Journalist Alan Feehely believes that Everton have now missed their chance to sign Mohammed Kudus from Ajax.
It was widely reported over the summer that Everton were in the hunt to sign Kudus from the Dutch giants and the player himself admitted to Joy TV (via Liverpool Echo) that the Toffees seemed like a good project for him, but his current club blocked any such move because of the number of players they’d already sold.
While Everton may not have been too disheartened to miss out on Kudus at the time, his World Cup displays for Ghana – which saw him start every game and score two goals – may well not leave them with a second chance to land the midfielder.
And speaking on the All Together Now podcast, Feehely believes that bigger clubs would now trump Everton if they were to go back in for Kudus.
He said: “Kudus, for instance, who we were obviously very close to signing in the summer, he’s someone who’s maybe not burst onto the scene, but has definitely taken his game to a new level in Qatar.
Will Everton regret not signing Kudus?
Yes!
No!
“He was somebody we tried to get in the summer and came very close to getting, and on the basis of his performances for Ghana, it’s probably not going to happen for us now; he’s probably going to be out of our reach.”
TIF Thoughts on Everton target Kudus…
Given how regularly Kudus has appeared for Ajax and Ghana so far this season and influential he has been, it seems Everton will indeed miss out on a top-class player and won’t be able to compete with other clubs given their financial situation.
It has been reported that Kudus is now being tracked by clubs pushing at the top end of the Premier League table including Liverpool and Newcastle United, with both those clubs boasting more financial clout than Everton which they can use to offer Ajax larger sums of money.
Therefore, Everton will have to take this as a lesson not to leave their business until the end of the window, as if they’d moved before Ajax lost the likes of Antony and Lisandro Martinez, Kudus could well have been at Goodison Park already.