Everton Near Deal for Chelsea Winger Tyrique George

Everton are closing in on a permanent deal for Chelsea winger Tyrique George, backing their judgement on a player who only briefly flickered on the pitch last season but clearly lit something up behind the scenes.

The 20-year-old spent the second half of the campaign on loan at Goodison Park with a £25m option to buy attached. Everton have gone back to the table and reshaped that agreement, moving from a straight fee to a structure built around add-ons. It is a deal that speaks to both their belief in his ceiling and their need to work within tight financial lines.

George’s raw numbers from his four-month stay are modest: 11 appearances, just one start. Yet he impressed David Moyes enough to push Everton into committing. Moyes spoke in May about an “excellent boy” with an “excellent work-rate”, the kind of praise he does not hand out lightly, especially when asked directly about whether Everton would try to keep him before the final match of the season.

So Everton have acted. And George is not the only one.

With his transfer edging towards completion, the club are also finalising a £16m move for Middlesbrough midfielder Hayden Hackney, another young, technically sound option for Moyes’ evolving midfield. Attacking midfielder Merlin Rohl, who arrived on loan from SC Freiburg and quietly became one of last season’s more effective additions, is set to make his stay permanent as well.

The shift is clear. Idrissa Gana Gueye and Seamus Coleman have both departed at the end of their contracts, two pillars of the dressing room stepping away just as a younger core begins to form. Experience out, energy in. It is a calculated gamble on legs, intensity and resale value.

For George, this is the next step in a career that has been hovering on the brink of a major move for a while. A product of Chelsea’s academy, he has effectively been on the market for the past 12 months. He held talks with RB Leipzig last summer, a pathway that has tempted plenty of English talent in recent years. Then came the late drama: a £22m switch to Fulham collapsed on deadline day in September 2025, leaving him in limbo.

Everton have now moved into that gap, hoping to be the club that finally gives him a stable platform and regular minutes.

Chelsea, meanwhile, are in the middle of a reset that feels both urgent and unavoidable under new manager Xabi Alonso. They have already brought in Marco Palestra from Atalanta and are keeping close tabs on Crystal Palace’s Maxence Lacroix, Como’s Jacobo Ramon and Rayo Vallecano full-back Pep Chavarria as they reshape the squad.

But this is not the freewheeling Chelsea of recent summers. A 10th-place finish in the Premier League and a season without European football have cut into broadcasting and matchday income. On top of that, the club remains under a Uefa settlement agreement for the next three seasons after breaching financial regulations last summer. The message from the balance sheet is blunt: player sales are no longer optional, they are central to the strategy.

That reality is already drawing attention from Europe’s elite. Real Madrid are interested in Enzo Fernandez, while Como and Inter Milan are among the clubs eyeing Trevoh Chalobah. The futures of Benoit Badiashile, Tosin Adarabioyo and Wesley Fofana are also in the air, as Chelsea weigh who fits Alonso’s plans and who can bring in the kind of fee that keeps them on the right side of the rules.

Even in attack, there are questions. Forwards Alejandro Garnacho and Liam Delap sit in that uncertain bracket too, symbols of a squad packed with potential but short on clarity.

As Everton push to lock in George and complete their midfield rebuild, Chelsea move pieces off the board to fund another new era. One club is trying to climb back towards the European places; the other is trying to stop slipping further away from them. George, and players like him, may end up defining which direction each of them travels next.