The Everton Shopping List

Transfer speculation is a part of football that is ingrained in your average football supporter.

No matter who your team has on their current team sheet, most of us are always looking at other players that we think could improve the squad. Ultimately, it makes sense. Players age, suffer injuries and sometimes get their heads turned by other clubs, so there’s always a reasonable argument to be made to be looking at other players.

As an Evertonian, I was generally happy with the clubs starting XI as the season began. However, outside of John Stones and maybe Muhammed Besic, it’s hard to make an argument that any of Everton’s squad has actually had a good season.

Besic has looked promising, even though he isn’t the finished article yet. He’s had a decent first season though and I feel optimistic about his future. He always looks one challenge away from a Red card, but he fights for the cause and never gives anything but 100%

He’s the sort of aggressive CDM that I always dreamed of being when I used to play in my youth. The best thing about him to me is the accuracy of his tackles. Besic isn’t a Souness type who doesn’t really care about catching or even hurting the man. Besic wants the ball and nothing but the ball, and he times his tackles accordingly. I think no one is more perturbed when he commits a foul than he himself. He’s dedicated himself to the art of tackling, and I can respect that.

Stones has been solid every time he’s played this season. He’s an excellent defensive prospect, and is a shoe in for Club player of the season in my honest opinion. Hopefully that’s mirrored by the rest of the fan base and also those within the club.

However, outside of those two, I honestly think every senior player in the squad needs to be held under scrutiny after this season, some more than others.

Romelu Lukaku broke Everton’s European goal record this season but hasn’t had as good a season as last term. That being said, he’s still young and has time to come good, so he’d be near the bottom of the list for me in regards to people getting criticism

I can’t say the same for Arouna Kone however. My level of dislike for Kone isn’t as high as some other supporters that you’ll come across. In fact, I don’t actively dislike him at all. I actually kind of like him. The memes of him riding varying different animals only endeared the man to me. However, I do think it’s probably time to move him on next term.

As far as replacing him goes, I was leaning towards promoting from the youth set up, but I’m thinking maybe a loan spell for some of the younger strikers could be more beneficial at this stage.

It’s always hard to gage with a younger player what will benefit them more. With someone like Chris Long, he’s still quite young so the best thing for him could be to get some regular playing minutes. He would most certainly be behind Lukaku in the pecking order, as would be Connor McAlney.

There’s also the risk that thrusting either player into the position as back up could be a case of too much too soon.

As a fan base, we generally do quite poorly with giving the younger players in the team a chance. Long or McAlney could enter competent performances but not amazing ones, thus leading to the usual section of naysayers declaring that they aren’t good enough. We do this with pretty much every young player. Even Ross Barkley gets overly criticised if he doesn’t have a 9 out 10 rating in every match.

But what if indeed they aren’t ready?

We’ve had some good defenders come through the youth ranks in Tyias Browning, Seamus Coleman and Shane Duffy. We’ve also had some good midfielders in Barkley and Kieran Dowell. Mason Springthorpe was a relatively decent goalkeeper too.

However, have we had a top level striker come through the youth ranks since Wayne Rooney? Kissock didn’t work out, we all know what happened with Jose Baxter and Hallam Hope never really got any traction at the club.

Is it right to have a youth player as first choice back up if Lukaku goes down? I’d feel perfectly fine with plugging in Browning or Garbutt to the squad if a defender went down injured. If Lukaku went down with injury or suspension and we only had Long to replace him, I’m not sure how I’d feel.

If you’re a young defender, you’ve got other defenders to fall back on. Same if you’re a midfielder. If you’re a young striker, it really is you up there on your own under full glare of the spotlight. I think it’s a great credit to a lad like Harry Kane that he’s been able to perform so well in such situations.

I’d certainly like to see Long and McAlney set some minutes in pre-season and maybe some minutes in the early months of the season. The good thing about the loan market is that you have some more flexibility in when you can arrange them as opposed to transfers. Long could have a few games for the first team and then be sent to a team in The Championship for more minutes if need be.

Should Kone leave, I feel another striker who has played regular first team football would be required to come in, if only to bring some experience to the table.

I’ve decided to look at one goalkeeper, defender, midfielder and striker that Everton could use to shore up the ranks. In some cases, multiple players could be required in certain areas, but for lengths sake, I’ll limit it to one player. The players named were selected using a mixture of what I’d like to see, what I think the manager wants and also the calibre of player that Everton could attract.


Goalkeeper

Who: Costel Pantilimon

Why: League Cup winner and did well whenever called upon as backup for City. I work with City fans who really have no negative opinions on him whatsoever and quite a few were sad to see him go. Only 28 years old, so has a good 5 years in him yet.

Possibility of him coming to Everton: It depends on whether Sunderland stay up I imagine. If they go down, there could potentially be a fire sale and he might be sold to raise funds. Everton could probably get a good deal for him. If Sunderland stay up, they would be less willing to sell, which might put him out of our price range.


Defender

Who: Virgil Van Dijk

Why: I’ve been a big fan of this lad for a while. Good defensively, can play it out of the back like Martinez wants and also takes a mean free kick. He’s got future star written all over him. He could be plugged straight into the squad. I’m fully confident that Van Dijk will be first choice for Holland in the next 2-3 years

Possibility of him coming to Everton: I’m pretty sure Van Dijk wants to move from Scotland to a bigger league. At the end of the day, he wants to play for Holland and he increases his chances exponentially if he moves to the Premier League. He’d probably get a lot of minutes for Everton, which would surely appeal to him, but there are other clubs who are looking at him. Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and Man United have been linked with him. All of those clubs would probably look more attractive to him from a prestige standpoint. There’s also the fact that Celtic will be very unwilling to sell him unless it’s for a decent price. We might find that we get priced out of the market if this goes to a bidding war.


Midfielder

Who: Tom Cleverley

Why: Let’s face it, he’s signing so we might as well plan for life with him in the team. For what it’s worth, I don’t think he’s terrible, but I’m also completely unenthused that he currently seems to be our marque signing. He could conceivably do a job for us and combined with some other signings, his incoming wouldn’t be too grim.

Possibility of him coming to Everton: I think he’s nailed on. Martinez has been expressing an interest all season and will probably move planets to get him.


Striker

Who: Danny Ings

Why: Imagine the reaction across the park if we poached him from them? On a serious note, despite his recent goal drought, Ings has had a good season and I think he’d make a good addition to the striking options upfront. It could be that signing Ings might light a fire under Lukaku. They might even make a good partnership if played together.

Possibility of him coming to Everton: Not very likely I say. No transfer fee, as he’d be out of contract, but I’m pretty certain he’s Liverpool bound. I’d like to have him at Everton though.

So, if Everton managed to acquire the players listed, how do I think they’d line up?
I’d personally go for a 3-5-2 formation of

Pantilimon

Stones, Jagielka, Van Dijk

Coleman, Barkley, Cleverley, McCarthy, Baines

Ings, Lukaku

With a bench of Robles, Browning, Galloway, Besic, McGeady (Sadly, I think Mirallas will be off in the summer), Naismith and Long

The formation could potentially swap between a 3 or 5 at the back, should the need arise. I think that’s a decent enough Starting XI that isn’t based completely in the realms of fantasy. Whether we get any of the aforementioned players remains to be seen, but with that team I think we’d give anyone a game.

I’m probably way off, I usually am, but hey-ho

Peace Out