Sean Dyche outlines Everton January transfer window position on Dominic Calvert-Lewin amid contract impasse

Dominic Calvert-Lewin is expected to remain at Everton until the end of the season. The striker’s contract is due to expire next summer and, while conversations about fresh terms are ongoing, an offer made in the summer has not yet led to a new deal.

The January transfer window is, therefore, currently the last opportunity for the club to get a fee for him. Sean Dyche is adamant the “bigger prize” is maintaining stability, however, and believes the club will not have to sell for the sake of selling come the new year.

The Blues boss said: “We can still make decisions on situations and I can’t see anything other than him being [at Everton] certainly until the end of his contract and then hopefully beyond. We’ll see.”

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Calvert-Lewin’s future was one of the big questions of the summer. Several clubs made tentative enquiries over him with Newcastle United among those that explored a deal for the forward.

Despite late interest from Chelsea he remained at Goodison Park and has scored two Premier League goals so far this season.

Beto is yet to mount a serious challenge for his place while the other pretenders to his crown, Armando Broja and Youssef Chermiti, are both recovering from long-term injuries, meaning the 27-year-old’s importance to Dyche’s set-up remains paramount.

That is clearly still a big part in the thinking behind the scenes at Everton. Asked whether there was likely to be any temptation to cash in on Calvert-Lewin in January rather than lose him for free in the summer, Dyche said ahead of the visit of Fulham: “I think the bigger prize in this case is Premier League football for Everton Football Club. You know when I got in it was like, ‘you need to safeguard what we’re doing’. So that’s the number one priority.

“Along that journey and timeline we’ve had to obviously bring money in, that’s been quite apparent, spend less and bring more in. Lower the wages of course.

“But to be giving players away at any cost because you need some money, fortunately we’ve never been pushed that far and that is still the same now. We can still make decisions on situations and I can’t see anything other than him being [here], certainly until the end of his contract and then hopefully beyond. We’ll see.”

Calvert-Lewin has regained sustained fitness under Dyche after several years of injury problems. Flurries of form, including a goalscoring spree that included a header in the Merseyside derby win in April, have been crucial to the Blues staying in the Premier League during the turmoil of recent years.

His battle against injury made discussions over a new deal before they reached this stage tough, Dyche said. He added: “When I got here, because of his injury situation, we couldn’t do much then, not many times do you sign players on longer-term contracts when they are injured and we didn’t know about the ups and downs since he’s been fit. It’s just been an open dialogue with him and his agent, see where it goes.”