Ex-Everton chief makes James McAtee transfer claim as Juan Roman Riquelme memories evoked

Ex-Everton chief makes James McAtee transfer claim as Juan Roman Riquelme memories evoked

Memories of Juan Roman Riquelme rumours revived as a former Everton chief executive claims a Blues-linked star has been spotted in Liverpool

Manchester City's James McAtee, pictured with the man-of-thematch trophy following England's win over Germany in the European Under-21 Championship, has been linked with Everton (Image: Tullio Puglia - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images )

Everton need to make a raft of new signings as they reshape their squad. The fans want it, the manager wants it, and preferably some more new faces will be through the door before the Blues board their aeroplane to the USA next week for the Premier League Summer Series.

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Although they obviously need to be the right types of players and the right types of deals, the ECHO understands that David Moyes is particularly eager to do some additional business before his squad embark on their transatlantic trip and it was telling that he spoke on this matter after both the signings of Thierno Barry when he said: “I’m hoping to make more additions in the coming weeks,” and Mark Travers: “We are continuing to work on bringing in more players ahead of the start of the season.”

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Indeed, it was also telling that when Idrissa Gueye’s new contract was announced, the Scot remarked: “His experience and his knowledge of the club is going to be so important going forward with the introduction of lots of new players and the new stadium.”

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The deals that Everton have done so far have all been very encouraging but there is still a lot of work to do, so it’s probably inevitable in such circumstances that we now seem to find ourselves in the midst of the transfer silly season. Certain agents and media outlets know that speculating that the Blues are in for a certain player seems to be something of a publicity tap-in right now, so separating the wheat from the chaff can often prove difficult.

One individual whose name keeps coming back to Everton – along with several other potential suitors – is James McAtee, and it’s not just because Alan Ball, arguably the Blues’ most-gifted outfield player of the post-war era, was his great uncle.

The captain of the England side that secured back-to-back UEFA European Under-21 Championship successes for Goodison Park fan favourite Lee Carsley, the 22-year-old looks like the latest of several talent graduates of Manchester City’s academy who might have to move on from the Etihad Stadium to establish themselves.

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Anyway, McAtee has been spotted in the city, according to a former Everton chief executive. Speaking to Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, Keith Wyness, who was CEO at Goodison Park between 2004-09 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs, said: “We know that there’s going to be up to about eight incomings, which is a lot, but I think we’re going to see that. I think they’re busy.

“I had a very good source of mine tell me that James McAtee was seen at a hotel in Liverpool recently. It’s one of those classic stories that you read about all the time, was last seen in a baker’s shop near the stadium.

“It did come from a reliable source. So, there may well have been negotiations going on there, and I hope there have been.”

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Wyness’ reference to players being spotted outside the ground brings back memories of Juan Roman Riquelme to Everton, which was the transfer rumour that would not go away during Moyes’ first spell as Blues boss in the noughties.

Window after window, the attacking midfielder was linked with a move to Everton and whenever deadline day arrived, it was invariably claimed that there had been various sightings of Riquelme across Merseyside, whether it was at John Lennon Airport or coming out of the Hot Wok.

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Now 47, the San Fernando-born player who is back at his first club Boca Juniors as president having hung up his boots in 2015, only got to play at Goodison once in his career and that was in opposition for Villarreal in a Champions League qualifying round tie in 2005. However, the Riquelme to Everton rumours reached their zenith in July 2007 – on Wyness’ watch – when a story appeared on the club’s official website on a Monday morning claiming that he was on his way from Spain.

The ‘news’ quickly spread onto Everton forums only for the article to be quickly removed from the Everton website, where a statement appeared claiming the earlier publication was “completely untrue and appeared as a result of a technical error that occurred during some maintenance work on the site.”

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A club spokesperson explained: “During the process of uploading the new home page designs for the website some test data was displayed for a very short period of time and was immediately removed after it had been identified. Example data had been used during the testing process, and this was unfortunately missed by our appointed web development company during the final upload.

“We have since spoken to our suppliers to convey our complete dissatisfaction at the way in which this misinformation appeared, and they have apologised to the club and any Everton supporters who may have may have read the test article.”

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