Three weeks out, and Evertonians still asking the same question
Every summer, same time, same old story. New kits are out. Fixtures are there. Somewhere behind the scenes, someone at Everton is presumably working on a right-back.
We just have no solid evidence of it. We just hope.
It’s a film Evertonians have seen before.
Read Everton’s own Jim Keoghan put it better than most of us have managed this week: “Three weeks from a ball being kicked, and getting a right-back through the door doesn’t seem to be a priority.”
Nathan Patterson is the only recognised option in the position. He’s also attracting interest from abroad.
If that goes through, Everton have nobody, not in the specialist sense.
Spence and Wan-Bissaka have both been “linked” for weeks now, in that way where a name gets attached to a position and then just… stays there. In limbo. Some would say purgatory. No progress. No urgency.
@KH04040502 on X summed it up nicely, and it’s not really about right-back at all: “Everton’s recruitment team have left a lot to the imagination for as long as I can remember.”
That’s the one that stings. Not just a one-off window. A pattern. Different position, same story, every summer.
Hackney, George, Rohl — decent business, genuinely. Nobody’s saying the window’s been void of anything.
But none of it touches the gap that’s been sat there in plain sight for months.
Hackney doesn’t replace Gueye like-for-like, so now there’s a midfield gap too. Add that to an empty right-back slot, and you’ve got a squad that looks wholly imbalanced and incomplete.
Three weeks out.
Obviously, this transfer lark is not as easy as everyone thinks. This is not Football Manager. And there are financial constraints to consider — not least the Burnley bill and PSR headroom.
But that wears thin for Evertonians when they’ve heard some version of it every August for as long as you can remember.
This was never about one signing. It’s about hearing the same conversation on loop and wondering if anyone at the club’s actually bored of it too.
Deals move fast in August. Of course.
But if Everton are still lining up with Patterson as the only senior right-back on the books come kick-off — if indeed he is still around — then don’t expect anyone’s patience to not have been completely eroded.
Gary is editor for ReadEverton. He has many years experience of sports writing behind him after deciding (belatedly) that the world of accountancy wasn't for him. His work has been featured on (among many others) BBC Sport and The Metro. He has written on many sports, but considers himself an expert in football and F1. When not writing and editing he likes to go to the cinema and sip a lovely cold pint of Guinness (not always at the same time).
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