Everton: The Pre-Season Preview

Hello everyone, I’m Ollie and welcome to my first article on RoundTable. With the players due back within the next week or so to kickstart the preparations for next season, let’s look ahead to pre-season and some of the key areas up for debate. 

First of all, Everton’s schedule has been confirmed, with trips across Scotland, the North-West and Europe all in the offing for David Moyes and his squad. 

One of the criticisms of our Pre-Season schedules in recent years has been the calibre of opponent we’ve come up against. I must admit, I’m inclined to agree with that point. Without showing too much disrespect to the opposition of 2023 for example, the toughest team of that season’s preparation was Sporting CP at Goodison Park, surrounded by tests against Stade Nyonnais, Wigan, Bolton and Stoke.

Whilst Bolton and Stoke do feature this summer, alongside an opener in Dundee, the biggest difference is they feel much more like games to build fitness and blow off the summer cobwebs, rather than consolidating the work done by Moyes and the players.

This summer’s double-header in Germany is a great opportunity for the squad to test themselves against really strong opposition. In particular, that Stuttgart side managed by Sebastian Hoeneß, who qualified for the Champions League last term, will be a tough test, and likewise a great away trip to the continent for us Evertonians!

Back on home soil, Pre-Season will end with a trip up to Murrayfield to face Newcastle and then another Champions League qualifying team in Lille at Hill Dickinson Stadium. Two more fantastic challenges for Everton to ramp up their preparations for the Crystal Palace clash on the 22nd August. 

It’s a really good schedule the club have put together and should give us a really good chance of preparing for the season in a professional manner. However, there could be a slight bit of bias due to the excitement of our trips to Germany - nothing beats following us in Europe!

Now, the attention has to turn to the transfer market to ensure that we’re ready to go from the off. Last season’s opener at Elland Road saw Everton look undercooked; the squad wasn’t ready at all. I’d love to see us use that Lille game as a test-run for Crystal Palace, but we all know that it doesn't always work out that way.

Something which is extremely evident is Everton’s need for reinforcements, the last eight games of the season are living proof of that argument. I think there is also a suggestion that this summer is more important than last year, and I’m inclined to agree. Fullbacks have to be the priority for me. 

The new signing we can talk about is the imminent arrival of Hayden Hackney from Middlesbrough for a reported initial fee of £16.5m, one that finally seems to be getting over the line after a long few weeks. 

It seems like a solid signing this one, he was easily the best player in the Championship last season, and he impressed me whenever I watched him. It leaves us in a solid position in midfield, with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, James Garner, Merlin Rohl, Tim Iroegbunam, Charly Alcaraz and Harrison Armstrong. Gana Gueye looks set to depart Everton, so I think if Everton did want to sign another reinforcement in midfield, you’d likely see Iroegbunam or Alcaraz depart. 

Next up on the agenda has to be to address the full-back situation, I think I probably could’ve copied and pasted that exact sentence from anything I’ve written for the last five years!

But this season, it feels so much more important. It was probably the Achilles heel of Everton last term, with Vitalii Mykolenko struggling for large spells of the year, and Jake O’Brien being slung there out of position. Let’s hope there are some concrete links in the next few days and weeks. 

Are there any areas you think we should be prioritising? Let me know in the comments!

Whilst we all know Moyes has been quite tight with his handing out of minutes to the young players, I think it’ll be his demise if he doesn’t integrate them more this season. Fans are frustrated with the development of Adam Aznou, Tyler Dibling and Harrison Armstrong.

I fully expect Tyler Dibling to get more minutes this season, especially in pre-season. He’s had a year to bed in, now is the time to kick on and take any opportunity that comes your way. For what it’s worth, I still feel like there is a player in there. 

It’s also a massive summer for the development of Harrison Armstrong. I wouldn’t be loaning him out this season, I think this is where Moyes needs to integrate him directly into the first-team squad to see if he can become a permanent option in there for us. He is definitely one to watch this summer.

An exciting prospect, however, off the back of his first senior call-up for Northern Ireland is Braiden Graham. His inclusion in pre-season for Everton will be watched by a lot of our fans with great intrigue, me included. 

We’ve all seen his incredible highlights and statistics from the youth teams last season, he had 31 goal involvements on his way to winning Everton’s Under-21s Player of the Season, and according to The Athletic’s Paddy Boyland, he is set for a spell in the First-Team setup this summer before a decision is made on his future.

For me, I think it’s the best of both worlds for his development. The strong schedule means he can get some decent exposure to men’s football with Everton, but I’d be looking to extend his contract and get him out on loan for the remainder of the season, preferably to an EFL club where he is going to play week-in, week-out and really get used to the men’s game.

I think we all look at Jarrad Branthwaite’s loan to PSV Eindhoven as the dream scenario, that spell did him the world of good. Whilst I think that a loan to the continent is probably slightly too soon, I think an EFL club to keep an eye on Braiden Graham is the best of both worlds. 

Ultimately, we all know the results this summer mean nothing. What matters is that opening day at Hill Dickinson Stadium against Crystal Palace, but Moyes has big decisions to make ahead of that Saturday afternoon in August. 

The biggest thing for me is an aligned strategy in the transfer market. This is a huge transfer window for Everton. We proved last season that we’re on the peripheries of European Football, and with that little added push at the end of the season, we quite possibly would’ve achieved that goal. 

Not only that, we cannot have a repeat of what happened at Elland Road last August. I’d love us to have a squad ready to go from minute one against Palace, although I know it’s easier said than done.

The development of the young players is a necessity too, but none more so than Braiden Graham. Let’s hope we get a proper plan in place for him to avoid a similar situation to what we saw with Demi Akarakiri. 

I’d be interested to know your thoughts on the summer ahead, where should Everton explore in the transfer market, and what would you do with the development of our young players? Let me know in the comments!