OPINION
The departure of Everton youngster Henry Onyekuru is surely edging closer after Toffees boss Marco Silva made two worrying admissions about the player’s future at the club.
In quotes reported by Times journalist Paul Joyce on his Twitter account, Silva admitted that there would be little room for the Nigerian international in his current squad.
Marco Silva on Onyekuru being at Everton next season: “I didn’t decide yet. At this moment we have 4 wingers in our squad – Richarlison, Lookman, Bernard and Theo – 4 with right foot and he is one more with a right foot. We would have to think about a work permit, also." https://t.co/mMkRkYSXta
— paul joyce (@_pauljoyce) May 19, 2019
“I didn’t decide yet. At this moment we have 4 wingers in our squad – Richarlison, [Ademola] Lookman, Bernard and Theo [Walcott] – 4 with right foot and he is one more with a right foot,” the manager said. “We would have to think about a work permit, also.”
This surely means that Onyekuru’s time is up at Everton. There is simply no way the 21-year-old is going to force his way into the Everton team when he has four players ahead of him in the pecking order.
Onyekuru has had a fantastic season on loan at Galatasaray, scoring 16 goals and assisting six others in 43 appearances for the Turkish club, including 14 goals in 30 Turkish Super Lig games.
But even those impressive stats are not likely to convince Silva that Onyekuru has a place in his squad.
For a start, Richarlison will not be budged, there is no doubt about that. As for Lookman and Bernard, the former is the same age as Onyekuru but has made 21 Premier League appearances, which shows Silva trusts him to keep going.
The only player you would say Onyekuru has a chance of budging is Theo Walcott, who has failed to impress at Goodison Park and who has a chance of leaving at the end of the season.
But even that is a big push for someone so inexperienced in English football. What’s more, the Nigerian would need a work permit – as Silva points out – and by the sounds of it, the arrangements for getting one have not been put in place yet.
That means it could be a long while before we see Onyekuru in a first-team Everton shirt, if at all.