After a tough few years, there are some reasons for optimism at Everton.
We finished the season very strongly, losing our unbeaten run only because of Ashley Young’s dumbfuckery or Michael Oliver’s egotistic garbage (choose your own interpretation). The last time we finished a season so strongly was under Marco Silva, in 2019.
That alone should tell you how tough the past few years have been. Even the trajectories of the seasons were similar – an indifferent start followed by some improvement, a disastrous middle period (at one point, Marco Silva’s team went 3-2-9), before an outstanding end to the season that gave us all reason to believe.
We all know how that ended – we lost a key player in central defence, and our recruitment that summer was… not good. Two disasters (Delph and Gbamin), two decent, but in retrospect unexceptional signings (Gomes and Iwobi), and Moise Kean, who we didn’t make all our money back on (what’s new there?).
So far, our transfer business looks far more solid.
We’ve re-signed a couple of (hopefully) squad players in Young and Harrison, we’ve signed a kid with real potential in Tim Iroegbunam, and are due to sign Iliman Ndiaye.
Rumours have us chasing a couple of other right-wingers (Minteh and Philogene), which, if true, would potentially allow us to rotate between McNeil and Harrison on the left, allowing us true width, rather than Harrison, who while a hard worker, is limited by his one-footedness.
Most importantly, unlike in 2019, we’re looking likely to retain our centre-back, part of a trio who were so vital in keeping us afloat (Pickford, Tarkowski, and Branthwaite).
We’ve jettisoned Alli and Gomes, who amounted to about a million quid a month between them. If Ndiaye comes off, the possibility exists that we can either use Doucoure as an 8, or sell him to a Saudi club, which should see a reasonable fee and another large wage off the books.
Amadou Onana is showing himself to be the superb player that many of us know him to be, but all of us see what will never be in a blue shirt, which should drive his price up. Again, this is a wage we could really do without, especially if the rumours are true, and he’ll be replaced by Wilfred Ndidi.
The real question mark now comes in the rumours about Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who while hardly prolific, is still comfortably our best centre-forward. If we do sell him to Newcastle (or maybe Chelsea), we’re reliant on Beto and Chermiti (who was looking good, not incredible by the end of the season), or a potential signing like Broja.
All in all, if these moves come off (and many of these are still rumour and conjecture), then even the harshest critic should give some due praise to Kevin Thelwell, whose work as Director of Football has started to bear fruit.
The wage bill has been trimmed significantly, the average age of the first-term squad has been reduced (Ashley Young is holding it up by himself by half a year), and we’re refreshing the squad at what may well be a net amount close to zero by the end of the transfer window. All while keeping hold of (in my opinion) our most important player, Jordan Pickford, and our prize possession, Jarrad Branthwaite.
The positions which are significantly problematic are at full-back. But based on the recruitment we’ve seen, I’m choosing to be optimistic that Thelwell will find some solutions here.
All in all, though? A good transfer window so far…