Everton are linked with a move for Southampton striker Che Adams, after a start to the Premier League season which has seen them lose their opening two games without scoring a goal.
Put simply, the Toffees have looked completely toothless across those 180 minutes. Neal Maupay spurned a myriad of opportunities to get Sean Dyche’s side off the mark in their home season opener against Fulham; before the returning Dominic Calvert-Lewin once more went off injured in their 4-0 drubbing by Aston Villa the following week.
Youngster Youssef Chermiti was signed earlier in the window from Portuguese side Sporting CP, but he remains very much a work in progress, and not the kind of signing on which you can rely on to carry the goalscoring load on his own in his maiden season in English football.
Combine that with Calvert-Lewin’s dreadful fitness record in an Everton shirt and Maupay’s seeming inability to find the back of the net, and it becomes blindingly obvious that the first port of call to try and turn around a rough start for the Toffees is to help share that load.
Here’s why Che Adams fits the bill nicely.
Contents
Why should Everton sign Adams?
A good fit for Dyche
It’s important to note that Adams is not, and has never been, a prolific goalscorer in his own right. Although he once scored 22 in a single campaign at Championship level for Birmingham City, that is firmly an outlier – his best return in a Southampton shirt was 10 last year.
But Adams is a mobile, physical striker who can take chances and create them for teammates; who can run in behind as well as drop in and link play; and who can press from the front and lead the team as the first line of defence.
In many ways, he’s the perfect Dyche striker. Former Dyche favourite Ashley Barnes was never a sharpshooting marksman either, but what he brought to that Burnley team was everything that his manager wanted.
In a front two, Adams would offer Dyche a player able to link up a stodgy midfield with their attacking options, and change his role depending on who he was partnered with. And that positional versatility could be absolutely crucial to why the club are so keen on signing the Scottish international.
Positional versatility
Dyche loves a 4-4-2. We saw him employ it to great effect at Burnley, taking a club seemingly destined for the drop into Europe within a couple of seasons. And in the first two games of this season, it’s what his Everton side have gone with, albeit with more central midfielders playing than you might expect.
Adams would be able to adapt his game to the differing options that Dyche will have available to him across the course of the season. With Calvert-Lewin beside him, Adams has the acceleration to be able to get in behind defences and stress teams in terms of winning second-balls higher up the pitch.
If he’s partnered with Chermiti, Adams has the nous and ability to stay tight to his strike partner, offering tighter combinations that would help to get the best out of the Portuguese youngster’s quick feet and desire to link play.
Deployed alongside a player like Arnaut Danjuma, Adams would be able to drop in as a No. 10 and try and play in balls behind opposition defences to allow the Dutchman to get into dangerous areas – just as Danjuma did for Unai Emery at Villarreal when paired up front with Giovani Lo Celso.
And, if Dyche was to use Alex Iwobi as part of his forward two, which he has done at times, Adams has the fitness and workrate to run the channels, stretching teams to allow Iwobi the time and space to create in the middle of the park.
Value for money
Southampton have struck hard bargains for their players this summer. They’ve raised nearly £130m from the sales of James Ward-Prowse to West Ham United, Romeo Lavia to Chelsea, Tino Livramento to Newcastle United and Mohammed Salisu to AS Monaco.
They’ve not let anybody go for a steal, but Adams’ situation at St. Mary’s is a bit different, in that he’s coming into the last year of his contract. Whilst Russell Martin has praised Adams’ professionalism and attitude in the first weeks of the Championship season, where the Scot has scored three times in three games, the Saints know this is their last chance to get a fee for a player they bought from Birmingham for £15m.
Adams has made no secret of his desire to return to the Premier League, and at the age of 27 and what should be his prime years, the club are reportedly understanding of his situation. A departure would be a blow to Russell Martin, but the club feel well stocked in terms of both finances and options in Adams’ position.
Everton’s overtures to sign Adams at a reasonable fee, therefore, have not been knocked back by the South Coast club in recent days.
Any port in a storm
Whilst Adams does represent good value considering the prices being discussed, the truth is probably slightly more stark than that – Everton don’t have the luxury of having plenty of options to choose between.
With the constraints of Financial Fair Play hanging heavy over the club’s head, and the monetary requirements of finishing the new stadium at Bramley Moore Dock that’s meant to be opened in the summer of 2024, Everton simply don’t have much wiggle room.
That stadium opening is one that the hierarchy at Goodison Park will desperately want to host as a Premier League club. Having survived by the skin of their teeth across the last two campaigns, a new home is supposed to be a symbol of a brighter future where Everton will return to challenging at the right end of the table.
Saying goodbye to Goodison with relegation from the top flight, and cutting the blue tape on the Bramley Moore Dock as a Championship club is the kind of thing that will be giving the board members nightmares right now.
Adams might not be the signing that’s going to get pulses racing in the blue half of Merseyside, but he’s a striker with Premier League experience and pedigree, who fits with the work ethic Dyche demands of his team and can offer goals from a number of positions.
In a pinch, and in a position of dire need from the club’s perspective, it’s a move that makes plenty of sense for all parties concerned. And in some ways, this just feels right. After all, Adams’ middle name is Everton – and if that won’t convince you, nothing will.
