Hearts boss Robbie Neilson wants Everton striker Ellis Simms back next year after wonderstrike
Robbie Neilson wants Everton striker back on loan at Hearts again next season after the youngsters wonder goal helped them reach the Scottish Cup final.
The 21-year-old smashed in from the edge of the area as the Jambos beat rivals Hibernian to set up a show piece against Rangers.
It was his fifth goal for the club amid a strong run of form, but his manager knows the decision is out of his hands and likely won’t come until later in the summer.
Neilson said, via the Edinburgh Evening News: “I would like to keep him but, with all the loan players, their parent club will make the decision on it. I would like to keep Ellis here.
“It is out of our hands. We have spoken about it but in general with loan deals, especially coming from England, it tends to be July or even August before we get them in. We need to look at other targets and decide. ‘Do we wait for that one or go for this one?’”
Needed
The goalscoring situation back at Goodison Park could do with a serious boost so Frank Lampard needs to carefully decide who he can use before anyone is sent back out.
Whether that will be for Premier League of Championship football remains to be seen.
But with Dominic Calvert-Lewin badly short of form and fitness, and Richarlison proving profligate in front of goal, a re-think in the summer will be necessary.
The Brazilian scuffed in a late leveller against Leicester, but missed two other glorious chances, and this was his only goal that didn’t come from the penalty spot since January.
England forward Calvert-Lewin hasn’t scored at all since the opening weeks of the season, and Salomon Rondon is unlikely to be a long-term solution.
Simms left the club before the new manager came in, and given the chance Lampard may have put a stop to it, needing all the help he could get.
While he hasn’t been prolific in Scotland Simms has shown enough to suggest he can offer something and will surely be around for at least the pre-season.
In other Everton news, Mark Lawrenson has predicted the result of the Merseyside derby between the Toffees and his former team.
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