Continental tournaments postponed, should help Everton

As expected, both continental football governing bodies in Europe and South America have postponed their respective continental showcases scheduled to be held this summer.

With the coronavirus pandemic showing no signs of slowing down quite yet and the number of confirmed cases continuing to rise exponentially across the world, this was the only sensible decision that will allow most national leagues to complete their current fixture schedules.

The tournaments were originally scheduled to be held starting June 12th 2020, but have now been pushed off until June 11th 2021 to accommodate for the current suspension of all football.

Euro 2020 was going to be played across twelve host cities, but there is no word yet whether all the locations are still on the docket for the postponed tournament - Amsterdam, Baku, Bilbao, Bucharest, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dublin, Glasgow, London, Munich, Rome & St. Petersburg with the final at Wembley Stadium in the English capital.

Similarly, the Copa was going to be hosted across nine cities across Argentina and Colombia - Cordoba, Mendoza, Buenos Aires, La Plata & Santiago Del Estero and Cali, Medellin, Barranquilla & Bogota respectively, with the final at the Estadio Metropolitano in Barranquilla.

Everton still have nine games to play in the current Premier League season, and depending on when fixtures resume, we could easily see the current season stretching right until the end of June when footballers’ contracts expire. The Toffees’ last game of the season was scheduled to be in mid-May, with the European season ending with the Champions League final on May 30th.

The number of players expected to feature at the two tournaments for the Blues is significant (including players on the fringes of selection) - England: Jordan Pickford, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Michael Keane; France: Lucas Digne, Djibril Sidibe (on loan); Italy: Moise Kean; Portugal: Andre Gomes; Turkey: Cenk Tosun; Republic of Ireland*: Seamus Coleman; Iceland*: Gylfi Sigurdsson; Bosnia*:Muhamed Besic; Brazil: Richarlison; Colombia: Yerry Mina.

(* - qualification not confirmed, pending playoffs)

Whether the season gets completely canceled or just delayed, with the Blues’ international contingent not involved in football over the summer will be of twofold benefit for manager Carlo Ancelotti. Getting a full preseason with his squad will certainly help the veteran manager convey his vision for the team for the next season, while the added rest is also another positive for the core of this team, especially players like Richarlison, Calvert-Lewin and Pickford who have feature in every game of Ancelotti’s tenure so far.

The transfer window officially opens June 10, 2020 with deals not becoming official until July 1. The Premier League transfer window then closes at 5 p.m. BST (noon EST) on Tuesday, Sept. 1.

There might not be enough time to embed new players especially if Everton have to go through the qualifying rounds of the Europa League (scheduled to start 25th June, 2020), but the longer window does give Marcel Brands more time to offload deadweight from the squad.