Grading the summer transfer window: Everton

This summer was a big one for Everton – after years of criticism from their own fans for a perceived stingy attitude towards transfers, this was the transfer window that saw them spend big. Yeah, they recouped a lot of money on a big sale (more on that later) but they still spent well over £100m on new players.

The problem for Everton? While they were willing to spend big money in an attempt to break into the Champions League spots, the six clubs ahead of them – the two Manchester sides plus Spurs, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool – were all spending too and have obviously strengthened their own positions.

With Everton getting off to a pretty disastrous start to the season – piling serious pressure on boss Ronald Koeman – the jury is out on a lot of their new signings right now. Here’s an attempt to grade their summer dealings.

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OUTS

It’s pretty clear that one name stands out on the list of players who departed Goodison Park in the summer of 2017, but we’ll get to him in a second. Everton actually lost 16 players during the summer window but of those, 10 were released, the majority of them fringe players at best outside of Arouna Kone, but he’d largely faded away anyway. So let’s ignore those and look at the others.

Departures: Tom Cleverley (Watford), Gerard Deulofeu (Barcelona), Romelu Lukaku (Manchester United), Aiden McGeady (Sunderland), Gareth Barry (West Bromwich Albion)

Lukaku was obviously the big loss; Everton did recoup a massive transfer fee of £75m for the Belgian hitman but the problem comes with replacing him. If the Toffees had replaced him by spending all that money (plus some more) on a like-for-like replacement then it’d be one thing, but instead they spent the cash on a variety of players, and as Tottenham learned post-Gareth Bale exit in 2013, you can’t replace an iPhone with a camera, a calculator, a phone, an alarm clock and a calendar, if you get my drift.

The fact that Lukaku has been on fire for United definitely leaves a sour taste too, particularly for those who claimed he was overrated and/or a flat track bully. Everton made a profit of £47m on him but his loss has still hurt the side massively.

Outside of him? Barry is clearly at the tail end of his career and won’t really be missed given his age; McGeady had spent the past two seasons away from Everton on loan anyway, so there’s no big deal there; likewise for Cleverley who spent the majority of last season at Watford anyway – but it was a solid move for the Toffees to make £8m from him at least; and finally Deulofeu’s move to Barcelona was bizarre at best. Everton didn’t make much money on him (£10m) but quite why Barca wanted him I’m not too sure!

Evidently Lukaku was the only departure to affect Ronald Koeman’s squad, but for a side pushing for the Champions League, losing their best player is a massive blow.

Grading: 3/10

INS:

Davy Klaassen

Davy Klaassen has found it hard to adjust to Premier League life

With Ross Barkley on the outs with Ronald Koeman and looking likely to move away from Goodison Park – possibly to Tottenham – in January after a close call with a potential transfer to Chelsea in August, Dutch international Klaassen was brought in from Ajax for a substantial fee of £23.6m to essentially act as his replacement.

Unfortunately for all parties, it hasn’t worked out thus far. Despite bringing a good reputation from Ajax, where he was largely an ever-present and even contributed with 20 goals last season, he’s seemingly failed to get to grips with the pace of the Premier League and has quickly slid down the pecking order at his new club.

While Klaassen will probably be given more chances as the season goes on, we’ve seen before with the likes of Vincent Janssen that players from the Dutch Eredivisie find the step up to the Premier League very difficult these days due to the gap in quality. That may well be the case for Klaassen too and it may well be the unfortunate case that Everton have wasted a lot of money on him.

Grading: 1/10

Jordan Pickford

Jordan Pickford has received good reviews despite Everton's struggles

Pickford cost a hell of a lot of money both for a goalkeeper and a player still gaining Premier League experience - £25m, making him the most expensive goalkeeper in English football history and the third most expensive goalkeeper ever – but so far he’s largely lived up to the hopes that Toffees fans had for him. Sure, he’s only kept one clean sheet thus far but that’s been more down to Everton’s poor form than any glaring errors from him.

Since moving to Everton Pickford has established himself in the England senior squad as one of three potential first-choice keepers, and he’s also claimed that similarities between Everton and his former club Sunderland – largely the fact that he sees them as a “family-orientated club” and not that Everton are struggling as Sunderland did last season! – have helped him settle into his new surroundings quickly.

With a penchant for spectacular saves as well as good skills with the ball at his feet – witness his pass to Ben Chilwell that led to Demarai Gray’s goal for England u21’s against Poland in the summer – Pickford is sure to see his reputation grow while at Everton and despite the club’s dodgy start, he’s already getting some good reviews from observers.

Grading: 7/10

Wayne Rooney

Wayne Rooney's Everton return has already seen some ups and downs

By far the highest profile signing of Everton’s summer, the return of the former England captain to his boyhood team was a big piece of business, if not in transfer fee – Rooney returned on a free transfer from Manchester United – in terms of wages instead. And since his return we’ve already been on a rollercoaster with probably the most famous English footballer since David Beckham.

Rooney showed flashes of brilliance early on, both in pre-season and then with goals against Stoke City and Manchester City. Since those early games though his level of performance has dropped dramatically, as he’s looked less like the young and dynamic Rooney and more like the ageing and stodgy one we saw at Old Trafford last season. He’s also retired from international football and – more alarmingly – been busted for drinking and driving.

The problem is that while Rooney offers Everton a ton of experience and can come up with the odd moment of magic, his lack of pace and fitness these days also means he blunts the Toffees’ attack and slows their play down pretty dramatically. If we’re honest the old Rooney is gone for good, and he’d be better deployed in a similar role to latter-day Teddy Sheringham. Used correctly he could be a good signing but as a focal point as he has been...just no, not in 2017.

