Much as I am disappointed with our “buy one get three free” transfer window, not to mention the “three free” have a combined age of 147, it was inevitable. We have been a basket case of a club for some years now, we bought some rubbish, Mrs C is more discerning when it comes to spending than Everton Football Club.
We have managed to shift on a few players who weren’t of much assistance to the club, we still have a few that need to go but it looks like they will run down their contracts before they leave.
Hamez will be interesting, will he see sense and reduce his wage demands so he can move to a club in a country where the window remains open, will he knuckle down and try to show his worth, will Benitez even give him a chance?
On Benitez, some might look at his situation and say he has been handed the poisoned chalice in that he was taken over an unbalanced and underwhelming squad, however I feel he has just been given a get out of jail free card. While the squad we have isn’t that good it is still too good to get relegated but no one would expect a top half finish or a cup win. If Benitez can get us to tenth place and hopefully early exits in the cups so that we don’t expose ourselves to the possibility of injuries to crucial players he will have done well.
While the results will always be the most important statistic following a game a close second will be the list of injuries, Coleman, Digne, Allan, Doucoure, DCL and Richy all need to play as often as possible. We could also include Gray and Gbamin in that list.
So my verdict on this window is a 4, we got cover in goal, we got cover for DCL and we got pace in Townsend and Gray albeit in a limited way, we didn’t get cover for Coleman, we lost our left back cover who had looked the part so any injury to the defence is going to unbalance that unit. We are on a wing and a prayer with Gbamin as our third midfielder, cover in that department is sketchy at best. We are still paying big wages for a number of players whose contribution will be limited this season and if we are being honest about them the more limited the better.