Everton miss out on world-class centre forward as Dyche gets hit by late transfer sucker-punch
AC Milan striker Olivier Giroud snubbed a late offer from Everton in the final days of the January transfer window, according to reports.
Sean Dyche was allegedly promised at least two new signings by the club’s majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri, but the Toffees ultimately missed out on making any deals at all.
This means that Everton are the only club in the Premier League not to make a signing in January, despite currently sitting joint-bottom of the table.
Everton were expected to pen a deal for Villarreal attacker Arnaut Danjuma earlier in the window. However, the deal was hijacked by Tottenham Hotspur at the last minute, much to the annoyance of Evertonians.
The Blues also missed out on a number of other big targets.
Coventry City centre-forward Viktor Gyokeres was heavily linked to a switch to Goodison Park, but the Sky Blues raised their asking price and scuppered their approach.
Everton also made a £22m deadline day bid for Udinese striker Beto, but that was also turned down as the Italian club felt he was too important to lose without getting a replacement.
But now, according to Calciomercato, it has been revealed that the Toffees also approached Milan striker Giroud in a desperate last-minute attempt.
They offered the former Arsenal and Chelsea man a huge pay rise to return to the Premier League, with a contract proposal believed to be set at €8.5m-a-year (approx. £7.5m), compared to his current deal of €3.5m per season (approx. £3.1m), but he rejected Everton’s advances.
New Everton manager Dyche left with zero reinforcements for relegation battle
As mentioned, Everton majority shareholder Moshiri is believed to have promised Dyche at least two new signings to bolster the Toffees’ squad ahead of their relegation battle, but this did not happen.
He also said in a recent interview on the Everton YouTube channel that “if we need a striker, we will get one,” a promise that was left unfulfilled.
While the sacking of Frank Lampard is likely to have disrupted some transfer negotiations, Everton’s director of football Kevin Thelwell has still had a full month to sign vital reinforcements.
However, they left all their business to deadline day and then began approaching clubs for their best centre-forwards, without leaving them time to get a replacement, which made negotiations virtually impossible.
This has further angered an already furious Everton fanbase, after thousands have staged protests against the club’s board in recent games.
For Dyche, this has made a difficult task almost even more challenging. Everton’s current squad have put them joint-bottom of the table after winning just three of their 20 opening league matches – the worst start in the club’s history.
After selling Anthony Gordon to Newcastle for £40m, it seemed inevitable that they would bring in at least one attacking signing, but due to Moshiri and co’s last-minute approach, it simply hasn’t happened, barring any free agent incomings.
Dyche has an incredibly tough first match in charge against Arsenal on Saturday, so it will be interesting to see what the atmosphere will be like inside Goodison Park.
