Everton’s January transfer window gets worse the more we learn about it.
The club, this week, went on the record to dispel a series of concerns over what happened during what had the potential to be one of the most important four weeks in its history. Planning for it began from September 1, the day after the summer window closed, Everton said. It added that money was available for signings, the club is not underfunded and while financial restrictions limit what could be spent, the Blues did not enter the year subject to any form of special measures.
Under normal circumstances, many of those answers may provide a degree of reassurance to supporters worried about the future of their club. Instead, like so much of Everton’s post-World Cup exploits, the claims raised more questions than answers. And a familiar one remains foremost: How did the club fail to strengthen when there was such a desperate need to improve the squad?
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Frank Lampard went into the new year publicly acknowledging his side needed two forward players. The sale of Richarlison in the summer marked the departure of the talisman whose goals had helped Everton survive relegation. The gamble to rely so heavily on Dominic Calvert-Lewin backfired as he was once again hampered by injury for the first half of the season. If there was any doubt over what needed to happen next then the 12 goals scored in the opening 15 games of the campaign dispelled any uncertainty - just one coming from Neal Maupay, the only striker to arrive over the summer. His signing only came after Everton had played five games without a recognised forward trusted by Lampard.
Heading into 2023 it looked clear that there was a plan in place for January. In Australia, during the Sydney Super Cup, Lampard told the ECHO a list of targets had been drawn up, the obvious conclusion that more firepower was needed was shared throughout the club and while loan deals would be preferred, money was available if the right deal came along.
When Salomon Rondon, who Lampard left out of his starting lineup for several games even when he had no other fit and recognised first team striker available, agreed for his contract to be mutually terminated just before Christmas the signs were that a sensible plan might exist. As bottom-of-the-table Wolves outmuscled Everton to agree a deal for Matheus Cunha it raised few red flags - the financial commitment necessary to secure the move wreaked of the type of expensive risk that had sent Everton backwards under the rule of majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri.
But the positive signs ended there. The Boxing Day defeat at home to Wolves prompted a crisis that saw Everton slump into the bottom three and which cost Lampard his job. As the club struggled on the pitch, falling to further damaging defeats to Brighton, Southampton and West Ham, chaos reigned off it. A month that began with chants of ‘Sack the Board’ from sections of Goodison Park deteriorated so dramatically that it ended in a significant protest movement and now a commitment to march in demonstration against the management of the club before every home game.
Meanwhile, the board of directors that much frustration is aimed at stopped attending Goodison Park matchdays because of what the club claimed were ‘credible’ security concerns. And goals continued to be an issue through this period but still no signing arrived, the only addition to the first team squad being the return of Ellis Simms, recalled from his loan spell at Sunderland.
Against that backdrop, the club agreed to work with the Everton Fan Advisory Board to address questions posed by worried supporters, many of whom were terrified at the prospect of Everton slipping into the Championship. It is at this point that some credit is warranted. While it is fair to debate whether Lampard should have been dismissed earlier, and it is true he was undermined by problems he inherited rather than created, his departure was the right decision and the move to replace him with Sean Dyche was a sensible one.
Everton’s chances of survival are stronger and whether the club moved early enough or not, it moved before Leeds United and Southampton. The win over manager-less Leeds on Saturday was testament to the importance of getting a new manager in place as a team with perhaps more talent that Everton was defeated by one that was more organised. Secondly, Everton committed to the FAB process and it has honoured that commitment. Communication and engagement amid the crises that have engulfed the club have left much to be desired. But Everton has now responded to questions asked on behalf of fans, as it insisted it would.
That the club opened itself up to a programme through which it had to address topics ranging from links to sanctioned billionaire Alisher Usmanov and speculation around interest from Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour perhaps reveals just how chaotic January became, however. And, as stated above, while the answers provided may be lengthy, the substance of many simply raise more questions about a shambolic start to the year.
In defence of the failure to land a single signing in its hour of need the club points to the Arnaut Danjuma saga. The club said: “[He] not only fitted the profile of player we wanted to bring in but also offered the best value for money in an over-inflated market. After extensive negotiations, we had a deal in place and the player was heading to Finch Farm to complete the formalities, only for another club to step in at the 11th hour. With that deal no longer viable, the reality was that there was only a very small pool of available players who would have improved our first XI. We worked hard on securing players of the right quality - but were unable to reach agreement with the clubs we were liaising with. Our efforts were hindered by the fact our negotiating power was impacted by our responsibility to also remain compliant with profit and sustainability rules. We could have added players that we knew to be available but that we also knew were not of the necessary quality to positively impact our team.”
Danjuma rejected Everton for Tottenham Hotspur with around one week of the transfer window remaining. With Everton stating it had prepared for January from September 1, and the need for firepower openly acknowledged, what had happened before then? And with a week still to go, was there really not a contingency plan in place should that deal fall through? Moshiri had already committed to saying a striker would be signed. Lampard had spent weeks saying two were needed. None came. Yet Everton’s rivals strengthened. Bournemouth, Southampton and Wolves committed to spending tens of millions. West Ham and Nottingham Forest, both having spent in excess of £100m in the summer, added to their squads.
The club went on to add: “When Sean Dyche was appointed as our new manager, he shared the view that any new signings had to be capable of making an immediate impact to the first XI and improve the options already available to us. Sean also felt the squad he inherited has more quality than our league position at the time of his arrival suggested.” Dyche has been clear that he does not believe in signing players simply for the sake of it, and that hard work continued until the final hours to explore options. Yet the reality is much of the work should have been done well before his appointment.
It is remarkable a club in Everton’s position, with so much on the line, with no legitimate claim to ignorance following the scare provided last year, with so much time to prepare and, in the club’s words, some money available, ended January weaker than when it started through the loss of Anthony Gordon. Dyche’s job is harder, not easier, because of the club’s transfer window. His efforts were undermined before they began. Two wins in his first three game have boosted morale, taken Everton out of the bottom three and provided much needed hope the club's fate lies in its own hands. Should he protect the club's top flight status his achievement will be so extraordinary because of the situation he inherited. The situation did not need to be as desperate as it was when he joined though. From inflated January prices to profit and sustainability constraints, the mitigating factors Everton had to deal with were known months in advance.
As of yet there has been no serious explanation or accountability over what happened in January. Dyche did a good job handling the questions that followed deadline day but should not have been the first person tasked with answering questions over what happened. In its responses to the FAB, the club said director of football Kevin Thelwell will soon “take part in content on club channels providing further insight on our wider football plan”. That reads like a process geared more towards the club's strategic review than the transfer window, but it might provide some answers. In the meantime, it is hard to escape the conclusion the window did not go how Thelwell, whose name is widely respected in footballing circles, wanted or planned for it to go. He had a close relationship with Lampard and was almost certainly on the same page as the former manager when January began.
Accountability and communication remain key issues in the current situation at Everton. Those at the club may feel its responses to the FAB process display a degree of that. But this is a process that still leaves key questions unanswered - on topics far beyond the transfer window. And while the FAB’s work to get answers on the record should be welcomed, even that organisation is still unconvinced by what it has received, concluding: "We remain concerned about the lack of recognition from the club about the legitimate concerns being expressed by many supporters about the club’s current situation and the need for further clarity in a number of key areas... We have been extremely concerned about the lack of proactive visible leadership, communication and engagement with the supporter base at a time when it has been needed most. This situation is unacceptable, and we urge the club to address it. It is what Evertonians deserve.”
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