It took a while for the Everton fire to start burning this season but there is no doubt that the Everton fans propping the bar up in the Transfer Tavern are thrilled with the direction their club is going in under Ronald Koeman this season.

With an influx of cash coming into the blue half of Merseyside, the January transfer window was proof of this money coming to good use especially with the signing of Morgan Schneiderlin being made to beef up the centre of Everton’s midfield.

There is no doubting the attraction of playing for Everton and if they can keep Ronald Koeman amongst the reported interest from Spanish giants, Barcelona, then there is no doubt the stock of the club will only rise and rise.

With the ability to spend among the Toffee ranks, our landlord believes that there may well be some players moving away from Goodison Park in the summer, thus meaning that some players may well need to prove themselves to Koeman and the Everton faithful for the rest of the season.

With all that said, here are THREE men our Landlord has picked out as players needing to prove themselves for the rest of the season…

Phil Jagielka

The Everton captain has found himself way down the pecking order of centre backs at Goodison Park following the fruition of the partnership between Ashley Williams and Ramiro Funes Mori.

With Mason Holgate seemingly being groomed by Ronald Koeman to be another centre back option, Jagielka’s time with the Toffees looks to be limited and the 34-year-old will be desperate to prove himself at some point before the end of the season.

Failure to do so could well be Jagielka being moved on from Everton but many of our resident Toffees in the Transfer Tavern will be raising a toast to a loyal servant to their football club.

Muhamed Besic

Following knee surgery earlier on in the season, Besic has been playing catch up with most of his Everton team-mates in terms of proving himself to boss, Ronald Koeman.

Besic has failed to make an appearance for the Toffees this season but our landlord believes this needs to change if the midfielder is too have a future at Goodison Park, especially with the signing of Morgan Schneiderlin and the rise of Tom Davies not working in his favour.

Once he is match fit, he needs to impress.

Enner Valencia

Following his impact in the 3-0 win against Southampton at the turn of the year, Everton fans in the Transfer Tavern were expecting big things from the Ecuadorian in this second half of the season.

Things have not quite turned out that way for the former West Ham striker and our landlord believes that Valencia needs to re-establish himself at Goodison Park if he is too forge a future in Merseyside.

The form of Romelu Lukaku will not have helped Valencia gain a place in the Everton side but our Everton fans in the Transfer Tavern really believe that Valencia is a valuable back up to the Belgium and would be sad to see him leave.