Ancelotti – Everton don’t need to spend heavily in the summer to improve
Carlo Ancelotti has explained that Everton don’t need to invest heavily in the coming transfer windows in order to improve their squad.
The Toffees signed a raft of talented players last summer to bolster the Italian coach’s squad, but they didn’t come close to breaching the £100million barrier as they have done several times in the previous few years.
Ben Godfrey and Abdoulaye Doucoure both cost £20million a piece, while Allan cost a little over that [21.7million]. Robin Olsen joined the club on a loan deal, winter window signing Joshua King cost only a nominal fee and both Niels Nkounkou and James Rodriguez arrived as free transfers.
Speaking ahead of Everton’s game against Liverpool this weekend (via The Liverpool Echo), Ancelotti explained that the club would be taking a similar approach to spending in the upcoming summer transfer window. He said:
“It will be important, the next transfer window and it will be important the transfer window the year after. We don’t have a lot of things immediately.
“Here, we have to improve the squad. We improved the squad in the last transfer window, we want to improve the squad in the next transfer window and in the year after.
“I think with the last transfer window, we didn’t spend a lot of money and with three or four signings, the squad improved a lot.
“To improve the squad we don’t need to invest a big amount of money, you just have to find the right players.”
Sensible spending approach
It’s a relief to know that Ancelotti understands the power of selective spending, and that he won’t panic buy players with needlessly high transfer valuations.
Everton thrived under David Moyes when resources were extremely limited because the Scot knew how to be frugal with the money he had at his disposal.
Players’ valuations and the transfer market as a whole have changed massively since Moyes’ tenure came to a close, but the same basic principle exists – that finding the right player for the club is paramount above price tag.
Should Everton find themselves in a position by the end of the season where European qualification is a possibility, the squad will undoubtedly need to be bolstered. Thankfully, Ancelotti and Brands as a partnership have not steered Everton wrong yet, so faith must be kept in their ability to recruit well.
In other Everton news, Yerry Mina has suffered an injury blow that will keep him out of action for three to four weeks.