Everton manager Frank Lampard is eager to get another fresh face in as soon as possible as he looks to replace Richarlison. But while the Blues could bank up to £60million from Tottenham Hotspur for the Brazilian, they’re still yet to spend anything themselves this summer with fans left wondering how long the wait will be.
So far, James Tarkowski, a free agent after his contract at Burnley expired, is the only new arrival. But as the ECHO revealed back on June 15, his deal was agreed several weeks ago.
A truncated preparation period for the 2022/23 Premier League campaign due to a first ever winter World Cup in Qatar has made Lampard particularly keen to snap up a new recruit as he looks to reshape an Everton squad who recorded the joint lowest equivalent points total in the club’s history last season (shared with 2003/04) –despite it widely being reported that they had the largest wage bill in the top flight outside of the ‘big six.’ Spending among Premier League clubs so far this window has already topped the half a billion pound mark – the equivalent of the cost of the Blues’ new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock – but Goodison Park chiefs are yet to release the purse strings.
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Everton are back in action against Premier League opposition in less than a week when they take on Arsenal in a high-profile friendly match at NFL side Baltimore Ravens’ M&T Bank Stadium next Saturday (12 midnight going into Sunday UK time). They then complete their US tour against Major League Soccer outfit Minnesota United, managed by Blues legend Adrian Heath, at their Allianz Field home the following Wednesday (1am Thursday in the UK). Lampard had wanted to get a new signing in to work with his team at Finch Farm before the team jet out to the States today (July 11) but, at the time of writing, that looked unlikely as Jesse Lingard – one of the targets he was understood to be considering to replace Richarlison – has already crossed the Atlantic to “entertain pitches” from MLS suitors.
Ironically, Mikel Arteta’s Gunners were the last opponents that Everton faced – thrashing them 5-1 at the Emirates on the final day of the 2021/22 Premier League season – just 56 days before their meeting in Maryland. But while Arsenal have splashed out almost £90million already since then on a quartet of new signings – Gabriel Jesus, Fabio Vieira, Marquinhos and Matt Turner – the Blues, who were fighting to avoid their first relegation in 71 years until a dramatic 3-2 comeback win over Crystal Palace in their final home game secured their status, have just a single ‘Bosman’ to show, while their fans’ favourite and talisman has gone. While the summer transfer window doesn’t slam shut (as Sky Sports would say on what is their broadcasting equivalent of Christmas Day) until September 1, the best-run clubs tend to get their business done early, and a potentially humiliating display in front of large numbers of American fans would hardly showcase the club's brand internationally.
Everton have done deadline day business in each of the six previous summers since Farhad Moshiri took control in 2016. In Marcel Brands’ first window alongside Marco Silva in 2018, four of that summer’s half dozen purchases weren’t confirmed until deadline day.
Richarlison came in first on July 24 followed by Lucas Digne on August 1. The remaining quartet of Bernard and Yerry Mina plus loanees Andre Gomes and Kurt Zouma weren’t until August 9 in the final hours.
It’s also perhaps telling that only Mina, who has one year left on his current deal after playing just 79 out of 152 Premier League matches since coming to the club, and Gomes, who is understood to now be surplus to requirements but top brass are struggling to shift him, are still here. Since then, Alex Iwobi (2019), Ben Godfrey* and Robin Olsen (2020 *international deadline, domestic deals were still allowed for another 11 days so Godfrey’s move from Norwich City didn’t have to be sealed on that date) and Salomon Rondon (2021) have all arrived on deadline day.
Indeed, considering that the aforementioned Gomes’ 2019 switch on June 28 was turning a loan move into a permanent deal, you have to go back five years since Everton confirmed a new signing before July. Along with being the only time the Blues have qualified for Europe under Mr Moshiri, that was the window ahead of which then chief executive Robert Elstone boldly proclaimed: “It will be a very busy and exciting summer for Everton fans.”
That statement was made on April 20, a week after it became clear Romelu Lukaku would not be signing a new contract at Goodison Park and, while the Belgian was duly shipped out for a £75million fee to Manchester United, which remains Everton’s record sale, the ensemble cast of replacements brought in to fill his considerable boots, largely failed to do the business sufficiently. This was the infamous window in which Ronald Koeman and the club’s first director of football, Steve Walsh, somehow conspired to bring in a trio of ‘number 10s’ in Davy Klaassen, Wayne Rooney and record signing Gylfi Sigurdsson.
In between, they also snapped up Michael Keane, Henry Onyekuru, who never actually got to pull on the royal blue jersey, and Sandro Ramirez, who many fans probably wished didn’t either. However, among the glut of signings, it was only Klaassen, along with goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, who came in before July with both players being announced on June 15.
As all too often in recent years, Everton will again be casting an envious eye across Stanley Park to the business that Liverpool have done early, enabling Jurgen Klopp to work with a settled squad from the moment he came back to work. It’s a much more preferable position to be in rather than being left making what is football’s equivalent of hopeful glances across the dance floor to see who hasn’t been snapped up come 2am.
For all that David Moyes was often – probably quite unfairly – labelled “Dithering Davy” during his time at Everton as he diligently weighed up potentially signings, one of the Scot’s most fruitful windows came in 2006 when he landed all his targets in swift fashion as a decisive response to what proved to be the last bottom-half finish of his 11-year reign. Tim Howard (loan, May 9), Andrew Johnson (May 30) and Joleon Lescott (June 14) were all drafted in with a week to spare before the summer solstice.
That date has already long since passed and, while Everton still have plenty of time to make their moves, if they’re going to keep their long-suffering fans waiting then it’s imperative that they get them right. As things stand, a squad that was only just good enough to remain in the Premier League last season is currently even weaker and the onus remains on Lampard and director of football Kevin Thelwell to be sufficiently creative and clever to succeed in what will be a tough market and ensure the team stay well clear of the drop zone next term – while starting to develop a side worthy of gracing the Blues’ magnificent new stadium when they depart Goodison Park in 2024/25.
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