Reports over the weekend mean that the rumours aren’t going to just go away as the vultures circle Goodison Park.It appears that every time a player has a decent half-season at Goodison they are immediately linked with a move to a so-called ‘bigger club’ – one that is in the Champions League for starters. The media seem to revel in trying to sell these players and see Everton as the ultimate selling club sometimes!
This Summer seems to be the turn of Messrs Stones and Coleman, although other sources also add the names of Lukaku and McCarthy to this list of potential outgoing players. That’s before we even start with Mirallas.
John Stones is being courted as the ‘next John Terry’ by the media and so it’s no surprise that they are desperately trying to sell him to Chelsea. This one could run throughout the Summer, but with Stones only being with us 3 years since his move from Barnsley we shouldn’t expect the kind of loyalty that someone like Coleman or Barkley may have.
In terms of transfer rumours I’d say that unfortunately this is more than likely to happen, especially if we continue to be linked with Scott Dann from Palace, but after losing Alcaraz and Distin (yes, yes, I know…) we will be very short in that area.
And that’s before we start looking at Seamus Coleman. He’s obviously been a revelation since joining us – give or take his first season – for £60k. Many would suggest that last season was a poor one for him as cubs worked out our tactics and pushed up on the full-backs who had done so much damage the year before.
It’s fair to say that at 26 years old he’d be keen to play Champions League football and Everton are getting further away from crashing the party after last year’s disappointing campaign. Again, this could drag out throughout the Summer, but if Everton can get £25m-£30m for him and we can invest it on a decent right-back quickly (and it would need to be someone with experience in my opinion as opposed to a youngster) that may be the best option for the club in the longer term.
In my opinion we should, as a club, look to keep hold of the players at least for another year and if we can persuade Stones that he can develop at Goodison over the coming years that would be the most important signing of the Summer.
So – keep hold of potentially unhappy players or sell and re-invest. Thoughts?