Thierno Barry, the future?

We all know he took a bit of time to get used to the league and get going, he has popped up here and there with a few goals and I be forever grateful for the goal he scored at Villa this season to give us our first league win there since they went down in 2016 but overall, he hasn’t really done enough. Strikers from other countries come here and do really well, I am not putting it down to the fact he is not from these parts I just don’t think he is good enough. I am not knocking the lad, he’s a better footballer than I’ll ever be but this is professional football in the Premier League and he just doesn’t offer enough.

We are all aware of the situation that happened at Arsenal away, something happened in the away end with maybe Barry had got tickets for and other Everton fans. I don’t want to speculate on the situation, i don’t know the facts, as far as I know, an investigation took place and to my knowledge, it is not complete yet, so we are still in the dark as to what actually took place, however, what we do know is Barry went onto social media after the fact and put a statement out after hearing what happened from the people he knows rather than wait to see what comes of it and as I said, an official investigation took place that we are waiting to see the outcome, maybe Barry should have waited too.

But let’s look at it from a pure footballing point of view, I think it’s fair to say, since the incident at Arsenal he hasn’t really performed for us when he has featured, which granted, isn’t too much, he is no longer our starting centre forward, Beto has taken that spot back and is doing OK, we saw on Sunday, the structure of the team changed for us in that game after Beto went off, Barry came on and just didn’t do much at all, he just looks like his heart isn’t in it, even before the Arsenal game, he has never looked really happy, maybe there is something behind the scenes or in his personal life that makes him not want to be at Everton/in the UK, I don’t know but it seems he’s just not interested.

I hope Beto is fit for West Ham on Saturday because if not, I am really not sure about Barry up top if I am honest, I have seen some other suggestions which I will get onto shortly. But what made me do this piece about Barry was something I heard yesterday said by someone who is a prominent part of Everton ‘media’ said regarding our centre forwards, will Beto go as he only has one year left on his deal because I don’t think they’ll sell Barry (if there was someone that would take him) because we may lose money on him and I don’t think the owners will want to be seen as losing money. Well, my reaction to that is what, we keep him on the books, pay his wages even though he’s just not good enough? How much money is being lost then if he’s not performing but you’re paying him a wage? Yes, we may end up selling him at a loss but it’s better than keeping him until the end of his contract paying his wages then he goes for free anyway.

As someone said on X, he may push for a move in the summer himself, would he put a transfer request in, I don’t know, from memory, transfer requests usually go in when a team comes hard after a player, somehow, I can’t see that happening with Barry. A loan for for the 26/27 season may work for him and us.

I mentioned earlier that there were other possible options and someone did suggest that maybe Ndiaye could be utilised as a false 9, not against it, if Beto is out I must say. I also posted I think Braiden Graham should be put into the first team squad, I am not saying start him but he scoring goals, albeit and a different level and I do get some of the people that said no due to his size or whatever but I think we could put him in the squad, a lot of teams do that towards the end of the season, i mean, if we have all our outfield players on the bench and two keepers why not take one of those keepers out to give the young lad a go?

Anyway, thanks for reading if you got this far, let me know what your thoughts are on the above.

All the best