Today is the 1st of July, the opening day of the summer transfer window, and Everton have already confirmed that they have spent £60.3million on summer signings.
Twelve months ago, July 1st 2016, Everton had confirmed the free transfer signings of Chris Renshaw and Bassala Sambou, from Oldham Athletic and Coventry City respectively, and the £850,000 deal for Fulham goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg.
How times change.
With the transfer window officially opening, the 2017/18 season has, at least in my eyes, officially been opened, and Everton have already made fantastic headway into ensuring they begin the season as ready as they can be. Ronald Koeman and his scouting team have worked hard to bring in the players that they believe will add the desired ingredients, and they aren’t resting on their laurels, continuing to press on and chase hard after the targets that they want.
Jordan Pickford (£30million), Davy Klaassen (£23.6million) and Henry Onyekuru (£7million) have been official confirmed so far, with several other names very close to being added to the list. Nathangelo Markelo has also joined for an undisclosed fee, linking up with David Unsworth’s title winning Under-23 team.
Everton are due to start their season in late-July when they will take part in the third qualifying round of the Europa League, and will take on Stoke (H) in their first league fixture of the season on August 12th, before facing Manchester City (A) and Chelsea (A) later that month.
Now that the formalities have been written, lets get to the opinion part.
I can, of course, only speak for myself, but I’ve been thrilled with Everton’s early transfer business. Pickford and Klaassen instantly improve Everton’s side, and Onyekuru looks to be a very smart acquisition for the club moving forward.
Everton have historically been very slow out of the blocks, taking far too long to get moving in the transfer window, but they’ve evidently taken up a new start-up coach, speeding along the straight ahead of all other opposition teams. The Toffees had the audacity, the sweet, beautiful audacity, to spend over £50million in less than 24 hours several weeks ago, and they’re still rolling forward with plans that should see the club spend well over £100million by the end of the silly season.
With regards to outgoings, the club have acted in the most professional and ruthlessly efficient manner that I could hope for. Arouna Koné and Conor McAleny have seen their time at USM Finch Farm come to an end, Tom Cleverley has been promptly moved on due to an already agreed upon transfer, and the club have put their foot down on issues that concern Romelu Lukaku and Ross Barkley, ensuring unilateral power over their futures.
Barkley, who’s contract situation is still a mystery to the Everton fanbase but presumably has been concluded by the club with Barkley expected to leave, has already been rendered fairly insignificant with the summer recruitment and replacement drive in full effect. Lukaku, who’s want-away situation has caused many a headache for the Everton bigwigs over the years, has been allowed to leave, but strictly on Everton’s unmoved terms – sensational resilience if the club can continue to refuse to budge.
Koeman’s first season on Merseyside represented many things to different people, for me it was a huge success. Coming off the back of successive 11th place finishes, all you could ask of Koeman was to re-establish Everton as a top seven side and repair the shattered confidence of the Everton players.
Not only did Koeman do this, he also brought through a number of talented young players, made several signings that would begin to show the ambition of this new Everton regime, and (for the most part) entertain the fans in the process. Pep Guardiola, one of the most respected and admired managers in world football, fell to the heaviest domestic defeat of his managerial career against Everton. That’s a stat to treasure.
As for this season, it’ll be difficult to gage success for Koeman and Co. Everton have strengthened considerably better than most top half sides have so far, but there is plenty of time for other sides to catch up. Despite all that Everton have done, it’ll be difficult to crack the top four or even top six if they strengthen in kind.
For years, Everton fans have been crying out for trophy success, and this feels like the first season in some time where that could happen. Everton are obviously not contenders for the Premier League title just yet, but the Europa League and both domestic cups are there for the taking, if the club manage to take them seriously enough to compete.
Everton’s close season work has done enough to get me even more excited for the season to begin than I usually am at this stage, which takes some doing. Let’s hope that the club approaches the regular season as well as they’ve approached the close season, then we’d be in for a treat.
