Everton FC correspondent Joe Thomas takes a look at the latest in and around the club ahead of what will be a busy week for the Blues
Comments
Sport
Everton manager David Moyes applauds the fans at the end of the Premier League match with Southampton, the final men's first team game at Goodison Park. Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images
Everton manager David Moyes applauds the fans at the end of the Premier League match with Southampton, the final men's first team game at Goodison Park. Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images
Everton are on the cusp of a new era and the coming week should start to make the dreams of a brighter future feel increasingly real.
The Blues will find out their first opponents at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, and the date of the first Merseyside derby at their new home, when the Premier League releases its fixture schedule for the upcoming season on Wednesday. Details of the final test event - which must take place before league games can be hosted at the state-of-the-art ground - are also expected to be released.
But it is the squad rebuild that will be symbolic of the change in club fortunes that will receive most of the attention as the transfer window opens for good on Monday. Everton have a lot to do over the coming two-and-a-half months and momentum is expected to start building from this week.
READ MORE: How Everton's season became an ongoing tribute to Kevin Campbell as club mark anniversaryREAD MORE: Jack Grealish sends message after brutal Man City decision and Everton transfer links
That is because it has to. The word from Finch Farm last week, as the transfer window closed temporarily after an initial opening designed for those competing in the Club World Cup, was that nothing was imminent even as rumours swirled over interest in Jack Grealish and the Villarreal attacker Thierno Barry.
The priority was instead resolving the outstanding contract situations that remain a hangover of last season. The club offered extensions to veterans Seamus Coleman and Idrissa Gueye and said it was in talks with the representatives of Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Michael Keane. The contracts of all four players expire in a fortnight.
On Coleman, manager David Moyes is eager to retain the club captain’s influence during a season of transition in the dressing room and of the first team’s home. Moyes anticipates emotional challenges and wants to keep the 36-year-old so that he has a trusted figure in the playing squad who can drive home what it means to wear Royal Blue, while also setting standards off the pitch - particularly after the departures of leaders like Ashley Young and Asmir Begovic.
With Gueye, the hope is that he can continue to operate to the same stunning level that earned him the players’ and supporters’ player of the year award last season - though Moyes is keen to build a central midfield that is no longer reliant on the legs of a player who will turn 36 at the end of the summer.
They remained the most likely to extend their stays at the club, with the prospect of Calvert-Lewin and Keane moving on growing increasingly likely. Moyes sees value in keeping both, but only if it is on his terms.
Calvert-Lewin turned down a fresh deal 12 months ago and that offer ended after the arrival of new owners The Friedkin Group, and the 28-year-old has recently spoken of a desire to play in the Champions League.
Keane, meanwhile, enjoyed a positive season when he was called upon and was being tracked by sides in the USA and Italy in January. His displays have ignited interest from the likes of promoted Leeds United and Burnley. Sheffield United were set to push hard for his signature before the club’s Championship play-off final defeat to Sunderland. The offer of first team football is expected to appeal in the face of being fourth choice on Merseyside.
The transfer window is expected to pick up over the coming weeks with some clubs scrambling to do business ahead of the end of the football financial year for most Premier League clubs, including Everton. June 30 is the cut-off for calculations under the league’s Profit and Sustainability Regulations (PSR) and Everton were among a cohort of clubs needing to do deals to improve their position 12 months ago - achieving that with the sales of Ben Godfrey to Atalanta and Lewis Dobbin to Aston Villa.
While the club is operating with caution, it is thought to be in a better position approaching that deadline this year, though the legacy of the issues under the previous ownership of Farhad Moshiri have still pushed the club close to the rolling three-year, £105m loss limit after the deduction of permitted expenses.
The increase in merit payments secured by the better finish in the league generated additional millions of pounds towards that calculation in comparison to last year, when the club was compliant for the first time in three accounting periods. That was partially offset by a drop in TV revenue but the sale of Amadou Onana to Aston Villa in a £50m deal before the start of last season was helpful and the impact of TFG’s debt restructuring earlier this year will also have been positive.
The next fortnight could yet bring opportunities as the dominoes fall through activity elsewhere. Villa are one club that could need to be proactive and rumoured Saudi interest in Onana could yield benefits to the Blues, who will receive 10% of any profit the Midlands club makes on his exit, should it occur.
Beyond the intrigue generated by PSR, Everton are braced for further interest in Jarrad Branthwaite. Moyes wants to focus his rebuild around the centre back and his partner, James Tarkowski, and England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.
