Overview
- Senior players returned to Finch Farm for baseline medical and fitness testing on Friday as Everton formally began pre-season preparation.
- Everton have completed three summer moves by making Merlin Röhl and Tyrique George permanent and signing Hayden Hackney from Middlesbrough with reported initial fees for Hackney of about £16.5m and George of about £18m.
- The club has confirmed a seven-match pre-season programme, including trips to Germany and a high-profile Murrayfield friendly, and will open the Premier League season at home to Crystal Palace on August 22.
- Reporting says roughly 15 departures have left the squad thin and that signing a right-back is the club’s top transfer priority because the condensed schedule raises a higher risk of fatigue and early-season injuries.
- Key near-term items to watch are further incoming signings before the season starts, the fitness returns of players such as Jarrad Branthwaite, and how the limited summer business shapes David Moyes’s options during the early weeks of the campaign.