Hackney’s through the door, who’s next?

Will Gana Gueye, George & Grealish remain at Everton?

We have our first signing through the door, Hayden Hackney from Middlesborough, he was their best player, their captain and the Championship player of the season. We had been linked with him for a while then the club finally made a move. Even though he was entering the final year of his contract at the Riverside, Middlesborough but quite a high price on his head, 25m maybe and Everton were not going to pay that. The player apparently only wanted Everton once he was aware of their interest.

Crystal Palace were also interested in taking the player, maybe they think Adam Wharton could be moving on this summer and wanted to get another Championship player, as Wharton was when they bought him. If all stories are to be believed, Palace offered 20m for Hackney but because Hackney wanted Everton that didn’t go anywhere and Everon got the deal done finally for 16.5m and there will be add-on’s that could take it to 19-20m. Mainstream media were announcing the deal as a 25m package.

There was a bit of panic amongst the fan base as it had been rumbling on for a few weeks, the player went on holiday in that time too but, I never thought it would be done before June 30^th for financial reasons but it’s done now and that’s the first one over the line, onto the next.

We know we need a right-back, maybe two, maybe another left-back if they are looking at putting Adam Aznou out on loan. We still have Mykolenko, recently signing a contract extension, again, some of the fan base weren’t happy with that, I do get it but for me I looked at ‘protecting the asset’ - I don’t want Mykolenko to be our left-back going forward, which is ironic because he doesn’t go forward enough, but we have seen players leave the club for nothing and it’s not sustainable as a business. I hope, in that 3 year period we’ll be able to sell him and get our money back or at least some of it rather than let him walk out the door for free, I mean, I know there were many who wanted Calvert-Lewin gone from the club but seeing how he stayed fit for Leeds last season and was even in the running to go to the World cup with England, some fans wouldn’t have minded him at Everton last season because I think, we may have done better than what we did in the end, it’s all ifs, buts and maybes I know but I think personally, we may have finished higher than 13^th with him in the side.

Talks are ongoing and apparently going relatively well with Chelsea to bring Tyrique George back to Hill Dickinson. As we know, we had him on loan last season with an option to buy at a price that was ‘below his market value’ but the club felt the cost was still too high especially as they are not sure how much he will feature if he comes back because he wasn’t used as much as we thought he would be when he came in under Moyes. Logically, he had his reservations about coming back as he wanted to play football but now it has been revealed that he is willing to return which is massive of course so hopefully now a deal will be done.

Another player I hope returns after his loan last season is Jack Grealish, he did really well for us last season and played his part in our first win away at his former club Villa in years and then in training after that game he got a not contact injury which saw him miss the rest of the season for us and personally, with the form of Gana Gueye and Ndiaye following AFCON and Grealish’s injury really cost us last season. It’s gone quiet on Grealish at the moment, I don’t know if anything is going on behind the scenes but I hope it is, I want to see him return, apparently, he wants to return but Man City hold all the cards, Everton want another loan which will then see him go to the end of his Man City contract but City, understandably, would like to sell him to recoup some of the 100m they paid for him. All we can do is wait to see what happens.

Idrissa Gana Gueye is not officially a free agent after his Everton contract expired on June 30th. The club have been in discussion with his representatives but as of writing this, nothing has been agreed. Gana Gueye is a high earner at Everton and doesn’t want to take a pay-cut to remain at the club but the club want him to because of his age which in turn means he will not be featured as much as he has been this past season and it makes no business sense to pay a player a high end salary if he’s not going to feature as much. Now, Gana Gueye may think he’s worth it and he has been exceptional for us over both spells and you can’t blame him for being reluctant to take a pay cut but I can see it from the clubs point of view. We were in a similar position last season with him and eventually he signed with us but there were fans who would say at points in the season his time was done. Let’s not forget, he’s 36 and will be 37 in September, it’s natural his form will drop off, it just comes with age. I think he may be done at Everton now, he may get a lucrative deal in the Saudi league or elsewhere and fair play to him, I have nothing bad to say about him, he has been a terrific player for us, he was a player, like Jordan Pickford, that we signed from a relegated team and done brilliantly for us and him getting a move to PSG when he played for us the first time proves just how good he was/is. Not that he needs my blessing but if we don’t see him in an Everton shirt again, I wish him well in whatever he does.

Gana Gueye’s international team mate Illiman Ndiaye is another player who has been subject to transfer rumours since the season ended but to my knowledge there has been no direct contact with the club from any potential interested parties concerning a move for him but who knows what has been going on behind closed doors. He fueled the situation by speaking while away on international duty he said in one interview “I want to be the best player and to do that you have to play at the top. I want to be playing at the top level, playing Champions League football”. Now, if that is the only quote I don’t have any issues at all, all players should want to play CL level football, whether they are good enough to get there or not is a different matter, I am not saying Ndiaye is or is not but just in the World Cup, I think he only started one game, the final game for Senegal after coming on against Iraq in the previous game where he scored and assisted a goal. If we’re honest, his form after he came back from the AFCON last season, dipped, same can maybe be said for Gana Gueye too so, if he were to go, would I be disappointed, you know what, I’m not sure if I’m honest, please let me know what you think.

Tim Iroegbunham is another player linked with the exit door at Everton, we bought him for around 8-9m a couple of seasons back in what people saw as a ‘PSR deal’ we bought him from Villa and we sold them Lewis Dobbin and got more than what we paid for Iroegbunham and it’s fair to say, we definitely got the better end of the deal. I like Iroegbunham as a player, his passing leaves a lot to be desired and he seems to run out of steam but he puts himself about and that what you want from your midfield players. If he goes, we will make a profit on him but we need to replace him and there are links to players but you have to take most of them with a pinch of salt but one we have been linked to is a Senegalese player named Pape Gueye who did score two goals in the 5-0 win over Iraq (one assisted by Ndiaye) he seems like he could be a good option for us if Gana Gueye and Iroegbunham were to leave or even just Gana Gueye.

I think that’s it for now, thanks if you have read it all, appreciate it, please subscribe if you haven’t already and if you could share the article on your social media platforms I’d be very grateful.

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