These are exciting new times at Everton, but not, it appears, for 2019 signing Alex Iwobi, who is increasingly looking bound for the exit doors at Goodison Park.
Carlo Ancelotti invested in James Rodriguez, Allan, and Abdoulaye Doucoure during the summer, a raft of new arrivals who underpinned the Toffees’ successful start to the Premier League on Sunday as Tottenham Hotspur were defeated 1-0 on Sunday.
Everton were outstanding in North London, and followed that up by cruising past Salford City in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday evening.
Ancelotti gave his second-string a run-out, with only Michael Keane retained from the Spurs victory, giving hope to the likes of Theo Walcott and Moise Kean—both omitted from the starting XI against Tottenham—that they remain in his plans.
Iwobi, however, despite appearing to be fit and available, didn’t make the matchday squad for a second consecutive game.
It wasn’t that he failed to make the team, but he failed to make the coach’s 18 on the day. Here is a player who increasingly appears to be surplus to requirements under Ancelotti.
It’s a remarkable fall from grace for a player who cost the club £34 million just last summer, but he’s now in danger of finding himself among the Merseysiders’ other outcasts, alongside the likes of Yannick Bolasie, Muhamed Besic and Sandro Ramirez.
After not being linked with a move away from the club for the majority of the brief offseason, the rumours have begun to fly around that Iwobi is destined for an imminent exit from Finch Farm.
According to the Daily Mirror, he’s one of several fringe players who could be offloaded by Director of Football Marcel Brands as he looks to balance the books.
There has been plenty of poor transfer decisions over the last few years at the club, and in the context of some of their other flops—Davy Klaassen, anyone?—the the arrival of Iwobi hasn’t (yet) been an emphatic failure.
Admittedly, he struggled to make his mark last season, registering a risible return of one goal and zero assists, but there were caveats, not least a season of transition and turmoil at Goodison Park.
Marco Silva, the manager who recruited him, was already in the dying throes of his miserable tenure, and Iwobi found himself added to a disjointed team who already appeared to be losing faith in their head coach.
The midfield, unbalanced since the exit of Idrissa Gueye, lacked control, destabilising the whole side, and the horrific November injury to Andre Gomes was yet another blow to an already troubled area of the side.
The arrivals of Allan and Doucoure threaten to solve a problem area, which could have meant an upturn in fortunes for Iwobi, so often feeding off scraps last season, but the arrival of James from Real Madrid—and accompanying shift information—threatens to reduce him to irrelevance.
Everton’s own malaise exacerbated some of the issues Iwobi had already endured at Arsenal, where he had sometimes struggled to find his place in the team under Unai Emery.
No one could question his fitness, work rate, or movement, but what exactly had Iwobi been signed to contribute?
He doesn’t have the pace of a winger, doesn’t have the creativity of a No. 10…what exactly was his purpose?
“Iwobi doesn’t do it for me,” former England and Spurs striker Darren Bent told Football Insider. “His end product’s not good enough, he doesn’t score enough goals, doesn’t create enough goals so he’s not really doing anything.”
Damning words, but few Everton fans would disagree at this stage.
While it’s easy to say he needs a fresh start—a move to Crystal Palace has been mooted—would a switch to playing alongside ‘lesser’ players expose Iwobi’s own limitations, which were perhaps masked at the Emirates Stadium.
The likes of Bolasie, Besic, Sandro and Cenk Tosun; and even Bernard, Sigurdsson, Kean and Fabian Delph face uncertain futures under Ancelotti.