Chris Sutton slams Everton squad but reserves praise for Dominic Calvert-Lewin

Chris Sutton blasted the quality of the Everton squad but has praised both Carlo Ancelotti and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

BBC Radio 5 Live’s Monday Night Club discussed Everton’s recent failings, with the weekend defeat to Aston Villa the latest setback in the aim to qualify for Europe.

Sutton believes the problem is clear – the Toffees simply do not have a good enough squad, and there is little Ancelotti can do when he does not have the right players at his disposal.

Everton

Sutton said, “They have an okay goalkeeper, not a Champions League goalkeeper, they don’t have a Champions League back four, they don’t have a Champions League midfield.

“I think they have a brilliant striker in Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

“But they have a guy in Carlo Ancelotti, you can be the best chef in the world at cooking lasagna but if you don’t have the right ingredients you’re not going to make the best lasagna, and that’s Ancelotti’s problem.”

Time to invest, again

The discussion between Sutton and his colleagues also mentioned the fact that Everton’s net spend is the sixth biggest in Europe over the last ten transfer windows, at £300million.

That is an alarming fact considering the glaring weaknesses in the squad and the fact we have not achieved more than 54 points in the last three seasons.

Everton

We have signed plenty of several duds in that time, such as Davy Klaassen, Yannick Bolasie and Cenk Tosun.

Everton have spent vast sums on transfer fees and wages and as Sutton says, we have little to show for it.

There are signs of progress under Ancelotti and with the Italian in charge we should be able to attract more Champions League standard players like Allan and James Rodriguez.

We started well this season and it is not a coincidence our form dipped with injuries to key players.

Our strength in depth is nowhere near good enough and hopefully this is addressed in summer, rather than spending big sums on only one or two big-name players.

In other Everton news, the Toffees are in the hunt for a four-time Champions League winner as Ancelotti looks to emulate Rodriguez signing.

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