No way back: Everton’s chaotic window leaves key positions bare and faith shattered | OneFootball

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“No way back” was the original draft headline for the piece I wrote on Harrison Armstrong’s potential sale to Nottingham Forest over the weekend. Between sitting down to write that feature and finishing it up, news had broken of that deal falling through, with Everton pulling out.

Make no mistake, it was not the resistance of David Moyes or Angus Kinnear that really made TFG think twice on that sale. It was the power of the fans.

But three days on from Sunday’s drama, those same fans are now left picking up the pieces of a disastrous deadline day to cap off a terrible transfer window.

Everton, somehow, went into deadline day still needing a big sale to go through — Iliman Ndiaye eventually joined Manchester City, with the official announcement coming around 10pm.

By that point, there was speculation Folarin Balogun — a £40M target from Monaco — had failed his medical, and Everton’s search for a standout right-back candidate had led them to Ainsley Maitland-Niles, a 29-year-old who claims that is not even his best position.

Other departures had been confirmed too, with Everton finally recouping (decent) money for fringe players like Beto, Tim Iroegbunam and Nathan Patterson.

Yet with the Balogun deal very much up in the air, panic was clearly setting in within Everton. The announcement video for Jack Grealish’s return came out around 10:15pm — by that point, nobody cared, as there was news of Everton throwing in a last-ditch bid for Joshua Zirkzee, which Manchester United rejected.

Quite how you go from Balogun, a pacy striker who wants to run in behind, to Zirkzee, a forward who drops into midfield to link the play, is beyond me. Quite how you leave it all this late is beyond me too, though.

Then, Everton seemed to have pulled a rabbit out of the hat. Balogun was back on, they had renegotiated the terms with Monaco and a deal sheet had been submitted. Yet, one more twist. For some reason, the United States international then elected not to sign with Everton. Perhaps he was not sold by the fact the club tried to change the terms of the deal? We’ll probably never know.

But what we do know is that Everton have managed to end this transfer window weaker than when they started.

Each of the signings, in their own right, are okay. Hayden Hackney has made a bright start, Tyrique George is a great talent. Christian Nørgaard, when he gets fit, will fill the need for a No.6 (strange how Everton didn’t seem to have any issues signing this injured player, though?). Brennan Johnson is an upgrade on Dwight McNeil. Grealish at least replaces some of Ndiaye’s flair and provides creativity, while Maitland-Niles plugs a gap.

But Everton are down to two recognised full-backs and one recognised striker.

All window long, this structure has made a complete mess of prioritising which deals should be done to fill which positions.

If the budget was so tight, why was the majority of it spent early on on players that simply did not fill priority needs?

TFG has got involved, and made it worse, and there is now a distinct feeling that they somewhat pulled the rug midway through the window.

Kinnear will rightly get the blame, and he should go, there’s no way back for him now, but the bigger questions need to be asked of the ownership.

Moyes has every right to be frustrated, but he is not blameless in this. He is far too stubborn on targets and takes far too long to make his mind up.

Sure, he’d like the business done early, but his approach to waiting too long to make a call on players plays into having to do work later in the window.

Nick Cox, what does he bring to the table from a recruitment perspective? James Smith? Nick Hammond hardly seems to be earning his corn as negotiator, when deals take so long to thrash out.

The reaction to this deadline day fiasco has seen the fanbase unite. Fan group the 1878s has now stepped back from all the great work they do in helping this pathetic football club try to engage with the fanbase, and rightly so.

The fans have done enough. This was supposed to be a brand new era, yet TFG appear to be charlatans, and those that they have hired are evidently out of their depth.

Kinnear likes to speak, so come on then, Angus, let’s hear from you. Get out there and tell us why it all went wrong.

And don’t do it with friendly, club media. Get in front of proper journalists and proper fans and answer some tough questions.

The irony is, Kinnear is probably going to be the one who has to fall on his sword for this, and TFG will probably go into hiding anyway. Do they care?

Evertonians care, and now a season that has started relatively well has already been tarnished.

Kinnear said the target was a European push, but in a couple of days the club has reduced an already small squad and left key positions without adequate cover.

Jamie Carragher got stick from Evertonians on Monday when he said the club was still the worst run in the Premier League. I’d like to hope Evertonians who gave him that criticism now realise he was absolutely right.

There’ll be more fallout to come, but for too many involved at the top at Everton, there is now just no way back.