Everton’s new signing will already regret joining after Jordan Pickford news
Everton’s new goalkeeper Mark Travers must already be wishing he did not join the club amid major news on Jordan Pickford’s future.
David Moyes’ desire to reshuffle his goalkeeping options saw Republic of Ireland international keeper Mark Travers arrive at Everton from Bournemouth during the summer window.
Travers moved to the Cherries in 2016 at just 17-years-old, and made his first-team debut at the club in 2019 before going on to impress in respective loan spells at Swindon Town, Stoke City and Middlesbrough.
His best top-flight campaign at the club came as he made 12 league appearances in 2022/23, but Travers was resigned to a place on the bench for the last two seasons behind either Neto or Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Everton were linked to Travers’ services in July before he officially signed for £4million [The Athletic] that same month, and while the move looked to make sense at the time, a new development around first-choice Toffees stopper Pickford may well mean the 26-year-old is regretting his decision to move to Merseyside.
Mark Travers unlikely to ever be Everton’s number one with Jordan Pickford talks planned
Travers will undoubtedly feel he has all the tools to become a first-choice goalkeeper in the Premier League, especially given that he has previously shone in the Championship after picking up the second-tier’s Golden Glove and Bournemouth’s Player of the Year award in 2021/22.
His move to Everton will surely have been with a view to becoming a mainstay in their team in the near future, despite Pickford’s dominance over the last few years, but that now seems massively unlikely to happen anytime soon.
The Athletic (5 September) have revealed that Everton are set to begin formal talks with England stalwart Pickford over a new contract, with his current deal set to expire in July 2027.
Reports state that the Toffees would like to reward the 31-year-old for his strong displays in recent seasons and have already indicated their intention to offer him a new deal, while the Mail have revealed that Everton want him to stay with them for the rest of his career.
Pickford has been a star for the Merseyside club over the last few years in particular, with 12 clean sheets from 38 league outings last term as they avoided a relegation battle with relative ease, and he will surely sign fresh terms at a club that he is now arguably a legend at.
| Appearances | Goals conceded | Clean Sheets |
| 322 | 449 | 90 |
He already seemed unlikely to give up his starting spot to Travers anytime soon, prior to this news, and the fact that he looks set to sign a new long-term deal will serve as a major setback to the Irishman.
Travers is only five years younger than Pickford, so if the Englishman stays as Moyes’ number one for the next four years or so, which is very possible, then the ex-Bournemouth man will be 30 by the time he potentially has the chance to regularly stake a claim to start.
Moyes will be happy with Travers as a back-up for cup games, but he will have wanted to be much more than that in the coming seasons, yet that seems pretty improbable if Pickford is going to stay for the long-haul, and so the 26-year-old will surely already be regretting his move to the Toffees.
Everton must hand out new contracts to other key men as well as Jordan Pickford
Pickford has established himself as one of the Toffees’ best players in the modern Premier League era since he joined the club from Sunderland in 2017.
He is not alone in being an important player for Moyes, however, with the likes of James Tarkowski and Idrissa Gueye also playing huge respective parts in their upturn in fortunes last season.
Everton are planning to hand new deals to Tarkowski, James Garner and Vitaly Mykolenko as it stands, as well as Pickford, but Gueye also deserves to stay longer than this season given his consistent quality and standout experience at 35-years-old.
Dwight McNeil is another who should be handed a new deal, with his current contract set to expire in 2027 like Pickford’s, and if his and Gueye’s futures are sorted out soon, then Everton can start to look forward with renewed optimism of becoming a force in the top-flight once again.