It's not like Everton have been doomed since the final curtain fell down on the summer transfer window with David Moyes' side having failed to hit their transfer targets.

Okay, maybe Everton's summer window was a touch more disastrous than that. The Toffees limped to the finish line in 2025/26, stumbling at the business end and falling to a 12th-place Premier League finish. In March, after Chelsea were crushed 3-0, it looked like Champions League was a genuine possibility for the Merseysiders.

Alas, Everton are now threadbare - but they are doing okay. However, so much now rides on Thierno Barry at centre-forward.

How Thierno Barry is getting on at Everton

Last season, Everton welcomed the raw but talented Barry to the club. He joined from Villarreal for £27m.

He scored eight goals in the Premier League. Not bad. However, his finishing and decision-making in the final third left a lot to be desired, and while he has looked more confident since the summer, this is not a fully-formed Premier League striker.

Moyes isn't expecting Barry to play like a superstar every week, à la Romelu Lukaku in his prime, but he does need to tighten up in front of goal.

This season, he has five goals in all competitions, having scored the winner as Everton beat Ipswich Town before the international break. Yet Barry is still profligate; he has scored twice in the Premier League, but he has missed six big chances - two more than any other player in the division.

With Beto having been sold, the menacing Iliman Ndiaye too, it almost goes without saying that Everton need more options up top. It almost beggars belief that Kinnear and co let the window devolve as it did.

In 2027, they need to put things right.

How Everton could upgrade on Barry

If Everton hope to upgrade on Barry, they are going to need to explore external solutions.

The January transfer window presents the next chance that can be achieved - though some have pointed to the free agent market as a realm to explore.

The question, of course, is how desperate are the Toffees? Moyes isn't keen on signing the likes of Mauro Icardi, ageing and volatile and sure to demand astronomical wages. Anthony Martial is available, but it's not hard to imagine the 30-year-old forward struggling after years of decline.

Internally, Moyes believes Tyrique George, Brennan Johnson and Charly Alcaraz all have suitable striker's properties, but each would provide a stop-gap solution, likely with limited results.

Barry needs competition at No. 9, and while a number of transfer targets are sure to emerge over the coming months, Everton could aim for the stars and push to sign one of the Premier League's best on a Bosman.

Everton could sign top Premier League striker for free

Everton have made a resilient start to the season. Eighth and undefeated after five games, trailing fourth-place Brentford on goal difference.

A more reliable goalscorer than Barry could make a world of difference, and at the end of the season, Crystal Palace's Jean-Philippe Mateta will be there to take for free, with his contract soon to expire.

Back in January, Everton were one of a number of outfits interested in signing the Les Bleus star, who nearly ended up joining AC Milan in a £30m deal, but for a failed medical at the end of the winter market.

Everton's need for a prolific striker has only intensified since then, and Mateta could be the perfect man to make the move to Merseyside as he sits on the fringes at Selhurst Park. Out of contract next summer and available on a free, he feels like an opportunity too good to miss.

Over the past several years, the 29-year-old has developed into one of the most powerful and precise goalscorers in the Premier League, so consistent under Oliver Glasner's wing for the Eagles.

He has won titles and even been hailed as "one of the best strikers in the Premier League" by Como scout and analyst Ben Mattinson, his ball-striking, positioning and anticipation up there with the best of them.

Barry is talented, but he has a lot to learn, and thus far is still working toward the kind of consistency and presence in attack that Mateta has delivered at Palace for years. It's clear that the older man would be an upgrade, not only apt to score more goals, but threading together Moyes' offensive vision too.

Could Everton pull it off? Mateta has thus far struggled to land a dream move to one of Europe's heavyweights, and given that he was curious about a move to Nottingham Forest earlier in 2026, surely Moyes could convince him to front an ambitious project lacking his exact profile.

The France international needs a new club, and Everton might just be the perfect option for him, mentoring his countryman Barry and providing the edge needed to maybe find a way into Europe.