Marseille Maupay bid turned down by Everton

The Toffees have decided against letting striker Neal Maupay leave on loan to the French club after receiving an offer for the player.

Salford City v Everton - Pre-Season Friendly
Salford City v Everton - Pre-Season Friendly | Charlotte Tattersall/GettyImages

On the face of it this is a slightly strange decision given that he clearly does not have any part in Everton boss Sean Dyche's plans.

Although he was in the match-day squad that faced Brighton on Saturday, he did not get any minutes, even when the home team were trying to recover from going one goal down and the game was still potentially there to be won.

It was clear the Blues were again struggling in front of goal and had failed to take their first-half chances, which might have altered the result of last weekend's Premier League opener.

Maupay's time on Merseyside has been characterized by very frustrating and underachieving performances and a chronic lack of goals that have not exactly endeared the striker to Evertonians.

Judging by some comments he was quoted making to the media last year, the feeling was mutual with the Frenchman clearly not enjoying life at Goodison Park.

Last season he was in the starting eleven for the campaign's first game against Fulham - a match that like Saturday's was also lost - despite the home team having a slew of early chances, several of which Maupay himself missed.

Shortly after that he went out on loan to Brentford and netted eight times overall for the Bees, not a great return but better than he managed on Merseyside.

Although he had done quite well for them, Brentford opted not to make his loan permanent and so Maupay found himself back at Goodison Park this summer.

Meanwhile, Everton's first-choice centre-forward Dominic Calvert-Lewin, managed only seven goals in the Premier League last season, despite playing a total of thirty-two games.

His back-up Beto - who started nine times and was a substitute in a further twenty-one games - got on the scoresheet on three occasions, which while it might be a slightly better ratio of goals per minutes, is still not exactly prolific.

Neither offer much reassurance of regular goals for the season just started and so once again it would seem Dyche needs as much help up front as he can get.

However, despite turning Marseille's offer down, the rumours are that Maupay will still be on his way out of the club this summer - if the right offer comes in for him - before the transfer window closes.

I think that would be best for both the club and player, providing the Blues do bring in at least one other striker, with Calvert-Lewin also still strongly rumoured to be leaving too.