Burnley winger Dwight McNeil has been speaking about alledged rumours that Everton wanted to sign him in the recent transfer window.
The young starlet was repeatedly linked with a summer move to Everton as Rafa Benitez searched for additional attacking options after bringing in Andros Townsend and Demarai Gray.
McNeil was it seemed very much on Benitez’s radar and there were multiple stories the Toffees were ready to make a move for him. In the end though nothing concrete happened and the rumours fizzled out.
Burnley didn’t seem at all interested in selling the player and at 21 he is someone they are likely to want to hold onto if they can. He’s also on a long-term contract and the Clarets aren’t under pressure financially to sell so any deal will be difficult to do.
Now McNeil himself has been talking about the possibility of other club’s interest in him including the Blues themselves.
He’s admitted to being flattered by potential interest from elsewhere so perhaps leaving the door open a little to future interest. But he made the standard statements about just focusing on his current situation and letting the stories wash over him.
The article though also claims the Toffees will be back in for him and it remains to be seen whether there will be any concrete moves made in January or more likely next summer.
Along with the failure to sign another right-back, Everton also weren’t able to add to their wide attacking options in the summer, despite Benitez wanting to add at least one more. As with the full-back issue we have to hope these failures don’t come back to haunt the team.
The much-discussed financial issues the club is dealing with proved a huge stumbling block in strengthening the squad in this summer’s window.
Benitez has also again been discussing these problems and pointedly he spoke about how he is sure owner Fahad Moshiri will back him fully in future transfer windows.
The Blues boss has done well so far this season with his side unbeaten and I think has won over many, although not all of his critics with the positive and dynamic attacking play and performances so far.
Obviously, it’s still early days and we’ll have to see if he and the team can maintain that fine start beginning with tonight’s match against McNeil’s club Burnley. Hopefully, he won’t repeat last season’s game when he scored a superb goal against the Blues in Burnley’s 2-1 win!
We have to hope that Everton can find ways around these financial problems because obviously if quality reinforcements can’t be added it will be very difficult for the team, no matter how well it’s managed, to ever be truly competitive in the Premier League.