Despite a rare leading role for Armando Broja in Everton’s starting line-up against Nottingham Forest yesterday, it was perhaps significant that he had been replaced by Beto long before the team finally produced the match-winning goal in added time. 

On the field for little more than an hour, he didn’t really get any clear chances to score but played his part in a number of attacking moves that just didn’t come off for the Blues against the usually stingy Forest defence.

And a strong rumour doing the rounds now is that Everton will not be taking advantage of the £30M option to make the loan permanent.

With just 2 starts and 6 appearances from the bench, Broja has nothing to show in terms of goals and is probably overpriced for Everton at this point as the club looks for a sweeping rebuild in the summer.

His injury record is possibly the biggest obstacle, with Everton agreeing to take him on loan initially while he was injured and unavailable for weeks at the beginning of the season.

Then he was out for more than 2 months when he sustained ankle ligament damage back in January, only returning last month as a sub against West Ham Utd.

Broja has been unable to replicate the form that earned rave reviews during a loan spell at Southampton in the 2021-22 season where his 6-foot-3-inch frame caused Premier League defenders all sorts of problems.

The Slough-born striker is now unlikely to persuade Moyes and Everton recruitment team to reconsider their position with time and opportunities running out for him. .

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I believe he can play wide as well, so he could be a useful squad player. It just depends what the club want to do with whatever the transfer budget is.

Broja’s performance today – it’s 11:50 pm here – showed exactly why. His injury record is not worth gambling on.

Danny, I don’t think that we are in a position to splash £30M on a squad player. That said, I would not be surprised if his loan was renewed for another year.

It doesn’t strike me that he will be a prolific goalscorer.

Can he play wide? I think he has done for Albania and he was certainly drifting wide on occasions yesterday.

I don’t expect he’ll ever be hugely prolific – but a more talented striker can link up better with the flanks and midfield, enabling a better brand of football.

His goal scoring record is poor. He only scored 2 goals for Chelsea, 6 for Southampton, none for Fulham and none for us. Not all of this is down to injuries.

I suspect he can if he can stay fit – but he’s missed a lot of football so may need a bit of patience before he’s found a good rhythm.