Why Everton must strengthen at right back in the final days of the transfer window?

This summer has been a significant period of transition for Everton in various facets of the football club.

Alongside a move from the club’s original home of 133 years in Goodison Park to a brand-new stadium on the banks of the Mersey in the shape of Hill Dickinson Stadium, a new structure within the hierarchy of the club has been implemented to ensure Everton have a top-class operations team that can support the first-team manager and players moving forward.

Arguably, the area in which supporters have taken the most interest is the overhaul of the first-team squad, with eight new additions having come thus far, following the 11 departures at the end of June.

However, with just days remaining in the transfer window for the club to bring in further additions, and the Premier League season being two games deep, there are still a few areas of the pitch that Everton must strengthen to ensure they are in the best possible place and position for a sustainable and successful season ahead in their new home.

The summer transfer window has seen the club acquire a range of youth and experience within the first-team squad, with the high-profile arrival of Jack Grealish on loan, a treble-winner with his parent club, Manchester City.

Youthful additions include a new centre-forward in the form of Thierno Barry, who has arrived from Villarreal, and winger Tyler Dibling from Southampton, both of them on permanent deals. 

It’s clear to see the direction and vision the club has, both short-term and long-term.

Moving forward, for the remainder of the window, there are reports speculating that Everton are still looking to recruit more players to add to David Moyes’ squad. The most notable area being right-back and it is vital that Everton strengthen that position in the remaining days of the window.

Right Back: A position that has been neglected

​Many supporters would argue that the right-back position is somewhere that the club have ‘overlooked’ in recent windows, and there are arguments for and against that point of view. 

Over the past decade and longer, club captain Seamus Coleman has occupied the right-back position he made his own towards the end of David Moyes’ previous tenure at Everton. 

After replacing Tony Hibbert, he was a fixture in the team, moving into the era of Roberto Martinez’s time at the club, and so on.

However, an injury playing for Ireland back in March 2017, aged 28, was a huge setback in the career of Coleman. Although he returned 10 months later and is still classed as a ‘first-team player’ now, at 36, he never quite recaptured the same level of quality he showed prior to his horrific injury.

Coleman’s professionalism and longevity has ensured he has played over 150 Premier League games for the Toffees since that injury and he has made the most appearances in Premier League history for the blue half of Merseyside. But nailing his succession plan has proven difficult.

At the time of Coleman’s injury, there was a young, upcoming right back coming through the academy who was having a successful time with the club's U21 setup, winning Premier League 2 during the 2016/17 season.

Jonjoe Kenny, who departed the club in June 2022, went on to make 50 Premier League appearances for his boyhood club, and there were hopes within the football club and supporters that he could be the heir to Coleman; however, this never materialised, and Kenny unfortunately was unable to make the right-back position his own.

The most recent attempt Everton made to look for a long-term successor to Seamus Coleman was in January 2022, when the club brought in Scottish youngster Nathan Patterson from Rangers for a fee in the region of £11m.

Recruited under Rafael Benitez, the Spanish manager was sacked a fortnight after Patterson's signing. The latter’s Everton career got off to a slow start and he failed to make a Premier League appearance during the latter end of the 2021/22 season.

​Due to an injury Coleman picked up the following pre-season, Patterson’s opportunity arose, and he made his Premier League debut on the opening weekend of the 2022/23 season in a 1-0 defeat to Chelsea at Goodison Park. Even after Coleman returned to the matchday squad, Patterson retained his place in the side for the opening seven league games of the season. 

However, during the first international break of the campaign, Patterson picked up an injury playing for Scotland, and this was the beginning of several injuries and setbacks he has sustained during his time at the club.

​Since October 2022, Patterson has only registered 19 Premier League starts for the Toffees across almost three seasons. He has played second fiddle to other players in his position, including Coleman, the veteran Ashley Young, who spent two years at the club, and Jake O’Brien, whose natural position is centre back.

​Moving forward, many, if not the entirety of the Everton fanbase, would argue that signing a forward-thinking right-back, someone similar to what Seamus Coleman was during his younger days, is essential to David Moyes’ side being successful this season and beyond.

Currently, O’Brien occupies the position, and although it isn’t his natural position, the Irishman has been consistent since breaking into the starting XI in January and has also scored two goals during the back end of the 2024/25 season.

However, there is hope that O’Brien can eventually move to centre-back and create a partnership with Jarrad Branthwaite going forward, which would leave the right-back position vacant. The club still, of course, have Coleman and Patterson on the books, with recent reports linking the latter with a move to La Liga side Sevilla on loan. Coleman is coming to the end of his career and more than likely will retire at the end of the current season.

​Two names that Everton have been linked with at right-back are Sevilla’s Juanlu Sanchez and Lyon’s Ainsley Maitland-Niles.

Should the club bring either player in, they would be a positive addition to the current first-team squad by adding a forward-thinking approach and providing an attacking threat from wide areas.

With Vitaliy Mykolenko’s forward threat limited at left-back, it is something the club have massively lacked from full-backs since Lucas Digne left in January 2022.

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