The Liverpool Echo journalist Gavin Buckland has been discussing what strategy Everton should take during the summer transfer window.
Over the duration of last summer, the Toffees plunged £107.91m into transfer fees and secured the arrival of seven players (per Transfermarkt).
However, the Merseyside club have still endured an under-par season despite the arrival of Carlo Ancelotti in December.
So, in the latest episode of Royal Blue: The Everton FC Podcast, Buckland discussed what strategy the club should be taking in the upcoming transfer window.
He said: “He [Ancelotti] needs to get rid of players, never mind bringing them in. That’s the first point.
“The second point is, we are not going into a normal close season. What sort of gap are we talking about? Five weeks, maybe six, before the start of next season? We basically can’t afford what we’ve got at the moment, essentially.
“We’re a club that’s [been] run in tens of millions of losses, essentially, this year. So, I think the approach I’d have to recruit would be, we could probably afford two or three players coming in, but I think we need to be imaginative.
“If I was looking at recruitment in the next six weeks, what I would be doing is saying if I can’t afford players, I’d be talking to other clubs and saying, ‘Well, you’ve got a gap that I can fill [and] I’ve got a gap that you can fill’. So, you get into just swapping players around where there’s no real financial cost.”
TIF Thoughts…
As can be seen in what the journalist had to say, Buckland believes that Everton should be eyeing swap deals this summer to avoid big transfer spending.
Do you think that Everton should focus on swap deals this summer?
Yes, would be sensible
No, we need to buy people
With it already having been touted that is what Tottenham Hotspur will be doing this summer by the Evening Standard, it could be a sensible idea from the journalist with plenty of clubs set to be affected by the pandemic’s toll on football’s finances.