have. He’s not quoted by anyone so maybe best for both parties to move on. A shame really because I thought he was without doubt our future right-back.

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
20:23:16

Can I point out that Martin O’Neill is in hospital at the moment so probably not involved in transfers, I should think.

Might hold thing up anyway?

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
20:54:46

At this point, the name doesn’t matter. By the start of the season, get a right-back in who starts in a top 5 league or Champions League squad, excites us more than Patterson, and has a pulse.

If we fail to do that, leadership has no excuses and should be derided for at least the next 10 months.

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
21:24:07

John #13 I’m a bit perplexed, you saw a lot of Johnson, and you weren’t impressed, but you saw Patterson at Rangers, and were very impressed? Considering he played 13 games in 18mths for Rangers in the Premiership how many games did you see him play??

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
21:48:12

I did know it was so difficult to sign a RB. Seems other clubs do it without a problem. We’ve been waiting 3 seasons I’d say now.

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
21:52:30

I would just point out that Everton contract chief Nick Hammond saved the club about £14-15 million out of pocket with tough negotiating tactics on both Hayden Hackney and Tyrique George, which included walking away from the table on George. He eventually got his preferred price on both and closed the deals.

(Same thing Dan Friedkin did with Mosh when he was negotiating to buy Everton. Walked away for a couple of months and got a better deal.)

I love that Everton aren’t rolling over for seller’s prices, especially on decent-but-not-superstar players like Johnston. One Dibling overpay is enough.

If we miss out on a good right back over £2-3m, that will certainly be grounds for all the rage we can muster, but I don’t see that happening. We will get a right back. If it takes a couple more weeks, even up to the last day, so be it.

Raymond #12, as I’ve mentioned before, none of his managers wanted to play him. Lampard, Dyche and Moyes all took good long looks at Patterson on the pitch… and returned him to the bench. Along the way he lost out to not just O’Brien and Ashley Young but nonentities like Holgate and Godfrey. We will likely never know what went wrong, but all three of his managers saw it the same.

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
22:07:28

Couldn’t give a toss about saving money or who it is. The fact we have needed a right back for at least 2 seasons and still..STILL havnt got one is a sham.

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
22:18:27

Isn’t it ironic, when we were totally penniless, we paid £15m for Maupay?

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
22:29:50

Christy #21

No point maupay over spilt milk!

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
23:37:45

Mike a good right back at £2-3m? I know we’re poor and we’re certainly not shopping at Harrods, but you don’t get quality fill backs at that price, except as a fluke, and we can afford more. Did you miss a decimal point?

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
23:46:25

Mark #23

We’re talking 2/3 million in differing valuations…12 to 15 for example.

Not players in the 2/3 million bracket mate.

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
23:50:22

Would Celtic take Patterson in a swap?

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
00:03:26

He’s a 10m right back, no other suitors, Celtic pushing for £15m.
As he’s ordinary at best. We should park up and seek better.

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
00:05:01

Mike Gaynes #19 spot on. Do many managets and not one vote of confidence in Patterson, who even found himself with a brief bit of World Cup experience, not to mention qualifying. Nobody at Everton seems to rate him and recent mgrs have spent a lot of time trying to sell him.

We have spent three years replacing Coleman. You rarely see transfer policy managed like this. However admitting that frustration it feels equally frustrating because the infamous transfer committee of such repute I cant name any of them, may still be on the verge of pulling off a £75m fee for a player we paid £15 for just a few minutes ago..,,,,

It’s all so bloody Everton. Moyes pulling off a small miracle keeping us in the league is the very very notable exception but nothing seems to change and hope is all we ever start a season with and most of all know itd fruitless and pray to be proved wrong.

Transfer mgt at our club is the main cause of soul destroying activity from an already stagnating approach that I guess will keep us up but more 14 or 13 place finishes are on the way. Harsh ? Please show me how but I say again how else does it feel to you ? The rest of the top ten are again improving and huge amounts of money are being spent. We have the filthy rich owners don’t we ? But now play second fiddle to Roma. The Patterson saga and buys like Dibling, Barry, counter the good time of profit from a couple of big sales? Sigh, again, how does it feel to you ? I’d respect the well argued optimistic feel and have no issue bringing mocked if it all comes good. I told you so would be amazing and incredibly welcome in 12m time but in
The meantime I will be off to see us start the season soon hoping Johnson arrives or an unknown does on his place and that lad up front from
Turkey. It’s still all about hope but at least the cheese and mushroom pie is showing consistency we hoped for and I bloody love it all tho god knows why !

