Everton are reportedly ‘unlikely’ to trigger the buy option they have on Wolves defender Conor Coady this summer.
iNews has reported that there is now some real doubt about the Toffees signing the England international permanently.
Coady joined the Goodison Park outfit last summer, after Bruno Lage benched him for Wolves’ first two Premier League games.
It was a real eyebrow-raiser at the time.
While Wolves had changed their formation, it was the fact that Coady left the club on loan that got a few people’s backs up.
And then, it emerged that Wolves had agreed a £4.5 million buy option with Everton.
Certainly in the first half of the season, the feeling was that Everton would be triggering that option at the end of the season, no question.
But since Sean Dyche came in at Goodison Park, Coady has struggled for minutes.
The 30-year-old has not played in the Premier League since the 4-0 defeat to Arsenal at the start of March.
Dyche has preferred the centre-back pairing of James Tarkowski and Michael Keane, and Coady has found himself in the same position he started the 2022/23 season.
iNews say that Everton are currently ‘unlikely’ to trigger their £4.5 million buy option on Coady.
It is stated that ‘Dyche is in favour of wholesale changes at the club in the summer, working within whatever budget is provided to change the culture and identity of a team that has been far too easily beaten over successive season’.
Conor Coady situation will be extremely interesting this summer as report claims Everton currently don’t want to buy
The situation with Coady is very interesting. He was a nailed-on starter for Everton in the first half of the season and it looked as though he would definitely become a permanent Toffees player this summer.
But the arrival of Dyche has thrown things up in the air.
Even if Everton stay up, it does appear that the manager isn’t particularly taken by him.
It would be a real surprise if they did stay up and then didn’t trigger the buy option though, considering it’s only £4.5 million.
And then, there’s also the possibility of him coming back to Wolves.
While that does feel quite unlikely, maybe Julen Lopetegui could spring a surprise.