Abdoulaye Doucoure’s contract situation at Everton as future hangs in the balance

National World - LocalTV

Abdoulaye Doucouré’s Everton future is uncertain, with his contract expiring this summer. A key player under David Moyes, his performances have been crucial, but will he stay? I spoke to Will Rooney of LiverpoolWorld about the situation. Everton must decide whether to offer him a new deal or risk losing an experienced midfielder.

Transcript

00:00Now, I'm delighted to call Ray's Everton future is uncertain with his contract expiring this summer.

00:09A key player under David Moyes, his performances have been crucial, but will he stay?

00:14I spoke to Will Rooney of Liverpool World about the situation.

00:17Everton must decide whether to offer him a new deal or risk losing an experienced midfielder.

00:23With financial factors and squad planning at play, his future remains a major talking point.

00:29Will Everton extend his stay or is this his final season at Goodison?

00:36So, Will, looking at Everton and Abdoulaye Dakoura, and obviously a real stalemate under Sean Dyche,

00:42play pretty much 90 minutes every week.

00:45Obviously, David Moyes comes in and maybe it's a bit of adapting.

00:48And, you know, he's a player who's played a lot of minutes, a lot of games over his Everton career so far

00:55and a lot of different positions as well.

00:57So, in terms of David Moyes in the future and his legacy he's left at Everton,

01:02you know, he's scored some really important goals as well,

01:05especially in their relegation races to avoid the drop.

01:09What do you sort of make of, let's just start,

01:11what do you sort of make of Dakoura's time at Everton before we go into a bit about his future?

01:18Yeah, I think it's been a little bit mixed.

01:22He's coming from Watford, he was obviously a really highly regarded player at Watford,

01:26wasn't he? A real engine in that team.

01:28And Carlo Ancelotti signed him and maybe he plays a little bit deeper.

01:33Started really well under Rafa Benitez, fell well out of favour under Frank Lampard

01:39and he admitted that he probably wouldn't have left if Frank Lampard hadn't have been sacked beforehand.

01:44And as you say, rejuvenated under Dyche, scored that goal against Bournemouth that kept Everton up.

01:50Scored some really important goals.

01:53But towards the end of Sean Dyche's tenure, it started to go a little bit stale for me and Dakoura

01:58and I think fans were sort of getting frustrated with him.

02:01But David Moyes comes in and yet again he seems rejuvenated.

02:05He's scored two goals since Moyes' arrival.

02:09It was really telling that Moyes opted to start after his suspension at Crystal Palace.

02:17He came back into the team and started against Man Utd.

02:22And he justified that because he got a goal and an assist.

02:26And then he missed the one-monther against Brentford last time out because his wife was given birth.

02:32So that's understandable.

02:34But you would think he's going to be a real mainstay for the remainder of the season.

02:40So, yeah, I don't think anyone will ever look back at Afzal Hizikori and think what a player he was.

02:45He's not going to be your Tim Cales or your Michel Arteta in recent times.

02:50Hannes Rodriguez is one of the really blown supporters away.

02:54But he'll always be appreciated for what he's done at Everton in difficult circumstances.

03:00Yeah, he's obviously one of the players who is out of contract.

03:04In the summer, Sean Dyche has mentioned so many players are out of contract.

03:09They need to really nitpick and navigate their way through the amount of players out of contract.

03:14In terms of him and his future, where do you sort of see it going?

03:17You know, you've mentioned there that Moyes seems to like him,

03:21give him that sort of platform to rejuvenate and play amongst the midfielders.

03:25So do you see him being an Everton player past?

03:28Obviously, he's 32, 33 now as well.

03:32What do you sort of see from his Everton future?

03:35It's a decision for the club to make because the club have got an option,

03:39whether they extend this deal.

03:41But that would likely be on the same terms that he's on.

03:46And I think that he is one of Everton's higher earners.

03:51Now, Everton need to look at that and think,

03:54can we get a player maybe that's better and apply to Corrie for the same wages or maybe lower, potentially?

04:01These have to look at it like that.

04:04Can they maybe come to an agreement and think, well, we can't pay you this for an extra year,

04:09but we want to give you a two-year deal, more security, but you'll be on less money.

04:15And then maybe Everton can start planning for his future as well

04:19and look to bring other players in around his position.

04:22Obviously, they brought in Charlie Alcazar from Flamengo in January

04:26and that deal could become permanent.

04:29It's a little bit of a dilemma for Everton heading into the summer.

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