Deadline day drama and Everton fail to sign right back

So, that was the 2021 summer transfer window and Everton finished it yesterday scrambling to sign a right-back and get a deal for a new centre-forward over the line.

In the end Everton did get that deal for Salomon Rondon completed just in time, but once again a transfer window has come and gone and the Toffees have failed to bring in a new right-back.

I wrote at the start of the summer window that I thought like most other Evertonians it was an absolute priority and a position that the club had to get reinforcements in before the window shut. Once again though, that’s not happened.

It’s a ridiculous situation that has left manager Rafa Benitez with a squad that is once more lacking in the necessary balance and depth as we begin another long and demanding Premier League season. Whatever fans think of Benitez, it’s certainly not his fault he’s been dealt this hand after joining the club only a few weeks ago.

We all know about the financial constraints the Blues have been labouring under this summer, in fact we’ve heard almost constant stories about it.

But surely it would still have been possible to find the money to get a new right-back in somehow, presuming that it was such a huge priority for Benitez and Marcel Brands?

Thoughout the summer we heard rumours about new potential right-back signings, in particular Denzel Dumfries a player who impressed during the Euros for Holland and became the main target for the club.

But despite Everton’s interest and stories about talks and offers, in the end the club apparently couldn’t find the money for him and the Dutch international went to Inter Milan instead.

After this came regular reports of other possible targets such as Aurelio Buta who was available for a very small fee and so would presumably have been affordable in the current climate, but again nothing concrete happened before deadline day.

Then the day before yesterday it emerged that the Toffees were trying last-minute to sign Arsenal’s Ainsley Maitland-Niles, initially on loan.

In a very confusing back and fourth, first it appeared Arsenal weren’t prepared to let him go at all despite his lack of playing time and his desire to leave.

Then it emerged that the problem was supposedly the London club wouldn’t accept a loan and wanted a permanent transfer instead.

Finally, reports emerged that the player was now apparently ready to stay at the Emirates Stadium and fight for his place in the Arsenal team. What a fiasco!

So, that meant Everton had lost out on yet another right-back target and were back to square one with literally a few hours to go before the end of the window.

Then to add to the confusion the club let young left-back Niels Nkounkou leave on a season-long loan leaving Everton without any orthodox cover for that position as well?!

And that’s how it finished as the Blues couldn’t get any other deals for a full-back done before the window closed at eleven pm last night.

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There is still another possibility to resolving this problem after Spurs yesterday signed another right-back heavily linked with Everton in the past; the Brazilian Emerson.

They then released one of their other full-backs Serge Aurier (a player I thought the Toffees might go for when the deal for Maitland-Niles fell through) he is now available and can be signed even after the window shuts because he’s a free agent.

If something like this doesn’t happen and the Blues go into the remainder of the campaign without any new options at right-back, then I fear that what happened last season with injuries and a constantly re-shuffled backline impeading the team’s effectiveness, will happen again.

So not a very exciting transfer window in all honesty. And while Benitez appears to have got bargains in Andros Townsend and especially so far, Demarai Gray, it raises more difficult and searching questions about how the club is being run and it’s transfer strategy.

Given the failure to add new blood at right-back once again as well as no further reinforcements out wide or in midfield, we had better hope that the injury problems of last season don’t return otherwise this will be yet another very long and difficult campaign. And we’ve had way too many of those in recent years.

What’s your view, have Everton done the best they could in this transfer window or could and should they have done better?

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Deadline day drama and Everton fail to sign right back – again

By Matt Townsend | Sep 1, 2021

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