Sam Matterface shares what Everton told him about summer sales amid transfer speculation
Sam Matterface has revealed that Everton have contacted him to suggest the Toffees won’t be forced to sell their stars at cut prices this summer.
The talkSPORT host had suggested that Sean Dyche’s side could be set to lose Jarrad Branthwaite, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Jordan Pickford this summer for a combined £80million because of financial issues at Goodison Park [talkSPORT, 2 June].
Although Matterface has since insisted that the clip of the broadcast was taken out of context, the ITV commentator has admitted that the Toffees made contact to refute suggestions of a potential firesale.
Speaking on talkSPORT on Monday (3 June, 10:37) he said: “Someone from the club has just texted me and I think it’s worth pointing out before we go any further actually that we did a whole section of the issues at Everton football club and somebody took a very small clip of that.
“The idea of the conversation was that we spoke about the number of problems at the football club and what they had to solve and at the end we said when you have a situation where you have players that you need to sell, people can sense it and vultures can swoop.
“We said that in this case, this player will go, this player will go, this player will go. Everton fans have got really upset about it. Two things, Everton have got much bigger problems than my mathematics and if you saw that clip please watch the whole section of the programme.
“We were saying that if we get to 30 June and they need to sell these players, people are going to swoop. It looks like in the clip I’m saying this player will go, this player will go, this player will go but there was so much more context around it.
“Then the club contacted me to say that this wasn’t the case. Watch the whole clip, there’s so much more.”
Will Everton be forced to sell Jarrad Branthwaite amid PSR concerns at Goodison Park?
While the suggestion from a number of reports has been that the Toffees will be forced into letting players leave for nothing this summer, the Blues appear to have been quick to rebuff such claims.
Although the financial side of the club doesn’t appear to be in the best possible shape, Everton appear to be confident that they will hold out for reasonable offers for their most valuable stars, even if they do have to be sold.
It also does seem unlikely that all three of the aforementioned players will depart, especially as reports have begun to suggest that the Toffees have begun talks to extend Calvert-Lewin’s contract at Goodison [TEAMTalk, 29 May].
Hopefully, the Blues’ confidence won’t have been misplaced and they will find a way to keep all three players ahead of the start of next season, but they will likely have to wade through some offers first.
In other Everton news, reports have suggested that the Toffees’ creditors could seize control of the Blues after 777’s deal collapsed
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