Everton could be set to lose both of their key men, strikers Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin, due to their damning financial issues and their insecure Premier League status.
Meanwhile, experienced duo Salomon Rondon and Cenk Tosun are still not fully trusted by manager Frank Lampard to do a job in the Premier League – and they will likely be on the search for a new number nine should their starting forwards depart in the summer.
While 19-year-old Lewis Dobbin is showing promising signs in their academy, the club will be ruing not having signed Leeds United striker Joe Gelhardt, who at the same age as the Toffees teenager, already has 13 Premier League appearances with two goals and three assists under his belt.
Gelhardt the wrecking ball
Everton almost signed the exciting youngster while he was still at Wigan Athletic according to the Liverpool Echo, who had their own financial issues and were forced to sell their prized asset to Leeds for just £1m back in 2020 – a price the Merseyside club felt was too high for them due to the probability that he would remain in their U23 side for at least another year.
The England U21 international in his last game scored the winning goal for the West-Yorkshire side, in a critical relegation six-pointer against Norwich City, which then spurred the team on to their second win in a row, beating Wolves 3-2 five days later.
His performances have led to comparisons made between him and former Everton star and Premier League legend Wayne Rooney, while former Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa is a huge fan of the teenager.
“He’s like a human wrecking ball,” said Bielsa in an interview with Sky Sports.
“I like him, he’s really exciting. He’s fast, he’s aggressive, he gets on the ball, he takes people on. Once he gets into the box, he loves it. That’s where he can do most of his damage.”
Despite having made just two starts in the top flight, Gelhardt ranks among strikers in Europe’s top five leagues and continental competitions in the top 1% for pressures per 90 (25.63), as well as in the top 1% for successful pressures per 90 (7.90), backing up Bielsa’s claims that he is indeed like a human wrecking ball, wanting to hound as many opposition players as possible before the game is over.
On top of that, he has also found the net with great regularity, beating the goalkeeper on 20 occasions across youth and senior level for Leeds.
Lampard would have craved a player like that in his academy, who is fearless, aggressive and composed under pressure, and it is clear that chairman Farhad Moshiri has had an absolute howler in letting Gelhardt, who was born in Liverpool himself, slip through the club’s fingers.
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