The summer of 2025 saw a considerable period of transition at Everton Football Club, with various incomes and expenditure within the team of the first team.
The Toffees ended the 2024/25 campaign with a maximum of 15 players without a contract, including five loan players, with important decisions made in terms of retaining or discharging those members of the team.
The club finally decided to extend contracts with three players in the first team, including club captain Seamus Coleman, midfielder Idrissa Gana Gueye and defender Michael Keane, and to take the option to make Leencarlos Alcaraz a permanent deal.
After the conclusion of the summer transfer window and the start of a brand new Premier League season, the focus and discussion on various players of the first team were whose current deals will expire next summer.
From that group I have arranged them by the importance of agreeing new conditions after 2026.
3. James Garner
Garner is a player who continues to split opinions under the Everton fan base, despite an impressive start of the current campaign. The midfielder born in Birkenhead came in the summer of 2022 with the Toffees van Manchester United with a permanent deal and has so far had one up and down time on Merseyside.
The opening season of Garner in 22/23 was a mixed campaign in terms of injuries, in which the Englishman only registered 17 first team performances, including eight Starts and played a total of 848 minutes. His second season was a much improved campaign, in which Garner missed only one of the 45 competitive matches of Everton in 23/24, a season in which he scored his first Premier League goal against Bournemouth in a 3-0 win in Goodison Park.
Last season, Garner ran a setback in terms of injuries, so that he set off for three months between mid -October and January for three months. However, after he was noticed on January 25 on January 25 as a second half that was in Brighton & Hove Albion on January 25, he worked his way to the Start XI for the rest of the campaign.
So far, Everton has played seven competitive matches in the 25/26 season, and Garner is one of the three players who have played every minute, a list of vice-captain James Tarkowski and his defending partner Michael Keane.
Garner was part of a history at the start of the season when the 24-year-old Everton’s second goal scored 2-0 in their milestone at home against Brighton in the first competitive match in Hill Dickinson Stadium.
In general, you would not be a new deal against offering Garner because of its level of consistency and versatility in midfield, and deputy a few times on full-back.
2. Vitaliii Mykalenko
Mykolenko is a player who splits the Everton Fanbase, even though he has been a mainstay since he arrives at the club in January 2022 from Dynamo Kyiv. A player who had to be established in the team very quickly and became the successor of Frenchman Lucas Digne, who left Everton for Aston Villa shortly after the arrival of ‘Myko’.
Since he is in Everton, the Ukrainian International has yielded 126 performances for the Toffees in all competitions and has four goals and three assists in his name in just over three and a half seasons in the club.
No fan can ever question the dedication and work ethics of Mykolenko on the field; However, some can claim that, as a modern fullback, he does not entirely have the skills and references to check the boxes needed to realize that role. His lack of forward threat is reinforced compared to Everton’s two previous first choice left backs, Digne and Club Icon Leighton Baines.
In general, it would not really be a surprise if the club decided to offer Mykolenko a new deal at the end of the current campaign. The player is still in a good age (26) to offer Everton sale in the coming years, instead of loading for free next summer and then being placed in a position to find a new first-choice left behind.
1. James Tarkowski
Now from a value perspective, some fans can claim why Tarkowski is placed higher in this list compared to Mykolenko and Garner, both of which are in different stages of their career.
‘Tarky’ has become a position in Everton since he arrived from Burnley in the summer of 2022. Starting with 111 consecutive Premier League matches between August 2022 and April 2025, with the run ending after a hamstring injury in a home game against Manchester City.
The influence of Tarkowski, both on and outside the field, has been of vital in recent years, and the 32-year-old has been a key figure in Everton, who has so far remains a Premier League club.
Given the vice-captain role in the summer of 2023 after his first season in the club, Tarkowski has already carried the bracelet for several seasons in the last time because of the absence of club-skipper Seamus Coleman and has built a formidable defense partner with Jarrad Branthwaite, a defense in the Premierpetitie in the second place in the Premier competition in the Premier-Competition in the Premier Competition in the Premier Competition in the Premier Competition in the Premier Competition in the Premier Competition in the Premier Competition in the Premier Competition in the Premier Competation in the Premier Competation in the Premier Competation in the Premier Competation in the Premier Competet in second place in the Premier Competet in the Premier Competet in the Premier Competet in the Premier Competet in the Premier Competet in the Premier Competet in the Premier Competet in the Premier Competet in the Premier Competet in the Predier Competition. Premier competition in the premier competition behind the 2023 season.
In the future, Tarkowski still remains an important player for Everton. There are question marks about his age and whether there can be a time in the non-ZO-Verre future that Everton wants to find a long-lasting successor to their vice captain, with the hope among Evertonians that the current first choice could fulfill that role alongside Branthwaite alongside Branthwaite.
For now, however, Tarkowski still remains an important player in the first team for Everton, and there is no doubt that the club will offer him a contract extension next summer.
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