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Marcel Brands: No new signings at Everton in January
Marcel Brands has confirmed that Everton won’t be signing any new players before the January transfer window closes.
Everton’s director of football spoke at the club’s AGM on Thursday with The Athletic quoting him as saying: “We don’t expect to sign new players in this window.”
The Athletic reports that the Blues’ focus is to trim down the squad this month but are yet to sell any players. Matthew Pennington (Shrewsbury) and Jarrad Branthwaite (Blackburn), however, have both left on loan.
Trimming down the fat
Everton have a number of players who are on the fringes of Carlo Ancelotti’s first-team that might as well be moved on this month if the club can find buyers.
Out of players aged 21 and above, Jonas Lossl, Robin Olsen, Jonjoe Kenny, Cenk Tosun, Fabian Delph, Yannick Bolasie and Bernard are the players who have started fewer than three league games this term.
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If Ancelotti wants three senior goalkeepers then keeping Lossl and Olsen is obvious but every other player mentioned there could be up for grabs this month.
According to CalcioMercato, Berard’s agent is making his way to England to discuss the Brazilian’s future amid interest from Roma and German newspaper Welt has reported Kenny could return to Schalke on loan.
Tosun has been linked with a move to West Brom [Sky Sports] and Bolasie is on Neil Warnock’s shortlist at Middlesbrough [Gazette].
We don’t expect to see all of those players leave to the clubs they’re currently linked with but moving on the likes of Bernard, Tosun and Bolasie could free up some space on the wage bill and boost Ancelotti’s transfer budget for next season.
Sure, there are areas of this squad that need to be improved. Away from Dominic Calvert-Lewin, the Blues lack quality and depth in the centre-forward position and that is perhaps why Sky Sports’ Fabrizio Romano has reported on Friday that the Toffees are in talks with Bayern Munich over signing Joshua Zirkzee on loan.
Everton and Parma are in talks with Bayern Münich to sign Joshua Zirkzee on loan, after Eintracht Frankfurt also trying weeks ago. He wants to play – no decision made yet. 🔴 @SkySport @MatteMoretto #Bayern #EFC
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) January 15, 2021
Brands has said that there won’t be any signings at Everton this month but we shouldn’t take that as the be-all and end-all. If someone becomes available who can strengthen the squad, we’re sure that he’ll try to find a way to sign them.
In other Everton news, Kevin Campbell has been raving about Everton’s options on the left.