I’ve decided to try to sum up and analyse [Everton’s](https://roundtable.io/sports/soccer/premier-league/everton) summer transfer window, but where do you start?
We’ll start with the facts. Everton made a total of seven signings throughout the summer. Hayden Hackney, Brennan Johnson, Tyrique George, Merlin Rohl, Christian Norgaard, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, and Jack Grealish.
In terms of outgoings, Everton initially lost Seamus Coleman and Idrissa Gueye with their contracts expiring, while Tim Iroegbunam, Beto, Dwight McNeil, Iliman Ndiaye, and Nathan Patterson were sold, alongside Adam Aznou heading out on loan.
That’s seven incomings, and eight outgoings. Let’s get into that.
So Everton are fairly like for like in terms of the number of incomings and outgoings. Effectively based on them numbers, Everton are one player down, right?
Well, not exactly. Three of the summer signings were actually here last year, so in terms of players added to the squad from the previous season, Everton are four players down.
Grealish, Rohl, and George were all at Everton last season on loan, and have now joined the club once again. That means Hackney, Johnson, Norgaard, and Maitland-Niles are the only NEW additions.
How many of those actually improve the starting XI? Well, there’s an argument to suggest that Hackney might not start in our best side. Norgaard is currently injured and we don’t know how long for, but there’s a chance he starts alongside Garner.
Johnson has endured a difficult few years and certainly won’t be one of the first names on the team sheet. Maitland-Niles feels like he was brought in to be a cover option, but they failed to get a starting right-back over the line.
So the answer is, we haven’t really improved the starting XI too much.
You’re also losing Gueye and Ndiaye who were almost guaranteed starters when fit, and the likes of Beto and Iroegbunam were utilised heavily last season.
Firstly, failing to bring in a striker while letting Beto leave the club is an absolute disaster. Are Everton unlucky that Balogun pulled the plug last minute? Slightly, but had this of happened, say, on the 25th August, that would give us plenty of time to find a replacement.
Instead, we were scrambling around chucking loan offers to Manchester United for Joshua Zirkzee. If this had happened at the weekend and they couldn’t find a replacement, then it would have given them the opportunity to pull the plug on a Beto exit.
Then there’s the right-back situation. I said when Maitland-Niles was rumoured that, at £4m, I was fairly content with him coming in. He’s a player who can cover multiple positions and was obviously cheap too.
Instead, Maitland-Niles was the only right-back signing made by the club. Once again, they left it incredibly late with a failed move for Kenny Tete. Angus Kinnear said they were waiting for the right signing in this position, but boy did they wait too long.
The left-back position is another huge concern. How do you let Aznou depart without signing a new left-back? The whole situation surrounding this position was bizarre. There were never any concrete links to a left-back and it was seemingly far down our priority list.
Firstly, for me, it should have been a priority to bring in a starting left-back. Secondly, it should have been an ever bigger priority when they decided that Aznou was best served out on loan.
The right-back position isn’t ideal, but you do have Jake O’Brien, Merlin Rohl, and James Garner who could play there if necessary. At left-back, the options are even worse than that.
Look, the striker situation is annoying and clearly they were waiting for interest in Beto to ramp up. But with the right-back and left-back, there is zero excuse for not getting something done earlier in the window.
Everywhere else in the squad is alright, but the key positions mentioned have left us incredibly short.
I honestly don’t care, but somebody needs to take responsibility. Whether it’s the manager turning down targets too much, the committee having too many cooks spoiling the broth, or the owners sticking their nose in, I don’t care.
Someone needs to speak up, admit where things went wrong, and explain why it went wrong. Everton fans deserve an answer, as much as they probably don’t want to hear anything from those who have made the mistakes.
We’re heading into the remainder of the season worse off than when we started the window, and it’s completely unacceptable.
All I’ll say is this was the start of a catastrophic few days, and Everton never recovered. Again, I don’t care who is to blame, but explanations are needed.
Were Everton fans lied to when Angus Kinnear spoke on various podcasts? Why should we believe in this project anymore? How can you fail to address so many key issues and expect to keep your job? Comparing it to a manager, if David Moyes underperformed this much, he’d have been booted straight out the door.
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