Much like the lead up to the summer every year, a plethora of names and faces have been linked with close season switches to the blue half of Merseyside. This time however, Farhad Moshiri and Everton have the potential to really make their presence felt as a club with genuine ambition.
This coming summer promises to be a huge touchstone in the history of the football club. Moshiri has already made inroads in improving the club off the field since he took the reins just over a year ago, by eliminating the club’s debt towards the beginning of the season and more recently confirming the purchase of the Bramley Moore Dock stadium site. Naturally, the next step is to improve the club’s playing personnel.
So this is my list that concerns which positions I would like to see strengthened this summer, and the players I have in mind to fulfil those roles. For the sake of easiness, I’m presuming Ross Barkley signs a new deal and stays put, and that Romelu Lukaku stays beyond the summer window, regardless of his contract situation.
Starting off with one of, if not the most important position that need strengthening, Everton are in desperate need of a striker. Even if Lukaku stays beyond the summer, the club are exceptionally light in that department. Arouna Koné will see his contract expire in the summer and Enner Valencia will return to London once his loan deal ends. That leaves just Dominic Calvert-Lewin as the only other senior striker behind the big Belgian, which frankly doesn’t leave the Toffees with enough experience in leading the line.
An ideal deputy, in my view, would be Bournemouth’s Joshua King. King has excelled this season, scoring 13 times in the league for the Cherries. With a player of Lukaku’s pedigree at the club, a deputy striker would need to understand that he is just that, not someone who’ll easily beat out Romelu for a place in the starting lineup. King would represent someone who could play second fiddle, featuring in European fixtures and fielding out wide or behind when required thanks to his versatility. Fast and with an eye for goal, and likely to not cost an extortionate amount of money, he seems like the ideal signing to me.
Slightly deeper, the Toffees require someone who can push Ross Barkley. They need someone who offers what Barkley does to the team, but at the same time they give the team something different in the hole behind the striker. Barkley’s inconsistencies are due to, in some small part, the over reliance on him, so support would be greatly rewarding. For this position, the only player who comes to mind is Gylfi Sigurdsson.
Swansea City’s star man, Sigurdsson is the complete midfielder. The Icelandic playmaker is incredibly versatile, having played in an array of positions since re-joining the Swans in 2014. Sigurdsson couples technical skill and ball playing ability with an incredible stamina and work rate, whilst he uses precision shooting and dead ball delivery as his most formidable method of contribution. Swansea manager Paul Clement has likened him to Frank Lampard, and even Tottenham’s Mauricio Pochettino has admitted it was a mistake to let the player go. Sigurdsson is currently just short of double figures in both goals and assists in the league this season, and looks to be the difference between relegation and survival for Swansea, and would surely represent a fantastic addition in the summer.
Sticking with primarily attacking players, Everton need more width. Yannick Bolasie still has some way to go before he makes his return, and with Aaron Lennon having next to no impact under Ronald Koeman, the club could certainly do with another option on the flanks. My choice for this position would be a player who excites me as a talented prospect more and more every time I see him play, and that is Leicester’s Demarai Gray.
At 20-years old, Gray has already established himself as a huge prospect. Joining Leicester from Birmingham City just under 18 months ago, Gray had a part to play in Leicester’s final season run in that led to them winning the Premier League title, earning Gray a winners’ medal at just 19. Leicester have used Gray with caution this season, but whenever he does feature it’s clear to see he has the potential to be a leading Premier League winger, possessing the finishing ability and agility that many top clubs covet in young wide talent. Gray would also fit the profile applied to several of Koeman’s signings so far, that being young, English and talented, joining the likes of Calvert-Lewin and Ademola Lookman. He’d certainly add some much needed talent to the flanks, and would be a valued signing.
At the back, the Toffees could do with making a fair few signings. In the centre, Michael Keane seems to be top of Everton’s list according to a great deal of websites, and it seems that many fans would certainly be happy with that. Whilst Virgil van Dijk would be a sensational sign of intent, the likelihood of Everton agreeing a deal seems unlikely, due to Southampton holding out for £55million for the Dutchman.
Keane meanwhile, wouldn’t demand quite an excessive fee. Everton’s young defenders’ Mason Holgate and Brendan Galloway seem destined to feature as first-team regular centre halves at some point, but they simply aren’t ready just quite yet. Keane has been one of Burnley’s best players this season and if his recent displays for England are anything to go by, he has the potential to develop into an excellent Premier League defender under the right tutelage. Is there a better manager in the league to manage young defenders than one of the best centre halves of all time? Probably not.
Two of Everton’s three main centre halves are on the wrong side of 30, and likewise with the fullback positions, Séamus Coleman and Leighton Baines have been a lot younger. Mason Holgate has managed whilst deputising for Coleman but is much better suited in the middle, whilst Baines has very little behind him in the pecking order. As such, it would ideal if Koeman could bring in both a new left back and right back, and for me, those best suited are Sead Kolašinac and Kieran Trippier.
Rumour has it that Schalke’s Kolašinac has signed a pre-contract agreement with Arsenal, but until I see official confirmation I can speculate about him turning down the Gunners to continue wearing Blue as his home strip. If he were to choose Liverpool over London, Kolašinac would definitely be the perfect player to replace Baines long-term. The Bosnia international is only 23, is out of contract this summer, and those who watch German football will know that he certainly possesses all the necessary attributes to succeed in the Premier League. There are other left backs out there that could come in should Kolašinac go elsewhere, but since I can’t think of another I’d like Everton to sign at this moment in time, here’s hoping Mo Bešic can pull a few strings.
To the right side of defence, Kieran Trippier is just perfect. Tottenham possess the best pair of left and right sided full backs in the league, with Danny Rose and Ben Davies on the left and Kyle Walker and Trippier on the right. As such, they’d be making a mistake if they were to let one of them go, but seeing as Trippier is often rotated and firmly behind Walker when it comes to big games, maybe the Englishman may see Everton as a better career prospect. This season he has truly shown why he was so well regarded whilst at Burnley, and he’d be the ideal player to take on the right back role for the Toffees.
The final position I’d like to see strengthened, I don’t really have a player in mind for. That is of course, in goal. Whilst many side with Jordan Pickford or Joe Hart, I take issue with both for different reasons. If I was hard pressed to choose one player to be Everton’s No.1 next season, it would be Jack Butland, although the likelihood that the club could pull that deal off is, at least in my eyes, far too slim.
So that’s who I’d like to see come in to the club when the transfer window reopens in a few months’ time. Please tweet both myself and Read Everton with your ideal signings in what will surely be one of the most crucial transfer windows in Everton’s illustrious history.
