Sky Sports pundit confident Everton will look to get rid of Andre Gomes in January
We’re delighted to welcome former Everton striker Kevin Campbell as our exclusive columnist. Each week the former Toffees captain will be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Goodison Park…
Andre Gomes might be “too costly” for Lille to make his loan from Everton permanent but he is in the shop window for a move says Kevin Campbell.
Jeunes Footeux reported on 7 October that it was unlikely the French side were going to take up their option to sign the Toffees midfielder as he has been “far from convincing” in Ligue 1, possibly pointing to his wages – reported to be £120,000-a-week by Football Insider – remaining on the books at Goodison past this season.
But Sky Sports pundit Campbell still thinks the current situation is better than him languishing on the bench or out of the squad on Merseyside because he is in the shop window while he is playing, and anything could happen in January which isn’t far away.
On the subject of whether it will be difficult to get his sizeable wages off the books when speaking exclusively to Goodison News he said: “Yep, it is.
“But listen, you run the risk of that happening anyway. Teams can say no if they have the option whether to take him or not, and it’s not going to work out.
“Maybe he’s a bit too costly, who knows.
“But hey, at the end of the day, he’s there, he’s playing, he’s in the shop window and you have to wait and see what happens.
“January is coming up fast, it’s already mid-October now.
“We just have to wait and see on that one but I’m sure Everton would like to do some business and get him off the books.
“Maybe that [injury] slowed [his career] up, but that’s part and parcel of the game now isn’t it, injuries?
“So you have to take the rough with the smooth.”
It is particularly unfortunate for Gomes to be a symbol of the cavalier recruitment policy in previous years under Farhad Moshiri because of the devastating injury he suffered in 2019.
It set him back a long way in his standing at Goodison and he now has little prospect of breaking back into the first team on a regular basis considering how strong the current group is.
Clearly, Everton don’t want to be paying big wages to a player who has little prospect of playing regularly since their finances are delicate as it is, but if Lille don’t take up the option and nobody else provides an alternative he has every right to have his contract fulfilled, so it could be a situation that takes a while longer to resolve itself.