Following what was a disastrous season under Roberto Martinez, the mood at Goodison Park couldn’t be of starker contrast just a few months on. There is a wave of optimism on Merseyside and it’s not just on the red side.
New billionaire owner Farhad Moshiri is determined to bankroll Everton’s Champions League ambitions and has got everything in place for the Toffees to mount a serious challenge over the coming years. All that is missing are some new players.
Everton managed to prize highly rated manager Ronald Koeman away from Southampton following two very impressive years on the south coast and they have now added Steve Walsh, who was largely credited behind Leicester’s stellar recruitment drive last summer, as director of football.
However, while Everton’s decisions off the field have been extremely shrewd, it is now time to bring everything together and build a team that is capable of challenging the likes of Liverpool and Chelsea for a top four finish, or risk being left further behind.
Teams that finished in the top-10 last season have already invested around £35m into their squads on average this summer, whereas Everton are yet to even take their summer expenditure beyond six figures.
It’s natural for fans to expect a wave of new signings when a billionaire owner comes into town and Everton look to have hit the jackpot with Moshiri, but in truth they only need to add fresh blood to their already talented squad. They did finish a staggering 19 points off the top four last season but the reasons for that have largely been dumped on Martinez’s doorstep and not on the players.
In Lukaku they have a striker regarded in the top bracket in the Premier League having scored at least 15 goals in all but one of his four campaigns in England’s top flight. Ross Barkley went off the boil in the second half of last season but has been billed as one of the most promising talents at England’s disposal. Even if his performances in 2016 failed to replicate the good form he showed at the start of the campaign, only two players completed more dribbles in the league than the 22-year-old (116).
With Barkley driving forward from midfield and Lukaku readily available for service, Gerard Deulofeu also showed that Everton have someone capable of putting quality balls into dangerous areas. In fact, only Mesut Ozil (every 160.4 mins) and David Silva (163.6 mins) required fewer minutes per assist than Deulofeu (173 mins) from those that started more than five games in the Premier League last season, with the Spaniard falling out of favour in the second half of the campaign.
That's not to mention Leighton Baines, who ranks in the top five for most assists in the Premier League over the last seven years (50) and Seamus Coleman, who has completed more dribbles than any other defender in the last three seasons (156).
While Everton have plenty of quality in their ranks, there are still issues that need to be addressed. They are still no closer to knowing whether they will have John Stones and Lukaku at the club at the end of the window and that needs to be sorted quickly. No outfielder committed more errors that led to a goal in the Premier League than Stones (4) last season and with Manchester City circling with a £50m offer, a decision has to be made soon as to whether they sell the central defender.
Tim Howard has also left the club and Maarten Stekelenburg’s arrival as their only signing of the summer isn’t one to get excited about. Presumably he won’t be the last goalkeeper Everton sign in this window, as a save success rate of 58.5% was the worst in the Premier League from goalkeepers that made at least 10 appearances last season. Howard was poor last term but Stekelenburg is by no means an upgrade on the American.
To Everton’s credit their lack of transfer activity hasn’t been for a lack of trying. Koeman’s side have been heavily linked with a move for Zenit St. Petersburg midfielder Alex Witsel and Manchester United creator Juan Mata. Both would have been huge signings for the Toffees, but they haven’t managed to get either across the line and now look set to miss out on both.
Attentions have now turned to Swansea star Gylfi Sigurdsson, with Everton reportedly weighing up a £25m move for the Iceland international. The 26-year-old has played a direct hand in 31 league goals in the last two seasons after returning to Swansea following a frustrating two years with Tottenham. Sigurdsson was also integral to Iceland’s success at Euro 2016, although it was his defensive work that was perhaps most impressive. In fact, of players that started at least four matches in France, only four averaged more tackles and interceptions per game than Sigurdsson (5.4).
There would still be an element of risk with signing Sigurdsson purely based on how he fared the last time he moved to a big club, but he has more experience under his belt and would be better equipped this time around.
If Everton can come through this summer having successfully added to their squad with Stones and Lukaku still at the club then it would be hard to look elsewhere for a team that has enjoyed as successful a summer as the Toffees given their appointments off the field of play. Then it will be Koeman’s task to get the best out of these players once again, and if he can manage that, as he did at Southampton, then exciting times lay in waiting for Everton fans.
Which areas of the squad to Everton need to strengthen? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below
