The Evening Standard have this week reported that McCarthy is the subject of interest from both Everton and Crystal Palace after initial talks with Luton Town broke down.

The 33-year-old has entered the final 12 months of his contract and is eager to move back to the Premier League after making only six appearances in the top flight last season.

The report had claimed that the Toffees saw McCarthy as a new back-up goalkeeper following Asmir Begovic’s departure, however the ECHO have now disputed their claims.

They have since reported that Everton have no interest in signing McCarthy and don’t see him as a target, while Joao Virginia could instead replace Begovic after he was named on the bench for their opening day defeat to Fulham. Andy Lonergan is also among the ranks after signing a new one-year deal.

Alex McCarthy would be an unnecessary addition to the Everton squad

Joao Virginia only signed a new contract at Everton a month ago and seems likely to be given a chance behind Jordan Pickford at Goodison Park.

Everton have rarely been linked with a new goalkeeper this summer, suggesting they were already content with their options in between the sticks.

To see them now target Alex McCarthy would be a slight surprise, especially considering he reportedly earned £50,000-a-week at Southampton while barely kicking a ball.

The 24-year-old, who joined Leeds United in January from Juventus for a short loan spell, had six months to well and truly forget in the Premier League.

Despite Weston McKennie arriving with a big reputation, he well and truly flopped in Yorkshire, as Leeds suffered relegation to the Championship.

It’s fair to say that the Elland Road faithful haven’t taken too kindly to the performances he put in and what they think of the player.

On Wednesday evening, Jack Harrison wrote on Instagram that he ‘can’t wait’ to get started in the colours of Everton.

That resulted in a number of players reacting in the comments section of his IG post, including McKennie sending love heart and fire emojis to the player, but he was verbally battered by Leeds fans who responded to his message. They will clearly never forgive the player for what he did, or even didn’t do, during his time at the club.

Ashley Young says that it were up to him, football would go back to the days of on-the-pitch human eyes and decisions rather than continue with the Video Assistant Referee experiment that remains controversial despite the promise of a fairer game.

There seems to be a VAR controversy every week in the Premier League and while the incident where Andre Onana somehow got away with clattering through two Wolves players at Old Trafford on Monday evening without being penalised with a penalty was the biggest talking point of the opening weekend of 2023-24, Everton were also denied in a VAR-related incident.

Mystifyingly, referee Stuart Attwell called a foul by James Tarkowski on Bernd Leno in the clash between Everton and Fulham at Goodison Park last Saturday, denying the Toffees a goal when Michael Keane knocked home the loose ball and precluding any involvement by VAR because he blew up before the ball hit the net.

It was the latest in a string of infuriating incidents to have affected matches involving Everton since VAR was introduced and when combined with the ever-changing rules around handball and hair’s-breadth offside decisions, there are many, like Everton’s new signing Young, who feel creeping technology is ruining the game.

“If I’m totally honest, VAR wouldn’t be in football for me,” Young told Vinny O’Connor of Sky Sports, speaking specifically about offside. “If you go back to old school, how it was… That’s just the way it is — if you score and it’s ruled out, it’s ruled out by a linesman.

“If it’s not and it goes against you and a goal is ruled in [the opposition’s] favour, that’s just what happens.

“There are so many fine margins now with VAR, I think it just takes away from playing football. So let’s hope not many more VAR decisions will go against us and they’ll all go in our favour.

“You can talk non-stop about VAR and I think we have done since it was introduced to the game so the less said about it the better!”