Aleksandar Mitrovic of Al Hilal celebrates after scoring the 4th goal during the AFC Champions League Elite match between Al Hilal and Gwangju at King Abdullah Sports City Hall Stadium on April 25, 2025 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images)Aleksandar Mitrovic of Al Hilal celebrates after scoring the 4th goal during the AFC Champions League Elite match between Al Hilal and Gwangju at King Abdullah Sports City Hall Stadium on April 25, 2025 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images)
Aleksandar Mitrovic of Al Hilal celebrates after scoring the 4th goal during the AFC Champions League Elite match between Al Hilal and Gwangju at King Abdullah Sports City Hall Stadium on April 25, 2025 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The easiest way for Everton to save money in the transfer market is to buy players on the way up before they make their breakthroughs.
A few finished articles can be scattered around the starting XI with David Moyes left to work his magic with the rest as he does what he does and gets every last bit of talent out of the players at his disposal. A transfer budget of £50-100m will have to go a long way.
He faces a fight to hold onto Jarrad Branthwaite who has been linked with a move away but fans of the Toffees can be encouraged by some of the names being mentioned as possible targets.
Matt O’Riley would bring creativity from Brighton and Mohamed Diomande of Rangers is the sort of one-size-fits-all midfielder that Moyes loves. Play the Ivory Coast midfielder anywhere and he will do a job.
Everton set to miss on teenage prodigy Caelen-Kole Cadamarteri
One player who doesn’t look likely to sign for Everton is Caelen-Kole Cadamarteri, currently at Sheffield Wednesday, with the 15-year old reported by Joe Crann of The Star to have agreed terms with Manchester City.
A fee in the region of £1.5m has been mentioned with Everton and Chelsea both tipped to lose out on the 15-year old prodigy who finished the campaign as top goalscorer in the Under-18 Professional Development League.
Everton “monitoring” Aleksandar Mitrovic as Moyes looks to solve striker problem
One striker who Everton might have a chance of landing is Aleksandar Mitrovic. The Al-Hilal forward is said to have grown tired of football in Saudi Arabia and wants to return to the sharp edge of European football.
According to Ben Jacobs of GiveMeSport, Everton are “closely monitoring” Mitrovic along with West Ham United and Manchester United although the 30-year old’s biggest stumbling block could be his current pay packet of £405,000 per week.
As a mouthwatering appraisal of one Fulham performance from Marco Silva proves though, he might just be worth the money:
“Mitro was unbelievable, not just because he scored again,” said Silva. “He needs goals, like all strikers, and you could see after he scored he had a boost and started to be everywhere. He was good on the ball, he scored again, but off the ball he was unbelievable.
“I already did it, but I have to congratulate him. All the credit for him, because of the way he pressed, the way he did it, the way he helped in certain areas of the pitch. He was unbelievable. He is not a goalscorer for us, he is much more than that.”
Everton love a talisman, an all-action striker who will score goals and cause opposition defenders problems. Mitrovic is a throwback who would immediately be a favourite at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, if the money can be found for his salary.