Alan Hutton has questioned Carlo Ancelotti’s comments over how he sees new signing Josh King fitting in at Everton, labelling his comments as ‘strange’.
Speaking to Football Insider, the former Premier League defender was taken back by the manager’s implicit indication that King was not at Everton to immediately challenge for a starting berth. Instead, Ancelotti labelled the Norwegian as more of a versatile option to provide cover across the entirety of the front line.
Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, the Italian insisted that King was not there to put pressure on existing forwards:
No they don’t need to improve. I think the arrival of Josh King makes our squad more competitive, and of course it puts more pressure on the strikers.
But this was not what we want from him. We want him, as I said, because he can cover all the positions in front and we can have more options in front than we had before.
The signing of Josh is not to put more pressure on my strikers. They know, without this arrival, they have to improve. They know.
Hutton’s eyebrows were duly raised at such remarks, although he confessed to Football Insider that he saw an element of truth in the comments, saying:
I mean only time will tell, it was funny, I was listening to Carlo Ancelotti’s press conference and he was saying he hasn’t been bought for goals – being a striker, that’s a bit strange.
I do see what he’s saying – he’s got pace, he’s something different from what they have, he can play as that second striker, he makes intelligent runs, so maybe they were just looking for something different.
The big thing is is he going to get game time, is he going to play in that team? If you move there and he doesn’t really play from now until the end of the season, where do you go next?
Let’s think it as a positive, he’s going to go there, play well in a team that’s doing decent under a great manager and hopefully he hits the ground running.
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King is a different kind of forward to the more direct target man of Calvert-Lewin, and it is understandable that Ancelotti views him in that way.
However, Hutton is quite justified to question the manager’s comments about putting pressure on the 29-year-old; surely King bringing such a proven Premier League scoring record would, if anything, perhaps put pressure on his new team-mates to keep their places?
