Marked for Jake O'Brien
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Fee done, terms next for Imrân Louza
Everton and Watford have settled on $10.0M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Everton have done the hard part with FC Nordsjaelland, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 7 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Everton until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market7 Sep 2026
Ivan Toney wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Everton hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Everton
Ivan Toney and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Jack Grealish slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Jack Grealish is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad7 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Everton are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Aug 2026
Tottenham pay $32.6M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A day Ivan Toney will not forget
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Watford have kept their man, and Everton go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $32.6M sale of Tyler Dibling
He is going to Tottenham, the club has $32.6M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.8M — a club that wants Viktor Johansson enough to be asked twice.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ray Robert is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
One of those days for Ivan Toney
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.56, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match29 Aug 2026
A 3‑1 win over Fulham, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad31 Aug 2026
4 Everton players away with their countries
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to Norwich City this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $9.6M — a club that wants Ephron Mason-Clark enough to be asked twice.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Carlos Alcaraz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
6 new faces, and Everton are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Braiden Graham, and the manager let it.
Market10 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Harrison Armstrong has his answer from Everton; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
An offer of $69.2M for Luis Suárez
Everton have gone to Sporting CP with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Madrid have kept their man, and Everton go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
412 appearances across 18 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Everton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Aug 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Carlos Alcaraz and Everton agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Market3 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Seamus Coleman has his answer from Everton; what he does with it is the next window’s story.