Everton FC correspondent Joe Thomas with the latest from Hill Dickinson Stadium as transfer deadline day looms
WOLVERHAMPTON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 16: Nathan Ake of Manchester City during the Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Manchester City at Molineux on August 16, 2025 in Wolverhampton, England. (Photo by James Gill - Danehouse/Getty Images)
Nathan Ake, who has been linked with Everton, pictured during the Premier League opener between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Manchester City at Molineux at the weekend
(Image: James Gill - Danehouse/Getty Images)
Everton remain confident further signings will be secured this summer. Club chiefs are still targeting at least three additions and believe they will reach the summer ambition of ‘nine or 10’ new faces identified by David Moyes in July.
Seven players have joined Everton so far, including high-profile figures Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Jack Grealish. But there remains an acceptance that the squad needs to be strengthened and priority areas for the final throes of the transfer window remain right wing, right back and central midfield.
The Blues are looking to extract value from the loan market as they continue their search but insiders insist the deals already signed off have not used up the club’s summer budget.
There is a desire to spend in a sustainable manner and the club must maintain an awareness of how business in the present will impact its regulatory position across future transfer windows - particularly given the scale of the rebuild being undertaken will take multiple seasons to fully address.
But manager Moyes and those he is working with, including chief executive Angus Kinnear and player trading guru Nick Hammond, are said to still have the ability to spend where appropriate.
That freedom has not led to a change in the club’s stance on Tyler Dibling. The right of the midfield has been an area of need since the end of the season following the return of loanees Jesper Lindstrom and Jack Harrison to their parent clubs.
The lack of a specialist option on that flank has jarred through pre-season and remained a problem in the season-opener at Leeds United on Monday, when both Carlos Alcaraz and Iliman Ndiaye spent time in that position. Neither appear to suit that slot and the Blues have attempted to address it without success so far.
That included the submission of three bids for Southampton starlet Dibling. The final offer was for a package worth around £37.5m for the teenager, who is understood to be open to the move.
Everton started to look elsewhere after that final offer was rejected, believing the gap between their valuation of the England youth international and Southampton’s to be too vast for discussions to continue.
While the Blues would be open to a resumption of negotiations should the south coast club show a willingness to compromise, that has not yet happened and Fibling was re-integrated into Will Still’s squad at the weekend.
Reports have since emerged that Tottenham Hotspur are interested in the 19-year-old. Everton’s position is understood to remain the same - that they are currently focusing their attention elsewhere. Abdul Fatawu was one of the alternatives considered but Leicester City's valuation of him was also deemed too high.
The problem on the right wing has been amplified by the lack of a specialist right back who can maintain fitness. Seamus Coleman was an unused substitute at Leeds despite being the only full-back available to Moyes, who was without Nathan Patterson and left backs Vitalii Mykolenko and Adam Aznou due to injury.
Patterson’s Everton career has been plagued by setbacks and the club entered the summer with the intention of securing a first-choice right back. It was hoped that would be Kenny Tete only for the Fulham defender to opt to sign a new deal at Craven Cottage at the start of July. Jake O’Brien started in that position - one he spent the second half of last season covering - at Elland Road.
Should the club fail to solve its longstanding right back problem there is the possibility O’Brien could end up covering that slot for the campaign - depriving Moyes of a centre-back option after a summer in which Jarrad Branthwaite and James Tarkowski have suffered injuries.
Setbacks for Branthwaite, Mykolenko and Aznou forced Moyes into a makeshift line-up that offered some context for the disappointing defeat at Leeds.
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While perhaps the biggest drawback was the impact of pulling James Garner out of midfield to cover on the left of the defence - again highlighting why another midfielder is desired by the club’s recruitment department - the defensive injuries Everton have suffered this summer have sparked cause for concern.
The club began the transfer window believing four centre backs would be enough - so when it became clear Michael Keane was open to a new contract on suitable terms at the end of June, the Blues pulled out of a deal put in place to sign the player provisionally lined up as his replacement. But that took place at a time when there was confidence Tete would sign and before Branthwaite, who ended last season with an injury, pulled up in training on the eve of the season.
Sources at both Everton and Manchester City have played down reports Everton are exploring a deal to sign Nathan Ake and another centre back is not considered to be top of the wishlist for a squad with gaping holes elsewhere.
Cover both in the middle of the defence and at left back, such as that which he could provide, would be useful, however, given recent developments and the belief Aznou is a player who will need time to grow into the Premier League following the teen’s move from Bayern Munich.
With the injuries he has endured at the back since his return in January, the ECHO understands Moyes has not completely discounted moving for a centre back in the final days of the window, should the right player become available on the right terms.
With transfer deadline day approaching there remains a belief the Blues will complete the necessary outstanding business. While it is accepted the squad is not where Moyes wanted it to be right now, there is also a sense that this situation was always a possibility - with the thought process being that the team would have been far better at Leeds had they not lost Mykolenko and Branthwaite in the week before the Premier League curtain-raiser.
Through the summer, Kinnear urged supporters to judge the club’s business on September 2 and not before. That remains the message from the club - though it means heading into the showcase first competitive game at Hill Dickinson Stadium weaker than hoped and with it deemed unlikely Moyes will have any new faces available to him for that game with Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday.
What happens beyond that remains to be seen but the expectation is the club will be busy and busy in both directions, with any further business creating opportunities for squad players like Youssef Chermiti, who needs first-team minutes after two tough seasons, to head out on loan.