Everton's Transfer Window: Focus on Hayden Hackney and West Ham Targets

Everton’s transfer window has opened with more questions than answers, but one theme is already clear: eyes on Middlesbrough, and eyes on relegated West Ham United.

The market officially swings into action today. Everton, though, are still in the phase of phone calls, feelers and “ongoing talks” rather than medicals and scarf-above-the-head photos.

Hackney at the heart of the plan

At the centre of their early manoeuvres sits Hayden Hackney. Middlesbrough’s midfield fulcrum, freshly crowned Championship Player of the Season, is understood to want the move to Goodison Park. Everton want him too. That much is not in doubt.

The problem, as ever, is the price.

Middlesbrough know exactly what they have: a homegrown talent, a boyhood Boro player whose value rises with every scouting report. Negotiations continue over the fee it will take to prise him away from Teesside. Everton are pushing, but this is no bargain-bin raid. This is the sort of deal that shapes a summer.

While that plays out, the rumour mill has turned its gaze south.

Old club, familiar profiles

West Ham’s relegation has turned their squad into a magnet for speculation. The assumption was simple: Championship football, big wages, big names – the vultures would circle and pick them apart.

Everton are regularly dropped into those conversations, and not by accident.

David Moyes knows that dressing room, knows the character of the players, knows which profiles plug the gaps in his own squad. That history naturally fuels talk of a Merseyside route out of the Championship for several Hammers.

Right-back remains a priority position, yet Aaron Wan-Bissaka – linked earlier in the summer – is not currently an active target, as previously reported. That steers attention elsewhere in the West Ham squad.

Tomas Soucek is one of those names that refuses to go away. The veteran midfielder was on Moyes’ radar last summer and, with Everton working hard on Hackney, the question lingers: does the manager revive that interest if the Boro deal drags or collapses? Soucek would bring experience and aerial power, a different profile entirely to Hackney’s more progressive game.

On the left, the club have been linked with El Hadji Malick Diouf, an attacking full-back who would offer a clear contrast to Vitalii Mykolenko. The Ukrainian, steady and reliable, has just signed a new three-year contract. Diouf, by comparison, would tilt that flank forward, adding thrust and risk where Mykolenko brings control.

Then there is the kind of player every manager wants but few can actually land.

Bowen, Summerville and the search for pace

Jarrod Bowen sits at the top of that list. Moyes would love to work with his former player again. No secret there. Bowen, now West Ham captain, brings goals, graft and leadership from wide areas – exactly what Everton have lacked in recent seasons.

But he is also the sort of player who attracts a queue. Everton would not be alone, or even near the front of the line, if West Ham ever opened the door.

Crysencio Summerville falls into a similar category of desirable but difficult. Electric pace, direct running, and now a World Cup goal to his name after scoring for Ronald Koeman’s Netherlands in their opener against Japan. His performance only sharpened the focus on him as a winger who could inject speed and unpredictability into Everton’s attack.

Both Bowen and Summerville fit the profile of what Moyes wants out wide. Both would transform the way Everton break lines and counter. Both will be expensive and heavily courted.

So the club keeps scanning the market.

The striker dilemma

Up front, the picture is familiar and unforgiving. Everton are open to exploring the striker market, but there is a clear, almost weary acceptance inside the club: proven centre-forwards cost serious money, and every club in Europe seems to want the same five names.

Still, they cannot ignore the position. If a realistic option appears, Everton will move.

One such name floated at the weekend was Taty Castellanos. The 27-year-old Argentina international joined West Ham from Lazio in January, scored seven goals in 22 appearances and could, in theory, become part of the wider reshuffle that often follows relegation.

Seven in 22 is not spectacular, but it is solid in a struggling side. For a club like Everton, operating under financial constraints and wary of risk, that kind of record at least earns a closer look.

Except there is a problem with the assumption underpinning all of these West Ham links.

Kretinsky’s stance changes the picture

The easy narrative said West Ham would have to sell. Relegation, wage bill, Financial Fair Play – it all pointed to a fire sale.

Daniel Kretinsky has moved quickly to challenge that storyline.

On Saturday, it emerged he had agreed a deal with the family of the late David Gold to buy more of their shares. If completed, the move would lift his stake in the club to 43 per cent, strengthening his influence at the London Stadium and giving him a louder voice over what happens next.

In an interview with The Times, Kretinsky set out his position in blunt terms. West Ham, he insisted, do not need to sell their players to balance the books.

“We have a very credible strategy. We don’t need to sell the players for financial reasons. We are doing this to make sure we are promoted back to the Premier League immediately. That is our only goal.

“Key players are waiting for us. They want to see there is a real chance of keeping the squad together. What matters is funding, strategy and consistency.

“We have spoken to all of them. They need to see that our project is real and serious. Promotion is our only goal.”

Those words matter. They slam the brakes on the idea of West Ham as a discount outlet and turn every potential deal into a negotiation on their terms, not the buyer’s.

For Everton, that shifts the landscape. Any move for Bowen, Castellanos, or another West Ham name will not be a simple opportunistic raid on a wounded club. It will require serious money and serious persuasion.

A window that demands clarity

So Everton stand at the start of the window with a clear need for reinforcements, an ongoing pursuit of Hayden Hackney, and a shopping list that repeatedly crosses paths with a club that insists it will not be picked apart.

The strategy at Goodison cannot rely on West Ham’s weakness, because West Ham are determined not to show any.

That puts the onus back on Moyes and the Everton hierarchy: land Hackney, find value in a brutal striker market, and identify the next Bowen or Summerville before their price rockets beyond reach.

The window is open. The rumours are loud. Now Everton have to prove they can turn noise into signings that actually change the team.