Everton looked into signing Harry Winks but Frank Lampard personally decided not to sign the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder.
The Toffees had a slow start to the window but have really kicked on in recent weeks.
James Tarkowski has finally been joined by fellow new signings, with Ruben Vinagre, Dwight McNeil, Amadou Onana and Conor Coady all arriving.
A striker will be a top priority for Everton in the coming weeks and another midfielder could yet come in.
Everton have been pressing ahead with a move for Idrissa Gueye, seemingly choosing him over Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Winks.
Everton looked into signing Harry Winks
Gueye’s move from Paris Saint-Germain has stalled of late but is ultimately expected to go through very soon.
That will surely complete Everton’s midfield recruitment with Winks missing out on a move to Merseyside.
The Times now claim that Winks was likely to join Everton earlier this summer but boss Lampard ultimately scrapped the deal.
It’s claimed that Lampard did his homework on Winks and then decided he didn’t want to sign the Tottenham man.
The reason for Lampard’s U-turn is unclear, but he seemingly spotted something in Winks that he didn’t quite like.
Winks has no future at Tottenham and has been exiled from the first-team squad under Antonio Conte.
Tottenham will allegedly sell Winks for less than £20million, but Everton seemingly didn’t want to commit that kind of cash to signing Winks.
Winks is a decent pass of the ball and gets around the pitch well, but he’s not a defensive machine nor a goalscoring threat.
Everton have gone with the traits of Amadou Onana and the defensive capabilities of Gueye rather than try to fit Winks into their team.
It seems unlikely that Everton would go back to Winks even if Gueye’s move doesn’t go through, and Tottenham are now in danger of being left with Winks beyond the transfer deadline.
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