Last summer, it was Manchester United that tested Everton’s resolve with two bids that were far below the club’s valuation of the 22-year-old but this summer the expectation is that Tottenham Hotspur, buoyed by Champions League qualification through their Europa League win, may emerge as the main contenders for his signature.
Spurs are keen to land new manager Thomas Frank significant reinforcements and interest in Branthwaite is understood to be genuine, particularly with uncertainty over the North London future of centre back Cristian Romero.
The ECHO understands Branthwaite is content at Everton and appreciative of the opportunity the club has given him to emerge as one of Europe’s most promising defensive talents. While he will respect the club’s position, Champions League football would appeal to him in a World Cup year, with England manager Thomas Tuchel having made clear his preference for selecting players competing in Europe. Branthwaite’s rivals for a slot in his squad next summer - Levi Colwill, Dan Burn and Marc Guehi - will all be doing that.
Pickford, already established in England’s first team, is not thought to harbour concerns over a lack of European exposure.
Everton’s position on Branthwaite is clear - the club does not wish to sell him and does not believe there is any requirement to do so. Should the Blues fend off interest the club will have to consider a new contract offer in light of that view of his importance.
While the defensive axis of Pickford, Branthwaite and Tarkowski is central to Moyes’ plans, there is work to do in every position around them. Ten senior players have left the club so far this summer and, even if Coleman and Gueye agree new deals and even with the early permanent signing from Flamengo of loanee Carlos Alcaraz, the first team squad will enter July with just 15 established Premier League players.
Young goalkeeper Harry Tyrer, who has enjoyed positive back-to-back loan spells at Chesterfield and Blackpool, and England Under-18s starlet Harrison Armstrong, who excelled at Derby County after breaking into the Everton side, could add further options but Moyes enters the second stage of the transfer window with a massive squad building project on his hands.
At least one back-up goalkeeper with senior first team experience is required while first team challengers for both full-back slots and central midfield are essential. The exits of loanees Jesper Lindstrom and Jack Harrison have left Everton with no established option on the right wing while Moyes wants to rebuild his central midfield. Should Keane and Calvert-Lewin leave, replacements would also be necessary.
Once the new PSR year begins on July 1, Everton should have the resources to spend with ambition in the summer. The biggest drag on recent seasons has been the summer of 2022, when the club accrued more than £60m in PSR costs. That will fall out of the calculation period for the 2025/26 accounting year, freeing up the club to spend the money TFG are likely to allocate to Moyes and the recruitment team that has now been strengthened by the expertise of transfer consultant Nick Hammond and is awaiting its final appointments.
Moyes is unafraid of a marquee signing and publicly pursued Liam Delap before the Ipswich Town striker instead opted for a move to Chelsea.
He is known to have an interest in Liverpool teen Ben Doak, who would give him an option on the right wing that could potentially be supplemented with a loan signing. Recent weeks have seen the club heavily linked with Barry and Jack Grealish.
The club is understood to be tracking the availability of both players, with Barry’s release clause a few million pounds more than what the club was willing to sanction for Delap, though Everton would likely try to negotiate downwards should Moyes wish to launch a pursuit of him. Nick Woltemade, of Stuttgart, is another option that has been considered.
Grealish is out of favour at City and has been left out of the side’s Club World Cup squad, fuelling speculation he will leave the club this summer. City’s preference is expected to be for a permanent sale that would allow them to recoup a portion of the £100m spent on the 29-year-old.
Any move by Everton would likely be on loan and, given City’s hope for a sale and Grealish’s massive wages, any opening for Moyes would probably only become realistic at the end of the transfer window if no-one else has secured his services.
Sean Longstaff, who Moyes considered in January, will be on his radar again and the midfielder is well down the pecking order at Newcastle United - though his importance to Eddie Howe has risen given he is currently the club’s only homegrown player under UEFA’s regulations. The Magpies need four players in their squad next season after qualifying for the Champions League on the final day of the campaign despite their home defeat to Everton.
Other names linked to the Blues so far include several who Moyes worked with previously at West Ham United. Neither free agent Vladimir Coufal nor James Ward-Prowse, who moved to the London Stadium on loan from Nottingham Forest, were of serious interest when the summer began.
Plans could change given the extent of work required by Everton this summer but any move for Evan Ferguson, who moved to West Ham on loan from Brighton and Hove Albion in January, would also represent a U-turn on the club’s position entering this era-shifting summer.