Gavin Buckland has labelled Everton ace Idrissa Gueye as a luxury player after his latest poor performance on the All Together Now podcast.
Everton certainly addressed several areas of their squad which needed improvements such as at centre-back, striker and central midfield, but with eight players arriving it may well still take a prolonged period of time for things to start clicking.
The bulk of players signed were of a similar age and player profile, English and/or younger players, but one player, Gueye, broke that mould as he rejoined the club from Paris Saint-Germain but things have seemingly hit a bump in the road recently.
Buckland believes that after what he saw from Gueye against Newcastle United on Wednesday, the midfielder is just a luxury player.
(9:30) He’s not a number six, I didn’t have a problem with signing him because he was only a couple of million and on the basis of you need an enforcer in midfield, I’ve not got a problem with signing him.
What my point is, is that he’s just not a number six, he’d be good as a squad player to fill in but he’s not playing in his right role for us and I still think he’s a luxury player in an 11-man team.”
Was Idrissa Gueye a necessary signing?
Yes!
No!
TIF Thoughts on Gueye’s role at Everton…
At the time, bringing back someone such as Gueye who knows the club very well, gets the fans, is experienced at the very top level and also knows the Premier League inside and out having played for both Everton and Aston Villa, was seemingly a smart signing.
However, it’s transpired that he’s seen as more than just a squad player by Frank Lampard despite being 33 years old as he’s started each of the last five league games for Everton, which certainly isn’t progressive thinking from the Toffees.
Especially when they have a young summer signing in the form of James Garner on the bench itching to get some proper Premier League minutes and given it will now be three games in a week for Gueye, Lampard could finally drop the veteran especially after putting in a 6/10 display against the Magpies on Wednesday.