After Everton fell to a 5-0 defeat to Manchester City yesterday afternoon they now face a summer in which their recruitment plans might well be harmed by the failure to qualify for Europe.
It’s been obvious for a very long time that Everton need continued major investment to further re-shape this team and make it competitive. Yesterday’s result only once more confirmed that.
But the fact they can’t offer any European football next season could hurt the club in their pursuit of the type of players they have been repeatedly linked with.
If any of the rumours are true, those players like Max Aarons, Kalidou Khoulibaly and Leon Bailey might well have considered Goodison Park as a possible destination this summer. While Europe isn’t everything, without at least Europa League competition, these individuals could well decide to go elsewhere.
I’m not saying that the Blues can’t secure players of this quality, after all they did sign two high-profile players in Brazilian Allan and Colombian superstar James Rodriguez last summer, but it’s probably going to be one of the things these players weigh against the club when they consider moving.
And this is a quandry for the Toffees because to get better players they need European football especially Champions League football, but getting into Europe – if this season is anything to go by – requires better players!
Yes having Carlo Ancelotti is a factor too (or at least he was last summer) and on the back of that it looked as though the club had gone some way to major improvement with the acquisition of those two South Americans I’ve just mentioned.
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However, despite their obvious ability and at times excellent contribution, both are around 30 and have each had a struggle with injury this season that has caused them to miss significant periods of the campaign. Particularly in Rodriguez’s case that’s very likely to continue to be a problem.
It seems clear that the Blues can’t build a team around players such as these given their age and fitness problems. And it’s obvious while both Allan and Rodriguez can play a continuing part in Everton’s revivial (if there is to be one) neither are a long-term solution to the side’s problems.
The Toffees need younger and more modern players if they are to push on and compete. By that I mean five or six footballers with the size, pace, athleticism and physicality that the game today requires.
Players like Aarons, Bailey, Emerson, Adrien Rabiot, Boubakary Soumare and Pape Sarr. These are a few of the names that have been mentioned in connection with the Toffees over the past few weeks and months and who offer that combination.
Too often Everton get either outmuscled or out-thought, can’t press effectively and don’t often play with the kind of quickness and understanding that the best sides display. At times this season the Blues players have looked like strangers to each other on the pitch. The club must address at least these problems in their summer recruitment.
Well with the season now over we will see very soon if the lack of European football proves to be a barrier to the sort of recruitment that this team still so badly needs.