Everton boss Carlo Ancelotti will quickly turn attention to next season

Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti will start planning for next season straight after Sunday’s trip to Manchester City.

The Italian has to make some key decisions on the state of his squad, who have been wildly inconsistent, and decide who stays and who is free to move on.

He also has to have discussions on other matters such as Richarlison’s potential participation in the Olympics, which could affect the early part of the new season, and the players who have Euro 2020 and Copa America commitments.

“We didn’t talk about this yet. We didn’t talk about renewing the contracts for the players who need to renew and we didn’t talk about the possibility for the players to go to the national teams,” he said.

“We have to organise something for the summer because the players who are involved with their national teams need to rest. I am going to arrange this in the next week.

“We have some positions to consider – Josh (King), Robin Olsen – and other players like Seamus (Coleman) who we would like to renew the contract.

“With Marcel Brands (director of football) after the end of the season on Monday or Tuesday we are going to talk about all these kinds of situations.”

Players have also been warned about summer holiday destinations with regard to Covid-19 restrictions.

“The players are aware of this from the club. We had a meeting about this and they have to inform the club where they want to go, and they know all the restrictions in this country,” Ancelotti added.

“They have to be aware of this. The new (pre) season will start July 5 and we want to have all the players who are not in the national teams ready to start on the 5th avoiding problems.

“If they go to a country where they have to stay in quarantine when they come back, they have to take this into consideration. If they have to stay in quarantine they have to come back to UK early.”

Ancelotti’s target of European football remains alive but it looks more likely to be the new Europa Conference League if anything.

They are three points behind sixth-placed West Ham, whose goal difference makes it almost impossible to be caught, and have a massively-inferior goal difference to Tottenham, on the same points as the Toffees in seventh.

“If we are able to reach Europe it will be fantastic but I think it was a difficult and unpredictable season for everyone,” said Ancelotti.

“There have been a lot of strange results during the season and a lot of defeats at home for all the teams, not only us, so I don’t think we have missed an opportunity.

“I still believe we are on the right way to fight and compete for the first positions in the Premier League.”