Everton FC: How Roberto Martinez's Former Wigan Players Will Improve the Toffees

All three of Everton's permanent summer signings have been brought to the club via Roberto Martinez's former side, Wigan.

The Latics were, of course, relegated last season which has left some thinking this trio's arrival will weaken the Toffees and only prove detrimental to their hopes next season.

The Daily Mail's Dan Ripley even wrote a piece suggesting Evertonians may be more worried about relegation next year, instead of challenging for the top four.

However, all three of Joel Robles, Antolin Alcaraz and Arouna Kone have strengthened Everton and, thus far, nothing Martinez has done has weakened the club.

Starting with Joel, adding a young prospect to Everton's goalkeeping reserves is a smart move and immediately strengthens the position. Tim Howard has not been remotely challenged over the past few years and, as a result, hasn't really flourished the way so many veteran goalkeepers do.

As this article highlights, the American was on course for his worse statistical season at the Toffees by March, averaging his lowest save percentage and committing far more errors than ever before.

A strong finish to the year amended some of those numbers, but Howard needs to feel the threat of an improving prospect behind him in order to raise his own performance levels.

With Joel pushing him in training, in a way Jan Mucha, Carlo Nash, Iain Turner and others failed to, he should be newly motivated to reach new heights to retain his place.

Overall, Joel's skill-set is quite contrasting to Howard's, which is also a positive. He is still a developing prospect, but is an imposing presence who thrives on one-on-ones and is comfortable involving himself in the passing game. 

Almost all sources cite the deal as undisclosed but it's not believed his price was too substantial. Joel clearly augments the club's goalkeeping depth and should leave it in a better shape for the considerable future.

Antolin Alcaraz is possibly the hardest of these three deals to champion. His statistics don't stand out, he missed half of the last two years with injury and Wigan were renowned for their rather porous defence.

However, delving deeper into some of his statistics, Wigan appeared a far more resilient unit with the Paraguayan in the team. Over the past two years, the Latics conceded a staggering 135 goals in just 76 games. But without Alcaraz that ratio was a mammoth 86 goals in 41 games, shipping a far more respectable 49 goals in the 35 games he played.

Overall, that results in conceding every 67 minutes with the Paraguayan, compared to every 43 minutes without him. Clearly he made a fairly sizeable impact while playing around some error-prone defenders.

Away from his game, Alcaraz is also familiar with Martinez's style which demands his centre-backs to be heavily involved in the passing game. He is also adept playing in a three-man defence and, finally, arrived on a free transfer, reducing any risk around his purchase. 

Whether he plays a significant amount of games or not, as with Joel, he bolsters the Toffees in another position—this time defence—and adds better depth than was there before Martinez arrived.

With Arouna Kone, it's not as hard to see the logic. The Ivorian scored 11 goals in the Premier League this past campaign despite spending a significant period of playing time on the flanks.

Last season, Everton's own striking core struggled, with Nikica Jelavic (7) and Victor Anichebe (6) only managing a paltry 13 league goals between them. The Toffees' main reasons for missing out on Europe was this lack of goals, as the rest of the Premier League's top seven clubs managed at least 11 goals more than Everton.

Kone will help boost this deficiency and is versatile enough to perform in a number of different roles, if required.

The fact Everton shelled out £6 million on a 29-year-old, according to BBC Sport, is a legitimate gripe for supporters, but goals are the most expensive commodity in football. If Kone reaches doubles figures and leads his new club into Europe next season, few will care about his signing fee.

It mustn't be forgotten that Everton maintained a prolonged challenge for the Champions League places last season, remaining in contention right until the final few games and were only denied a European spot by some unlikely cup results.

Despite constant speculation around a few of their top players, that squad hasn't lost any of its key members yet, with Phil Neville the only significant absentee next season.

Martinez's three permanent signings add substantial depth to three areas of the field which should raise the competition among players and increase Everton's overall standard of play.

Add in the prodigiously talented Gerard Deulofeu, who arrives on loan for the year from Barcelona, and Everton's current squad is in far better condition than last season—when the top four was almost within reach. 

Alcaraz, Joel and Kone may have all been in a relegation scrap last season, but it would be a huge surprise if that were to be the case 12 months on.

Statistics via EPL Index

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