How Everton could line up after Dele Alli and Donny van de Beek January transfers

Let’s get this straight about Everton’s transfer window strategy. It was a gamble. A huge one.

They sold perhaps their most consistent performer over the past 18 months in Lucas Digne, and replaced him with a young, untested Ukraine left-back with no big-league experience; likewise at right-back with the promising Nathan Patterson.

And the biggest gamble of all? To put the club’s Premier League survival fight into the hands of not one, but TWO players who have star status, but have been overlooked by a succession of managers at their respective clubs for 18 months or more now.

Dele Alli wasn’t trusted by a Spurs manager since Mauricio Pochettino left in 2019, and Donny van de Beek didn’t convince the manager who signed him... nor the one who inherited him.

Yet they say necessity is the mother of invention, and Everton are most certainly in need; of more goals for a start, with the relegation zone waiting with its siren call and clammy embrace.

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And for, well, err, yes, invention. Exactly that. Their midfield has been so pedestrian this season, it could almost double as the crossing outside Abbey Road Studios.

There is no threat, no excitement, no energy, and very little on the front foot. Which is exactly the sort of stuff to get you relegated.

The problem was, no top player is going to swap a European campaign in the next four months, for a dog fight at the foot of the table, so they had to get - and I’ll just labour the point here - inventive in search of invention.

They did it, probably with the two best signings possible under the circumstances. Add in two promising youngsters and a wild card in the inconsistent but talented