Everton Summer Transfer Window Recap & Winter Window Projections
Everton had a summer of incredible transformation, but it's already time to look forward to January and the players Everton could target to continue the David Moyes-led rebirth
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BY EVERTON STANDARDS, IT HAS been a spectacular transfer season.
The past few years made supporters feel like the guy standing outside the electronics shop, looking longingly through the window at the new television they want but know they cannot afford.
Seasons of forced austerity, brought on by the free-wheeling, thoughtless spending of the Farhad Moshiri regime, forced us to suffer on the sidelines, watching as every other club in the Premier League conducted its business.
The difference between then and now is stark. It hasn’t even been a full year since the Houston, Texas-based Friedkin Group completed its takeover of the club. Debts are paid. Our new stadium is complete, stunning, and is instantly the loudest stadium in the league, if not the world, allaying fears that the Dan Meis-designed wonder would lack the soul and intimidation of the Grand Old Lady.
We supporters were nervous going into the summer. We aren’t used to spending money during transfer windows anymore. It feels foreign. But with many player contracts expiring—and with the returning David Moyes needing a chance to start crafting a squad of his own—we approached the window with hope and hesitation.
We did more than I expected, by a wide margin.
Jack Grealish: Super Jack’s Everton career is off to a dream start, for fans and for Grealish himself. Grealish has 4 assists in 2 games, which is more than he pulled together in his final two seasons at Manchester City combined..Broken free of the constraints Pep placed on him at City, Grealish is showing why the blue side of Manchester made him the British record buy when they paid Aston Villa £100M. Grealish is so happy to be playing for Everton that it’s visible on his face during matches. I don’t know when Everton can activate its £50m option to make the move permanent, but we should proceed with that. Now.
Carlos Alcaraz: Alcaraz impressed enough last season on loan to make his move permanent. Thus far, he’s been something of a non-issue this season, but once he gels with the other attackers in the squad, I expect him to return to his dangerous ways.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall: Chelsea supporters felt their club pulled the wool over £26.8m signing. The Chelsea supporters were wrong.
Tyler Dibling: Everton’s had a right-wing issue for a couple of years; it was the most glaring need going into this summer. The club filled that hole by signing the 20-year-old Dibling, whose obvious nickname is “Dribbling” due to his skill…dribbling.
Thierno Barry: Everton’s striker of the future, or perhaps even the present, if his performances so far are any indication.
Adam Aznou: Our left-back of the future. Everton secured the 19-year-old Aznou from Bayern Munich, which is a club that knows a thing or two about developing players. So does Barcelona, which signed Aznou at 14, also does so.
Mark Travers: Signed as a backup for Jordan Pickford, Travers replaced the talented Joao Virginia.
Tom King: Everton’s “break in case of emergency” option at GK.
Merlin Rohl: Everton’s deadline day signing is a defensive midfielder with the ability to play left-back.
Note: Any deals announced after the deadline are not included here, but will be added as they are confirmed by the club.
✅ Incoming Transfers: What We Got
Everton’s attack has been completely remade—to a shocking extent. New additions Jack Grealish, Thierno Barry, and Keirnan Dewsberry-Hall have partnered with Iliman Ndiaye up front to form what appears to be one of the Premier League’s most exciting attacks, capable of creating magical moments of football fluidity and team goals.
Ndiaye was one of Everton’s two best players last season, alongside Jordan Pickford. This year, he’s receiving service he could only have dreamed of last year. The result is a player on the verge of genuine superstardom on the world stage.
INCOMING TRANSFERS
Jack Grealish: Super Jack’s Everton career is off to a dream start, for fans and for Grealish himself. Grealish has 4 assists in 2 games, which is more than he pulled together in his final two seasons at Manchester City combined..Broken free of the constraints Pep placed on him at City, Grealish is showing why the blue side of Manchester made him the British record buy when they paid Aston Villa £100M. Grealish is so happy to be playing for Everton that it’s visible on his face during matches. I don’t know when Everton can activate its £50m option to make the move permanent, but we should proceed with that. Now.
Carlos Alcaraz: Alcaraz impressed enough last season on loan to make his move permanent. Thus far, he’s been something of a non-issue this season, but once he gels with the other attackers in the squad, I expect him to return to his dangerous ways.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall: Chelsea supporters felt their club pulled the wool over £26.8m signing. The Chelsea supporters were wrong.
Tyler Dibling: Everton’s had a right-wing issue for a couple of years; it was the most glaring need going into this summer. The club filled that hole by signing the 20-year-old Dibling, whose obvious nickname is “Dribbling” due to his skill…dribbling.
Thierno Barry: Everton’s striker of the future, or perhaps even the present, if his performances so far are any indication.
Adam Aznou: Our left-back of the future. Everton secured the 19-year-old Aznou from Bayern Munich, which is a club that knows a thing or two about developing players. So does Barcelona, which signed Aznou at 14, also does so.
Mark Travers: Signed as a backup for Jordan Pickford, Travers replaced the talented Joao Virginia.
Tom King: Everton’s “break in case of emergency” option at GK.
Note: Any deals announced after the deadline are not included here, but will be added as they are confirmed by the club.
🎯 Everton Incoming Transfers: What We Still Need
To help me identify potential incoming signings for these positions, I decided to bring my friends at the Everton Aren’t We podcast. You should subscribe and listen today, if you aren’t already.
Below, we analyze each position Everton needs to shore up, and then I’ll give you Dave’s five players at each position that Everton could go after in January.
