Everton still waiting on Zouma

One of the things that has slipped a little bit under the radar, is the future of on-loan central defender Kurt Zouma and whether Everton will be able to sign him permanently.

In the later stages of last season, Manager Marco Silva has made it clear that he would like to sign Zouma and secure his future at Everton.

But despite this Chelsea’s recent transfer ban has hugely complicated the situation meaning that it is much more difficult to sort out this transfer.

With the London club now unable to sign new players for it seems two transfer windows, this makes it less likely that Chelsea will be prepared to let those existing players on their roster leave.

And now we’ve learnt that apparently the west London club won’t be prepared to consider Zouma’s future until they’ve got a new manager in place.

According to the Star, Zouma enjoyed his season-long stint at the Blues and so would be apparently amenable to returning to Goodison Park, long-term.

I think the majority of Toffees fans would want to see Zouma join Everton on a permanent deal along as the asking price isn’t too high.

The Frenchman had a decent season overall and by the end of the campaign he had formed a rock-solid central defensive partnership with Michael Keane.

The rumours seem to be indicating that Chelsea are set on appointing the Derby boss Frank Lampard as their next manager. Lampard is of course a legend at Stamford Bridge having scored a club record number of goals in a glittering career during which he won virtually everything in the game.

The former England star had a decent season as manager at Derby last term, resulting in the club making the Championship playoffs before they lost the final to Aston Villa.

But appointing Lampard would be very much against the recent tradition of the west Chelsea club who have a long history of hiring one high-profile foreign manager after another.

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This strategy doesn’t seem to be really working that well anymore. Although to be fair the most recent example, Mauricio Sarri, ended up winning the Europa League and finishing third in the Premier League. That’s not a bad return and one most clubs, (including Everton I’m sure), would be happy with.

The constant upheaval of manager and coaches and the obvious financial cost seems to have made owner Roman Abramovich re-think his approach.

Lampard if he does take over at Chelsea, will probably take his time before deciding on Zouma’s future. So Everton will have to wait and see whether there is any chance of the Frenchman re-joining the Blues long-term.