Everton add Iwobi not Zaha
That’s it then and the 2019 summer transfer window in England has closed with Everton in the end adding just one more player; Arsenal forward Alex Iwobi.
So the new attacking face is a pacey, skilful, previously London-based player,… but it’s not the one most Everton supporters were expecting, or perhaps hoping for.
In the end Crystal Palace proved just too intransigent over Wilfried Zaha and his fee and so the Blues hierarchy decided to move to secure Iwobi instead.
Even a supposed transfer request from the Palace player wasn’t enough to force their hand and as a result the much heralded signing never happened.
To be honest I’m not sure what to think of all this.
On the one hand I’m disappointed because although Zaha’s fee was way over the top, (what Premier League player’s isn’t these days!), the market dictates and if you want these players, especially English players, then you have to pay.
It appears as though Everton were prepared to go to at least as high as around £55 million, which frankly should have been more than enough. But then, according to the Guardian, Palace seemed to decide they wanted even more than the original £80 million, and the fee now being quoted was £100 million!
If true, that’s totally ridiculous and indicates they never really had any intention of selling Zaha, even if someone did meet the first asking price.
The Toffees showed a determination to try to get their man but this failure is frustrating and perhaps underlines the fact Everton are still not quite able to compete for the sort of high-profile talent Zaha possibly represents.
What all this now means for how the player will perform for Palace this season is anyone’s guess.
We will get an early chance to find out as of course the Blues first game of the season is away at Selhurst Park. I bet he scores against the Blues!
Having said all that perhaps not getting him might prove a blessing in disguise. Zaha has tremendous talent but he’s also sometimes very inconsistent and occasionally seems to have developed a bit of an attitude problem.
His petulant reaction to Everton’s robust but perfectly reasonable tactics, designed to frustrate him and therefore Palace, when the two sides met at Goodison Park last season, underlined it.
I have no idea if the Toffees will again try to sign him come January, we will have to wait and see.
For now we should turn our attention to the new forward the Blues have secured, Alex Iwobi.
Iwobi is yet another of the talented but perhaps, up to now, relatively unfulfilled talents to emerge at Arsenal.
That group includes youth products like Jack Wilshire and youngsters signed from other clubs such as Everton’s own Theo Walcott.
There seems to be a trend where these promising players never quite go on to become as good as they are expected to be. It’s an Arsenal tradition!
For his part Iwobi can play anywhere across the forward line but tends to have turned out on the left-wing the majority of his time at the Emirates. We will see where Marco Silva deploys him soon enough.
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The Nigerian international is a quick, skilful and creative forward who contributes a decent number of assists but not enough goals, yet.
In 100 Premier League games he’s only found the net 11 times. That’s one area of his game he will need to improve on at Goodison Park. So I suppose the jury is out on this signing.
The new man is young enough that he can still improve substantially and lets see if Silva and his coaching staff can bring his game on to the Blues benefit.