Marcel Brands’ failure in January may now prove to be a stroke of luck for Everton – Our View

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Everton didn’t really do all that much in the January transfer window, but one thing they were seemingly keen to do was to get Bernard off their books.

We can understand why, the Brazilian is a high-earner and he doesn’t really play that many games these days for the Toffees, so getting rid of him would have made a lot of sense.

Unfortunately, Marcel Brands failed to broker a move for the former Shakhtar Donetsk man last month, but that may now prove to be a happy accident for the Merseyside outfit.

Indeed, Dominic Calvert-Lewin went off injured against Tottenham with what is being reported as a hamstring injury, so Everton will need to call upon their attacking reinforcements, and they’re lucky that Bernard can slot in easily.

Carlo Ancelotti can now make the simple switch of putting Bernard on the left and moving Richarlison into the centre-forward position.

Of course, there’s also the option of putting Josh King into the side, but after the Brazilian duo’s performance against Spurs, they may want to opt for using Bernard.

Everton need to be as strong as possible at the moment, and an injury to their top scorer could easily have derailed their Champions League push, but because Bernard is still at the club, Ancelotti can perform a minor rejig and Everton can move forward only slightly worse off.

Bernard and Richarlison must be brimming with confidence after scoring three goals between them against Tottenham on Wednesday, so as strange as it sounds, Calvert-Lewin’s injury may have come at a good time for the Toffees.

Of course, you never want to see your best player sidelined, but the Toffees could certainly have elected a worse moment of the season for Calvert-Lewin to go down, as it now looks as though the two players that may be asked to step up are primed and ready.

Brands being unable to find a club for Bernard last month has somehow proven to be a good thing for Everton, and we may well look back on that as a massive stroke of luck.