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
00:22:12

Brendan, thanks. see what you mean. I guess whether saving £2-3m is a good idea depends on 1) The total transfer value and thus the % saved and 2) what you bought instead of(if anyone at all)

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
00:29:44

The fact that Johnston is keen for a move to the EPL means Everton has the upper hand in the negotiation. And there’s no other club chasing means they have to come back to us if they want the cash.

Johnston is not Riquelme. Just move on to next if we can’t get him.

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
00:55:47

Of course this deal is in trouble. It’s for a right back innit! I find it hilarious that under new deep pockets owner that we haggle about three million quid. Three million quid when we desperately – DESPERATELY – need a right-back.

OK, so Saint Daniel walked away from the table and walked back – a real risk, by the way – to buy us at a very agreeable price.

Erm, you can’t do this all the time, not least when it comes to transfers. If we keep on doing this we will lose players and our reputation for wheeling and dealing like this will spread like the oil to get those cars started home and abroad.

This negotiating erm ‘strategy’ for a club like us is not sustainable, especially when the fee is ‘just’ 15 million.

We do not look like smart negotiators/recruiters in this particular deaL (and if we continue like this we will become a known entity).

This back and forth might work in Toyota-land but there is no guarantee that it will do so in the cut and thrust of the transfer market. I believe that we got away on one with HH, but that does not at all mean that this is the route that we should always follow.

Pragmatic? Possibly in some case. Pragmatic? Might it work on the last day of the window or the few before when we traditionally ‘pounce’? Other clubs know our situation and strategy and that gives them leverage.

This make a low-bid stuff will not work when there is competition for the player in question. It is making for an already underwhelming window in which two new players have been signed (one of whom, we were told yesterday, was not actually recruited by Cox and co.).

Our crack recruitment team have 24 days to pull something out of a hat. It looks like they have royally screwed up in the case of a not first- but second-rate right-back. They now have three-and-a-half weeks to get us a striker (two would be ideal), right-back and left-back (others and I feel like this also, want someone else out on the left – I hope to Sheedy that it is not Grealish).

I don’t at this point see much innovation and creativity over the next few weeks. I expect loans and this budget bargaining and the more it continues the more we will be from any sort of progress on the pitch.

Selling is important too, not least if we have to raise funds. Not much action there up to now. This is Cox territory. I have no idea how involved we have been so far. I have no idea which players – if any – Cox and co. feel ought to be moved on. But I hope that they are on the phones pitching erm ‘enticing’ stuff about – for me – Beto, Barry, and McNeil. But as of now, it seems that Tim is the only one attracting attention and that from teams actually beneath us.

But, as always, I end up with let’s hope and let’s wait and see and I would love it, just love it, if my hunches are proved wrong.

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
00:58:10

Mark Wilson 27: Moyes pulling off a small miracle keeping us in the league. ‘

I just can’t stop chuckling at this latest bout of Moyesturbation.

 Posted
06/08/2026 at
01:12:54

Another take on the delay, it causes Moyes to spend valuable training time on plan B, Rohl at right back. This could payoff in the long run as it has with Garner, but it seems like we give up much more going forward with Rohl on the back line.

Fortunately, we may have resolved the CDM issue with Norgaard. So, at least it is down to one position where we are cobbling together something. Still though, our strength will have to come from an internal chemistry between the midfielders. We won’t be able to buy our way to the top. Our most gifted players need a period of settling into positions, generating familiar runs and ball distribution.

If Rohl is the only position wanderer, maybe alright. If we end up with another unexpected injury like Dewsbury-Hall’s v Chelsea, we could lose substantial time and waste some asset valuations scrapping to find our way through it.

 Posted
07/08/2026 at
01:31:51

Mark #27, the years of failure are irrelevant. The transfer executives and scouts who failed us all those years are gone. The owners who wouldn’t or couldn’t pay up are gone. All that matters is the here and now.

The new ownership has been in situ for 20 months, the CEO 14, the recruiting execs 13 and 11 and 10. This is their first summer window together. I will judge them from this moment. History starts now.

