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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Michael Ball

Allan not among Everton transfer flops but Kevin Thelwell must continue plotting fresh strategy

I think financially, Allan’s Everton exit will be a good bit of business by the club. When the transfer window closed here we were looking around the squad thinking ‘who else could we have moved on?’

Allan was one of them. He did ok for us and I liked him at times, he was willing to put his foot in and work hard, which is good, but ultimately he’s not on Frank’s radar now.

He was seventh choice central midfielder given that there were three starters and three substitutes in his position in the matchday squad last time out ahead of him yet still on large wages and we can’t afford to have players on those sums of money who are not even in the squad. Saving eight or nine months of those wages is going to help the club in the long-run while it also helps the player as he’s going to play football now and have a smile on his face.

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Allan looked like he was a good professional who was supporting the players when he was in the stands and we scored goals but I think allowing him to crack on elsewhere works for everybody and it builds upon the hard work that Kevin Thelwell did over the summer.

He was the type of player that we needed at the time when Carlo Ancelotti made him his number one target but as he started playing in the Premier League his position changed and he seemed to do better out of position than in the role which he was brought to the football club to fulfil. While he didn’t possess blistering pace, his dribbling stats were very good and got him out of tricky situations.

We thought he’d be in that holding role but we’ve got Idrissa Gueye back now to break the lines and protect the back four but Allan looked better going forward. Everton weren’t creating many opportunities to score goals though and Frank has identified the need for him to bring in better players to create more chances for the forwards.

Allan gave us everything he had and he never downed tools – we’ve had plenty of signings in recent years who haven’t lived up to expectations – but it’s time to move on now there’s an increased competition for places.

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