A look at which players could be featuring for Everton for the last time on Sunday when they go to Tottenham Hotspur
A number of players could be turning out for Everton for the last time at Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.
The curtain comes down on the 2025/26 Premier League season this weekend – and possibly on Spurs’ 48-year tenure in the top flight – and, as always when it gets to the summertime, squads are reshaped with certain individuals moving on to pastures new.
In theory, everyone in David Moyes’ team could have the potential to depart, just as it is at every football club, but in reality certain individuals find themselves at distinct crossroads in their respective careers.
Here’s a look at who could be making their swansong in the royal blue jersey...
Club captain Seamus Coleman has announced that his time as an Everton player is ending after over 17 years’ service. The 37-year-old old came on as a late substitute in the 3-1 defeat to Sunderland last Sunday for one final home match at Hill Dickinson Stadium – his 434th outing which knocked his former team-mate Leon Osman and legendary leading goalscorer Dixie Dean out of the Blues’ all-time top 10 appearance list.
Perhaps the Republic of Ireland international might get another outing in north London? However, you would imagine he would only be called upon if nobody else was available.
Moyes has another right-back at his disposal in the shape of Nathan Patterson but his fellow Glaswegian is understood to be surplus to requirements despite having been brought to the club for £11million in January 2022 in the hope he would become Coleman’s long-term successor.
The 24-year-old has been overlooked by a string of Everton managers now despite being named in Scotland’s World Cup squad and, after coming close to joining Genoa on deadline day of the winter window after his manager admitted the Blues had been actively searching for a right-back for over a year, he is set to depart as he goes into the final 12 months of his current contract.
Over at left-back, there are also question marks about Vitalii Mykolenko, despite the Ukraine international having been Everton’s first choice in the position for his four-and-a-half years at the club.
Like Patterson, he was snapped up by Rafael Benitez in January 2022 – after the former Liverpool manager fell out with Lucas Digne and sold the France international to Aston Villa – but the 26-year-old’s current deal is due to expire this summer.
On face value, Mykolenko is on the verge of free agency but while the club have fudged the issue when asked, reports claim there is an option to extend by a year which would explain the seemingly relaxed attitude to the situation for a player who has turned out 156 times for the Blues and is seemingly at the peak of his powers.
Idrissa Gueye’s contract is also subject to a degree of ambiguity. When the midfielder signed a new one-year deal last summer, it was announced that there was an option for a further year.
A report in the Athletic now states that the 36-year-old – who along with fellow Senegal international Iliman Ndiaye missed seven matches while at the Africa Cup of Nations – has not made enough Premier League starts (he is on 25 with one game of the season left) to automatically trigger the extension and as such, fresh talks will be needed to resolve his future.
In the final hours of the winter transfer window, Dwight McNeil had a loan move to Crystal Palace agreed with an obligation for the south London side to buy him permanently this summer for £20million, but the deal fell through at the Eagles’ end with no sufficient explanation given, leaving the Rochdale-born player, his family and Everton all frustrated. Although the 26-year-old subsequently worked his way back into the team for a while as an inverted right winger, he’s been back on the bench again in recent weeks and might be set for a new challenge this summer given that Moyes was ready to let him go.
It remains unclear whether Tyrique George will be moving permanently in the opposite direction from the capital to Merseyside. On the same day that McNeil was supposedly heading to Selhurst Park, the Chelsea prospect joined Everton on loan with an option to make the move permanent in the summer.
Turning 20 just two days after he joined the Blues, George, who has been predominantly deployed on the left wing and has a year to run on his contract at Stamford Bridge, has made 10 appearances for Everton, but only one start and has never completed 90 minutes.
Also facing an uncertain future is number nine Beto.
Despite having hit double figures for the Blues in both of the last two seasons and with eight of his goals this term having come since the turn of the calendar year, speaking after his most recent strike in the 2-2 draw at Crystal Palace on May 10, the 28-year-old who is set to enter the final 12 months of his current contract said: “When it’s finished, it’s finished. I don’t know the future, I still have a contract, so that’s it.”