Official: Kurt Zouma joins Everton on loan from Chelsea

We had not heard much about Kurt Zouma throughout the summer, after he returned from his loan spell at Stoke City last season.

He picked up a rather unfortunately timed minor injury at the start of preseason, which ruled him out of all the friendlies and all but the last past week of training. Combined with the squad being over the limit on non-homegrown players, he always looked to be heading out again. Briefly rumored diversion of a permanent transfer to Manchester United aside, the only question was where would his next loan take him.

As it turns out, it will be to Everton.

This deal was late-hour submission just ahead of yesterday’s transfer deadline, so it took a bit of additional time to get ratified and approved and announced.

Zouma had collected 71 appearances for Chelsea over three seasons at the club, before going on loan to Stoke last summer. With the Potters, he featured in 37 games including 34 league matches, 32 of which he was a starter. However, he and the rest of his terrible team were not good enough to prevent a 19th-place finish and relegation to the Championship.

At Everton, Zouma will be working with manager Marco Silva, who made a good impression at Watford last season (before ditching them just six months into his contract to join Everton). But while the Toffees have made some excellent signings in attack (including Richarlison and Bernard), their defence is a work in progress. Zouma will be competing against the likes of Phil Jagielka, Michael Keane, and big-money new signing Yerry Mina.

Good luck, Big Kurt!