Former Arsenal star Ian Wright has made the exciting prediction that Everton will be among the big spenders in the summer transfer window and that they will cause problems to their Premier League rivals next season.
The Toffees finished the campaign with a 2-2 draw against Tottenham to finish in eighth behind Wolves and the traditional top six in Marco Silva’s first season in charge at Goodison Park.
However, Wright believes that the Portuguese manager will be busy this summer – both in terms of spending and trying to keep his star men at the club – and that they will be dark horses when August comes around.
Speaking on BBC’s Match of the Day (12/05, 10:30) he said: “They went through a spell where they kind of lost their way a bit, they got it going at the end.
“They’ve got a lot of money to spend and I’m sure they will do but look at Digne, people like that. Gomes, are they going to be able to keep him? If they can keep people like that, Everton are going to cause a bit of a problem next season.”
Opinion
Everton have had a great finish to the season but their slow start cannot be forgotten. There was talk of Marco Silva coming under pressure at one point and this fine end to the campaign cannot paper over those cracks too much. Yes, it might be that the new players, not to mention the manager, have finally settled in and are enjoying their football but that begs the question as to whether Everton can expect a slow start every time they bring a couple of new players into their squad during a transfer window. It will be interesting to see just how much spending is done at the Toffees this summer – they went big last year with the capture of Richarlison and the rest of their new arrivals only to finish eighth. Do they really feel a couple of big money signings can make the difference? Only time will tell, but the end to the campaign should fill the fans with a little bit more hope during the off-season.