Grading: 5/10

Michael Keane

Michael Keane has struggled as part of a four-man defence

Signed for a big transfer fee of £30m from Burnley, Keane reportedly turned down a move back to Manchester United in order to sign for Everton instead and while Rooney drew the majority of the summer’s headlines, it was the capture of the England international defender that was perhaps the Toffees’ most impressive signing.

Unfortunately it hasn’t quite worked out yet as Everton have shipped 12 goals in 7 Premier League games thus far and while Keane hasn’t been making any glaring individual errors or anything like that, his defensive partnership with Welsh international Ashley Williams was expected to become one of the most formidable in the EPL and instead it’s looked like one of the most shaky. Admittedly it’s been Williams, not Keane who appears to have lost all sense of form, but it’s still a defensive issue and Keane’s reputation has certainly suffered somewhat.

All is not lost – an upturn in form could still see Keane rise back up the ladder and prove himself one of the Premier League’s most reliable defenders as he did last season in some excellent performances for Burnley, but unless Everton’s overall form improves soon, he may continue to struggle. Perhaps a return to a three-man defence also involving veteran Phil Jagielka – a formation used by Everton earlier in the season – might help?

Grading: 5/10

Sandro Ramirez

Sandro Ramirez has yet to find the net for Everton

Along with Rooney, Ramirez was supposed to make up for the sale of Romelu Lukaku by providing Everton with a new source of goals from the front, but despite 10 appearances in all competitions for his new club he has yet to find the back of the net. Part of this has clearly been down to Everton’s poor overall form – they’ve only scored four Premier League goals altogether – but the young Spaniard clearly hasn’t adapted as Toffees fans hoped he would.

Ronald Koeman has showed patience with Ramirez thus far, pointing out that it took Manchester United’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan a full season to get used to the Premier League and find his feet, but despite some fans being impressed with his early performances despite the lack of goals – probably due to his pace in comparison to Rooney – he’s largely been overshadowed by England youngster Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

Still, there are plenty of plus points surrounding Ramirez – he’s still just 22 years old, only cost £5.2m due to a minimum fee release clause in his contract at Malaga, and in Spain he had quite the reputation as he scored 14 goals in 30 league appearances in 2016/17. The jury is still out but I think it’s probably fair to give him time to settle in, as Koeman himself suggests. A first goal for his new club would work wonders.

Grading: 4/10

Nikola Vlasic

Nikola Vlasic has shown intriguing flashes of potential

The young Croatian winger was signed from Hadjuk Split on transfer deadline day for £10m after impressing both Ronald Koeman and head scout Steve Walsh when Everton faced the Croatian side in August’s Europa League play-offs, and he’s since featured on-and-off to varying results.

His first Everton goal came against Cypriot side Apollon Limassol in the Europa League, and his performance in that game was pointed out by many observers as one of the most positive things to take away from what was generally a disappointing performance. Following this he was chosen to start in Everton’s next game against Burnley, but had a more quiet game and was substituted in the second half.

With just five Everton appearances under his belt thus far and only two of them starts, it’s very hard to grade Vlasic properly, but his performances have been encouraging enough to suggest that he could be a sleeper hit signing who could go on to success at Goodison Park.

Grading: 6/10

Cuco Martina

Cuco Martina has been a defensive liability at times

The Dutch-born, Curacao-representing right back was an intriguing signing for Everton this summer, as he was snapped up on a free transfer following his release from Southampton, where he made 18 appearances under Ronald Koeman back in 2015/16. Due to the long-term injury to Everton’s first-choice right-back Seamus Coleman, Martina has already scooped up plenty of chances for first-team football, both in his preferred position and as a wing-back when the Toffees have used a three-man defence.

Unfortunately, Martina has largely struggled despite being given first-team football by his new club. He was described as a “defensive liability” after a particularly bad performance against Tottenham, and it’s quite clear that as a straight-up right-back he probably isn’t up to the task as Everton’s first choice. He has fared better when going forward though so perhaps – like Michael Keane – a move back to a three-man defence, using Martina as a wing-back, might suit him better.

Overall despite not really standing out either way, he’s still a player who’s been part of a weak-looking defence thus far this season. And at the age of 27 it’s unlikely he’ll improve massively for the future too.

Grading: 4/10

Gylfi Sigurdsson

Gylfi Sigurdsson has yet to live up to his price tag

The Toffees shattered their record transfer fee by spending £40m to bring the Icelandic playmaker to Goodison Park from Swansea in mid-August, but despite helping his international side qualify for their first ever World Cup appearance in the months following, he hasn’t had as much early success at his new club. He scored a tremendous goal on his debut against Hadjuk Split but hasn’t scored since and has looked a little out of sorts.

There were always questions over Sigurdsson’s abilities at the top level – some fans view him as little more than a dead-ball specialist, but his performances for Swansea over the past few seasons – 9 goals and 13 assists in 2016/17 – suggest much more than that. For Everton though he hasn’t created any goals and only 2 of his 11 shots this season have been on target.

For many fans the problem has been Koeman’s use of him – for Everton he’s been deployed out wide on a number of occasions when he clearly favours playing through the middle, the position he enjoyed for Swansea and with Iceland. Perhaps a change of tactic for Everton will end up helping him but right now he hasn’t lived up to his price tag at all and that’s been one of the most disappointing facts of Everton’s early season issues.

Grading: 4/10

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Nathangelo Markelo, Henry Onyekuru, Boris Mathis, Josh Bowler, Lewis Gibson, Dennis Adeniran

Of Everton’s 14 summer signings the six named above haven’t appeared for the Toffees’ senior squad yet. Onyekuru has been sent on loan to Anderlecht while the majority of the others are either with Everton’s reserves or their u23 squad. Essentially they’re moves that haven’t affected Everton’s Premier League fortunes, so no grade will be given.