It appears that the Toffees were either outbid or failed to land a number of transfer targets this summer. Everton fans certainly don’t appear to be particularly happy with the lack of activity on deadline day, and it appears as though it will be an uphill struggle to finish in fifth place again this season. This midfielder could have certainly helped the team if they’d managed to land him.
The Daily Mail report that Stephen Hunt is far from being a happy chappie after it was reported that Reading blocked a proposed move to Everton. Quite whether a bid was on the table is another matter, although it’s clear that the Irishman wanted a shot at the big time and feels annoyed that the Championship club supposedly stood in his way.
‘It (Everton) was a big club and it was disappointing that Reading could not have helped me out a little bit to benefit my career.
‘For what I have done for them, it would have been nice,’ he said after Reading reportedly rejected a £3.5 million bid from Everton.
‘There’s a £5 million release clause in my contract. Reading would have got a big chunk of that up front and the rest within a year but they (Reading) did not want to budge,’ he said.
While it’s clear that Steve Coppell wants to keep his best players at the Madejski Stadium for a promotion push this term, he didn’t stand in the way of Sonko and Kitson when they left the club for Stoke this summer, and it’s highly questionable that Everton were really forcing the issue on this one. However, do Toffees fans think that Hunt would have been a valuable acquisition?