The summer transfer window is in full swing and Everton have been active in the early weeks of business.
Tim Iroebugnam and Jack Harrison are already through the door, while Iliman Ndiaye is on the verge of a deal to join them at Finch Farm. Going the other way, Lewis Dobbin and Ben Godfrey have departed for useful transfer fees that strengthened the club’s accounts just before the end of the football financial year.
As we continue to monitor developments, the ECHO’s Everton writers discussed some of the best and worst deals during the reign of current director of football Kevin Thelwell.
Kevin Thelwell must hope he hasn’t peaked too early as his first signing as Everton director of football is still arguably his best.
Although James Tarkowski’s transfer from Burnley wasn’t officially confirmed until after his contract at Turf Moor had expired – understood to be due to the delicate situation between the two clubs at the time – it had been an open secret for several weeks in the summer of 2022 that the centre-back was heading to Goodison Park. The Blues were in need of both a leader and a durable figure in defence at the time – while Yerry Mina provided the former when available, the Colombian would depart 12 months later after just seven Premier League appearances that season (and 86 out of 190 in total over five years) – and Tarkowski has excelled in each respect.
The 31-year-old has now been an ever-present for Everton across back-to-back seasons and was part of a defence that kept 13 clean sheets in the Premier League last term, a figure that only runners-up Arsenal could top. Also, we should not play down the role that Tarkowski has played in the development of his centre-back partner Jarrad Branthwaite who in recent months has emerged as a generational talent.
On the flip side of things, Neal Maupay has to go down as Thelwell’s worst signing so far. The Frenchman netted goal returns of 10, eight and eight in three Premier League seasons at Brighton & Hove Albion but has bagged just once in 32 outings for Everton.
That’s a truly dire statistic. The diminutive 5ft 8in frontman was anything but a like-for-like alternative to Dominic Calvert-Lewin so the Blues were unable to rely on him as an understudy for their number nine and neither the team nor the player himself benefitted tactically from the changes when he did come into the side.
