Everton's Summer Transfer Plans: Focus on Hackney and West Ham Players
Everton’s summer plans are still stuck in neutral, but the rumour mill around Goodison Park is already at full throttle.
The window opened today. No signings through the door yet, no medicals spotted, no scarves held aloft. What there is, though, is a clear pattern: Everton are shopping in two very specific aisles – the Championship’s standout talent and the salvage sale at relegated West Ham United.
Hackney at the heart of the plan
At the centre of Everton’s thinking sits Hayden Hackney.
The Middlesbrough midfielder, crowned Championship Player of the Season, is understood to be keen on a move to Merseyside. Everton want him. He wants Everton. The only obstacle is the number on the cheque.
Talks over a fee continue as Boro dig in over a player who came through their own system and has become the heartbeat of their side. Everton see him as exactly the kind of progressive, high-energy midfielder their squad lacks. This is a deal with substance, not just noise.
Around that, though, the noise is deafening.
Old club, familiar profiles
West Ham’s relegation has triggered predictable speculation. Whenever a big club drops, the assumption follows: fire sale, bargains, a squad stripped for parts. Add in David Moyes’ history in east London and the links start writing themselves.
Everton’s squad needs legs, goals and depth. West Ham’s is full of players who, on paper, tick those boxes.
Moyes tried to sign Tomas Soucek last summer. That interest has not yet been reignited, but the question hangs in the air: if Everton land Hackney, does the veteran Czech still fit the plan, or does the club pivot fully towards younger, resale-friendly options?
Right-back remains a priority, but Aaron Wan-Bissaka is not currently on the agenda, despite previous suggestions. The club have cooled on that idea for now, even as the need for a long-term solution in that position remains obvious.
On the left, Everton have been linked with El Hadji Malick Diouf, an attacking full-back who would bring a very different dimension to that flank. Vitalii Mykolenko, steady and reliable, signed a new three-year deal last week. Diouf, if a move materialised, would be the aggressive counterpoint – the runner, the risk-taker, the man to push high while Mykolenko locks things down when required.
And then there are the glamour names.
Bowen, Summerville and the search for spark
Jarrod Bowen is the kind of player Moyes would love to build around again. West Ham’s captain, proven in the Premier League, direct, relentless, and with an eye for goal, fits the profile of the wide forward Everton have lacked for years.
But this is not a one-club race. Bowen will have no shortage of admirers, and West Ham’s stance under new powerbroker Daniel Kretinsky complicates any notion of a bargain.
Crysencio Summerville sits in a similar bracket of intrigue. The winger offers raw pace and the ability to beat defenders in a way Everton’s current options rarely manage. His reputation climbed another notch with a fine goal for Ronald Koeman’s Netherlands in their World Cup opener against Japan on Sunday night. Performances like that inflate both price and competition.
Everton want more speed and threat out wide. Both Bowen and Summerville would provide it. Affording them – and prising them away from clubs with no urgent need to sell – is another matter.
Striker market: opportunity or trap?
Up front, the picture is blunt. Everton know proven centre-forwards cost a premium and attract a queue. The club are open to exploring the striker market, but only if the numbers make sense. That is a big “if” for a position where desperation often leads to mistakes.
If an affordable option appears, they will move. Taty Castellanos is one such name floated. The Guardian reported at the weekend that the Argentine could become a target.
Castellanos only arrived at West Ham in January from Lazio. Seven goals in 22 appearances in a struggling side showed enough to suggest he can adapt, but not enough to keep the Hammers in the Premier League. For Everton, he would represent a calculated gamble rather than a guaranteed solution.
And here is where the narrative around West Ham really starts to shift.
Kretinsky closes the door on a fire sale
The easy assumption after relegation was that West Ham would have to cash in on their biggest assets. Clear the wage bill. Rebuild from the ground up. Let the vultures circle.
Daniel Kretinsky has other ideas.
On Saturday, it emerged that Kretinsky had agreed a deal with the family of the late David Gold to buy more of their shares. The move will take his stake in the club to 43 per cent, making him the dominant figure in the boardroom and, crucially, the man shaping the response to relegation.
Speaking to The Times, Kretinsky laid out a firm stance. West Ham, he insisted, do not need to sell players for financial reasons. The objective is simple: go straight back up.
“We have a very credible strategy. We don’t need to sell the players for financial reasons. We are doing this to make sure we are promoted back to the Premier League immediately. That is our only goal,” he said.
He spoke of “key players” watching closely, waiting to see whether the club can keep the core of the squad together. Funding, strategy, consistency – those are the buzzwords of his plan. West Ham have held talks with their stars and are presenting a project they claim is “real and serious”.
Promotion, Kretinsky repeated, is the only target.
For Everton, that message matters. It means West Ham will not be bullied into cut-price deals. Any move for Bowen, Castellanos or others will be a negotiation from strength, not a clearance rack raid.
So the window opens with Everton plotting, West Ham digging in, and Hackney standing as the most realistic early pillar of Moyes’ rebuild. The question now is not who Everton want, but how many of these ambitions survive contact with hard valuations and hard-nosed owners.
