By OkayGoal
Everton’s plan to get back into the top half of the Premier League and push for European football was built around two consecutive summer transfer windows of recruitment under David Moyes and the club’s much-discussed transfer committee working behind the scenes at Finch Farm.
Despite bringing in thirteen players across those two summers, the club looks worse off than before, not just because the squad has somehow shrunk to just 18 outfield players, but because there is no depth whatsoever at striker, left-back or right-back.
This summer added four new signings alongside three players whose loan deals were either made permanent or extended.
Everton’s new arrivals assessed
Hayden Hackney arrives as last season’s Championship Player of the Year, a polished midfielder who is genuinely comfortable on the ball. His best work comes from a more advanced position, but he is currently being used as a defensive midfielder out of necessity.
Tyrique George looked good running at defences last season, and Everton judged him worth making his loan permanent. He now needs to turn that attacking threat into consistent goals and assists, particularly given how thin the club are up front.
Merlin Röhl has quickly become David Moyes’ utility option, filling in at right-back and drawing comparisons to Marouane Fellaini in terms of how versatile he has become for the manager. The German is coming along nicely in that role.
Christian Nørgaard brings genuine veteran leadership and press resistance to a squad with no established defensive midfielder otherwise. His fitness is a concern, though, given he arrived already carrying an injury and Moyes has been notably pessimistic about when he will actually be available to train.
Brennan Johnson offers a vertical running style and the ability to get in behind defences that Everton have not had in years. He would have formed a genuinely exciting partnership with Folarin Balogun, but that particular pairing is not going to happen this season.
Jack Grealish’s return to Hill Dickinson Stadium came after a determined pursuit from the club. The concern is that with still no overlapping full-back playing behind him, it remains to be seen just how effective he can actually be.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles finally gives Everton a specialist full-back, even if he would tell you himself he prefers to play centrally. He is probably not even in the top five names Everton originally wanted for that position, but he brings experience and some much-needed balance to the right side.
Everything that went wrong this window
All Everton needed to finally solve was the specialist right-back problem that has eluded them for the best part of half a decade.
Despite assurances from leadership that they would hold out for their top targets, the club were reduced to scrambling for a player they have tried and failed to sign roughly three separate times across the last five years, after being unable to land a player they had almost signed twelve months earlier and were then turned down by.
Where last summer was clearly about youth, this summer appeared to carry a remit from Moyes for veteran, Premier League-ready players instead. Then there was the entire Folarin Balogun saga on deadline night itself. What exactly happened there remains unclear. Did the player feel disrespected by Everton following a medical where an issue was apparently found? Or was he unhappy that the club were simultaneously talking to Manchester United about Joshua Zirkzee while doubts still lingered over whether his own Monaco transfer would even go through?
The left-back position raises its own questions entirely. Adam Aznou was shipped out on loan, leaving Everton with only the limited Vitaliy Mykolenko and no backup or competition for that spot whatsoever.
A threadbare squad heading into a long season
Whatever exactly happened at Finch Farm on deadline night, Everton as a football club look poor coming out of it.
Worse still, Moyes’ squad has been gutted to the point where the club will need to survive all the way to January with a threadbare roster. A run of injuries could realistically derail any ambitions of going somewhere meaningful this season.
The Friedkin Group and club leadership had, up to this point, navigated Everton through a genuinely transformative period reasonably well, moving out of Goodison Park and into Hill Dickinson Stadium in good shape. But heads should reasonably roll over how badly this specific transfer window was handled.
The proposed sale of academy graduate and fan favourite Harrison Armstrong showed exactly how disconnected ownership had become from supporter sentiment. The fanbase united and revolted so quickly and so completely that the formal agreement with Nottingham Forest was torn up entirely.
Everton managed just 47 league goals last season, tied for sixth-lowest in the entire division, two of which were own goals. Since then, 17 goals worth of output has left the building via Beto, Iliman Ndiaye and Idrissa Gueye. Replacing that has not obviously happened.
The verdict on Everton’s window
Club CEO Angus Kinnear said a couple of weeks ago: “Our job in the coming weeks is to continue with what we always knew would be a two-summer window plan, and ensure the squad has enough depth to mount an even more compelling challenge next term.” It is worth wondering how that statement sits with him now.
This was a poor window, worth no more than 5 out of 10. Significant marks lost for failing to properly address right-back, left-back and striker, and further points dropped for leaving so much still to resolve on deadline day itself.
Confirmed Everton summer transfers
Outgoing:
Transferred: Dwight McNeil (Crystal Palace), Beto (Fiorentina), Iliman Ndiaye (Manchester City), Tim Iroegbunam (Hull City), Nathan Patterson (Torino)
Loaned: Adam Aznou (Málaga)
Released: Idrissa Gueye (Al Diriyah), Séamus Coleman (free agent), Tyler Onyango (Sheffield Wednesday)
Incoming:
Transferred: Hayden Hackney (Middlesbrough), Tyrique George (Chelsea), Merlin Röhl (Freiburg), Christian Nørgaard (Arsenal), Brennan Johnson (Crystal Palace), Ainsley Maitland-Niles (Olympique Lyonnais)
Loaned: Jack Grealish (Manchester City)