Decision day is looming on the future of Tom Davies and Everton as Sean Dyche looks to overhaul his squad this summer.
The 24-year-old has been at the Blues since the age of 11, rising through the academy to the first team and clocking up 172 senior appearances for the club. But his current contract is set to expire at the end of the month and no announcement has yet been made on the direction of talks.
Davies did not record a start within Dyche’s 18 games and missed the conclusion of the season through injury. He has previously spoken of his desire for first team football.
Davies made 19 appearances this season and started at home to Nottingham Forest, in the Goodison Park Merseyside derby and the trip to Leeds United in a run of fixtures under former boss Frank Lampard. But the international break came at a bad time for the central midfielder, halting his momentum, and then he could only look on as Idrissa Gueye and James Garner arrived on deadline day while Amadou Onana established himself following his arrival earlier in the summer.
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Under Lampard, the first choice central midfield saw Alex Iwobi line up alongside Onana and Gueye. Dyche changed that makeup - moving Iwobi wide and bringing in Abdoulaye Doucoure. At the end of the season he then gave James Garner opportunities- suggesting Davies could be his fifth choice in the middle, though injuries have prevented him from making a stronger case for inclusion.
That has been the issue for some time with Davies, who made a significant impact when he was first promoted - even winning man of the match in his first Premier League start at Norwich City in 2016. The next season he scored a superb goal against Manchester City during a campaign that ended with the then teenager scooping Young Player of the Year and, for that City game, Individual Performance of the Season and Goal of the Season. Davies became a key part of a team he would repeatedly captain and he played 30 times in 2020/21, playing his 150th game for the club when coming off the bench against Wolverhampton Wanderers that season.
Since then injury has hampered his progression and limited his ability to make an impact. And when injuries have struck he has endured misfortune with the timing. At the beginning of this season Lampard was forced to start with a makeshift midfield of Doucoure and Iwobi and, when Davies was available to step in, he played that run of games before the international break and final day of the transfer window.
Another opportunity to impress came when he flew with the squad to Australia during the World Cup break - only to then be sent home early after suffering a knee injury. He recovered in time to start the home defeat to Brighton with Onana suspended and Garner injured.
Davies has repeatedly earned the praise of his managers at Everton but at the end of this season once again found himself on the fringe of the first team. Having stated his ambition to play more games earlier this year - acknowledging he may need to move away from Everton to achieve that - his future, after 13 years as a Blue, hangs in the balance.
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