As transfer rumours continue to bubble along, Everton Director of Football Marcel Brands claimed at the club’s AGM there won’t be any new signings in this transfer window.
Brands made a public statement indicating that there will be no additions for Everton in January and that the only business will be outgoings.
Therefore it looks as though despite the constant stories about players the Toffees are allegedly interested in, there won’t be any newcomers walking through the gates at Finch Farm this month.
To be honest this isn’t a major surprise to hear a statement of this kind from Brands as the Blues rarely do any business in a January window anyway and traditionally tend to make signings only in the summer.
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However, with the injury to Dominic Calvert-Lewin and the slump in form of Richarlison, Everton do really need additional attacking resources up front.
If the club don’t make any signings this month I think the team will be very short of attacking alternatives going into the second half of the campaign and might regret it if the England international is hurt again or Richarlison gets himself sent off and suspended once more.
In the short-term there are various other possible tactical and team changes that can help the side deal with Calvert-Lewin’s absence over the next few weeks and we’ve looked at a few of them.
The club have also revealed the cost of the extensive transfer business that was done last year at the AGM.
Everton of course made a number of high-profile signings with James Rodriguez, Allan and Abdoulaye Doucoure joining and then on right at the end of the window, Ben Godfrey also arriving.
The club confirmed that Rodriguez arrived on a free transfer – a brilliant bit of business – and that they spent around £60 million on the other three players. To get those three in for only just over £50 million is also very good.
The priority now is to trim the squad and ship out some of those fringe squad players. It looks as though Jarrad Branthwaite is on his way out of Goodison Park on loan to Blackburn for the rest of the season.
It’s also possible that Jonjo Kenny might leave for pastures new at Burnley and Cenk Tosun might well be going later this month, finally ending his long, unsuccessful spell at Everton.
Another player who’s career at Goodison Park has long since run into the sand is Yanick Bolasie and as we report today it’s possible he too will be on the move perhaps to Middlesborough, who have a long-standing interest in him.
So in all probability the financial consequences of this summer’s spending and the Covid situation has influenced the decision not to splash out this month. It looks like we will have to wait for the summer for new recruits.