'What is the point?' - Ex-Everton man fumes at treatment of £31k-p/w ace after Lampard snubs

Former Everton player Michael Ball has questioned the ‘point’ of the club’s January loan move for Aston Villa’s Anwar El Ghazi. 

In mid-January, Everton struck a deal to bring El Ghazi to Goodison Park for the remainder of the season.

It came shortly after left-back Lucas Digne went the other way for a fee of £25million.

Since El Ghazi joined, he’s only made one appearance, featuring for the final nine minutes of last weekend’s 3-0 victory over Leeds United.

The 26-year-old has also been left out of the match-day squad altogether on two occasions.

Ball believes that the move was born out of a ‘close relationship’ between El Ghazi’s agent Jorge Mendes and Everton majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri.

He believes El Ghazi could find himself in a similar situation to Josh King, who played only 137 minutes after joining The Toffees midway through last season.

“Anwar El Ghazi has been brought to the club due to Farhad [Moshiri] having a close relationship with a super-agent,” he wrote in his personal Liverpool Echo column, as quoted by Goodison News.

“The same thing happened last season as well. Josh King was brought in on deadline day but Carlo Ancelotti hardly gave him any game time.

“What is the point in bringing players in who are not going to play and just sit on the bench?”

With the likes of Demarai Gray, Alex Iwobi, Anthony Gordon and Andros Townsend on their books in addition to El Ghazi, Everton look particularly well-stocked in the winger department.

Townsend is Everton’s top scorer this season (seven goals), while Gray ranks second for goal involvements with nine (via BBC Sport).

Meanwhile, pundit Alex McLeish says Gordon is proving to be a ‘real bright light’ for The Blues, and to make matters worse for El Ghazi,