According to The S*n, Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti is ready to axe five or even six of former director of football Steve Walsh’s signings for the Toffees in an early ruthless decision, bringing a much-needed end to his era.
What’s the word, then?
Well, the Italian has only been in charge for four matches having been named as Marco Silva’s successor last month, but the report says that he has already made his mind up on the futures of a handful of first-team players.
The report says that the 60-year-old has decided that Gylfi Sigurdsson, Theo Walcott, Cenk Tosun, Morgan Schneiderlin and possibly Michael Keane could all go, while Jordan Pickford is another who needs to be wary of his position.
All five players moved to Merseyside when Walsh was in charge of signings until he left in the summer of 2018, and aside from potentially Pickford, it would be hard to argue that any of them have been a real consistent success.
Much-needed end of an era
Everton brought the aforementioned players to Goodison Park in a bid to move to the next level and begin to regularly challenge for the top six or even top four positions in the Premier League, yet when Marco Silva was sacked six weeks ago they were in the relegation zone.
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The Toffees spent £45m on Sigurdsson, £30m on Keane, £27m on Tosun, £24m on Schneiderlin and £20m on Walcott in 2017 and the 2018 January transfer window.
That’s £146m of talent, and that doesn’t even include the £30m they spent on Pickford, who could be another man in trouble.
If Ancelotti does axe all of those players, it will be a big step towards ending what was a disappointing era under Walsh in terms of new players brought to the club.
Call yourself a Premier League expert? How much did each of these big-money January signings cost?
His replacement Marcel Brands has had his ups and downs as well with the likes of Moise Kean and Alex Iwobi so far failing to fire with the former without a goal in his opening 20 appearances, and the latter with two in his 20 outings.
However, he has been successful in bringing the likes of Lucas Digne and Andre Gomes in too, and he may have to take it up another level now Ancelotti is at the helm.
In other Everton news, one Toffees target showed this week why he would be the complete opposite of Moise Kean if he signed…
