Everton: Artem Dovbyk transfer news emerges after Dominic Calvert-Lewin miss vs Aston Villa – Paul Joyce
Everton rejected the chance to sign Artem Dovbyk before he made a £7million move to “flourish” at Girona this season, according to Paul Joyce.
The Times journalist, in his match report of the goalless draw with Aston Villa at Goodison Park on 14 January, reacted to Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s failure to score a “guilt-edged” one-on-one with Emi Martinez late in the first half to highlight the recruitment “oversight”.
The Toffees striker hasn’t scored in the Premier League since the 1-0 win over West Ham on 29 October, with Joyce suggesting the “big challenge” for Sean Dyche is now to get the pair of strikers the club did sign in the summer, Beto and Youssef Chermiti, to provide more competition.
Joyce wrote: “But they are yet to earn his trust. It does not help, either, that Artem Dovbyk was rejected, only for the Ukraine forward to flourish at Girona, the La Liga leaders, after a £7 million move from Dnipro.”
Dovbyk has 11 goals and five assists in La Liga, to sit just two behind Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham in the Spanish top flight’s scoring charts.
Misstep
Everton didn’t have free rein in the transfer market in the summer by any means as Kevin Thelwell had to negotiate the deals for Beto and Chermiti on the basis that nothing would be paid up front.
The former arrived in a deal worth £25.75million from Udinese [Sky Sports, 29 August] and the latter £15million from Sporting [BBC Sport, 11 August], but the Toffees were restricted by what they could spend at the time.
With one 10-point deduction already imposed for a profit and sustainability breach and now an expectation of a second charge arriving the day after the Villa draw [David Ornstein, 14 January] it is quite clear why it was difficult to strengthen in the summer.
Dovbyk is making his summer fee look an absolute steal now, and after the 26-year-old scored 29 times in all competitions last season it looks a bargain either way for Girona to have got him for less than half what it has cost Everton to sign Chermiti, who is yet to score a senior goal for the club.
Few would have predicted that Girona would be leading Real, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid at this stage of the season, but Dovbyk has turned out to be a big part of the reason why.
It may be that a favourable construction of the deal the Toffees required would not have been possible with Dnipro, but if the club simply dismissed him based on their assessment of his ability then it looks like they got it badly wrong.
The striker group of Calvert-Lewin, Beto and Chermiti actually looks much stronger than what has been available at times in recent seasons when the Englishman was regularly injured, but he has gone off the boil of late and neither of the summer signings are getting much of a look in behind him.
In other Everton news, the club will turn their attentions to a long-term target in a big way if a Goodison exit is confirmed in the January window.