Everton looking to sell fringe players in January, according to sporting director

Stefan Bienkowski

• Updated: 19 May 2021 15:43 BST
• 2 min read

Everton sporting director Marcel Brands has confirmed that the club will be making no signings in January and will instead focus on selling fringe players. 

The Merseyside club spent no less than £67 million on signing players in the summer transfer window, alongside the free transfer of James Rodriguez.

The Colombian midfielder has enjoyed an encouraging start to life at the club, along with a number of other new signings like Abdoulaye Doucoure, Allan and Ben Godfrey. 

As such, Carlo Ancelotti’s team have surprised fans and critics alike with just five defeats in their opening 17 league games and currently sit fifth in the Premier League table. 

And according to Brands, the club’s improved form suggests very little business will need to be done in the January window. 

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“We are still working to offload some players for new challenges in their careers,” Brands said at Everton’s general meeting on Thursday. “We don’t expect to sign new players in this window.

“In the current squad we have a good balance of experienced players, young players, and also players with home grown status. 

“The average age squad age is just above 26 years old. This is a big difference with the squad of two seasons ago where the average age was a lot higher.”

Although Everton made a number of signings in the summer, the only players that were sold were Morgan Schneiderlin and Kieran Dowell to Nice and Norwich respectively. 

As such, Brands and Ancelotti will most likely be looking to move on players that still take up a considerable wage but are of no use to the first team. 

This may include the likes of Yannick Bolasie, Cenk Tosun, Fabian Delph and, perhaps most importantly, Moise Kean, who is currently on loan at PSG. 

The Parisian side are reportedly very interested in signing the young striker on a permanent deal and if Brands’ comments are to be believed it would seem as though Everton will be happy to sell him for the right price.