- Gueye’s Everton future is hanging by a thread and the club may be ready to move on
- The 36-year-old never triggered his extension clause and talks are now uncertain
- Walking away from Gueye and signing Hackney are the same decision told in two parts
Idrissa Gueye has given Everton everything. Two spells, eight seasons, more tackles than most players manage in a career, an AFCON winner’s medal, and a level of quiet professionalism this club has not always deserved. If this is the end, it should be said plainly: he has been brilliant.
But the direction Everton appear to be heading tells you something about this summer.
Speaking on Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, former Everton chief executive Keith Wyness was candid. “I don’t think the Gana Gueye contract is going to get extended,” he said. “I think that may be the one area that we see a move to bring youth into place.”
That is one man’s read, not a done deal – Everton’s official position is still that they are “continuing to liaise” with Gueye’s representatives. But Wyness knows this club, and the wider picture backs him up.
The extension clause in Gueye’s deal was never triggered because he did not make enough Premier League starts this season. What looked like a straightforward renewal has quietly become something more complicated.
What cooling on Gueye actually signals
It means Moyes may be about to lose the most dependable defensive midfielder he has. In 25 appearances this season – disrupted by suspension and the AFCON – Gueye was still doing what he has always done. Winning the ball, staying simple, keeping a lid on things when the game threatened to get away from Everton.
James Garner has overtaken him in most of the metrics that matter now. Tim Iroegbunam is still developing. But neither of them is Gueye, and neither yet does what Gueye does in quite the way he does it.
Letting him go, then, is a statement. A deliberate one. It says Everton believe this midfield is ready to grow up – and that they are about to add someone who accelerates that process.
This is where Hackney comes in
Hayden Hackney is not a Gueye replacement in the traditional sense. He is 23, progressive, box-to-box, the kind of midfielder who covers ground in both directions and does it at pace. But put him alongside Garner operating freely and Iroegbunam continuing to develop, and suddenly you have a midfield with legs, energy and a combined age that gives Moyes something to actually build with.
That is the midfield Everton are pointing towards. Gueye going out and Hackney coming in are not two separate stories. They are the same story, told in two parts.
Which is exactly why the third bid has to be the right one. Not another £15m offer that Middlesbrough knock back with a polite no. A number that gets it done, before Crystal Palace make the whole conversation irrelevant.
Gueye gave Everton seven seasons of his career. The least they can do is make sure what comes next is actually better.
