Everton News can exclusively reveal what the future holds for one of the club’s top-performing and longest-serving players.
This summer promises to be one of mass change, and likely not for the better.
After all, the funds are simply not in place to welcome any big names into Goodison Park, and due to mounting debt the pressure to sell what few assets they have seems to be intensifying.
Well, that is what Graeme Bailey has just suggested, telling Everton News about what the future of Jordan Pickford might look like.
Graeme Bailey drops update on Jordan Pickford’s future
The journalist exclusively told Everton News: ‘I was doing the digging and there is interest in him [Jordan Pickford]. He’s one of the best keepers in Europe, there’s no doubt about it.
‘And we know he’s happy and he’s got three years on his deal, but at 30 now… He’s primed to join a club who can offer him more. And yes, we know Chelsea aren’t in Champions League but, the chances are he’s going to play more important games if he was to join Chelsea in the next four to five years than he would for Everton.
‘I think it’s one to keep an eye on. It wouldn’t be a huge surprise because Everton have only got so many sellable players, and he’s one of them.’
Having joined from Sunderland in 2017 for a £30m fee, it is unlikely that the Toffees would sanction his exit for anything less than a substantial figure that dwarfs what they paid.
After all, the progress he has made since trading Wearside for Merseyside has been outstanding.
Everton cannot afford to lose Jordan Pickford
No matter how dire their financial situation becomes, there are a few players that Everton, and Sean Dyche, simply cannot afford to leave.
Pickford arguably tops that list.
The 30-year-old has grown into one of the club’s most revered players across the last few years, having started out as a fine shot-stopper with a penchant for a big error.
However, ironing those blunders out, and the Toffees have bore witness to the development of one of England’s greatest keepers in recent memory.
Yet his excellence is not reserved solely for the national, of which he is a regular, as he has often single-handedly kept Everton in key matches to consistently preserve their Premier League status.
During the 2021/22 season, his heroics at home to Chelsea saw him deified, as he even won Save of the Season for one of his many stops during that win.
Then, the following campaign saw him save a crucial penalty away to relegation rivals Leicester City before keeping a final-day clean sheet as they won to stay up.
And once again his form has not wavered this term, keeping 12 clean sheets, the second-most in the division, and conceding just the fourth-least goals in the Premier League too.
Pickford has become something of a cult hero amongst Evertonians, and his exit would mark an almighty blow for a fanbase already downtrodden enough.