Could someone post the times article please and thank you.
First there was Wayne Rooney, then Cenk Tosun and now Moise Kean. The very notion it might take three players to replace Romelu Lukaku would bemuse Manchester United supporters, but Everton will hope they have finally discovered a lasting solution to longstanding goalscoring problems.The arrival of
www.thetimes.co.uk
First there was Wayne Rooney, then Cenk Tosun and now Moise Kean. The very notion it might take three players to replace Romelu Lukaku would bemuse Manchester United supporters, but Everton will hope they have finally discovered a lasting solution to longstanding goalscoring problems.
The arrival of Kean from Juventus for a fee which is officially undisclosed but believed to be in the region of £30 million represents an investment in potential and does not come with guarantees.
Yet at the age of 19, Kean, who scored seven goals in 17 appearances for Juventus last season and has won three senior caps for Italy, boasts the requisite pace, ruthless finishing and skill to make an impact in the Premier League.
Before that, providing cutting edge to a squad that has struggled for goals ever since Lukaku’s departure in 2017 (there have been only three scored in six pre-season matches) will be his first task.
“I think Kean is destined for greatness,” said the Italy coach Roberto Mancini back in April of a player he has deployed as a central striker but who also operated on the right flank at club level.
“He is a player with a lot of quality, is improving all the time and I believe can become a very important player. Kean has always done well and has immense potential, but let’s also not forget he is still only 19 years old, so we can’t expect too much of him.”
There were times at Juventus when they might have said the opposite.
Coaches and staff worked hard on Kean’s discipline during his early years at the club, the attacker having joined from city rivals Torino in 2010, to ensure a tough upbringing did not result in him gaining the unwanted tag of Serie A’s latest bad boy.
He has learnt to channel his attributes productively, notwithstanding he was left out of the Italian side at the recent European Under-21 Championships for turning up late at a team meeting.
Everton’s interest has long-been established with Kean’s agent, Mino Raiola, enjoying a strong relationship with owner Farhad Moshiri and chairman Bill Kenwright despite taking Lukaku to United at a time when Raiola represented the Belgium international.
In addition, Raiola’s lawyer looks after the business affairs of Everton’s director of football, Marcel Brands. Increasingly, modern-day football appears as much about who you know.
There is a temptation to view the deal for Kean from a wider perspective and as further evidence of how Everton are intent on running a smarter, more coherent operation having lavished around £270 million on incoming signings in two years prior to this summer.
As the rumour mill surrounding their transfer plans cranked into overdrive in recent weeks, the likes of £72 million man Nicolas Pépé being linked to Goodison Park before pitching up at Arsenal, the exasperation of one senior club official was all too apparent.
“Forget it,” he said of the link to the ex-Lille forward. “We’re running a football club here.”
The fee for Kean certainly does not feel outlandish in the present market and the player himself adheres to the strategy agreed by Brands and manager Marco Silva to target younger, hungry talent. Fabian Delph is an exception in terms of age, but Everton believe he will bring leadership in a dressing room that lacked such qualities at times last term, especially during the period between December and February when they won just four league matches.
Everton’s overall spending in this window is likely to top £100 million by next Thursday’s deadline with André Gomes (£22 million), Delph (£8.5 million) and Jonas Lossl (free transfer) having already arrived.
A deal for the Mainz midfielder Jean-Philippe Gbamin is being pursued, while additional targets include a centre back, a winger and a right back on loan.
Proposals for the club’s new stadium at Bramley Moore Dock are not the only building blocks being put in place.
It highlights Moshiri’s ambition that he is sanctioning such a spree given the level of spending that preceded it, one which succeeded only in Everton treading water outside the top six.
The departures of Idrissa Gueye, Ademola Lookman, Nikola Vlasic, plus the impending switch of Henry Onyekuru to Monaco, has so far recouped around £70 million but the desire to invest on top of that places emphasis on Silva pushing on from last term’s eighth-place finish.
The reshaping of Everton’s squad over the past year has been extensive and shows a clarity of thought that was missing previously under the former director of football, Steve Walsh, and former manager Ronald Koeman when players were collected with little apparent thought as to how everything would fit together.
The jarring summer two years ago when Rooney, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Davy Klaassen were all signed within weeks of each other was evidence of that.
Off the pitch under Brands — Kenwright is back in the fold having been on the outside around the time of Sam Allardyce’s appointment in November 2017 — Everton have a plan.
With every signing like Kean, the focus increases on Silva to ensure it comes to fruition.
