As Everton prepare for what has already become a huge and must-win game against Wolves this weekend, the club still haven’t brought in an experienced centre-forward.
No one is surprised that the Toffees top brass have not managed to get a senior striker in through the door despite having had weeks to do so.
After all this is what happened last summer and in the January window as well with Everton supporters waiting in vain for such a signing.
The only attacking addition in all that time was Neal Maupay who has signally failed to provide any evidence he can solve the Blues goalscoring problems.
His most recent failure was on opening day against Fulham when he missed a number of chances as the home team fell to a 1-0 defeat.
Last weekend Everton travelled to Aston Villa and collapsed losing by four goals as they stumbled to a second straight reverse to start the new season.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin started that match after finally proving to Seans Dyche’s satisfaction that he was fit again.
But, he lasted only just over half an hour before he went off following a nasty clash of heads left him with a swollen face and a fractured cheek bone.
You couldn’t make it up, of course.
The Toffees now face a cruch game against fellow early season strugglers Wolves at Goodison Park without Calvert-Lewin once again.
There only other first-team squad centre-forwards are Tom Cannon and recent addition Youssef Chermiti who cost around £15 million.
Unfortunately, Cannon has very little Premier League minutes and has scored all his goals in the Championship, while Chermiti hasn’t played at all in the English top flight. Brilliant!
The Blues have literally no experienced senior strikers apart from Maupay, who is a total dud, as they prepare for a match that simply has to be won. And of course you can’t win football games without scoring at least one goal.
Stories continue surrounding a possible deal for Southampton’s Che Adams with rumours that the two clubs are still in talks.
However, who knows if there is anything to this and anyway even if something can be done in the next few days, I doubt a deal will be in place in time for Saturday’s game.
So, where does that leave Everton in three days?
Well the obvious answer is that the Toffees are in a very sticky place indeed. To put it mildly.
Trying to be optimisitic – which is exccedingly difficult if you support Everton – perhaps someone else in the team will step up and score as happened on several critical times late last season. Maybe Arnaut Danjuma can finally be that man.
Without something of that sort I can’t see where the Blues are going to find the goals to win against Wolves and another defeat is unthinkable.