Everton transfer news

SEAN DYCHE heads a clutch of high-profile managers ready to answer Everton’s SOS should Frank Lampard be sacked.And Goodison legends Wayne Rooney and Duncan Ferguson are also believed to be interested — with David Moyes the dark horse. 
Frank Lampard is under serious pressure following poor recent resultsCredit: Getty
Everton could look to replace Lampard with Sean DycheCredit: PA
The Toffees are at a low point in their Premier League history, languishing third from bottom as the clubs approach the halfway stage.
But that has not put off a series of candidates who would be willing to throw their hat in the ring if   the club’s board decide to pull the trigger on struggling Lampard.
I understand Dyche, 51, is keen on the Goodison post and the former Burnley chief has the Premier League survival experience they need.
Free-agent Dyche has been waiting for a top-flight return and has snubbed many Championship offers.
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Everton duo James Tarkowski and Dwight McNeil are two of his old Burnley favourites and that could help the ‘Ginger Mourinho’ settle in should the chance arise.
Toffees idol Rooney, 37, would also jump if the call came despite returning to the US to prepare for a new MLS season with DC United.
Ex-Everton No 2 Ferguson, 51, is also willing to re-enlist after a couple of caretaker spells although he would be a long shot.
Goodison insiders claim Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou is admired but the club may face a job persuading him to come to England with the Bhoys runaway leaders of the Scottish Premiership.
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Everton are also interested in bringing David Moyes back to the clubCredit: Reuters
Meanwhile, West Ham chief Moyes is loved by chairman Bill Kenwright, who brought him to Merseyside more than 20 years ago.
Moyes, 59, would cost around £5million in compensation to free him from the London Stadium — but Everton could well consider that money well spent.
The Scot still thinks fondly of his time at Goodison where he first coined the ‘People’s Club’ phrase. He only rents in London and a move to the north west would work for him. More

IF there is one consolation for Frank Lampard, as he desperately clings to his job, it is that nobody could reasonably claim Everton’s omnishambles is down to him.A quick glance at the managers who have tried and failed under Farhad Moshiri’s disastrous Goodison ownership confirms as much.
Toffees’ keeper Jordan Pickford looks dejected as Brighton romp to a 4-1 Prem win at Goodison Park on TuesdayCredit: Reuters
Frank Lampard appears to be going the same way as other big managerial names in recent years at EvertonCredit: Getty
Carlo Ancelotti, the most successful boss in European Cup history.
Rafa Benitez, another Champions League winner.
Marco Silva, the greatest over-achiever in the Premier League this season.
And Ronald Koeman, who would go on to manage Barcelona.
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All of them have failed to turn around a club which has become a byword for wasteful mismanagement since Moshiri became Everton’s majority shareholder seven years ago.
More than £600million was wasted on transfers before Lampard’s appointment almost 12 months ago — and yet now Everton’s only realistic aim is to avoid relegation.
With Moshiri bruised from years spent chucking money down the gurgler, and now seeking to get out of the club, Lampard’s net spend last summer was a relatively modest £32m after the sale of star man Richarlison to Tottenham.
The former Chelsea and England midfielder certainly isn’t the root cause of Everton’s deep malaise, yet that doesn’t mean he is the right man to dig them out of another hole.
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Tuesday’s shocking 4-1 home thrashing by Brighton was a result, and performance, which smacked of an imminent sacking.
The Seagulls, pound-for-pound the best-run club in the Premier League, dumped all over its worst-run club, with three goals in six minutes representing a new low.
Brighton’s fourth goal — when Everton wasted an attacking free-kick and Idrissa Gueye attempted a lamentable back-pass to let in Pascal Gross — was one of the worst sequences of football you are ever likely to see from a Premier League team.
Everton have won one and lost seven of their last ten league matches, are in the bottom three and deep in relegation danger for a second successive season.
Lampard, once schooled by Jose Mourinho, is capable of setting up a team to defend and frustrate the bigger clubs — as exemplified by Everton’s dogged 1-1 draw at Manchester City on New Year’s Eve.
The summer signings of James Tarkowski and Conor Coady appeared to have shored up Everton’s defence in the early part of the season — yet even that has changed, with 16 goals conceded in six winless games either side of the World Cup break.
But other than that, there are severe limitations. Going forward, Everton often look devoid of ideas and identity.
Managers should look for the best owner to work for, rather than the club with the best ‘name’. Lampard didn’t do that.
The real question is why Lampard ever chose to accept this basket case of a club in the first place.
Everton may have been as ‘big’ a job as he was likely to get after being sacked by his beloved Chelsea a year earlier — especially as he was interviewed by Aston Villa only to lose out to his old England team-mate and rival  Steven Gerrard.
But managers should always be looking for the best owner to work for, rather than the club with the best ‘name’. Lampard didn’t do that.
And it is an open secret in football that Everton’s dressing room has been riven by internal disputes for years. Did Lampard not do his homework?
Brighton, Brentford and Silva’s Fulham are all embarrassing Everton by proving that a place in the top half of the table is  achievable on a fraction of the Toffees’ recent transfer budget when recruitment is imaginative and a manager has a clear vision.
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Lampard is unlikely to last long after Tuesday’s humiliation — and who knows where one of English football’s Golden Generation may end up next?
But until there is a regime change at Goodison Park, it is unlikely that an eighth manager in seven years would make the blindest bit of difference. More

ASTON VILLA have enquired about the services of former Watford and Everton winger Gerard Deulofeu, according to reports.New boss Unai Emery is thought to be in the market for a wide player and is expected to be backed by the owners in the January.
Aston Villa have enquired about ex-Everton and Watford ace Gerard DeulofeuCredit: EPA
The Spaniard is playing his trade in Italy with Udinese after leaving the Hornets in 2021.
Deulofeu enjoyed a productive spell at Vicarage Road, scoring 17 goals and registering 11 assists in two-and-a-half years.
The most memorable was an exquisite chip in the FA Cup semi-finals against Wolves, which inspired Watford to make a memorable comeback.
But he left when they were relegated at the end of the 2019-2020 season, joining Udinese on loan and then permanently.
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He’s now playing some of the best football of his career.
Last season, Deulofeu chipped in with 18 goal contributions in 34 Serie A matches.
And he’s been involved in another eight in 15 top-flight outings this term.
Regardless, BirminghamLive believe Villa have asked about his availability.
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And Deulofeu is “open” to a new challenge and a potential return to English football.
His overall Premier League record stands at a respectable 44 goals and assists in 127 appearances.
He’s played under Emery previously and won the Europa League alongside him when the attacker was on loan at Sevilla in 2014-2015.
The ex-Arsenal boss has made a bright start to his Villa career, taking six points from three games with his first defeat coming against Liverpool on Boxing Day. More