Evertons fans view on Stones....

I can't remember the exact fee but it was derisory and quite frankly an insult. Like you say it was made all the more difficult to stomach because of who it was that mugged us.

 

Yes he played only a handful of games for us but it was obvious he was going to be a top striker. We got a reported £200,000 for him and he went on to be an established First Division player with our blue and white neighbours and, of course, played for England. Now, I wonder if we had any clauses in that deal......no, probably not.

I wonder what Barnsley fans thought when Man Utd stole Tommy Taylor from us for £29,999. It may have been a decent fee at that time but he also went on to have a good First Division and England career, tragically cut short though. Who knows - if he had stayed with us he might still be alive.

 

When put like that life is full of ifs and buts.

 

Yes of course, but it's sobering thought.

 

The Hirst xfer was £250k if memory serves!

Although I'm sure it was the miners strike that brought about the 'enforced' sale. I'm fairly sure with the plummeting gates, strained finances etc it was the only way of surviving the season out. It was a steal like, but in difficult circumstances.

 

It certainly is

 

What rubbed salt into the wound was that he came back to Oakwell with them shortly afterwards and scored against us. All a long time ago, but I remember walking home up Oakwell Lane boiling that we let him go for so little.

 

Can't believe it's 28 odd years ago!

Making me feel old now. Lol

 

Look at what blades got for Harry Maguire and Southampton for Chambers. Don Rowing got rocks in his head the silly old fart, we got mugged big time.

 

Is the correct answer. Not even God knows what Cryne and his crack team of negotiators were playing at on this one, a once-in-a-generation talent effectively given away, at pretty much the earliest opportunity too. A suicidal piece of business, which explains why the likes of Everton/Wigan felt they could low-ball us the way they did.

 

If I live to be 1000 years old I'll never forget how it felt watching him score that diving header against us in '87, proper dagger through the heart stuff. I can even remember where I was stood that night - for some reason I wasn't in my usual spot at the back of the Ponty end, but on the corner terrace (where the Dimensions Suite is now). £250k, FFS.

It took us 25 years for the next obvious future England international to come along through our junior ranks, and probably just a few phone calls were enough for us to agree to give him away for peanuts too. We never learn.

 

Yes I saw that as well, and it was right in front of the Wednesday fans. No question of "no celebrations out of respect for the old club". He, quite rightly, went berserk like the rest of them. What a talent we lost there, and for so little....

 

London. Paris. Dublin.

 

Thankfully I missed their celebrations as I had my head in my hands.

 

just shows everton can hold any team (and they say one man dont make a team ) obvious it does coz if stonesy wasnt in team theyd have got hammerde

 

We did get £250k, but £50k of that was for Andy Kiwomya, who went at the same time.

At the time £200k didn't seem much, but we were all just disappointed that we wouldn't be seeing him play for the Reds anymore.

I do get annoyed at the constant whinging about the Stones transfer fee though, for two reasons. Firstly, it was something like the third highest transfer fee ever paid worldwide for a teenage fullback (for that's where he played for us) and once we have received the sell on clause he may well turn out to have been the most expensive, but more importantly we are being very selective in how we apply hindsight to this. In other words, we have complained about every transfer fee we have ever been paid, but this is one of the very few times that hindsight has been able to give us the chance to say told you so, i.e. moan every time and eventually it will stick!

Very few players have left us and gone on to have a good post-Reds career, but on the rare occasion it happens the BBS goes into meltdown. We tend to forget about the ones that we initially moaned about but who went on to flop at the clubs that apparently did us over - Butterfield, Flinders, Howard, Hammill, O'Grady, McIndoe, etc, just from recent memory.

Stones didn't walk straight into the Everton team the finished article. They put a lot of effort into taking him to the next level too. If he'd have stayed with us anoher year who knows what would have happened.

 

Kyle Walker (2 games) and Kyle Naughton (40 games) for Sheff United.
Neither in the same class as Stones yet went for a combined fee of £9 million over 5 years ago.
Got to give it to the Blunts - they strike some good deals when selling their players.

 

Long term contract, and it was 100% clear he would be a premiership superstar and England regular, (I think he will be captain in a few years!!) the fee was a disgrace. The fee upfront needed to be 5 million minimum with lots of different add on's and a 25% sell on fee!! I just can't see how anyone thinks it was a good deal. The kid just lit up the pitch every time he played, lets hope Ben is better than Don next time we have a good prospect bang in form!!

 

Hammill and McIndoe both had release clauses so there was nowt we could do about it. The moan was about the release clause. Howard & O'Grady both journeymen - can't remember too many moaning about the fee at the time. Flinders - opposite was true - everyone thought we'd got a fantastic deal for once.
I reckon most thought the same about Buterfield.

However, even a blind man could see that Stones was destined for great things. The last time I saw a kid with that potential was David Hirst.

 

Everton fans loves Stones and want to see him around for years - don't think that will happen - he will end up at a top 4 side