Which Championship players from 2024/25 would you like to see Everton sign?
Which Championship players from 2024/25 would you like to see Everton sign?
Everton have been linked with a potential move this summer for a number of players from the Championship. But who would you go for?
David Moyes has got a long and impressive record when it comes to polishing up rough diamonds from the Championship into sparkling Premier League performers, having brought in Tim Cahill from Millwall and Joleon Lescott from Wolverhampton Wanderers first time around at Goodison Park plus Jarrod Bowen from Hull City for West Ham United.
The Blues boss is understood to still believe that the competitive nature of English football’s second tier makes it a fertile breeding ground for emerging talent with hungry young players able to successfully make the step up. Members of the ECHO sportsdesk have their say on who they would try and snap up...
Joe Thomas
As much as I like Sunderland, their promotion has scuppered the plans of a few top flight clubs to raid their squad. Chris Rigg looks a good prospect while Trai Hume seems to have captured a bit of attention - as well Dan Neil and Jobe Bellingham, who may well end up with a big money move anyway.
The promotion does not prevent Everton from exploring a move from the Mackems but Sunderland have more money, can now offer top flight football and for those players there will be an appeal to sticking together.
Part of me wonders about being cheeky for this question and going for Ipswich Town’s Omari Hutchinson, but that would be poor given I know David Moyes has scouted the Championship extensively over the past few months and Hutchinson was playing in the top flight. I think Hutchinson is predominantly left footed too, so while his pace appeals to me I would want to concentrate on a right wing option who can go down the outside with comfort.
We know Everton like Ben Doak and we know the previous regime under Kevin Thelwell and Dan Purdy really liked Tom Fellows. I would go for the latter, simply to throw a name alongside Doak into the mix. I wouldn’t be averse to signing both if the fees were right and having them learn together, though I suspect a prospect might be combined with a loanee on to compete on the right next year.
Fellows is only 21 and had the durability to play through the Championship season, missing just one game.
He’s rated highly and, given how West Bromwich Albion fell off so severely at the end of the season, there may well be an opening to get him in this window. According to Transfermarkt he can also play all across the right of the team too, even offering an option at right back. I don’t want Everton to be patching a team together once more but versatility is useful. Fellows might be a relatively cost-effective punt at taking a young player with genuine experience of senior football and seeing whether they can be polished into a star.
Chris Beesley
Midway through the 2004/05 season when David Moyes was steering Everton to their highest Premier League position of fourth – one of nine top-eight finishes he secured in his first spell as Blues boss – the mighty Real Madrid came calling for one of the aces in his pack. As Kopites have found out with Trent Alexander-Arnold, when the mighty Los Blancos come calling it’s difficult to say no, but once all the booing dies down, perhaps Liverpool’s departing home-grown hero might come back to his first love in the future?
After all, if he can work on the defensive side of his game, Everton are still on the lookout for Seamus Coleman’s long-term successor! All joking apart, there were serious suggestions some 20 years ago, that European football’s most-successful club had snapped up the wrong bald-headed central midfielder from Goodison Park.
Real were in the market to find a replacement for Claude Makelele, the provided a shield in front of the defence and in truth, Thomas Gravesen was more artist than artisan, while derby match-winner Lee Carsley would have seemed the more natural fit to the role that the Spanish giants were trying to fill when recruiting a ‘water carrier’ to supply their Galacticos further up the field. Which brings me to my choice of a Championship player...
Ever since Leeds United dropped out of the Premier League, Jack Harrison has had a clause that has enabled him to be loaned to Everton for the past two seasons. Despite his early promise, and admirable work-rate that his impressed first Sean Dyche and then Moyes, Harrison’s input in the final third was lamentably scarce, especially in 2024/25.
Therefore, perhaps the Blues should have been scouring Elland Road for another winger all along, and I’m thinking of the pocket rocket Wilfried Gnonto. The diminutive Italy international has been on Everton’s radar for some time now and after plundering nine goals in both of the Yorkshire club’s campaigns in the second tier, the 21-year-old looks primed to take his game back to the Premier League.
Of course he can now do that by staying put after Leeds went up but it’s understood he is eager to take his talents to a bigger stage. Gnonto could be just the kind of explosive talent to light things up in a new-look Blues side by the Mersey waterfront.
Matt Jones
Given the work Everton need to do this summer, a player who is capable of covering a few positions would be a big boost.
With that in mind, Jack Rudoni at Coventry City would be a sensible signing. And an exciting one.
The 23-year-old is a real all-rounder. This season he's played as a left wing-back, in central midfield and has been pushed forward in support of a centre-forward too. Rudoni netted 10 goals in the second tier and laid on 12 assists for his team-mates as well.
He only arrived at Coventry last summer from Huddersfield Town, although Frank Lampard may find it difficult to keep hold of him beyond the current transfer window.
"I work with him a lot because he's easy to work with," said the former Everton boss of his star performer. "He engages, he wants to get better. He's got great talent, he's got great energy.
"We work on finishing. He's so infectious as a lad. Sometimes when you work with a player and you see him grow and improve individually, that's a real pleasure too."
After Coventry missed out on promotion a number of clubs from the top flight have been mentioned as potential suitors. Leeds United and Newcastle United have been linked most strongly in recent weeks.
There have been no mentions of the Blues and Rudoni in the same sections of the gossip columns yet. But for what Moyes wants and what this squad requires, it would be no surprise if Everton took a closer look.