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Everton also failed with deadline day offer for Duvan Zapata, rejected by Atalanta
Everton failed with a deadline day bid to sign Atalanta striker Duvan Zapata to add to the long list of misses, according to TEAMtalk.
The Toffees were linked to a whole host of attacking reinforcements across the final day of the window, but Sky Sports’ Vinny O’Connor was stationed outside Finch Farm throughout and had no good news to bring the fans.
The deadline passed with Sean Dyche left empty handed, and the club have now even missed out on free agent Andre Ayew, but Colombian Zapata can be added to the pile of failed moves to heap further frustration on the supporters.
A loan-to-buy offer that included money up front was apparently tabled to the Serie A side, who rejected it because they only wanted a permanent deal.
If that is the case then it reflects doubly-badly on the board because Fabrizio Romano had reported that to be the case 11 days earlier, so not only did they fail with the offer but they must have known that prior to making it.
Insanity
Attempting the same move on the final day only to get the same answer they apparently got over a week earlier pretty much sums up the ineptitude of this window.
Anthony Gordon left for Newcastle to leave the squad weaker than it was at the start of January, and the sacking of Frank Lampard over half way through the month apparently opened the door for Tottenham to steal in an swipe Arnaut Danjuma from Everton when the deal looked as good as done.
To miss out on every single target is poor, and then not even be able to attract 33-year-old Ayew to the club on Thursday (2 February) is worse.
Dyche was diplomatic when he was asked about the lack of arrivals in his first press conference as manager, which he took alone as the board opted not to give him an official unveiling and face questions themselves.
The former Burnley boss assured everyone that the key figures had been hard at work behind the scenes, whilst raising the necessity for signings to be better than the current squad in mitigation.
That is obviously true, but given the current squad is level on points with the side bottom of the league at the moment there should be plenty of players around that are better, and if Everton were exploring deals for numerous named players on deadline day, why were they doing that if they weren’t improvements?
It is a depressing mess at the club at the moment, and Dyche has a huge challenge to turn things around on the pitch without any additions, so Zapata just adds to a long list of disappointments at the start of the new manager’s reign.