Dhaka Tribune Sports has decided to discuss last year’s performance, and potential of the teams in the forthcoming English Premier League, scheduled to kick off on September 12, provided the Covid-19 pandemic doesn’t cause havoc.
In our series of discussion Monday, we will analyze various aspects of Everton, the second-longest continuous serving club in English top-flight football.
Everton, one of the oldest clubs of England, started the 2019-20 English Premier League season with high hopes as their board backed the manager Marcos Silva with significant signings during the summer transfer period prior to the season.
Silva was busy in the transfer market with exciting players in the list as the Mersyside club signed some good players in the likes of winger Alex Iwobi (£34m), striker Moise Kean (£25.1m), midfielders Andre Gomes (£22m) and Jean-Philippe Gbamin (£23m).
With these signings and with a good squad having Michael Keane, Lucas Digne, Yerry Mina in the defence, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Bernard, Theo Walcott in the midfield and prolific Richarlison or promising Dominic Calvert-Lewin in the attack, fans certainly hoped for a strong start of the season for the side that won their last top flight English league in 1986-87 season.
But things did not go well for Silva and for the Toffees as they were in the 17th position of the table with just four wins, two draws and eight losses after completing their first 14 match of the season.
The job of the Portuguese was hanging on balance and a drubbing against arch-rival Livepool in the next match saw Everton was in the relegation zone and Silva was shown the exit door.
Caretaker manager Duncan Ferguson then restored some parity before the club appointed Carlo Ancelotti, one of the most successful coaches in the modern era, to bring Everton back on track. Ancelotti, a premier league winning manager, steadied the ship and managed 12th position finish in the end.
Although Everton squad have some depth in midfield position but their midfielders were not up to the mark all through the season. Attacking midfielder Sigurdsson had a very quiet season as he registered only two goals and four assists. Summer signing and highly rated Iwobi and Jean-Philippe Gbamin had a horrible season as Iwobi scored just one goal and Gbamin managed to play only 135 minutes due to a series of injuries.
Striker Kean scored just 2 goals coming off the bench mostly while Andre Gomes also had a difficult season.
But Richarlison had a good season for the Toffees with 13 goals and five assists and big European clubs already keeping an eye on the Brazilian.
Everton even rejected Barcelona's £85m offer for the Brazilian striker and it seems the forward will have a major role in Ancelotti’s plan this season.
At the season’s end Everton legend Leighton Bains retired and the Evertonians paid a huge respect to their hero in social media. Baines joined the club from Wigan Athletics in the summer of 2007 and made 420 appearances for them, scoring 39 goals. With the retirement of Baines, it was certainly the end of an era for the Tofees.
Perhaps the Liverpool-based side lacked creativity in the midfield last season and that’s why Ancelotti is looking to reinforce his midfield options with searching for more quality midfielders in the transfer market.
Everton has already agreed to sign Brazil international midfielder Allan for a fee of €25m (£21.7m) and also rumored to be heavily linked to sign Real Madrid playmaker James Rodriguez who played under manager Ancelotti during his tenure at the Madrid giant.
With such an exciting squad and Ancelotti as a manager Everton is certainly hoping to secure a top six finish next season and qualify for European football. As their neighbor Liverpool broke their 30-year duck in EPL last year, their supporters will be even more desperate to cling with some success that has been dried up from them for decades.
