Aston Villa loanee Anwar El Ghazi faces a difficult point in his career, with Everton unlikely to sign the Dutch winger.
El Ghazi has failed to make an impression at Goodison Park, with this loan spell proving to be a stumbling block in his development.
What’s the latest?
The 26-year-old looks set to return to Aston Villa when his loan spell ends at the end of the season, the trouble is, they do not want him either and will look to seal a permanent exit for the two-time-capped Netherlands international.
The latest update surrounding El Ghazi’s future comes from a recruitment source courtesy of Football Insider and states that “Everton have no plans to sign El Ghazi permanently and will let him go when his loan expires.”
It also states that upon his return to his parent club, “Villa will look to cash in” on the forward during the summer and believe it will be easier to agree on a transfer to seal his departure – with Steven Gerrard admitting he does not see the Ajax youth product as part of his plans for next season.
Gerrard will most likely use the money made from the attacker’s transfer exit on a squad overhaul as he looks to bridge the gap towards making Aston Villa a consistent top-six Premier League club.
El Ghazi’s Transfer Nightmare
El Ghazi’s fall from grace has been rapid.
After all, the £9m-rated winger was once described as “unstoppable” by former Villa player Alan Hutton:
“I’ve played with him and I’ve played against him. In training he can be unstoppable,” he said.
“In games, I’m watching him thinking, do that, take them on, go forward. You’re urging him to do it because you know he can do it.”
In terms of confidence, El Ghazi is surely a world away from last season in which he found himself as a key player under Dean Smith.
His ten goals in 28 Premier League games ranked him as Aston Villa’s second-highest scorer last season, with his minutes per goal metric of 161 minutes making him the most consistent goalscorer in the whole squad.
It was brave of Gerrard to axe Villa’s second-highest scorer, though he did, with El Ghazi now stuck on the Everton bench with no sign of minutes coming his way anytime soon.
With just 11 minutes of game-time at Everton this year, he is clearly not rated by Lampard and will seek a permanent move away from parent-club Aston Villa in order to revive his career.
If he can’t even get in a relegation-threatened team then it’s best for all parties that he packs his bags and leaves Merseyside for good.
In other news – Forget relegation: Lampard now heading for huge Everton disaster over £72k-p/w star