Kevin Thelwell targets more aggressive Everton strategy in upcoming transfer windows
Kevin Thelwell is targeting reaching a position where both he and Everton can be more aggressive in their approach with other clubs when selling players in upcoming windows.
Everton’s January transfer window was a difficult period for the Toffees with a change of manager, a lack of money to spend and a reluctance to buy players who weren’t going to be good enough to help Sean Dyche’s side in their hunt for Premier League safety.
The Toffees were unable to recruit a replacement for Anthony Gordon following his late switch to Newcastle United in the January transfer window and Everton director of football Thelwell believes that he has learned to be stronger in setting deadlines.
Speaking on the BBC’s Everton: Nothing Will Be The Same (12 October) in an interview recorded in June, he said: “When we sold Anthony there was some positivity because of the money we were generating. But there was also some huge feeling of difficulty for me and the head of recruitment because we knew what was left and that is, we knew we weren’t going to be able to spend the money.
“You can only do what you can do really, which is just evaluate all of the plans you make or made and see whether you have got your ducks in a row, and almost try to understand: could you have done it any differently?
“What I would probably do is maybe push more aggressively for us to sell earlier because it would just give us an opportunity to spend. I think we could put a line in the sand and say: ‘Look, if you are interested in this player, you have got 48 hours to buy him. If you want to buy him, buy him. If you don’t, move on.
“Unfortunately, because of our circumstances, we weren’t able to do that because obviously everybody could see that we needed the money.”
Little has changed
Sadly, judging by some of the summer transfer dealings at Goodison Park, very little has changed in terms of Everton’s ability to keep their best players at the club or at least sell them with enough time left in the window to recruit themselves.
On transfer deadline day Alex Iwobi left the Toffees for Fulham for a decent fee of £22 million [The Atheltic, 2 October] but Dyche and Thilwell were unable to add to their squad in the final hours of the window, both because of a lack of time and a lack of funding.
While Thelwell may hope to be able to be more aggressive in the transfer market, that may not be possible until a takeover i completed at Goodison Park as currently every other team in the Premier League is aware that the Toffees need cash and need it quickly.
Hopefully, if 777 Partners’ proposed acquisition of Farhad Moshir’s 94.1 per cent stake in Everton is approved by the Premier League in the coming weeks and months, the Toffees and Thelwell will finally be able to present as an aggressive side in the upcoming transfer windows.
In other Everton news, Isaac Price has suggested he may still be a Toffees player if Frank Lampard was in charge at Goodison