Everton's Transfer Pursuits: Hayden Hackney and West Ham Links
Everton’s summer has not yet sparked into life, but the rumour mill around Goodison Park is already at full tilt – and it keeps circling back to relegated West Ham United.
The transfer window officially opens today. Everton, still to announce a first signing, are deep in conversations rather than confirmations.
At the top of their list sits Hayden Hackney. Middlesbrough’s midfield fulcrum, the Championship Player of the Season, is understood to want the move. Everton want him too. The problem, as ever, is the fee. Talks continue over what it will take to pull the 22-year-old away from his boyhood club, and until that number lands in a place everyone can live with, the deal stays in limbo.
While Hackney is the concrete pursuit, everything around it feels more like smoke than fire. And much of that smoke drifts over from East London.
West Ham’s drop into the Championship instantly painted them as a shop window for Premier League clubs. Add in David Moyes’ history in the Hammers dugout and the profile of their squad – athletic, seasoned, with a blend of power and flair – and it is no surprise Everton keep being linked with claret-and-blue talent.
The interest in Hackney throws an intriguing light on another old target. Moyes tried last summer to bring in Tomas Soucek, the veteran midfielder he knows so well. Whether that chase is revived now remains to be seen, especially with central midfield potentially strengthened by Hackney’s arrival.
Right-Back Situation
Right-back is another live issue. It is a priority position for Everton, yet Aaron Wan-Bissaka, despite repeated links, is not on the active agenda at this stage. That stance, reported last month, still stands: they admire the player, but a move is not being worked on.
Left Flank Interest
On the left flank of defence, the picture is different. Everton have been credited with an interest in attacking left-back El Hadji Malick Diouf, a player who would bring a very different dimension to the more conservative, defensively solid Vitalii Mykolenko. The Ukrainian, fresh from signing a new three-year contract last week, has nailed down the shirt, but Diouf would offer thrust and chaos on the overlap – a change of gear rather than a replacement.
Attacking Options
Higher up the pitch, the names get bigger and the deals more complicated.
Moyes’ admiration for Jarrod Bowen is no secret. He built much of his West Ham attack around the winger’s relentless running and sharp finishing, and the idea of reuniting at Goodison has obvious appeal for the Scot. But Bowen is West Ham captain now and, after relegation, he will not be short of admirers. Any club trying to prise him away would be walking into a bidding war.
The same applies to Crysencio Summerville. The winger, already on plenty of recruitment lists, added another highlight to his reel with a fine goal for Ronald Koeman’s Netherlands in their World Cup opener against Japan on Sunday night. Pace, directness, end product on the flanks – exactly what Everton lack. Exactly what half of Europe is also looking for.
Up front, the situation is brutally simple. Everton are open to a new striker. Proven centre-forwards cost a fortune and everyone wants one. The club know that, accept it and will only move if the right opportunity appears at the right price.
One such opportunity might be Taty Castellanos. The Guardian reported at the weekend that the 27-year-old Argentina international, who only arrived at West Ham from Lazio in January, could be an option. Seven goals in 22 games was not enough to keep the Hammers in the Premier League, but it was enough to remind clubs of his penalty-box instincts and work rate. If West Ham show any willingness to talk, Everton will at least listen.
For weeks, the assumption around West Ham has been clear: relegation means a fire sale. Big names out, parachute payments in, a rebuild from the rubble.
Daniel Kretinsky has other ideas.
On Saturday it emerged that the Czech billionaire, already a major figure at the London Stadium, has agreed a deal with the family of the late David Gold to buy some of their shares. If completed, the move would lift his stake to 43 per cent and make him the dominant power-broker behind the scenes.
With that influence comes a very different message to circling clubs.
In an interview with The Times, Kretinsky made it plain he does not intend to strip the squad. He wants to keep the core together and give Nuno Espirito Santo the tools to bounce straight back at the first attempt.
“We don’t need to sell the players for financial reasons,” he said. “We are doing this to make sure we are promoted back to the Premier League immediately. That is our only goal.”
For Everton, and for every other club eyeing West Ham’s best talent, those words matter. They suggest hard negotiations, high prices and a hierarchy determined not to fold under pressure.
“Key players are waiting for us. They want to see there is a real chance of keeping the squad together,” Kretinsky added. “What matters is funding, strategy and consistency. We have spoken to all of them. They need to see that our project is real and serious. Promotion is our only goal.”
That stance does not close the door on departures. It simply means West Ham will only sell on their terms, not out of desperation.
So Everton wait. They push on with Hackney. They scan the market for a striker who fits both system and budget. They weigh up full-back options and keep an eye on developments in East London, where a club planning for the Championship insists it can hold its nerve.
The window has only just opened, but already a question hangs over Goodison Park: can Everton find value and ambition in a market where even the relegated clubs are refusing to blink?
