The Toffees’ Transfer Prospects: Barkley to Spurs?

Toffees midfielder Ross Barkley is allegedly still interesting Spurs according to the Telegraph but the North London club are willing to spend no more than £25m to land the Evertonian. Toffees manager Ronaldo Koeman has already previously conceded that Barkley’s Everton career is over and that he expects the attacking midfielder to leave before the end of the transfer window. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Spurs have, without a doubt, been the quietest Premier League club so far during the summer transfer window and fans are growing increasingly frustrated at the lack of activity, especially since the club sold defensive stalwart Kyle Walker to Manchester City last month.

Barkley’s departure could pave the way for Gylfi Sigurdsson to join the Blues, with the £40m rated midfielder still keen on a move to the blue half of Merseyside. Previous reports that the deal had broken seem to be wide of the mark and the Icelandic international would certainly add a creative dimension to the team after having an extremely productive transfer window. Koeman will be looking to wrap up the deal as soon as possible ahead of Everton’s tricky looking opening Premier League fixture against Stoke. Stoke have made 6 signings this transfer window, with the club expected to seal a permanent deal for Porto defender Bruno Martins-Indi, who spent last season on loan at the Britannia. Nevertheless, the Blues look set to start the season with 3 points and are 8/13 on with most Premier League football betting sites.

Elsewhere, Everton continue to be linked with Vitesse Arnhem goalkeeper Eloy Room. The Dutch shot stopper would presumably come in to provide competition for former Sunderland goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, who signed for The Blues earlier on in the transfer window for a record breaking £30m. Room was left out of the Dutch Super Cup final against Feyenoord earlier on in the week due to illness, fuelling speculation that the goalkeeper could be set to move to the Premier League. The player commented that he is “[…] only focussed on Vitesse and is feeling good again” but, with around 3 weeks left of the transfer window still to go, talk is relatively cheap in today’s market and it remains to be seen whether the player will be a Toffee come September 1st.

After allowing Romelu Lukaku to move to Manchester United earlier on in the window, Ronald Koeman is expected to bring another striker to provide competition for Kevin Mirallas and new signing Sandro Ramirez but it appears that player will not be Andre Gray, who looks set to join Watford in a deal that could be worth up to £18m. If the transfer does indeed go through, Gray will become Marco Silva’s seventh major signing of the window, joining Nathaniel Chalobah, Tom Cleverley, Daniel Bachmann, Kiko Ferminia, Will Hughes, and recent Brazilian acquisition Richarlison. Gray managed what could be considered a rather paltry 9 goals last season for an admittedly poor Burnley team and Koeman missing out on Gray may be a blessing in disguise, with some Blues fans confident that the team can do much better in the current transfer window. It does remain to be seen, however, if this will indeed be the case.