Everton made a late bid for Yarmolenko

Now that the transfer window is firmy closed, we are hearing further instances of how Everton well and truly botched the entire Deadline Day.

First there was the Manolo Gabbiadini issue where Napoli weren’t willing to let the player go without signing his back up first. Everton had been pursuing the player, then it looked like the deal was almost done, then on deadline day first Genoa refused to sell Leonardo Pavoletti to the Neapolitans, and Manchester City transferred Wilfried Bony to Stoke City, so Napoli pulled the plug on the deal.

Then it looked like Everton were going to sign Yacine Brahimi, a puzzling move to begin with as that would have made him the Toffee’s fifth winger. But that move crashed into the rocks too as a complicated ownership issue inflated his asking price.

In the afternoon we heard that the Blues would sign Moussa Sissoko. As the evening progressed, Tottenham Hotspur made their bid, and then it turned out the player had no interest whatsoever in coming to Merseyside and went to London instead. What was even more bizarre was an apparent statement from majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri to a Sky Sports reporter saying that the Blues would never have signed the player anyway over keeping James McCarthy.

And today, the Liverpool Echo are reporting that Everton had made a late, late bid to sign a favorite old target Andriy Yarmolenko. ‘Yarmo’, as Blues have fondly taken to calling the Ukrainian forward, has been a persistent topic of chatter for easily about the last half a dozen transfer windows, what with the player’s agent taking selfies at Goodison and the mercurial president Ihor Surkis of Dynamo Kiev accepting bids and rejecting bids just about every time.

“Everton submitted a bid for Yarmolenko one hour and 15 minutes prior to the deadline.

“I was satisfied with the transfer price but we did not have time to even draw up a contract.

“I was satisfied with the offer as long as Andriy was. Transfer bids cannot be submitted that late.”

We would beg to differ, since it seems quite a few last minute deals are usually done at just that, the last minute. It does provide Kiev with a handy excuse to decline, and continues to highlight the absolute shambles that the Everton transfers dealings were on Deadline Day.

Here is Everton’s depth chart and tactical breakdown post the transfer window, and also a scouting report on loan signing Enner Valencia and what he will provide the team.