By Sean Fisher

17th Dec, 2022 | 10:10am

Everton trail Mohammed Kudus race despite being summer favourites - Fabrizio Romano

After failing to complete a move for Mohammed Kudus in the summer, Everton are no longer favourites to sign the Ajax attacker, according to Fabrizio Romano.

Everton were keen to add more attacking firepower in the summer and turned to Kudus, but the Dutch club were hesitant to sell another first-team star after already offloading a number of players.

The Toffees were made to wait, but it’s proved costly for Frank Lampard with Romano now reporting via Caught Offside that Everton are no longer favourites to sign the 22-year-old.

“Everton were one step away from signing him in August, then the deal collapsed as Ajax didn’t want to sell also him after Antony, Lisandro, Gravenberch and more,” said Romano.

“Everton are no longer the favourites, he’s also exploring more options.”

Regret

Everton will regret not pushing harder for Kudus in the summer. The young Ghanaian attacker was superb for the Dutch champions last year and has only improved this season.

His impressive Champions League performances began to attract interest from around the continent, and then Kudus went and enjoyed a brilliant World Cup campaign with Ghana, where he scored twice in the three group stage matches.

When he returns to Amsterdam, Kudus will likely have a stack of offers waiting for him and it seems Everton’s has fallen to the bottom of the pile.

If Kudus truly is out of the picture for January, then the club needs to quickly identify a new attacking target. With Anthony Gordon, Dwight McNeil and Demarai Gray all struggling to create chances the dressing room needs an injection of attacking talent as soon as possible.

A quiet January window would be disastrous for Lampard and Everton, who look bound to be involved in another relegation dogfight this season.