Everton transfer news: Sky Sports predicts cash shortage after confirmed Conor Coady exit to Wolves despite ‘cheap’ £4.5m option
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…
Sean Dyche only rates Conor Coady in a back three but not a back four when “money’s at a premium” at Everton, says Kevin Campbell in reacting to the defender’s exit.
The club announced on Thursday (1 June) that the centre-back would return to Wolves at the end of his loan deal, at the same time as Ruben Vinagre was set to head back to Sporting.
The 30-year-old had been ever-present earlier in the season under Frank Lampard, but Dyche dropped him to the bench until the final games of the season and Campbell believes the manager simply has other priorities at the position he used play himself.
On whether passing up the option will prove to be a mistake the Sky Sports pundit exclusively told Goodison News: “I don’t know, they’ve worked with him now for half a season.
“Conor Coady was instrumental in the last game, I thought he played really well.
“I just think Sean Dyche knows what he wants. He’s going to want younger players and he’s going to want his own players because he inherited Conor Coady.
“I think he’s got it in his head anyway that Coady is great in a three, not so much in a four.
“And Sean Dyche was a centre-half himself, he knows that game.
“So I just think he wants to go his own route, I understand it.
“It’s cheap money but money’s at a premium at the moment so I don’t think he could afford to mess around.”
In seasons gone by the Coady signing goes through without a second thought but the free spending of the early Farhad Moshiri years seems a long way away now, even if the after-effects remain in full force.
If Dyche preferred the often-embattled Michael Keane to Coady, and the also-departed Yerry Mina, the writing was probably on the wall for the former Wolves captain from some time ago, despite Lampard’s publicly-stated intention to get the deal done [Daily Mail, 23 December].
Centre-back looks set for a major overhaul this summer, with two gone and Jarrad Branthwaite on the way back in from PSV, and with defence the bedrock of a Dyche line up he is sure not to treat it lightly ahead of next season.