Everton make shock Man City signing in £26m spending spree in bold January transfer window prediction
Predicting Everton’s January transfer business through Football Manager 2026.
Everton have enjoyed a pretty solid start to the 2025/26 season and to life in their new stadium, but there’s no doubt that there is room to improve their squad – and with the January transfer window not so far away, there may already be plans afoot to make some new signings.
In order to figure out what Everton might do over the winter to improve David Moyes’ side, we decided to turn to the most realistic simulation available to us – the brand new edition of Football Manager, which is currently in early access ahead of its release on 4 November.
We span a save a full year into the future to find out just what signings FM26 feels Everton will make – and the game had them being fairly busy in the new year, including completing a deal for one player who was linked with a move to Merseyside in real life over the summer…
Everton set for surprising January deals – according to Football Manager 2026
Rayan Aït-Nouri – loan from Manchester City: By far the splashiest and most improbable deal made in our simulation, Pep Guardiola didn’t take to Aït-Nouri in our save and he was loaned to Everton after making just one start in the first half of the season. That’s clearly not likely to happen in real life, but it would be quite the coup were it to take place. There wasn’t a purchase option in place, this was just a straight loan, and one we doubt will take place in the real world.
Haissem Hassan - £13.25m from Real Oviedo: We’re back in the realms of the possible, now. Hassan is a rather one-note player in the game – a very pacy winger who can dribble and take players on but who doesn’t look to spectacular anywhere else. That seemed to be sufficient, however, and the 23-year-old picked up four goals and four assists in 14 appearances for the club as they dodged relegation with relative comfort.
André Almeida – loan from Valencia: Another loan deal, this time adding a bit of depth in the attacking part of midfield. Almeida only ever found work as a substitute in our save, and probably didn’t sell too many shirts in his brief stint.
Lucas Høgsberg - £6m from RC Strasbourg: A good piece of business, this, based on the attributes the right-back has in the game. At 20 years old he’s already got some solid defensive qualities and clearly has room to grow. Shrewd, even if he’s not exactly a marquee name.
Kyle Walker - £3.6m from Burnley: In real life, Everton were linked with Walker over the summer only for the veteran right-back to head to Turf Moor instead. In our game, Walker seems to have realised the error of his ways. He was promptly installed as Everton’s first-choice right-back and seems to have played reasonably well. Again, probably not likely to happen in real life, but in many ways a virtual club signing a player they were interested in is a nod to the potential accuracy of the game.
Daniel James – loan from Leeds United: Another mild oddity. James fell down the pecking order at Elland Road and was snapped up by an Everton side who seemed to feel a need for a lot of extra depth, but didn’t end up playing a single minute in the Premier League. Perhaps he got injured or something.
Everton sell star full-back in our FM26 save
Vitalii Mykolenko - £36m to Tottenham Hotspur: The reason that Everton needed to sign Aït-Nouri can be found in a big-money deal which sent left-back Mykolenko to Spurs over the winter. Not a team that has an obvious need at that position in real life, perhaps, but it looks like Destiny Udogie pinged his ACL in the game, which explains it.
The sale also means that Everton pocketed a profit of about £13m over the winter, which is nice for the bottom line even if most fans would probably have preferred to see some more urgent investment. A permanent solution at left-back may be necessary, too…
Nathan Patterson – loan to Nottingham Forest: The injury-addled right-back was shopped out to Forest in our game, and only played twice for them after making the move. Not a deal which seemed to have offered the Scotsman much forward momentum in his career, but it probably wouldn’t be a huge shock to see him make a temporary move in January in the real world, especially if another full-back is signed as was the case in-game.