Theo Walcott could be a high profile victim of Everton’s new focus on youth in the transfer market.
The former Arsenal and England star has fallen out of favour at Goodison Park in the past month, with just 16 minutes of football from the bench since the Merseyside derby on March 3.
Walcott has also scored just one Premier League goal since August, and the likes of Bernard, Richarlison and youngster Ademola Lookman have all jumped ahead of him in boss Marco Silva's pecking order.
Perhaps even more worrying for the 30-year-old though, is that director of football Marcel Brands has gone on record to say he wants to continue a policy of signing players under the age of 25 for his squad – and will have to sell to make it happen.
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Speaking at a football innovations conference in London, Brands said: “We see if a player can fit the Everton environment, in the team we have, in our style and we try to do that in a particular age.
“The players we brought in last year were all under 25, so we don’t want to invest big money in players who are older. Everton is a club that also has to sell players, so it is necessary to get younger players to invest in.
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“That’s why we invested in young players last summer. Digne was 24, Mina 23, Richarlison 21, so we look to players in age group 20-25, 26.”
Walcott signed a big-money contract thought to be worth in excess of £100,000 a week when he joined Everton just over 18 months ago when Sam Allardyce was manager, and he still has more than two years left on that deal.
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But the Blues may consider it worthwhile paying up some of that wage to offload him and reduce their wage bill still, especially with Brands confirming at the conference he has already identified several young targets for the summer.
The Goodison board member confirmed the club has to sell to buy more players.
Southampton retain an interest in re-signing academy product Walcott after trying to sign him when he left Arsenal but being outbid by Everton.
