Carlo Ancelotti and Everton aren’t letting Moise Kean off the hook so easily

Sometimes in life, we’re not prepared for the challenges we choose for ourselves. This is a positive innovation despite the discomfort, for becoming comfortable within the discomfort as I like to say, is how one becomes better than one was previously. For Moise Kean, it was necessary to escape Italy and Serie A for a different atmosphere and challenge in another nation and league.

Marco Silva and Everton bought him and in the midst of a disappointingly dreadful Toffees campaign, he too struggled and appeared not only disjointed professionally, but personally as well. It always takes players time to acclimate to a new league and country, but it seemed particularly difficult for the young man. While Carlo Ancelotti was able to bring out better in him over a limited time, he was still not living up to standards on Merseyside or the Premiership, and so he was loaned before the summer transfer window closed to Paris Saint-Germain. Since then, under the tutelage of Thomas Tuchel, the player has returned to a form more reminiscent of his time in Italy than at Everton and it’s already been noted across the footballing world; why?

Some have suggested that it is the league itself, the competition, physicality and skill of it, that are allowing for the players skills to flourish with greater ease. I am wont to agree, with no disrespect to France or Ligue 1; each style of football is different depending on the nation and some players are better suited to certain styles or traditions. With that said however, England is known for physical, punishing football and for top skill as well; should the rumors of a PSG option-to-buy clause in the players loan be untrue, I surmise that Ancelotti might indeed have the great talent in his plans moving forward.

A Clever Plan by the Don of Merseyside

To me, it makes lots of sense from the perspective of the legendary Italian boss at the time of the move. Why would he keep the player who continued to underperform while his other young, talented number nine Dominic Calvert-Lewin, continued to blossom before his eyes. With Richarlison a reliable central striker and winger, it appeared that the team would be good with attacking options up front, with true wingers on either side, of which Moise Kean cannot claim to be of course.

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And so, with an opportunity for the player to play at a top European club, in the Champions League and an easier domestic league, it would’ve seemed a natural innovation. The player can go and find play time, confidence, success and volition for a wonderful coach, alongside world class talent, mature, grow, evolve and then come back to compete with his stable of young talent and wonderful veterans once Everton have hopefully made it back to Europe one way or another.

To use a famous Wengerism, it would feel like he was a ‘new player’; with whatever innovations Marcel Brands and Ancelotti would make in the winter transfer window and succeeding summer window, Kean would simply be an added spirit and talent to that Goodison Park cauldron. With names like Hirving Lozano, Thomas Lemar, Arkadiusz Milik, Samuel Chukwueze, and even Isco still floating from the rumour mill, it is very easy to imagine Everton as a scary club in both England and Europe with the talent across the field that the Toffees might assemble by next season. Kean should be given the opportunity to compete in those ranks after he takes this spell with the Parisians to better evolve his own game. What does the team stand to lose by doing so? Nothing, while the potential gain is obvious from what we are witnessing in Paris from the player.

Moise, back on Merseyside....Eventually

Allowing an option to purchase, if true, was not the wisest innovation in my opinion. If anything, an option to sell would’ve been more prudent from the footballing sense. In any event, Kean, should he return to compete at Everton, could provide for Everton exactly what they are currently missing, another weapon. While I believe that the shapes that the boss has routinely employed most of this season are positive, Kean would be able to spell Calvert-Lewin centrally as the lone number nine, or partner alongside him as was sometimes seen last season. An improved Kean might prove a powerful force alongside the dynamic English striker from Sheffield, and if not, it will allow Richarlison to focus his energy on the wing, perhaps making Bernard officially surplus.

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And if he still does not find form in England in some capacity after and has shown no maturity either, then one can loan and sell him just as quickly once again. The player’s talent doesn’t appear to be questionable at this point, only his desire to overcome the difficulties he felt adapting to football in England. This, of course, is not meant to downplay the personal difficulties that all people face when adjusting to a new society, of which we should all be able to empathize with, but the player must want to face this challenge and find their own growth from the journey.

He is a good, talented young man, and I don’t think Ancelotti or Everton should let him off the hook either professionally or personally. For the sake of himself, and his growth as a footballer of course, they must trust in him after this sojourn in the French capital, as I feel as though they will be rewarded by the mercurial talent for doing so.

In the final analysis, we can relate something the famous American statesman Henry Stimson used to say, to this current footballing circumstance and Kean’s future at Goodison Park: “The only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him; and the surest way to make him untrustworthy is to distrust him, and show your distrust.”