Everton have splashed out a significant portion of the £ 47 million that they received from the sale of John Stones on wingerYannick Bolasie from Crystal Palace.

Even though Crystal Palace have been struggling in the league ever since the return to the top division,Yannick Bolasie has been a bright light. The 27-year-old has had an air of unpredictability around him and opposition defenders have struggled to deal with him on a number of occasions. At 6 ft 1 inches in height,Bolasie also has the physical power to come up with headed goals now and then.

Just when it seemed that top clubs were starting to take notice of the DR Congo international, Everton has stepped in with a large sum of money. They have brought in the player for a whopping £27 million. This was after the club held in negotiations with Sunderland for a couple of their players without much success. The signing ofBolasie comes just weeks before the close of the transfer window and manager Ronald Koeman expressed his delight at being able to have a player likeBolasie. The club had also brought in Ashley Williams from Swansea for around £ 12 million. The Welsh defender is expected to be the like-for-like replacement for Stones.

“Yannick is a player who has been a long time on my radar because he’s the type of winger I like – fast, strong and he can play different positions in the forward line. He’s a really good signing for the club.At 27, he’s a good age and he has experience in the Premier League. He will give strength to the team and I’m very pleased to have Yannick as part of what we are trying to build here at Everton,” saidKoeman, who drew his first match 1-1 against Tottenham.

Everton manager Ronald Koeman has submitted a bid of £25 million for Iceland international Gylfi Sigurdsson as the club continues with the wave of changes.

The club has made a lot of changes already both with the ranks of players and the background staff, especially in light of the poor result they had in the last campaign. They sacked the former coach Roberto Martinez, brought in a director of football for Leicester City for the first time and have been making lot of changes to the squad in a bid to restore their position in top flight football.

The Iceland player, who was impressive at the just concluded Euro 2016 tournament in France, is the latest major interest of Koeman and he wants to ensure the player joins in this summer. Koeman met with Steve Walsh, the new director of football to ratify the move for Sigurdsson before making the bid.

Both men are huge admirers of the player even while they were at their former clubs. They want the Swansea midfielder as a marquee signing ahead of the forthcoming season. The 26-year old has to make a decision, as even Swansea would find it difficult to keep him when the offers pour in. Swansea got the player from Tottenham Hotspurs in 2014 and he has gone on become one of the most consistent and reliable players in the team.

Aside the interest in the player, there are others that are likely to join in this summer, with only Maarten Stekelenburg already confirmed from Fulham. As they are signing new players, they remain careful of allowing their key players leave. Recently the club raised the asking price of their main forward Romelu Lukaku from £65 million to £75 million as other clubs were still interested. Chelsea submitted a bid of £63 million for Real Madrid’s Alvaro Morata but as the bid failed they runed back to Lukaku.

The new Everton manager Ronald Koeman has stated that he wants to take the team back into Europe.

The former Southampton manager believes that Everton should be playing regularly in Europe, and he will try to do everything he can in order to bring success back to his new club.

Everton have qualified for the Europa league only twice in the last six seasons and Ronald Koeman wants to change these statistics. He said that money is available in order to improve the team, and he will invest it wisely in order to build a team that can bring success in Europe.

He stated that his dream was to not only build a team that can play attractive football but also a team that can not only compete with the best in the Premier League but also in Europe. Everton finished 11th last season and failed to win a place in Europe.

So many times last season, Everton fail to hold on to a lead after having opened the score. Indeed, they managed to draw almost half of their league games.

In contrast, Ronald Koeman former club Southampton finished 6th in the League and will take part in the Europa League next season. It is this sort of success that Koeman hopes to bring to Everton, and he believes he can achieve it if he is given time.
Ronald Koeman believes that there is a confidence problem in the team, and that is the first issue that he will need to resolve. He said that if a team is low on confidence it is quite difficult to play football, and this is what made the difference in some of the games last season.

He believes that Everton has quality players and that they will have a great season next year.

