Former Everton defender Michael Ball believes the club’s summer transfer business so far has been very shrewd.
The Toffees have completed the signings of goalkeeper Asmir Begovic and wingers Andros Townsend and Demarai Gray. Both Begovic and Townsend joined Everton on free transfers, whilst Gray joined for a fee of £1.6m from Bundesliga outfit Bayer Leverkusen.
Whilst the club haven’t spent major money on players so far, Ball believes the business they have concluded has been very shrewd, telling This is Futbol: “Coming into this window, I was hoping Everton would be a little bit clever in the transfer market. I think history of just spending big on big players hasn’t worked out for them.
“Yes of course the fans would like to see a big marquee signing and hopefully that may still happen but also, we still need to think of the squad to make it stronger, more competitive. With the links of a lot of fringe players moving on that we do need to bring in certain players who may not be in the starting XI but can give competition, so yeah I think it’s very shrewd business.”
Last summer under Carlo Ancelotti, Everton spent £87m on the signings of James Rodriguez, Allan, Abdoulaye Doucoure and Ben Godfrey. The Toffee’s finished the season in tenth place in the Premier League on 59 points which was ten points and two places better off than the previous season.
New manager Rafa Benitez will be hoping to continue the upward trajectory at Goodison Park and improve on last season’s tenth place finish in the Premier League. Whilst Rafa has started to make additions to his new squad, Everton are also linked with Kalidou Koulibaly and Burnley winger Dwight McNeil, who according to the Liverpool Echo will cost in the region of £25m.