Big-money “magician” now “in agreement” to join Everton

A new era awaits Everton at the Hill Dickinson Stadium this forthcoming Premier League campaign.

Thankfully, despite season after season of relegation panic, their swansong offering at Goodison Park wasn’t drenched in the worry of Championship football potentially coming to the Toffees’ new state-of-the-art home, as Everton finished in a comfortable 13th final spot under David Moyes.

Now, it’s up to the Scotsman to deliver more success to the blue half of Merseyside, with more signings presumably in the works to ensure they improve on their 13th position this time around.

Everton in talks to sign £300k p/w ace

Everton have been busy in the transfer department so far this summer.

Indeed, the Toffees have managed to welcome in five new faces ahead of their upcoming adventure into fresh surroundings, with both Thierno Barry and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall sticking out as notable purchases up top and through the middle.

While Dewsbury-Hall offers plenty of Premier League experience, the top-flight side might well venture down the more untested route when recruiting other midfield assets, with Sunderland’s 18-year-old gem Chris Rigg reportedly on their shopping list.

However, much in the same ilk as the former Chelsea man, Everton could also offer an escape route to another outcast struggling towards the top end of the Premier League, as talks continue to occur between the Toffees and Manchester City reserve star Jack Grealish.

Journalist Dominic King has taken to X to suggest that Grealish would be receptive to the idea of moving to Moyes’ outfit, with talks also ramping up – as per football journalist Mike Joyce writing for the Times – as Everton attempt to bring the £300k-per-week midfielder in on loan, despite those wild wage costs.

Further reports from one Toffees insider note that Grealish is “in agreement” to join Everton on loan.

How Grealish is shades of Barkley

The Birmingham-born 29-year-old won’t be viewed as a complete lost cause, with the idea of Grealish getting back to his prior best enabling Everton to win a temporary star who possesses shades of Ross Barkley’s game when he was at his peak at his boyhood club.

Before finding out the hard way how unforgiving football can be – with a limp 12 goals and 11 assists coming his way for Chelsea from a century of appearances – Barkley was a rip-roaring success story at his boyhood employers with runaway efforts like this one against Newcastle United.

In total, the 33-time England international would power home a respectable 27 efforts from 179 Toffees outings, on top of also picking up 25 assists, leading to one of his former Everton bosses in Roberto Martinez, heralding his overall ability as “incredible.”

Grealish would be showered with the same adoration when he was still pulling on Villa claret and blue, as seen in Brendan Rodgers branding him as “marvellous” to watch when situated in the Leicester City dug-out.

All this lavish praise was warranted, too, as the ex-Villans captain bettered Barkley’s Everton tally by amassing a bumper tally of 32 goals and 43 assists in the West Midlands, leading to the Citizens splashing out an excessive £100m on the attacking menace’s services.

Unfortunately for Grealish, this dive into the unknown at the Etihad backfired, leaving the 29-year-old now in a position where he needs to breathe life back into his faltering playing days, off the back of a 2024/25 campaign where a middle-of-the-road seven-goal contributions were averaged.

Often chucked out to the left wing under Guardiola, it could well be a masterstroke to come by Moyes if he places Grealish back into his preferred number ten spot, with that freedom perhaps reawakening his Villa best, gifting the much-loved Toffees boss his new Barkley in the process.

After all, Barkley managed to recover his career from the brink when he joined Luton Town in 2023.

The same could soon happen for Grealish, therefore, who was once even labelled as a “magician” when strutting his stuff for his hometown side by ex-Premier League regular Ashley Cole.

It will be up to Moyes and Co. to get this magic back out of him after an underwhelming stint in Manchester, with a version of Grealish back at his very best, an unbelievable weapon to possess.