Continuing trend of player departures leaves Everton squad seriously depleted

Yet more players are exiting Goodison Park with further rumours intesifying about others leaving, resulting in the Everton squad looking more and more dangerously threadbare.

Since the summer transfer window opened, Asmir Begovic, Conor Coady, Yerry Mina, Tom Davies and Ellis Simms as well as a host of youth team players have departed Merseyside.

There have been constant stories that other current players including Jarrad Branthwaite, Mason Holgate, Demarai Gray and young striker Tom Cannon, are also close to leaving Everton.

And just today, another player who has been on the fringes of the Blues first-team midfielder Lewis Warrington, has gone out on loan to Plymouth Argyle.

Meanwhile there are now reports that even the fragile-as-glass Dominic Calvert-Lewin is a target for another club.

Some of these departures are neither unexpected or necessarily that concerning.

Players like Davies and Simms didn’t seem to have a future at Everton, certainly not while Sean Dyche is manager and they had played very little recently anyway.

Others like Warrington were extemely unlikely to get a chance to play next season given the level of competition in their position. Another loan spell seems best for him.

The sheer number of exits is though significant and raises questions about the viability of the Toffees first-team squad with the new Premier League campaign just a few weeks away.

Last season Everton’s squad was smaller than many and often Dyche had to resort to using untried youngsters to fill out his bench. It looks as though he will be doing so again.

The other factor to consider too, is of course injuries. This is a problem the Toffees suffer with as much, if not more, than most other clubs.

Furthermore, although other individuals such as Gray might not in theory be missed too much due to his inconsistency, he has been an integral part of the team over the last few years recently playing as an emergency striker for Dyche.

And Calvert-Lewin when on the rare occasions he is fit, made a profound difference to the performance of the side, something that was seen especially late last season.

Although his fitness issues are a nightmare the Blues really can’t afford to let the former England international leave with only Arnaut Danjuma available as another centre-forward option. And I would be surprised if they did.

As for Cannon, although he is still inexperienced in Premier League terms, he did well at Preston last season and given the paucity of striking options, I would be prepared to give him a chance to show what he can do next season.

However, it now looks as though the Irishman will be going out on loan again.

While all these players have left or are possibly leaving, Dyche has so far only manged to add Ashley Young and Danjuma to his squad.

More rumours continue about this player or that signing, but there is as we all know, a persistent theme here that is worryingly familiar.

We have seen several transfer windows in the recent past come and go where the Blues have been linked with dozens of players only to end up with a few on loan or or even as in last January, none at all.

This of course is due to the club’s crippling financial problems and the seemingly endless struggles of the team on the pitch making Goodison a far less attractive destination than others.

There is still time to get new faces in through the door, and in my view Everton must make at least a minimum of another three or four signings to improve the quality in key areas of the team, particularly up front.

Even if that does happen (and given past history it is a challenging target), it would however still leave the squad seriously short of numbers, if the current trend in departures continues.

If new additions don’t arrive, Dyche will be in danger of just not having enough bodies to go through a full campaign and cope with the huge demands of so many games and competitions.