Ancelotti confirms no January business for Everton
Well it looks like that’s that as Carlo Ancelotti seems to confirm finally that Everton won’t be doing any business in this months transfer window.
The Blues boss was speaking at his news conference before the Sheffield Wednesday match on Sunday and he said that he doesn’t believe the Toffees will be active or making any signings in the January transfer window.
He says he feels the club have a squad big enough to cope with the demands of the second half of the season without any new players coming in.
The manager’s comments come soon after Director of Football Marcel Brands also stated that he didn’t expect any new additions and the only business being done would be outgoings.
In one sense this is not surprising as Everton rarely do much in January, certainly not since Brands came in preferring instead to do their transfer business in the summer window.
There are also the financial constraints of the past year and a summer of fairly heavy spending, which have probably restricted what the Blues can do anyway this month.
This is true of many other English clubs and has made this new year window at least so far, one of the quietest ever with very little activity by any of the Premier League big guns.
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Ancelotti also indicated that he didn’t think Cenk Tosun would be leaving either despite constant rumours that he will be on his way out of Goodison Park soon.
I think that although it’s understandable what Brands and Ancelotti have said, Everton might be taking a risk not trying to improve the playing options available at all for the season run-in.
As mentioned before, the one area of the team I do feel needs strengthening is the forwards. The Toffees are heavily reliant on their front three of James Rodriguez, Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin for attacking flair and goals.
And in fact Calvert-Lewin is still responsible for nearly half the team’s goals even though he’s been missing for almost a month with an injury. Now fortunately he’s back and able to play again.
Richarlison’s form has been up and down this season, he’s only netted three times and Rodriguez hasn’t scored since October and has spent much of the last few months out injured. The only other player who has delivered good performances recently (although he’s contributed just one goal) is Alex Iwobi and he’s now injured too.
As for other forward options in the squad, all are either not of the same quality – like Tosun – or still young and inconsistent such as Anthony Gordon.
The lack of quality, reliable alternatives could be problem later in the season if one or other or several of these players is again injured for any length of time, especially Calvert-Lewin.
Next. Everton face past final foe on Sunday. dark
So I hope this rather thin set of attacking resources doesn’t end up costing the Blues the chance of a trophy or a European place at the end of the campaign for lack of goals.