The January transfer deal that could tell us everything we need to know about Everton’s future

While financial constraints left over from the Farhad Moshiri years mean that Everton aren’t expected to be among the busiest Premier League clubs this January, there is one key problem which they look likely to address in the transfer window – right-back. The way in which they address it will tell us a great deal about the club’s medium-term future under David Moyes.

A few potential targets have been floated by the media at large, but among them are a pair of players currently operating in Italy. Sky Sports reporter Lyall Thomas claimed last week that Everton are “monitoring” both Genoa’s Brooke Norton-Cuffy and Bologna’s Emil Holm – two players who come at the right-back role from very different angles. So what will the decision the club makes this month tell us?

Why Everton’s right-back search is going to tell us a lot about the team they want to be

The current Everton team is, by its very nature, transitional. This is a side which spent years slowed down and suffocated by poor stewardship, after all, and while the work done in the summer under the new owners seems to have worked pretty well so far, there is still quite a long way to go.

This is a team filled with both young up-and-comers and veterans with only limited mileage left on the clock. That makes it a blank slate for Moyes and for his technical team, with plenty of room to develop in just about any direction they choose to take it. So will Moyes play to type and build a direct ball team which does it all the old-fashioned way? Or will Everton put something altogether more dynamic together over the coming transfer windows?

If both Holm and Norton-Cuffy are on Everton’s radar, then it suggests a certain degree of debate is still taking place – that, or this is a side still just looking for the best value deals it can make rather than worrying about building a coherent whole over the long-term.

The 22-year-old Norton-Cuffy, a product of Arsenal’s youth academy, will be familiar to anyone who watched England win the European Under-21 Championship back in June. Energetic, fast and a ceaselessly willing runner both with and without the ball, he’s an aggressive, attacking wing-back who looks to support the attack and spread play whenever he can.

Bologna’s Holm, by contrast, is a more traditional right-back. Capable enough going forward but seldom willing to press up into space or get around the wingers on the overlap, the 25-year-old Swede a defender first and foremost.

You sign Holm if you want a back four which stays disciplined and keeps clean sheets. You sign Norton-Cuffy if you want to be adventurous, to pin defences back and to try and score one more.

Not that Norton-Cuffy is a bad defender, by any means – his success rate in one-on-one situations is exceptionally high, for instance – but he spends so much time taking risks with his positioning that he will inevitably leave gaps in behind. Holm, on the other hand, only ventures past the halfway line under sufferance. He’s a fine positional defender, strong in the tackle and seldom takes an unnecessary chance.

So the choice made between those players, or at least players of their archetypes, could tell us a great deal about whether Moyes wants to put another team together that resembles his Everton teams of old, or whether he might want to use the clean slate he’s been given to shape something new.

Who will Everton sign this January transfer window?

It’s worth noting that there are no stories suggesting that Everton have made a formal offer for either player, or any reports which claim to know what they might cost. There may not be a direct choice between the two – one or the other may simply not be available.

Nor are they the only full-backs under consideration this winter. Everton have long been linked with Sevilla’s Juanlu Sánchez, for instance, although stories from last week suggest that they have been hesitant to make a bid, or at least to meet the asking price. Shakhtar Donetsk’s Yukhym Konoplya is also supposed to be under consideration, although as his contract is winding down he could be a player Everton look to sign on a free come the summer instead.

In short, this isn’t just about Norton-Cuffy and Holm but about whole styles of play at the right-back position. But if both are of genuine interest, then whether that interest comes to fruition or not it still suggests internal debate about the nature of the players they should be signing.

It’s also a question of potential versus what a player can bring now. Norton-Cuffy, for instance, is wonderful to watch in full flow but, having only just turned 22 this past week, has yet to learn how to turn his natural dribbling skills and dynamism into regular attacking returns. He has just one goal and one assist in Serie A since signing for Genoa last summer.

Holm, by contrast, is a much more well-rounded player and further along in his development cycle. He likely won’t get all that much better, while Norton-Cuffy has untapped potential. If the young Englishman can sharpen his decision-making his round out his capacity to read the game, then he could become considerably better than he is now.

So do Everton sign exciting young talent and try to build something exciting for five years’ time? Or do they get a solid performer in right now who would improve the team immediately and make sure that they remain rock solid at the back? Should they stick or twist?

The decisions that Everton make over the coming weeks will give us the first hints as to how they want to proceed, and how they see themselves changing and growing as they emerge blinking into the light after the Moshiri era. If they sign a right-back, it will also provide immediate cover for a position at which they badly need some fresh blood. This is a story about Everton’s future, but also about dealing with a problem which needs addressing right now as well.