Angus Kinnear has already dropped James McAtee transfer hint before Everton links.
Everton chief executive Angus Kinnear admitted he tried to sign Manchester City’s James McAtee when he was still at Leeds United
05:00, 15 Jun 2025
Everton chief executive Angus Kinnear tried to sign Manchester City’s James McAtee when he was still at Leeds United
Everton chief executive Angus Kinnear tried to sign Manchester City’s James McAtee when he was still at Leeds United
Everton have been linked with a potential transfer move for James McAtee this summer and the Manchester City attacking midfielder is a player on the club’s new chief executive Angus Kinnear’s radar after he tried to take him to previous employers Leeds United last summer. Kinnear started work as the Blues’ first full-time CEO in almost two years in the week leading up to the final Premier League fixture at Goodison Park.
His whirlwind start took in the announcements that England’s 133-year-old first purpose-built football ground would no longer be bulldozed to make way for a legacy project but rather retained as the base for Everton Women and then the naming rights deal at Bramley-Moore Dock with the Blues’ 52,888 capacity future home to be henceforth known as Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Since arriving, Kinnear has been joined by Nick Hammond who also worked under him at Elland Road in a consultancy role and the ‘transfer guru’ has now taken up a similar position among David Moyes’ recruitment team with Manchester City’s James Smith, who previously worked under the Scot between 2003-13 in his first spell at Everton before following him to Manchester United, also expected to join.
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McAtee could be following Smith from the Etihad Stadium to the Mersey waterfront with a report last week in the i paper claiming that Everton have serious interest in the 22-year-old, although he has plenty of options both in England and across a host of Bundesliga clubs.
In an article published on June 6, the ECHO’s Everton correspondent Joe Thomas said: I would love Everton to take a look at James McAtee from Manchester City,” while three days later in another piece, the ECHO’s Matt Jones also backed a move, saying: “His technical ability, eye for a pass and nose for goals would also give the Blues something different in attack and potentially create room for a rampaging right-back if Everton sign one.”
McAtee but City boss Pep Guardiola kept the England under-21 international at the Etihad Stadium. Liverpool World quote Kinnear as telling The Square Ball podcast: “Two of the other players, looking at the level we were looking at, McAtee at Man City, there was talk he might be released all the way through the window and then Pep [Guardiola] decided to keep him. And then Carvalho, who, again, might have been able to go out on another loan.
“It might have been a Championship loan or a Premier League loan. We thought we were first in the queue if it was going to be in the Premier League and he ended up being sold for £27m to Brentford.
“To strengthen our team and to make it better, we have to shop at the highest level possible. And there is lots and lots of frustration.”
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