Football Digest: Sean Dyche faces big summer rebuild at Everton
Everton had two transfers reportedly fall through on deadline day. Lille had approached the Toffees to sign Andre Gomes on Friday but the switch couldn’t be completed after the Merseyside club were unable to strike up a deal with Aston Villa to bring Leander Dendoncker to Goodison Park.
According to the French newspaper La Parisien, Gomes’ departure was dependent on whether they could find a suitable replacement in the centre of the park. Dendoncker had been identified as an ideal signing but a deal couldn’t be struck, therefore Gomes’ move fell through as well.
Everton also tried to sign Dendoncker last summer while he was playing for Wolves but the Belgian opted to join Villa instead. It is understood that a bid of around £8million was lodged by Everton for him back in August 2022.
In the end, Villa signed him for a fee of £12.1m. Dendoncker made 20 appearances for the Birmingham-based club last season and recently returned to the fold this week after recovering from injury.
The recent capture of Youri Tielemans from Leicester City has seen him slip further down the pecking order and he now faces an uncertain future at the club. Dendoncker missed pre-season after nursing an injury over the summer and has barely played so far this season outside of a brief cameo in Villa’s Europa Conference League qualifier against Hibernian on Thursday.
However, it appears Unai Emery still believes in the 28-year-old and is working hard to unlock his full potential. Speaking ahead of last weekend’s Premier League clash with Burnley, the Spaniard said of Dendoncker: “I have had 10 months with him and I am always trying to find [how he can] be regular every day, every month, training, playing and getting his best performance, for some different circumstances he didn’t do it.
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“Now, hopefully on Monday he will start to train again with the group, hopefully, he is going to keep consistent for a long time because I think he can help us.”
Gomes finds himself in a similar position at Everton. Last season he was sent out on loan to Lille after falling out of favour at the club. Gomes got a decent run of games in the Ligue 1 side but won’t be able to make his move permanent after Everton failed to capture Dendoncker.
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