The transfer window shut last week in a rather anticlimactic fashion as far as Everton are concerned with more outs than ins. Whilst money has been spent in theory, in practice most fees have been deferred and the Athletic claim that only money actually spent this summer will be the £2m loan fee for Danjuma.
So how did we do? I’ll take a look at the individual incomings and outgoings, and then a collective appraisal.
Incoming:
Ashley Young (free transfer): 7/10
The veteran may not have been a move to set pulses racing but, on a free transfer and low wages, it’s hard to describe this move as anything other than very sensible. He is a consummate professional who sets good standards on and off the pitch and offers valuable versatility, being able to fit in anywhere up either the left or right flank. Early season has seen him as a starter at left-back and doing okay-ish. Personally, I’d prefer a stronger option but I’m not sure Mykolenko is that.
Arnaut Danjuma (loan & £2M fee): 8/10
Danjuma offers quality on the ball and good movement and crucially goals. He’s managed 2 goals in 300 or so minutes already and arguably should or could have more. Like Young, he offers the sort of versatility that is crucial for a small squad and can fill in all across the front positions. It may be that when McNeil comes back, he is played instead of Doucourà as a No 10 with a bit more guile and technique. A very useful option to have that should ensure we look more potent.
Yousseff Chermiti (£10.5M rising to £13M): 7/10
Difficult to give an accurate score as clearly Chermiti is a player whose been bought for the future, having only just turned 19. Initial glimpses of him in an Everton shirt have been mixed but he certainly seems to fit the profile of being tall and mobile (like Calvert-Lewinand Beto). Only time will tell whether it’s a good purchase but this would look potentially like the sort of succession planning which we always envy Brighton for…
Jack Harrison (Loan, no fee): 8/10
Another very sensible move. And very affordable thanks to his relegation clause. Harrison can play off the left or right but will presumably be used more off the right. He offers workrate along with creativity and goals and should fit in perfectly well with the ethic that Dyche demands. Apparently he is back in training and should be back soon after the international break. Hopefully he can bring balance to a right-hand side that has struggled.
Beto (£21M rising to £25M): 9/10
Finally, we have a striker! And he looks a corker. There will be rawness and misses I’m sure, but Beto looks like the dream Dyche lone striker, strong and tall enough to hold the ball up and win towering headers but fast and mobile enough to run behind and exploit space. It’s early days but initial signs are that he looks like a perfect fit and takes the pressure off Calvert-Lewin. I’m excited to see more of him and would hope he can manage 10-15 goals for us this season whilst also bringing others into play with his hold-up skills.
Outgoings:
Ellis Simms (£6M rising to £8M): 7/10
Many thought that Simms could make it at Everton but I was less convinced and certainly Dyche did not seem to fancy him. For a big lad, he struggled to hold it up much and win much in the air. But he will hopefully score goals in the Championship and get us the full add-ons!
Tom Cannon (£7.5m): 6/10
I was more upset to see Cannon leave than Simms but again it’s a decent-ish fee (including a good sell percentage) for an academy product that the manager did not seem to fancy much. Time will tell whether we’d have been better off loaning him out and getting more money and integrating him in at Goodison. But it’s decent and much-needed money.
Alex Iwobi (£22M): 7/10
Many celebrated the departure of the hard-working Nigerian but I was one of his biggest fans and I think the fact that a team higher than us in the league were willing to pay that much to get a player with 1 year left on his contract speaks to his quality. We will miss his creativity but getting that much money for a player who would have left on a free next summer is undoubtedly good business.
Neal Maupay (loan): 6/10
A shame that Maupay should leave just as we finally have a striker he could play off. Difficult to give a score without knowing what purchase price has been included in the deal but hopefully it’s around £8-10M. We would seem to have enough forward options now without him.
Mason Holgate (loan): 6/10
Who on earth agreed to pay him £75k per week?! He is not in Dyche’s reckoning and will hopefully do better than his disastrous debut last weekend which saw Southampton lose 5-0 to Sunderland. I think we’re still paying half his wages but better than nothing I guess.
Ishé Samuels-Smith (£4M): 6/10
Perhaps one of the most disappointing departures, especially given our weaknesses at full-back. Difficult to pin this on Everton though as the youngster apparently wanted to leave and wasn’t signing the new contract. £4M is a decent fee for someone without a senior appearance.
Niels Nkounkou (£4M, including sell-on): 5/10
Another left-back with a bright future? His sell on of £2M to St Ettiene was pre-agreed and then they sold him straight to Frankfurt giving us some sell money. A little profit made on him but maybe one who was worth giving more of a shot to? Probably more a wing-back than a full-back (like Patterson?)
Also left club: Yerry Mina, Jean-Phillipe Gbamin, Tom Davies, Asmir Begovic, Andros Townsend, Conor Coady (Loan ended), Ruben Vinagre (Loan ended)
Overall Score: 7/10
A tricky one to score. Most of us expected at least one more incoming on deadline day, especially with Iwobi leaving and the addition of Wilfried Gnonto would have been very welcome. I also worry about our options at the back and we saw those limitations exposed against a lowly Doncaster team.
Having said that, it would have been near impossible to fix all the problems in one window and clearly cash flow is a massive problem. I think we are a much stronger starting team now than we were last season but the issues come as usual with depth. A few crucial injuries, especially to Tarkowski or Branthwaite, could really derail us.
Will Demarai Gray stay? Or will he get a move to Saudi before their window closes on 7 September? Either way, it is hard given the public airing of dirty laundry to see him featuring too heavily under Sean Dyche.
As ever, the transfer window has been a scrap. But to give us these much-improved forward options by only spending £2M (due this year) is somewhat remarkable and perhaps deserves a tip of the cap to Kevin Thelwell.
We are around £35M in profit this summer (£60M if you include the deferred Moise Kean fee) and questions must be asked as to where or to whom that money is going. But on the pitch, I believe we should have enough to be competitive so long as injuries do not bite too hard!
I would expect us to finish somewhere between 13th and 17th and I guess this would constitute ‘success’ given the meagre resources available to Dyche and Thelwell. Until investment is found and the new stadium is finished, this is likely to be the sorry state of affairs we find ourselves in.
We will have to be clever and take the right deals. It is estimated that we have taken £40M off the annual wage bill. It would appear that we have done that without sacrificing a huge deal in terms of first-team quality; that in itself should be deemed a small success.