Everton have announced departures of Oumar Niasse, Cuco Martina and Luke Garbutt at the end of the month as their contracts end on June 30.
In an ideal football season, the month of June is when International competitions are held and on the domestic front, clubs enjoy their off season. The players who do not make the cut to the national squad are seen enjoying the sunny beaches of Ibiza. However, this year has been far from ideal as the Corona Virus pandemic has forced the football season to continue in June as well after a halt of almost three months.
While players soak in the sun, some club officials are sweating to get player contracts over the line. June 30 is regarded as the end of the season and all contracts, loan deals run till this date. This year, it has been a different story thanks to the Corona Virus. We are in the final phases of the footballing season in England but with June 30 approaching, it was a big headache for club officials and player agents to decide on futures of the players.
Majority of the clubs have come up with a solution of offering short term extensions until the actual end of the season to out of contract players and players on loan. Everton also found themselves in a tricky situation as a number of players have been loaned and a number of players had their contracts expiring on June 30, 2020.
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Cuco Martina, Oumar Niasse, Leighton Baines, Maarten Stekelenburg and Luke Garbutt had their contracts expiring at the end of this season. Jonjoe Kenny, Kieran Dowell and Jonas Lossl were some of the prominent players out on loan.
The last week has been very hectic for the club board as they took their final decisions on whether to renew the contracts of out of contract players or even offer them a short term extension. Finally, according to Everton FC official site, the Toffees have decided to let go Cuco Martina, Oumar Niasse and Luke Garbutt at the end of this month. Meanwhile, Stekelenburg will stay until the end of the season and then join Ajax for the 2020-21 season.
Meanwhile, the club also announced short term extensions of club veteran Leighton Baines until the end of the season. The left back has also been offered one year extension but the 35 year old is yet to agree the terms. On loan from Moanco, Djibril Sidibe has also agreed to stay at Goodison Park until the end of this season.
Cuco Martina joined Everton in 2017 as a free agent after being released by Southampton. He failed to establish himself as a regular at Finch Farm and spent quite a lot of time on loan at Stoke City and Feyenoord. Oumar Niasse joined the Toffees from Lokomotiv Moscow for £13.5 million in 2016 but never lived upto the expectations. He too followed a similar trajectory like Martina, going from one club to another on loan in order to gain some momentum and playing time.
Luke Garbutt is an Everton academy product but has spent more time away on sub standard loan spells. Finally, the time for these three players has come to an end. These three players earned a combined £110,000 a week at Everton. A large chunk of weekly wages will be saved once these players depart.
Will Leighton Baines agree to a one year extension?