£160m and counting - Everton's search for their dream striker

Everton are still searching for their ideal striker after 10 years of recruitment

Everton prepare to face Tottenham at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Sunday undefeated at their new home following three wins and two draws this season.

Their home form follows a summer of largely successful recruitment, although a question mark still remains at centre-forward, which has been a problem position since the departure of Romelu Lukaku in 2017.

The Toffees have signed 17 strikers over the past 10 years at a combined cost of almost £160m... with decidedly mixed results.

As Everton prepare to face former Toffees forward Richarlison this weekend, BBC Sport examines the club's attempts to fill the hardest role in football.

The problem position

Since Lukaku's sale in the summer of 2017, the Blues have scored 357 Premier League goals - the fewest of any ever-present club.

Leicester City have scored 388 goals - 31 more than the Toffees during the same period - despite spending two seasons in the second tier.

Despite having signed 17 strikers in that time, Everton are yet to find a reliable long-term option - and selection problems persist to this day.

Their most recent home win against previously unbeaten Crystal Palace was also the third time in four matches that manager David Moyes felt compelled to change his centre-forward at half-time.

While Moyes later praised Beto for his impact against Palace after replacing Thierno Barry, he also said the 27-year-old "should have buried" a close-range header, which instead led to Jack Grealish bundling in a stoppage-time winner.

Beto then missed a glorious chance to open the scoring in the 2-0 loss at Manchester City last weekend, failing to convert a low cross from Iliman Ndiaye into an open goal.

So far this season, Everton's two strikers have scored one goal between them in 16 Premier League appearances.

The men in possession

Thierno Barry is yet to score since joining Everton from Villarreal this summer

Barry, a £27m summer signing from Villarreal, is understandably taking time to adjust to the pace of Premier League football in only his second campaign in a top European league.

The 22-year-old scored 11 goals in La Liga last season and while he was prolific in Switzerland's top flight, he is a raw talent who requires patience.

Guinea-Bissau international Beto, who joined from Udinese for £21.5m two years ago, often frustrates Everton's fanbase.

On one hand, a flurry of five goals in four matches in February, including a well-taken one-touch finish in the final Merseyside derby at Goodison Park, were pivotal in steering Everton away from relegation.

On the other, a miskick in front of an open goal in the goalless draw with Aston Villa in September - one of several occasions when Beto's scoring instincts have deserted him.

"Beto epitomises the struggle," said Mike Richards, from the Unholy Trinity podcast.

"With Udinese willing to accept a deal that involved no initial payment, it was a deal of convenience and not quality.

"He won't be the 20-goal-a-season striker we crave, despite the affection so many of us have for him.

"Barry has been brought in as a development project - a young player who needs patience, support and faith from both the club and supporters."

Replacing 'Big Rom'

Romelu Lukaku is Everton's leading scorer in the Premier League

Lukaku joined Everton in 2013, initially on loan from Chelsea, before the move was made permanent for a then club record £28m fee the following summer.

The Belgium international excelled on Merseyside, overtaking Duncan Ferguson as the club's record Premier League scorer with 68 goals in 141 games at an average of one every 175 minutes.

Lukaku set a benchmark that no Everton forward has come close to emulating since.

The striker signed in the past decade with the best goals-to-minute ratio has been Oumar Niasse, a £13.5m buy from Lokomotiv Moscow in 2016, netting once every 163 minutes in the league - although he only scored eight goals in total.

Oumar Niasse scored nine goals in 42 appearances for Everton in all competitions

Niasse is a close friend of Everton midfielder Idrissa Gueye and still attends home matches.

"At a club like Everton, being a striker you have to respond every week - it's not easy," he said.

"When I go to watch Everton now and I see some of the players when they are in doubt, I understand because it is a lot of pressure and it is a club with a big story - but recently we have not been in the place where we are supposed to be.

"It is difficult to judge Beto because he is passionate and he loves playing for Everton, for sure.

"He just needs to understand his game, understand where his strengths are and where he needs to be stronger."

The good

Richarlison scored 43 Premier League goals for Everton between 2018 and 2022

There have been near misses in Everton's search for their next elite goalscorer and for Richarlison, whom Everton are set to face on Sunday, the issue was one of timing.

A cult hero after joining from Watford for an initial £35m in 2018, the Brazil international reached double figures for goals in three of his four seasons on Merseyside - despite spending nearly half of his Everton career on the wing.

Richarlison was often used out wide during his time at Everton

In 2021-22 - his final Everton campaign - Richarlison made 66% of his Premier League starts at centre-forward and scored 10 goals to effectively avert relegation.

However, just as the then 25-year-old was becoming more established in a central role, the club's parlous financial position and the pressure of Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) meant a £60m offer from Tottenham was accepted in July 2022, when he had one year left on his contract.

For Dominic Calvert-Lewin, fitness was the biggest issue.

He joined for a bargain £1.5m as a 19-year-old from Sheffield United in 2016 and was a prolific scorer during Carlo Ancelotti's reign, earning England recognition.

He scored the winning goal as Everton secured their Premier League safety against Crystal Palace in May 2022 but struggled with injuries, scoring three goals in his final 28 appearances before leaving when his contract expired earlier this year.

The bad

Everton's merry-go-round of managers, with nine permanent bosses in 12 years, has made it harder for strikers to become established at the club.

When Cenk Tosun joined for £27m in 2017, Sam Allardyce described him as "the best in Europe" for his price but a managerial change to Marco Silva, and injuries, resulted in an eventual return to Besiktas after just nine top-flight goals.

Moise Kean arrived to fanfare in 2019 following a breakout season at Juventus but netted just two Premier League goals before returning to Italy two years later.

Short-term moves for Salomon Rondon, Joshua King, Enner Valencia and Armando Broja didn't pay off, while Barcelona academy graduate Sandro Ramirez, signed on the cheap from Malaga, made three Premier League starts in four years.

And then there was Neal Maupay. He scored on his second appearance after moving from Brighton for an initial £12m but that was his only goal in 29 Premier League appearances.

Will Everton buy in January?

Everton attempted to sign Liam Delap when he left Ipswich at the end of 2024-25

Limited resources have played a significant part in hindering Everton's search for a top-level striker.

The club's financial struggles, which resulted in multiple points deductions for PSR breaches, meant they generated £85.5m in profit from player trading between 2021-22 and the end of 2024-25.

Following the takeover by the Friedkin group, this changed in this summer's transfer window, when the Toffees' net spend was a record £97m, although this was spread across the signings of nine players, while the club failed to recruit Liam Delap, who instead joined Chelsea from Ipswich Town.

The nature of their signings - including 19-year-old Tyler Dibling and 22-year-old Barry - highlights the ongoing need to box clever in the transfer market, bringing in developing talent that could be later sold for a profit if required.

Top strikers cost money - nearly half of the £2.6bn spent this summer by Premier League clubs went on forwards - and Everton have been operating at the bottom of the food chain in recent windows.

If Everton are to target a first trophy since 1995, or first European qualification since 2017, they surely need to score more often - meaning they could bolster their attacking ranks in January.