Right-Back
Seamus Coleman has been one of the best, most inspirational Everton leaders of all time. He’s The Captain, and forever will be.
When you take into account how much he cost us at the time, I think he’s the best purchase ever made by a Premier League club. He’s capable of excellent performances—as seen against Mansfield Town in our Carabao Cup win. This is his 17th consecutive season for Everton—a club record that will likely never be broken1.
(And because I’m me, I went ahead and compiled a list of the best value signings in the history of the Premier League, which you can find in the footnotes.2)
Nathan Patterson hasn’t lived up to all the potential we saw in him. Also, his body is such that if you touch him, he’s injured and out for 15 months. We need someone who can plug in, run the game, and not get dismantled by Premier League runners. No more patching with midfielders or praying Coleman stays healthy.
This is not a “nice to have” position. This is a must.
POTENTIAL WINTER WINDOW TARGETS: RIGHT-BACK
Vanderson from Monaco
Maitland-Niles from Roma
Juanlu Sanchez from Sevilla
Franculino Djú from Midtjylland
Kobe Corbanie from Royal Antwerp
Joaquin Seys from Club Brugge
Central Midfield & Defensive Midfielder
Everton have creativity at the front—Ndiaye, Dewsbury-Hall, Alcaraz, James Garner. What they lack is any depth to that creativity, especially in midfield.
Harrison Armstrong is Everton’s best outfield prospect. He’s one of the best prospects the club has ever produced. He’s a special player with a bright future; he’s the kid you build a team around to accentuate his strengths.
While I’d love to have him with the Everton first team every single week, the smart thing is to send him to a Championship-level club where he starts every week and plays 75+ minutes each time. One more year of that, and Armstrong comes back as our midfield director.
The thought of Armstrong linking play with Grealish, KDH, and Ndiaye is positively salivating.
With Armstrong leaving, you’re one hamstring injury away from chaos. We need a backup midfielder who can maintain shape, cover ground, and allow Moyes to shuffle pieces without looking panicked: a defensive option or a box-to-box mid who doesn’t break under pressure.
POTENTIAL WINTER WINDOW TARGETS: MIDFIELDERS
Bernabé from Parma
Tomáš Součekk from West Ham
Elias Montiel from Pachuca
Christos Mouzakitis from Olympiacos
Striker
The departure of Youssef Chermiti to Rangers reunites him with former Everton Director of Football Kevin Thelwell.
Thelwell spent £12m on Chermiti for Everton in 2023; he leaves for Rangers for £8m, having never lived up to the promise Thelwell saw in him. Or rather, sees in him.
Chermiti’s departure leaves the Toffees with a need for depth up front. Barring the shocking arrival of a front-line world-class striker after the deadline passes—which I do not expect—Beto and Thierno Barry will fight for minutes at the position. Beto will likely get the bulk of the minutes at the beginning of the season, but I fully expect Barry to be our everyday striker by the end of the year, if not much earlier.
But the global striker market is highly competitive this summer. Liverpool and Arsenal have purchased all of the top-line strikers.3 Doesn’t matter if they need them. The result is a market where, if you want a striker—particularly a great one—you are going to pay out the crinkum-crankum4 for it.
POTENTIAL WINTER WINDOW TARGETS: STRIKER
Evan Ferguson
Jamie Vardy
Hamzai Igamame
Danny Ings
FOONOTES
Ryan Giggs holds the Premier League record.
THE BEST VALUE SIGNINGS IN PREMIER LEAGUE HISTORY
I can’t help myself, so here’s my list of the best signings in Premier League history according to what the club paid and how the player ended up doing.
Séamus Coleman – Everton (£60,000 from Sligo Rovers, 2009): This one still feels like fantasy. £60,000 is absurd, especially for a player who very quickly became a part of the fabric of the club. Seamus wasn’t just a crucial part of that year’s team; for 15+ years, Coleman was the center of the rocker room, an anchor keeping his fellow players from spiraling out in the midst of a terrible, years-long storm.
Eric Cantona – Manchester United (£1.2m from Leeds, 1992); Swagger. Creativity. Championships. Eric Cantona came to United from the other United—Leeds—and changed the culture not just in the dressing room, but in the entire club. £1.2 million helped bring United 5 Premier League championships and countless iconic moments.
Vincent Kompany - Signed before the big Abu Dhabi money explosion, Vincent Kompany became City’s captain, leader, and defensive rock during their rise. He also brought league titles, legendary moments (that Leicester City thunderbolt in 2019 comes to mind), and an aura that lifted the whole club. £6m for a club-defining captain is outrageous value.
Patrick Viera – Arsenal (£3.5m from AC Milan, 1996): Viera was Arsene Wenger’s first masterstroke. £3.5m bought Arsenal a midfield anchor for a decade, and Viera made the league and its fans rethink what a central mid could be.
Ole Gunnar Solskjær – Manchester United (£1.5m from Molde, 1996): United got Solskjær for peanuts; Solskjær gave them 126 goals and a forever-famous Champions League-winning goal in 1999. Solskjær became a cult hero for United fans right up until they started calling for his dismissal as United manager, but Reuben Amorim’s sad-sack routine has some fans grumbling for Ole’s return.
They have not literally purchased all of the best strikers. But it feels like it.
This one was for my Veep peeps.
Spend this next few months scouting for the best RB we can find plus a main CF for next year and thats a side capable of European football