Everton’s World Cup duo back in training

While Everton fans remain on tenterhooks awaiting the club’s first signing of the summer, two players who went to the World Cup this summer have returned to training at Finch Farm.

Gylfi Sigurdsson and Idrissa Gueye, who were knocked out at the group stages with Iceland and Senegal respectively, are both in the squad that traveled today to Portugal for the Algarve Cup this weekend. The Blues take on LOSC Lille tomorrow followed by FC Porto on Sunday.

Gylfi Sigurdsson, Iceland

Both the quality of the opposition in the group as well as the quality of his teammates put paid to Siggy’s chances of making progress in the tournament. His skied penalty when down by two against Nigeria didn’t help matters, and even though he made amends scoring another spotkick in the next game, they never really looked like beating the World Cup runners-up Croatia.

Idrissa Gueye, Senegal

The African side will consider themselves very unlucky to exit the tournament, becoming the first country to get knocked out on ‘fair play points’. Gana played his own part there, picking up a needless booking along the way. He was decent in the three games he played, but was ultimately expected to contribute more offensively in his role, and as Everton fans have already seen that is not quite in his repertoire.

There’s no word yet on when Jordan Pickford is expected to return, though it is expected he will join up with the squad the week the season starts. He was spotted yesterday at Carnoustie, Scotland where the British Open is being held.