Matt Townsend

At one point late last season, Everton looked very much on course for a European place as they seemed to be coming into their best form at exactly the right time.

Like every Premier League side, Everton will be keeping a close eye on players during this World Cup, and no doubt many of those footballers will be moving clubs by the end of the competition.

This story has come right out of the blue, with very few having surely ever entertained the idea that the Everton manager could end up taking over his country's team.

Such a transfer could, in theory, facilitate a move in this window by Everton for Chelsea's young striker Liam Delap, who the Blues, of course, tried to sign last year.

Everton managers have been plagued for so long with the problem of who should succeed the team's long-standing right-back Seamus Coleman, that it seems to be becoming an almost insurmountable issue.

There have been rumours building for some time that Everton will lose their most exciting attacking talent, with the former Marseille player failing to agree to sign a contract extension offered to him, and making cryptic remarks about wanting to play at a higher level.

Everton have moved to bring in the 32-year-old ball winner because of the recent departure of long-time stalwart Idrissa Gueye.

Everton have added the Welsh international forward Brennan Johnson to their squad, directly replacing McNeil who leaves Merseyside with a year remaining on his contract.

The Toffees have failed to secure another alleged transfer target as Chelsea's Liam Delap agrees a move to Nottingham Forest this week. By

Tuesday's deadline day chaos though was quite possibly the most embarrassing and depressing example of a recurrent theme over so many past years in which Everton have made a mess of its transfer policy, particularly on deadline day.