Everton football club, founded in 1878, have become a shadow of their past glory, having also been involved as the founding members of both, English Football League (1888) and English Premier League (1992), a feat shared only by three other English clubs. Everton are one of the oldest and most successful clubs in England, having won twenty-four major trophies: nine Football League titles, five FA Cups, one European Cup Winners' Cup and nine FA Charity Shields. The Toffees' spirits must currently be in a state of turmoil as they bid farewell to their beloved Goodison Park to begin the onset of their new life in a stunning new 53,000-capacity ground on Liverpool's Bramley-Moore Dock, namely the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Everton would hope this to bring a pivotal change not only to the club's infrastructure but also to the collective mindset of its management and players. A change like this for them would be reminiscent of the English Football League of 1888, during which they built the marvellous spectacle of Goodison Park in 1892, which made Everton one of the richest clubs in England at that time, the stadium subsequently hosting the maximum number of top-flight games in the entire Premier League.
Everton have now converted the relic of Goodison Park into the official stadium of their Women's team, making the stadium the largest dedicated women's football stadium in the UK.
These smart decisions since the Everton takeover news by the Friedkins group and the resulting change of management roles in Nick Cox as technical director, James Smith as director of scouting and recruitment, Chris Howarth to direct the club's football strategy and analytics operations and Nick Hammond to lead the club's player trading activity, has reinvigorated the desire to achieve and play good football in the club. The prerogative of these personnel now thus must be to strengthen the squad, through better players and tenacious backups, to allow the project under David Moyes to take shape perfectly.
There is already a growing consensus on the ability of Moyes to identify valuable transfer market opportunities to optimize the squad rebuilding process. Moyes has previously steered Everton to nine top-eight finishes during his first spell, including the club’s highest-ever Premier League position of fourth in 2004/05 and with the 62-year-old having safely guided the team away from relegation danger in Goodison Park’s final season, he is touted as the perfect candidate to lead Everton's season of redemption. David Moyes was appointed in January following a dismal campaign by the previous manager, Sean Dyche, who took Everton to the brink of relegation.
The Scottish manager thus came into the club's command with a squad reeling with a lack of adequate player profiles, crucial players on the cusp of contract expiration and an overall lack of football-playing ideology. This came on the back of the season where they finished 13th in the Premier League, scoring 42 goals and conceding 44 goals, which highlights a difficulty in both converting chances and holding onto leads or clean sheets.
These numbers apply perfectly to a squad reeling with a lack of depth as well as quality options in all positions except the GK, where the contract extension of Pickford and the arrival of understudy Travers from Bournemouth provide ample cover. Everton, due to their precarious finances and uncertainty regarding the manager's continuity, resorted to making loan deals and providing short-term contracts and contract extensions to certain players to satisfy the requirements of the previous manager in an interim manner, such as Asmir Begovic, Orel Mangala (Option-To-Buy), Armando Broja (Option-To-Buy), Jack Harrison (Loan), Jesper Lindstrom (Option-To-Buy), Ashley Young, Joao Virginia, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Abdoulaye Doucoure.
According to Everton latest transfer news most of these players have left the squad, leaving the Everton signings roster thin. Although this provides the perfect template for a complete squad overhaul, Everton's financial woes make it a trickier task than it seems to make potent Everton transfers.
Everton Transfer Window Priorities:
Everton, are vying to rebuild their squad under new manager David Moyes. This transfer window is thus associated with plenty of Everton transfer rumours that could be converted into potential Everton signings. Everton transfer news, although must always be perceived with a pinch of salt due to the added sensationalism of journalists in picking out Everton FC recruitment. Under Friedkin's group of management, the club, unlike other popular teams, does not believe in mindless, rampant signings to boost their ego rather than the squad through Everton FC recruitment. Therefore, before beginning with the Everton transfer news, below we provide a detailed squad breakdown of their current squad and what we can expect from the future Everton signings.
Fullback (RB/LB)
Current Profiles at Everton:
- Vitaliy Mykolenko is the only reliable and consistent full-back for Everton on the left side. In the long spells of a Premier League season, the Ukrainian played 35 games with no backup option to relieve his tired feet. Mykolenko, in sync with Everton's playstyle, focuses on the defensive aspect of his game due to the club's prevalent tactics of inviting pressure and hitting opponents on the counter. He provides a tenacious presence at the back, jousting with attackers and making spirited runs up the field, with more emphasis being on the quantity of both offensive and defensive actions rather than the quality. Making 1.28 interceptions, along with 4.23 clearances per 90, it can be said that, quite like the club's recent display, the defenders' performance is borderline satisfactory, and thus the club would require some major personnel signings for the first team, as well as backups to build a competitive side.
Required Profiles at Everton:
- The possible replacements for such a profile are Vladimir Coufal, an aged option but still quite plausible as backup. There are also some young options on the list, with the likes of Milan van Ewijk, Georgios Vagiannidis emerging as promising options.
Defensive Midfielder (CDM)
Current Profiles at Everton:
Everton currently does not have enough depth for the first team, despite signing Alcaraz recently, with only 5 first-team midfielders. The 2 holding spots are currently held by an ageing Idrissa Gana Gueye and James Garner.
Required Profiles at Everton:
To satisfy these squad deficiencies, Everton has looked into the signing of Hayden Hackney, former Aston Villa player Douglas Luiz and even Everton transfer rumours regarding links with former Fulham and current Bayern player Joao Paulinha.
Centre Midfielder (CM)
Current Profiles at Everton:
Everton doesn't retain any squad depth in these areas since the departure of Lindstrom, Onana and other transitional players that haven't been replaced in the long run through Everton signings.
Required Profiles at Everton:
Everton can turn their searching heads towards Premier League-proven Everton signings by incorporating the Everton transfer news of the signing of either James McTee or Joao Gomes by the end of the transfer window to boost the squad.
Striker (ST)
Current Profiles at Everton:
Everton has already officiated the signing of Villareal talent Thierno Barry to replace the movement of Calvert Lewin away from the Toffees. However, there still isn't a lot of depth despite the presence of Beto, also seeing that the striker has not come into his own for the Blues yet.
Required Profiles at Everton:
Everton can look to diversify their attacking outlet with signings of the developmental ilk in Hamza Igmane and Marc Guiui. Another path they can take is to work on regaining the form of a previously Premier League-proven player like Gonzalo Guedez
Winger (LW/RW)
Current Profiles at Everton:
Everton is currently over-reliant on the theatrics of Dwight McNeil, although Ndiaye's arrival has proven to be of some respite, there is an overall lack of dynamic attacking profiles that could influence the game in their favour.
Required Profiles at Everton:
Real Sociedad's Kubo could be an ideal profile of the sort, adept in both playing down the wings a well as tucking into pockets, however, it is likely that his team prices him out of any negotiations. In that case Everton can look towards Trossard and Ben Doak as replacements.