We will assuredly screw up again — lots of transfers fail, just ask the RS who spent $500 million last summer and went from 84 points to 60 — but hopefully these new people will have a higher batting average and wiser priorities than their predecessors.

 Posted
07/08/2026 at
01:40:12

Celtic play a CL qualifier against LASK on 19th and 25th Aug. I can’t see them selling him before they know the outcome of those games. I reckon we will get him for £13m plus add ons.

 Posted
07/08/2026 at
03:02:03

Michael – “monitored by Everton’s elite recruitment team”.
I saw what you did there.

The signing of a proper right back would in my opinion be a catalyst for exponential improvement in this squad. I think we should up our budget and go for a known entity. I am thinking Spence or Wan Bissaka. I really like Spence but at 20M quid I would probably go for Wan Bissaka.

I think we might see a different Tyler Dibling with one of those two behind him.

Also at 12M quid I think Jacob Murphy, even at 31 would be good business for us.

Sort that right flank out and I reckon we would get much more out of Beto and Barry.

 Posted
07/08/2026 at
03:03:49

Laurie – 35 – with respect, the only way to get much more from either Beto or Barry is to replace them.

 Posted
07/08/2026 at
03:08:17

Paul # 36 – if we sort that right flank out I’ll bet you 3/6d that one of them will score 15 goals next season. If I am wrong I will send you a postal order at the end of the season. 😉

 Posted
07/08/2026 at
04:16:28

Alistair Johnston is on our C or D list at best.

The fact that we haven’t signed him yet shows the club sees him that way – a Championship level backup who no other PL club has an interest in.

The one non-negotiable for the recruitment team was to sign a right back this summer. They had 12 months to prepare and they have struggled since Doué turned us down. The fact that PSG are interested in him shows that he was probably never a realistic target at this stage of his career.

I am sure we will bring in a right-back before 1st September, however he will likely be low down on our short-list. Regardless, O’Brien will start against Crystal Palace with Rohl as main cover.

Of course, it would have been easier to attract players if we had qualified for Europe. 1 win in the last 8 games cost us dearly, as did the failure to back the manager in the January transfer window despite us having 44 million headroom to spend on players under PSR rules.

What is most annoying about the window, is that it is making me feel sorry for Moyes.

 Posted
07/08/2026 at
05:11:55

You’re on Lawrie – 37 – I’m not backing down. If I lose, can I pay you in Green Shield Stamps?

 Posted
07/08/2026 at
05:26:39

Paul # 39 – that’ll be fine.

 Posted
07/08/2026 at
05:32:07

Paul @ 30, I fully concur, it is not a strategy that will succeed in the long term.

Clubs wanting to hang onto players we are interested in will simply start to ask ridiculous sums for their players, knowing full well we will walk away.

Leaving us with available players no one wants, or is interested in. We are on course to become the ultimate bottom feeders.

Leaving a position of dire need until after the season has already kicked off wouldn’t put our so called elite recruitment team in a good light.

 Posted
07/08/2026 at
06:17:57

Christy 16
Christy I never saw Patterson in the flesh as that season was covid so no crowds, however, as all the matches were live on the telly saw most if not all his games
You have to remember he had Tavenier to displace at RB which then was an impossible task so only got in when Tavenier had injuries.

 Posted
07/08/2026 at
06:25:34

Sean #41, overpaying out of urgency or desperation would cast our recruitment team in an even worse light IMO.

Tosun was a January rush job.

Maupay came in just before the window closed.

Nobody wants to duplicate mistakes like that.

By the way, one of our dumbest moves ever, dumping Antonee Robinson for pocket change, appears likely to bring us in a bit of repayment. If Utd buy him from Fulham as expected, we get a sell-on fee of around £1.5m.

 Posted
07/08/2026 at
07:01:59

Can people stop referring to how rich our owners are in their frustrations over a lack of transfer activity.

We could have the top 5 richest people in the world, with their combined wealth, as owners and we’d still not be able to splash the cash!

We are restricted by our revenue as a club! As a business! Nothing to do with our owner’s wealth.

Additionally, we nearly went out of existence due to splashing the cash! We’re still recovering from that period of utter stupidity!

We are cutting our cloth appropriately, whilst the owner’s are steadily working to increase our revenue – and thus, our future buying power!

Yes, we need a full back. We also cannot overspend