Zakharyan latest Russian star mooted for Everton move

Another speculative transfer rumour emerging today claims Everton are one of a host of clubs tracking Russian teenage starlet Arsen Zakharyan.

In fact, according to this report there’s hardly a noteworthy club in Europe not apparently interested in the Dinamo Moscow youngster and Everton are predictably being touted as one of those interested parties.

Zakharyan is regarded as one of Russian football’s most talented products for many a year and inevitably he is attracting attention from major clubs on the continent.

He’s an attacking midfielder who can play wide or through the middle and given his age and skill set, he would look like exactly the sort of player the Blues’ might normally be interested in, especially as Rafa Benitez are looking for more width, creativity and goal threats from midfield.

Obviously though, Everton are facing a very difficult financial situation and Zakharyan is very unlikely to be genuinly on the club’s radar.

We have news that there have been further discussions behind closed doors about what January moves the club might actually make in the upcoming transfer window.

Already the noise is that the Blues’ might not be signing more than one player in the new year, which isn’t what Evertonians might have been hoping to hear.

Another player who is being rumoured to be that potential January signing is Ross Barkely. The former Toffee youth team product has struggled for regular game-time since his move to Chelsea and apparently could be available on loan.

He is and always was a talented footballer and at times showed the potential to be a fine player. But he was also inconsistent and similarly to another local lad, Tom Davies, who has been in and out of the team, Barkley had many detractors in the stands. Is bringing him back a good move?

Ideally, the Toffees’ need at least two players so hopefully they can sign one and use the loan system to try and secure some significant strengthening as we head into the second half of the season.

And, there are still players the club need to move on if that’s at all possible. Thinking of a few of those individuals I would identify Alex Iwobi and perhaps too Mason Holgate who has once more done himself no favours with his latest failure against Spurs. His time at Everton seems to be running out. The problem as always is who will want these underacheiving players on huge wages?

Another player the Blues desperately need to find a new home for is Cenk Tosun. The Turkish striker has been at Goodison Park since January 2018 and has never been able to nail down a consistent place in the team despite Everton’s goalscoring problems.

Now it seems he might be heading back to Turkey with Besiktas again looking for a loan deal, possibly in January.

Tosun has previously gone back to his former club but he seemed to carry the Everton injury jinx with him and got hurt so having to return to Merseyside again, just as happened when he went to Crystal Palace a year earlier. It’s almost as though there is a supernatural force at work trying to keep him on Merseyside forever!

It would be good if the club were able to finally offload the 30-year-old, who despite being an honest and hard-working player, has never been good enough to score goals regularly in the Premier League.

It’s going to be a testing and busy new year window if all these stories and rumours of planned activity are true. We shall see.