Our Everton FC correspondent Joe Thomas looks ahead to a crucial final 10 days of the transfer window in this week's Royal Blue column
Joe Thomas is the Everton FC correspondent for the Liverpool ECHO. He follows the Blues home and away, providing match reports, analysis and insight into events at Goodison Park, Finch Farm and beyond. Joe spent more than a decade covering news on Merseyside, working on award-winning investigations and extensively covering matters related to the Hillsborough tragedy - including the recent criminal prosecutions. Always grateful for tips and feedback, he can be contacted at joe.thomas@reachplc.com and on Twitter via @joe_thomas18
David Moyes during the Premier League match between Leeds United and Everton at Elland Road. Photo by James Gill - Danehouse/Getty Images
David Moyes during the Premier League match between Leeds United and Everton at Elland Road. Photo by James Gill - Danehouse/Getty Images
This is the most important week in the new era of Everton so far. The transformation that promises to deliver so much for a club that has struggled for so long was always going to be a challenge.
There will be plenty more challenges to come even if the final days of the transfer window are considered a success. But, if the right pieces are not found over the coming 10 days, the project will head into its first season incomplete.
For all the mitigating circumstances, it would be impossible not to feel frustration if that was to be the case - particularly given so many of the needs yet to be addressed are ones that have been obvious for at least 12 months.
Everton need options on the right. The situation at right back is a longstanding one, one years in the making. It was hoped Nathan Patterson would be the long-term successor to Seamus Coleman but, while his future could yet hold promise, his misfortune with injury has been so considerable it has to be taken into account when building a squad.
Coleman remains but Monday night’s defeat at Leeds United showcased his value is now primarily in the talismanic leadership that has enabled him to save this group of players time and again. He was the only full-back in the squad at Elland Road and did not play a minute across the back four.
Twelve months ago, Blues chiefs decided to push the right-back problem into the future, believing the squad could muddle through. After a tough start - a season opening red card for Ashley Young that led to stints in that position for Mason Holgate and youngster Roman Dixon - they just about got there, proving stubborn with a resurgent Young and then more expansive when David Moyes turned to centre back Jake O’Brien.
That was then, however, when money was far tighter as the club entered the troubled final stages of the Farhad Moshiri era. Everton have greater financial and regulatory freedom now - surely this is the time to find a player whose inclusion could restore balance to a side that wants to do more than ‘enough’.
In fairness, the Blues entered this summer with this on the ‘to-do’ list and very nearly scored an early success. The club believed Kenny Tete was heading north from Fulham until a last-ditch improvement in terms convinced him to stay at Craven Cottage. As disappointing as that was, that drama unfolded two months before deadline day - ample time for a Plan B that is yet to materialise.
A right back is not THE priority right now, though. Frustrating as it would be to start a new era with an old problem, my biggest concern is the right wing. Again, Everton have been alive to this and one of the stories of the summer is the long list of options the club has run through in this position. The hope is that Tyler Dibling will be the answer to at least some of these problems and Everton's stance - to wait for Southampton to return to the negotiating table - has been vindicated after the breakthrough in talks on Friday night.
Getting that deal over the line would be a significant boost for this team. That is because one thing that is clear is the current squad does not offer a happy solution in this position. While O’Brien has shown he can do a solid job filling in on the right, it is impossible to avoid the evidence that the skills of Iliman Ndiaye, Carlos Alcaraz and Dwight McNeil are all dramatically undermined on that flank.
This was another problem that was visible long before the summer - the club relied on two loanees in this slot last year and it quickly became apparent the option to buy one of them, Jesper Lindstrom, was too expensive given the influence he delivered on the pitch.
If needed, there may be a case for persevering with Ndiaye but he was the team's star last year from the left and it would be a strange summer if the end product of the rebuild was to hamper his impact. That is why success in the Dibling pursuit would be so welcome.
There are other issues in the squad - namely depth at centre midfield and the nagging doubt caused by the injuries suffered by Vitalii Mykolenko and Jarrad Branthwaite over the past 18 months - a left-sided defensive option would not be a ridiculous move, especially if Adam Aznou is considered too raw for a consistent senior berth and if O’Brien ends up the first-choice right back again.
Everton remain confident they will get the necessary business done before the end of the window. CEO Angus Kinnear has asked for judgement to come on September 2, not August 23, and is justified to make that plea. The moves so far show an awareness of what needs to happen and there is evidence of efforts to address the biggest issues. The next few days could be a defining test for the new-look recruitment team - Moyes has not been backward in expressing his frustration at the state-of-play and it is tough to see him being content with the struggle continuing beyond deadline day.
Kinnear was right to ask for patience because there is no escaping the reality this summer was going to be tough. The departure of a dozen senior players may have been necessary for the club to properly rebuild, and to build back stronger, but there is a reason the claim Moyes faced the most significant squad reset of the Premier League era was a headline repeated through the early weeks of the summer. It did not help that the Blues already had such a threadbare squad after years of cost-cutting - the project could not solely focus on adding quality, depth has also been a genuine requirement.
The early priority was working through those whose contracts were expiring - that and securing Branthwaite to a new deal, stealing him away from the covetous eyes of lurking Champions League clubs.
Few would argue that extending the stay of Idrissa Gueye, last season’s players’ and supporters’ player of the year, and securing Branthwaite to new terms, were major successes. Retaining the influence and knowhow of Coleman and Michael Keane also made sense.
Then, of the business achieved so far, the two goalkeepers were a necessity, while Thierno Barry and Aznou are two pillars around which a future can be built - something Everton must do if they are to mount a sustained challenge on the European places.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Jack Grealish, meanwhile, offer quality this team has long missed, while Alcaraz produced genuine match-winning performances while on loan last season.
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While I understand the concerns heading into these final days of business, and the defeat at Leeds and nature of the performance were troubling, I do think it is too early to reach a conclusion on the summer to date.
For all that Leeds deserved the win, I think that game plays out differently if one of Branthwaite or Mykolenko does not pick up an injury on the eve of the campaign, or if Tete had ended up in Royal Blue. A small change in any of those three situations could have made a big difference in that match. And the outstanding issues are so glaringly obvious I do not think there is any complacency towards the need to address them before the transfer deadline.
For all the concern about where the Blues may end up, it is worth looking at what has been achieved so far. The Branthwaite deal was a major success and this side has more star quality than either of the squads that finished, points deductions aside, 13th in each of the past two campaigns. Dewsbury-Hall and Grealish mark a rise in creativity and talent that was sorely needed.
Everton need the final pieces and, I think, it would be fair to ask questions if some of them are not found in the coming days. They need another option in at least two of the three positions most problematic right now - right back, right wing and central midfield. Failure would not only be disappointing, but would diminish the potential impact of a player of Grealish’s ilk - he may be magic, but he can’t cancel out the imbalance that was clear at Leeds.
For now, there is time to go. I’m expecting business to go to the wire - and I think judgement should wait until then.