Everton have reportedly rejected an offer from Saudi club Al Ettifaq for Demarai Gray and will seek to reintegrate him back into the squad despite the player posting his frustration with manager Sean Dyche on Instagram today.
The winger was the subject of plenty of speculation suggesting he would be leaving Goodison Park this summer, first when Fulham were said to be keenly interested in signing him and then when a reported £12m bid came in from Al Shabab in the Saudi Pro League.
Al Shabab’s interest was said to be genuine but a change in ownership at the Saudi club stalled their advances for the former Bayer Leverkusen man and supposed interest from another club in the Kingdom didn’t initially materialise.
Gray was still an Everton player when the domestic transfer window closed at 11 pm on Friday night and with Everton having sold Alex Iwobi to Fulham and Tom Cannon to Leicester City just before the deadline, numbers are light at Finch Farm.
Dyche was unable to name a full bench for yesterday’s match against Sheffield United and, though the deadline in the Middle East is still a few days away, it looked as though the 27-year-old would stay put, with the manager expressing his expectation that the player would work to get fit to play a part in Everton’s season.
“It was a bit of everything — his fitness, his fitness to play in the side, the situation around him and all of the noise,” Dyche said after the 2-2 draw at Bramall Lane when asked why Gray hasn’t featured in the matchday squad so far this season.
“Hopefully over the next couple of weeks that will become clear and he will get himself fit as a starting point.”
The manager was asked whether he believed Gray would remain at the club and he replied: “I do at this time.”
Since then it has emerged that Al Ettifaq have come in with an offer, variously reportedly to be between £5m and £10m, for Gray but it has been rejected by Everton who are now concerned by the lack of numbers in their squad following those further departures on deadline day.
The player, it seems, is keen to make the move and, with the club digging their heels in, Gray posted an image to Instagram — it has subsequently been removed along with all other posts related to Everton — that read:
“Everton fans have always been great with me but it’s so difficult to play for someone who don’t show you respect as a person.”
There have been rumours that Gray fell out with Dyche last season over his fitness and weaknesses in or a lack of effort in the defensive side of his game while others suggest he, like Iwobi, was on the wrong side of the manager’s desire to have a more “professional” dressing room.
According to The Athletic, Everton will refuse to sanction his departure and, as Dyche intimated, intend to bring him back into the fold after the international break before revisiting his situation in January.