8
I don't think we were ever going to 'replace' Pickford. I don't know why people convinced themselves otherwise.
The club clearly started the window trusting Pickford. I'd wager up until the Fleetwood match there was actually no real intent to even try for another GK; if an opportunity came up then we'd maybe make a move, hence the Romero intermediary chat.
The Brighton game the other day was the final push for us to go and get a stop-gap in to push Pickford, who now has this season to save his Everton career – he's "on notice", as it were. If he doesn't pick up, we have a better back-up ready and waiting to take his place. We clearly wanted Romero and United blocked that move. Olsen was the one available with the budget we have.
The Kean one is weird. It's not so much replacing him, it's just we needed a bit more quality in that area of the squad anyway imo. A forward who is versatile enough to play in a few positions.
Had we got Tomori on loan, we wouldn't have got Godfrey and maybe that money had been earmarked for a forward. Perhaps with the injuries we've had we've again had to allocate funds we had earmarked for one position to defence. But Godfrey looks like he could be a great addition for us.
Overall I'm thrilled with the players we got in. We've got a very good box-to-box player who has Prem experience, and then Allan who has slotted straight in. In James we've got the best player I've ever seen in an Everton shirt, in terms of his technical ability on the ball.
If we go and get King then it could give us another option and while I'm not buzzing at the idea of it, it'd be decent. Though i'm yet to see any evidence we actually are in for him, it's just more a gut feeling.
