Results do not matter in pre-season, but that cliche, while holding some truth, was beginning to wear thin after Everton failed to score against Bolton Wanderers or Stoke City. By the end of a positive weekend in Hamburg, however, there was momentum again, with a 2-1 win over the Bundesliga side and news of an advancing transfer move.
The victory was not straightforward. Braiden Graham pounced on a loose pass from the back before his stoppage-time cross was steered into his own net by Jordan Torunarigha. Patson Daka had levelled at the start of the second half after his arrival off the bench sparked several good chances for the hosts, who had been behind at the break through Merlin Rohl's neat finish following Thierno Barry's good work.
Rohl and Barry have had good summers, and their 40th-minute combination is the only goal of Everton's six pre-season strikes that has not come from an opposition mistake or a hefty deflection. A contentious offside call had earlier ruled out Barry's finish from Rohl's cross at Bolton.
Encouraging signs beyond the result
There were also positives for Everton in the performances of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who produced his best game of the off-season, while Hayden Hackney and Jarrad Branthwaite continued their progress towards full fitness after difficult injuries.
After the final whistle, Everton's men's and women's teams posed together for a photo in front of the away end. Scott Phelan's women's team had earlier overcome Hamburg Women, with Ornello Vignola's second-half strike deciding a strong performance in their first friendly of the summer. The game marked the return of captain Megan Finnigan from the ACL injury that decimated her season, and several of the seven new signings impressed, including Noemie Mouchon, the striker signed from Leicester City.
Keegan tribute and Leicester connections
That Leicester connection was clear in the mixed zone afterwards, where Daka and Dewsbury-Hall enjoyed a long conversation. The pair played together at Leicester, and Daka, Hamburg's new signing, had told local journalists this week how close they had become at the King Power Stadium. Among those reporters was an Everton supporter whose phone case carried the iconic Prince Rupert's Tower, working in the press box at the Volksparkstadion.
Saturday's match was the centrepiece of a fan festival and the release of Hamburg's new away kit, the reason the hosts played in blue instead of white. The stadium also paused to pay tribute to Kevin Keegan, a Liverpool legend who won the Ballon d'Or twice at Hamburg, following his death last month. Applause rang around the ground as 'Mighty Mouse' was honoured on the big screens, and before kick-off Graham Stuart and Phil Jagielka laid an Everton shirt dedicated to him among tributes outside the ground.
Norgaard pursuit signals intent
During the pause between games, the chief reporter told how he fell in love with the Blues while watching them win the 1984 FA Cup final and was in Rotterdam the following year for the European Cup Winners' Cup win. His first visit to the Hill Dickinson Stadium, however, was the collapse against Sunderland that has since cast a shadow over the summer.
This win may not salve the hangover of the club's seven-game winless run at the end of last season, a streak that cost Everton a place in Europe. But the news that broke during the win has improved morale, with the advancing move for Christian Norgaard greeted with general positivity. The Arsenal player may not be the biggest name nor, at 32, the type of young, dynamic enforcer supporters crave, but there is widespread recognition he would be a shrewd addition. Norgaard, sent off for a challenge on Jordan Pickford when Brentford visited Goodison Park, a decision later rescinded, is an experienced international who was part of the Premier League-winning squad and, at £7m, looks a cost-effective, low-risk solution to a midfield fragility that was again exposed on Saturday.
More arrivals are hoped for, and the pursuit of Norgaard plus confirmation Everton have enquired with Celtic about right-back Alistair Johnston suggests the coming weeks could be busy. The club is expected to explore sales of fringe players and will also deal with any developments over Iliman Ndiaye, who they do not want to lose but accept is the subject of interest from Al-Hilal and others.
Transfer business and right-back priority
For now, the priority remains a right back, a point made obvious as Everton supporters filled a courtyard bar near the famous St Pauli fish market on Friday night. The delayed addition of a player to address a years-long problem was a talking point, while the late arrival of special guest speakers Graham Stuart and Phil Jagielka for Das Toffeefest was greeted with approval given the wait had triggered two free rounds of beer for everyone, on top of the free welcome pint.
The delay was filled by a typically surreal and madcap edition of Bongos Bingo, with Jonny Bongo delivering a frantic show that saw Blues win, among other things, a blue Henry Hoover vacuum, signed Everton shirts, a space hopper and cardboard cutouts of Moyes, Jagielka, Seamus Coleman, Jordan Pickford and Just Stop Oil activist Louis McKechnie, jailed for tying himself to a goalpost at Goodison during the Newcastle match in 2022. Passers-by stopped to film the fans in full voice, and though Stuart and Jagielka proved popular guests, the show was stolen by former Hamburg goalkeeper Richard Golz.
Golz, who had been enjoying the festivities from the start, reflected on what he had seen and declared: “I have to say I am completely and deeply impressed about the atmosphere here. I have been sitting here since 6.30pm, I have had several beers and I have enjoyed this crowd get lost in bingo, I don’t know why, but this is f***ing great.”
