LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 17: Everton Manager David Moyes during the Premier League 2026/27 match between Everton and Chelsea FC at Hill Dickinson Stadium on October 17, 2026 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Gary Oakley - Everton FC/Everton FC via Getty Images)
Everton manager David Moyes has things to ponder after the defeat to Chelsea(Image: Gary Oakley - Everton FC/Everton FC via Getty Images)
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Having joined Arsenal at the age of six and officially remained one of their players until just three years ago, Ainsley Maitland-Niles was surely hoping he could keep hold of his starting spot in the Everton team at least until his new club go to the Emirates Stadium next Saturday.
There were loan spells at Ipswich Town, West Bromwich Albion, Southampton and even Roma – under The Friedkin Group – for the man from Goodmayes in east London. But as he approaches his 30th year, his 132 appearances for the Gunners still top the total of matches for other clubs after three years as a regular in France at Olympique Lyonnais and featuring in all six fixtures with the Blues since he joined on transfer deadline day.
Everton’s search for a right-back went back to the day that David Moyes returned to Goodison Park for a second spell on January 11, 2025. Like predecessor Sean Dyche, who also preferred to pick players out of position ahead of him (notably Ben Godfrey), it seemed clear from early on that he did not fancy fellow Glaswegian Nathan Patterson, who on the day that Maitland-Niles arrived, was sold to Torino for a nominal fee, some four-and-a-half years after Rafael Benitez shelled out £11million to bring him from Rangers, just a dozen days before he was sacked.
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Moyes’ initial ‘out of the box’ solution was to deploy Jake O’Brien – another recruit from Lyon who had failed to start a Premier League match under Dyche despite being the Blues’ costliest buy of the previous summer at £16.43m – at right-back. Initially, it appeared to be an inspired decision. However, the longer the experiment continued with having a 6ft 6in man mountain marauding up and down the right wing like a juggernaut, the more opponents got wise to exploiting this large and obvious square peg in a round hole.
While O’Brien could be effective at times and was always game in his efforts, never mind ‘fish out of water,’ by the end of last season, it started to feel more like a whale when the wheels fell off for Everton during the run-in.
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The issue seemed to reach national crisis levels this summer when new Prime Minister and lifelong Blues supporter Andy Burnham proclaimed: “We need a right-back. Poor old Jake can’t do another season at right-back. He’s a good player, he’s a great centre-back. Buy a right-back.”
Then later that month, on August 18, chief executive Angus Kinnear insisted: “I don’t think we’re in a bad position on that. The options we thought we had available are still available to us.
“I don’t think they’re going to be there for our first game against Crystal Palace, which was the objective, but I think the idea is we have the very best player for that position come the end of the window.”
A move for Canada World Cup star Alistair Johnston came and went with the now injured player remaining at Celtic despite their manager Martin O’Neill revealing that Moyes had called him to issue a warning that Everton were trying to sign him. The Blues boss's preferred choice was 6ft 2in Guela Doue, who he’d scouted extensively last season and watched in the flesh at Hill Dickinson Stadiumon March 31 when Ivory Coast defeated Scotland 1-0 in the first football international at the 52,769 capacity venue.
But with club's now wantaway, absentee owners The Friedkin Group seemingly slashing the transfer budget at some point in the final weeks and prepared to flog home-grown hero Harrison Armstrong until supporters threatened to riot – cashing in on Iliman Ndiaye instead – the Blues are understood to have found themselves financially paralysed and having to watch on passively as Doue joined Bayer Leverkusen on deadline day.
While you could understand at Hill Dickinson Stadium chiefs balking at a £40million price tag for the player who turned 24 on Saturday earlier in the summer, it seemed galling that he slipped through their hands with the Bundesliga outfit ultimately acquiring his signature for €30m (approximately £25.5m) in an age when even Brentford are shelling out £35m on full-backs and their acquisition of El Hadji Malick Diouf from West Ham United could eventually be worth £40m.
Andy Robertson takes a shot as Guela Doue slides in to block during the international friendly between Scotland and Ivory Coast at Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium on March 31, 2026
Andy Robertson takes a shot as Guela Doue slides in to block during the international friendly between Scotland and Ivory Coast at Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium on March 31, 2026(Image: Kate McShane/Getty Images)
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We all love a bargain buy – Moyes of course came up with the daddy of all such deals when he snapped up the Blues’ best right-back of the Premier League era, Seamus Coleman for his fabled sixty grand fee in January 2009 – is Maitland-Niles really “the very best player for that position,” that Kinnear spoke of? A fee of £4m is relative small change in the Premier League these days, Everton made a signing that cost more than that (Andrei Kanchelskis) back in 1995 just after they last won the FA Cup.
Although anyone would always struggle to replicate that incredible debut goal against Manchester United, it’s to be hoped that Maitland-Niles’ Blues career hasn’t peaked too early. That wonder-strike has also brought out the worst in some of the Hill Dickinson Stadium faithful as those ridiculous “shooooooooot!” shouts every time he gets within 40 yards of the opposition goal can get in the bin.
However, from what we’ve seen so far, most of his best work has actually come in the attacking half of the pitch. Along with his last-gasp rocket to thwart the Red Devils, there was his assist with a lofted cross that Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall headed in at Hull City.
In contrast, the equaliser against Michael Carrick’s side papers over the cracks of him failing to cut out Luke Shaw’s cross to tee up Benjamin Sesko’s headed goal shortly after he’d come on. Maitland-Niles then made mistakes for both the Tigers’ goals at MKM Stadium and was hooked and the same happened again in the 2-0 defeat to Chelsea after he allowed Jarrel Hato to put in the delivery for Pedro Neto’s opener that Xabi Alonso later acknowledged would be crucial.
Dan Friedkin owns Everton and Roma
Dan Friedkin owns Everton and Roma(Massimo Insabato/Archivio Massimo Insabato/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)
No, I want them to stayNo, they should sell but now is not the right time
He’s played in other positions earlier in his career, but Maitland-Niles is at least still the only recognised right-back within Moyes’ squad of just 18 outfield players. That doesn’t mean he’s a shoo-in to keep his place when fit though.
Right now, he certainly appears more vulnerable than the other solitary options in their position, striker Thierno Barry and the only additional full-back, Vitalii Mykolenko on the left.