Maxwel Cornet would be an Everton player right now had Premier League rivals West Ham United succeeded in signing Filip Kostic from Serie A giants Juventus on transfer deadline day.
That is according to talkSPORT’s transfer expert Alex Crook.
West Ham United tried and failed to sign long-time target Filip Kostic before the window closed on Friday night. And that, he says, and this meant that Everton’s pursuit of Maxwel Cornet would end with a similar pang of disappointment.
“They did try and get Kostic. That didn’t happen on deadline day,” Crook explains (3rd September, 2.40pm).
“That had a knock-on effect for Maxwel Cornet who, in my understanding, would have gone to Everton had they (West Ham) managed to get a replacement.”
Everton could have reunited Sean Dyche with Maxwel Cornet
Cornet, as a result, finds himself stuck in a less-than-favourable position at the London Stadium. 13 months on from his £17.5 million arrival from Burnley – where he shone under now-Everton boss Sean Dyche – the former Lyon ace has played only one minute of Premier League football so far in 2023/24. His West Ham reputation ravaged by an injury which kept him on the sidelines for almost the entirety of last term.
According to TEAMtalk, Cornet was not the only West Ham player who could have ended the window as an Everton player. The Toffees were priced out of a deal for Danny Ings when former Everton boss David Moyes stumped up £12 million in January, and missed out again after West Ham failed to bring in another number nine before the 11pm deadline.
Cornet, at least, remains highly-rated by Moyes; kept out of the XI only because of the superb form of Jarrod Bowen and Said Benrahma. Then again, the arrival of Mohammed Kudus from Ajax – his best performances coming out wide last term – means opportunities may still be few and far between over the coming months.
Moyes remains a fan
“Where I see him fitting in is that he can do a couple of roles. When you look back to how he played at Burnley, he played a couple of roles, he played almost alongside Wout Weghorst as another striker,” Moyes said back in March, via Claret and Hugh.
“He’s played quite often off the left. That’s where I’d probably say he fits. He’s tended to get more goals from wide, that was the reason we brought him in.
I’m thinking that if we could get this boy to get us eight or ten goals it would add to what the total would be. We obviously lost him early on. He was a bit behind when he came in because he hadn’t trained at Burnley much before we signed him. That’s where I see him, positionally, as where I see him playing.”
Kostic, meanwhile, finds himself down the pecking order at Juventus too. That is despite an impressive return of 12 assists in all competitions during his debut season in Turin.
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