Lookman not leaving, transfer window still open for Everton

With Everton playing on the January transfer window deadline day on Wednesday, it promises to be a busy day with manager Sam Allardyce refusing to rule out any more moves by the club in either direction.

Speaking during his pre-match press-conference earlier today, Allardyce was asked about two midfielders linked with the Blues, specifically Charles N’Zonzi and Marcelo Brozovic.

“Not yet. I’m not ruling anybody in or out because it’s impossible to do that, the window open for anyone and somewhere out of blue, which normally happens this time, could appear.”

He went on to add that despite fringe players like Davy Klassen and Sandro Ramirez being linked with moves away, the Blues will only be entertaining letting players leave on loan, no more sales.

And there was positive news for fans of Ademola Lookman, who looks to have disappeared lately and was being rumoured with an exit.

“We’ve had a number of enquiries which have not been suitable to allow a player to leave, nearly all on loan I believe. We’ve not accepted any loan deals we’ve had from other clubs.

”Until such time board decide it’s financially acceptable, then from a squad and player point of view I can say whether it’s in the best interests of club and player to send them out.

”We have got a lot of players so moving some out on loan would be possible.

”He [Lookman] wouldn’t be available on loan because Aaron Lennon went a few days ago.

”We got a very good deal financially for Aaron so that was acceptable for us. That leaves anyone in that position going out on loan a no-no.”

Allardyce stayed on the topic of the attacking options as he spoke about how he was looking to distribute the minutes going forward.

“I hope Theo Walcott can hit the ground running and do what he’s done at Arsenal and be a success almost immediately.

“When you’ve got the threat of pace and more pace than we had before, it frightens opposition defences and I think that gives us an opportunity to stretch the opposition teams more than we are doing now and get in and around them and behind them and score more goals.

“Of course, we’ve also got Dom and Ademola but they’re at the younger end and it’s hard for those lads to play every week at this level until they gain enough experience.”

Yannick Bolasie hasn’t been at his best since his return while Cenk Tosun is yet to find the goal either.

“Yannick is another one where we have to be patient because he’s had 12 months out and certainly hasn’t hit anywhere near his peak yet.

“Cenk will hopefully settle in straight away, too, so we’ve got options to go out there and make us better as an attacking force and get more results as quickly as we can.”