Everton have finally found a striker. The Toffees have reached an agreement in principle with Sporting CP to sign 19-year-old Youssef Chermiti, a player who has just 21 first team appearances to his name.
It’s a deal that could be worth up to €20 million, and this move will complete a transfer triangle of number nines. Despite interest from Everton, Coventry City sold their star striker Viktor Gyokeres to Sporting and chose Everton youngster Ellis Simms as his replacement.
Now the Toffees have bought Chermiti they’ve essentially paid the majority of the Gyokeres fee, without signing the Swedish international. It seemed slightly odd at the time that Everton couldn’t figure out some sort of swap deal including Simms with Coventry, but it seemed Gyokeres was keen on a move to Lisbon from the start.
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Chermiti may well have a better season than the Swede, but Everton don’t need a striker who will be ready to flourish in two years' time. They need one who will bang in the goals to keep them in the Premier League, which begins in less than two weeks. There’s no doubt that Gyokeres, a physical monster who recorded the most goal contributions in the Championship last term, would have made the step up and instantly improved Everton.
Given the lack of striking options Chermiti will also improve them, but is he ready to be their main man in one of the toughest leagues in the world? Dominic Calvert-Lewin remains at the club and will be Dyche’s first choice, but his injury record in recent seasons has been nothing short of horrendous.
If a physical striker is what they were after, it is baffling they didn’t target, and acquire, Gyokeres earlier in the window. At 25, he is approaching his peak, was already settled in England and the Toffees could have offered a far higher wage than Sporting did, even though they couldn’t match the Europa League football the Portuguese side will play next term.
It all points to a lack of joined-up thinking from the recruitment team and the board, in a summer that has left Dyche frustrated. He’s used to working wonders with a limited budget against the odds, but it feels like this season will be one of his biggest tests. Arnaut Danjuma has finally joined on loan and Ashley Young has come in on a free, but aside from that Everton look short in several areas.
The main issue comes up front though, and the club have still not replaced Richarlison, who left for Tottenham Hotspur last summer. Now they have an out-of-sorts Neal Maupay, an injury-prone Calvert-Lewin and youngster Tom Cannon as options, with the latter likely to depart on loan. It’s hardly an attack that will strike fear into the opposition and, with movement slow this window, Chermiti might well be the only attacking addition.
The Portuguese youngster might well turn out to be brilliant, but Everton shouldn’t be hanging all their survival hopes on this young man. Given the financial need to stay in the Premier League in their final year at Goodison Park, Gyokeres would have been a far more sensible addition in the short term.
Everton need their new signings to hit the ground running. For all of Dyche’s brilliance, it would be remiss not to expect another season of struggle on the blue half of Merseyside.
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