• Club’s highest earner is on £110k a week for two more years • Former England forward has played just 16 minutes in a month

Theo Walcott is facing an uncertain future at Everton only 15 months after his £20m arrival from Arsenal.

The former England winger has featured regularly under Marco Silva this season, starting 23 of 32 Premier League games and making eight substitute appearances, but he failed to impress before losing his place last month. Walcott has been restricted to only 16 minutes in total since the Merseyside derby on 3 March, over three brief substitute outings, and doubts surround his position in Everton’s long-term strategy under Silva and the director of football Marcel Brands.

Walcott was Sam Allardyce’s second and final expensive signing as Everton manager and – along with the £27m striker Cenk Tosun – has been a major disappointment at Goodison Park. He is Everton’s highest earning player on £110,000-a-week plus bonuses and still has over two years remaining on the three-and-a-half year deal he signed in January 2018.

The poor return on Everton’s investment – Walcott has scored only three league goals this season – is one reason the club may be receptive to offers this summer. At 30, the former Southampton player does not fit the profile that Brands outlined in his strategy for the club this week.

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Speaking at the Football Innovation Summit in London on Tuesday, Everton’s director of football admitted the club were targeting younger players. Brands said: “The players we brought in last year were all under 25 so we don’t want to invest big money in players who are older. Everton is a club that also has to sell players so it is necessary to get younger players to invest in. That’s why we invested in young players last summer. [Lucas] Digne was 24, [Yerry] Mina 23, Richarlison 21; so we look to players in the age group 20-25/26.”