Jordan Pickford has restated his intention to stay at Everton amid speculation he could be the target of an approach from elsewhere this summer.
The England star came into the close season being linked with both Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United, the two biggest clubs thought to be looking to sign a top new goalkeeper, but with Spurs having picked up Guglielmo Vicario for £17m and United looking to tie up a move for Inter Milan’s Andre Onana, the speculation around Pickford has died down.
Newspaper reports suggest that the Red Devils were frightened off by the £70m price tag Everton put on Pickford but with the former Sunderland stopper having just signed fresh new terms earlier this year, it was unlikely he would be moving on this summer.
Speaking to The Athletic at Royal Liverpool Golf Club ahead of next week’s Open Championship, Pickford underlined his commitmet to the Blues saying that he very much wants to stay at the club for the foreseeable future.
“Definitely,” he said. “I’ve just signed a new contract and I’m happy and my family is happy so now we just want to move forward as a club.
“We should never have been in [the position we were last season. We lost a lot of games that we shouldn’t have ever lost, or we had chances where we should have taken points from more games.
“It was our own fault that we ended up in that position. But it does show the type of characters we are to get out of that situation.
“We need to knuckle down and work hard on the training pitch.”
As things stand Pickford’s understudy for the 2023-24 campaign will be Joao Virginia following the departure of Asmir Begovic. The young Portuguese signed a new deal himself this month and played in yesterday’s pre-season friendly against Stade Nyonnais.