OPINION
Steve Walsh should hang his head in shame as Everton admit defeat over January signing Cenk Tosun.
The former Goodison director of football, who was sacked at the end of last season, was the man responsible for identifying Tosun as the answer to the Merseysiders’ need for a new centre-forward.
Everton paid £27million for the 32-times Turkey international but, 10 months later, are ready to loan him back to Besiktas.
The Daily Mail claim the Turkish club are “very hopeful” of reaching agreement to re-sign the striker 12 months after his arrival at Goodison Park.
The word is Tosun has struggled to settle, which many Toffees might claim is a euphemism for not being up to the mark.
The forward has made 24 appearances for Everton and scored six goals, the kind of strike rate that would be okay if he was creating loads of goals for others or tearing defences to shreds.
Tosun has done neither, supplying just two assists and showing little sign of being the player Everton hoped he would be.
It is a measure of his current situation that winger Richarlison and youngster Dominic Calvert-Lewin have been preferred to spearhead the attack in the last three matches.
Marco Silva clearly does not regard Tosun as his first-choice striker, which is alarming so soon after he signed for so much money and given the lack of orthodox alternatives.
Walsh’s two years leading Everton’s recruitment will not be remembered fondly by Toffees, with Tosun joining the likes of Yannick Bolasie, Ashley Williams and Michael Keane as flop signings, while the jury is still out on Gylfi Sigurdsson and Theo Walcott.
There was far too much muddled planning and there is no greater example than the Tosun mess.