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.
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.
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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.