Everton: £50 million worth poor investments, big chances missed
Everton released Joshua King, Theo Walcott, Yannick Bolasie and Muhamed Besic.
It was expected Everton would release Joshua King, Theo Walcott, Yannick Bolasie, and Muhammed Besic on Friday. So it was no surprise, but it did raise questions about Everton’s transfer practices and judgment.
King’s departure was perhaps the most intriguing. He was bought to provide another prong in Everton’s attack, besides Dominic Calvert-Lewin and the slumping Richarlison.
After all he scored 48 Premier League goals in 161 appearances for Bournemouth and Everton had outfought Fulham for the Norwegian international signature.
So the question is, why did the forward, who has pace, only play in bits of 11 matches?
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What with Richarlison having his poorest season for Everton and Calvert-Lewin bearing the brunt of scoring goals. Calvert-Lewin’s injury would have seemed a perfect time to King a start. And there’s no doubt his pace would have helped Everton’s turgid play.
According to various reports, other Everton players were impressed with King in training. Then Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti said an injury cost King time, further telling the
"He didn’t have a possibility to play a lot for my technical decision, because there we have a lot of options. He played some part of the games and was good, I have to say. In training he’s absolutely ok, really serious and really professional. He’s back, he’s in a good condition and ready to play .He played more when we played in a different system, now for the fact we have a lot of midfielders out we’ve changed the shape and so he suffered a little bit more."
That sounds a lot like “manager-speak.” Why did a lack of midfielders mean a forward couldn’t be used?