Everton caretaker manager David Unsworth claimed that the 3-0 win over relegated Norwich City was the perfect afternoon for Everton.

The club installed Unsworth as the man to lead the club for the final game of the campaign after parting company with Roberto Martinez a few days ago. Martinez was relieved from his duties after a defeat against Sunderland, who secured their safety in the division with this victory. Everton have been poor throughout the campaign and this would not have been the result fans would have been hoping when the club spent big in the summer.

The match also witnessed goalkeeper Tim Howard playing in the Everton shirt for one final time before he heads to the MLS in the summer. Due to several factors, there was a lot of expectation from the Everton supporters ahead of the game. They had turned up in great numbers to witness one of their best players in recent memory leave the club. The win over Norwich was a fitting sendoff for Howard, who has played for almost a decade at Goodison Park. The win also helped Everton finish the campaign on a positive note. The team has been on rotten run of results for the last few months.

The win over Norwich was only their second in the last five matches.”It was the perfect afternoon, all credit goes to the players, they were fantastic.They took on board what we’ve done in two days – a real plus point from them that they have done that, I thought we were brilliant from start to finish. We got the goals, a clean sheet, and worked at a tempo that was outstanding for 90 minutes. There are some tired bodies in there and quite rightly so, that’s how you should feel and I’m just delighted for the boys,” said Unsworth.

Roberto Martinez claims that defender Phil Jagielka before the end of the campaign despite appearing to suffer a season threatening injury in the FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United.

The England international is regarded as one of the important members of the squad. It would be positive for Everton if he was to make an impression for England at the upcoming Euro 2016. Now that the season has little to offer for the club, Martinez was hoping that Jagielka would be available for England in the summer. He has dismissed fears that the defender may miss the Euro 2016 due to hamstring issues.

Martinez, whose position at Everton is reportedly under threat, claimed that Gareth Barry, Seamus Coleman, and Phil Jagielka are the three players under monitoring in order to get them fit as soon as possible. He says that the possibility of Gerard Deulofeu returning before the end of the season is very low. Everton are on course to record one of their worst finishes in recent league campaigns. This was despite the club bringing in top quality players like Romelu Lukaku for huge money in the summer. Lukaku has gone on to score more than 25 goals in all competitions, but he has already been making noises about the club’s inability to even challenge for a top four place.

“The only three players we’re keeping a close eye on are Seamus Coleman, Gareth Barry and Phil Jagielka.Obviously Gerard Deulofeu, I think it will be very difficult to see in any of the final three games.We’re very confident that Phil Jagielka will be available for the last game of the season. Gareth Barry and Seamus Coleman have got an outside chance of being involved at the weekend, but I feel very confident that they will be involved one way or another before the season ends,” said Martinez.

Roberto Martinez has classified the solitary point against Crystal Palace as perfect timing for his team.

The two teams could only manage a goalless draw at Selhurst Park. The result stretched Everton’s winless run in the league to 5 matches. The last time Everton won a game in the Premier League was back at the start of March when a 3-1 comfortable victory over struggling Aston Villa does not give good confidence to the squad. However, the club has showed improved performances in the last two matches.

The draws against Watford and Crystal Palace may not be satisfactory as a result, butit has helped the club do well on the defensive front. Everton have one of the poorest defences in the league. This is despite the presence of John Stones, who was linked with a £ 30 million move to Chelsea in the summer. Everton will want to return to winning ways as soon as possible and the game against Southampton represents an ideal opportunity next weekend. Form must come back to the team soon as Everton are up against Liverpool and Manchester United in back-to-back games towards the end of April.

The first will be a Merseyside derby followed by the clash with United at Wembley for the FA Cup semi-final.”We were very clear in what we wanted to do.And the next one is managing the game in a way that could allow us to have our threat as well.Funes Mori, Seamus Coleman, Ross Barkley all had good chances. Overall, I am pleased with the role we had to take in the second-half, over 45 minutes with 10 men against a team like Crystal Palace that can easily use their direct play to get the ball in the box and test you, constantly,” said the manager.