Everton have already made big transfer decisions to spark new approach to January window
It took until the final week of last summer to find a solution but the fruits of Kevin Thelwell’s labours going into this season can pay off in January.
Indeed, Thelwell's quiet work behind the scenes can ensure the Everton director of football’s second January transfer window is hopefully far less fraught than the baptism of fire he endure a year ago.
Having left Major League Soccer outfit New York Red Bulls on February 25, 2022, to return to his native north west of England as Marcel Brands’ successor, Thelwell’s first window in the summer of that year proved to be something of a mixed bag. While costing around £60million between them and eclipsing the money recouped for Richarlison from Tottenham Hotspur, Amadou Onana, Dwight McNeil and James Garner fitted the bill as the kind of signings the club would prefer to bring in – youthful prospects who could improve – and over the 18 months since, all of them have become regulars in the side.
Although considerably older, free transfer James Tarkowski, 31, has proven to be an astute acquisition. Other than the two occasions that club captain Seamus Coleman has taken to the field this season, the centre-back has worn the armband and he has continued the level of consistency demonstrated at previous club Burnley where he played over 30 Premier League games for five seasons in a row including 35 plus in the last four by being an ever-present for the Blues in the competition since signing.
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