Everton: Why new signing has been the worst transfer of the season

Everton new signing Gylfi Sigurdsson was purchased from Swansea for a club record £45m but he has failed to impress since his big move.

Everton have had a torrid season after selling their star striker Romelu Lukaku. And despite splashing out around £100 m on new signings, they now find themselves in a relegation battle.

Everton had an unfortunate run of extremely hard fixtures to be fair, but still, they failed to gain anything in their latest game against Leicester where they lost 2-0.

The bad run of fixtures that has left them with eight points from their first 10 games after winning only two matches has left them third from the bottom of the table. This bad run of games has caused former coach Ronald Koeman to lose his job with caretaker manager David Unsworth taking over.

But their run of bad form and bad luck has continued and Unsworth left club record signing Gylfi Sigurdsson on the bench due to his bad form.

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Sigurdsson has had a disappointing season so far and even when other signings including Jordan Pickford, Michael Keane, Davy Klaassen, Wayne Rooney and Sandro have failed to impress, it’s Sigurdsson who has been the most disappointing.

The Icelandic play-making midfielder had a fantastic season with Swansea after scoring nine goals and making 13 assists.

But this season, he has failed to get any goals or assists from nine appearances. This bad form has led Unsworth to drop the 28-year-old from the first 11. The club record signing has been a complete waste of money so far, as he has failed to even create any goals. Sigurdsson was a master of free kicks last season with Swansea after setting up Fernando Llorente with many goals and even scored a few gems himself.

He has been the worst signing of the season so far and has done little to justify his huge price tag. What Everton failed to realise is that Sigurdsson needs a big target man to latch on to his crosses and free kicks. At the moment, he has the diminutive Sandro and Wayne Rooney up front. Rooney is strong, but he’s short and Everton have no other strikers except perhaps youngster Calvert-Lewin to latch onto Sigurdsson’s set pieces.

Unsworth admitted prior to the Leicester game that he couldn’t fit Davy Klaassen, Wayne Rooney and Gylfi Sigurdsson in the same line-up.

"“I think they are all good players. Can they all play in the team at the same time? Probably not.“If you played in a certain style and certain way, you could fit them in. But what I really want to do is play players in the right positions and play them where they are comfortable within a team structure.“So I certainly wouldn’t want to be moving players into unfamiliar positions too often."

Unsworth also dropped fellow new signing Davy Klaassen opting to play the young and energetic Tom Davies instead.

What this shows, so far, is that Everton’s transfer window has been a huge failure. After splashing out big money on several new players, Everton have failed to improve their team and are stuck in the relegation zone.

It’s a surprise to me as well after Everton recruited top talent scout Steve Walsh from Leicester. Walsh was the one who found N’Golo Kante, Mahrez and Jamie Vardy. And he also found Ademola Lookman and Idrissa Gueye at his new club Everton last year.

Replacing Romelu Lukaku was never going to be an easy task. And Everton completely forgot to replace the main position that needed filling. A striker who can score. They bought a new goal keeper, a defender and two midfielders while purchasing a declining and ageing Wayne Rooney. Lukaku scored 26 goals for the Toffees last season, and I fail to see where and who they will get those crucial goals from this season.

I think Walsh and Koeman were trying to be a little too clever with their signings, trying to sign players such as Sandro hoping that he really is an undiscovered gem. But what they should have done was focus all their money from the Lukaku sale on bringing in another top striker.

This disaster reminds me of when Tottenham sold Gareth Bale for big money and signed several young players. But, a lot of those signings were flops and they never really replaced Bale. Eventually, only one or two of their signings came good, particularly in Eriksen.

Next: David Moyes: Back to Everton?

Everton may find themselves in a relegation battle due to their disastrous start to the campaign. They may also pay heavily for their failure in getting their club record signing Sigurdsson to provide them results. Everton made several bad purchases this season, but their biggest failure, and the biggest flop of the entire transfer window has been Gylfi Sigurdsson.

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