Ian Wright highlights mistake in Everton’s summer spending, wanted to see another Koeman U-turn

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Ian Wright believes Everton wasted money on too many playmakers this summer.

Pundit Ian Wright has told Sky Sports’ The Debate that he can’t understand why Everton didn’t look to bring Ross Barkley back into the fold before signing Gylfi Sigurdsson over the summer.

The Toffees splashed the cash over the summer, with manager Ronald Koeman overseeing the signings of Jordan Pickford, Cuco Martina, Michael Keane, Davy Klaassen, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Nikola Vlasic, Wayne Rooney and Sandro Ramirez.

However, results have been poor so far, and Sunday’s 1-0 home defeat to Burnley was a fourth loss of the season in just seven Premier League games, whilst one point from two Europa League outings has been disappointing too.

Koeman now finds himself under pressure, and his summer signings are coming under increasing scrutiny, having bizarrely chosen to sign three No. 10’s in Klaassen, Rooney and Sigurdsson, with Koeman now facing problems jamming them all into the same team.

Everton desperately lack pace due to their over-reliance on those No. 10’s, and whilst they broke their transfer record to sign Sigurdsson from Swansea City, they didn’t sign a big-name striker to replace Romelu Lukaku.

Now, Everton are struggling to score goals, and desperately need a striker or even just some pace out wide, prompting pundit Ian Wright to criticise the club’s focus during the summer transfer window.

Wright has told Sky Sports’ The Debate that he would have tried to bring wantaway playmaker Ross Barkley back into the squad before his injury, given that Koeman made a similar U-turn over Oumar Niasse.

Ultimately, Wright feels that Everton should have focused on spending their money on a new striker rather than Sigurdsson, highlighting the major mistakes in the Toffees’ summer outlay.

“Is he gone completely, is that it, he’s totally out of the game?” said Wright. “He’s brought in Niasse from the cold, maybe he could have saved some of that money by retrieving the Ross Barkley situation, and put more money into buying a forward, which they desperately need,” he added.