Danny Mills has attributed Kurt Zouma’s poor start to the season to his disappointment at having not rejoined Everton in the summer.

The Frenchman has had a mixed time at Stamford Bridge so far in this campaign, starting out as first choice at the back for Chelsea before being replaced in the Premier League in recent weeks by Fikayo Tomori.

Zouma was impressive during his season-long loan with Everton last season, and being dropped by Chelsea so suddenly will have been a huge blow to the France international, who will be looking for regular game time before next summer’s European Championships.

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Mills also believes Everton will still be reeling from losing the defender, having failed to replace Zouma in the summer. Zouma and Michael Keane built up a solid partnership, one that hasn’t been replicated with the same success this season between Keane and Yerry Mina.

Speaking to Football Insider, Mills explained that Everton may need to accept that Zouma won’t be coming back and move on. When asked about whether he thought Zouma would be disappointed not to return to Merseyside, Mills answered saying:

Yeah, I think they had a settled way of playing last season, defensively they were looking good and it hasn’t quite worked out for them so far this season.

It happens, players move on. Players go on loan and they don’t come back so you always have to adjust accordingly. Good players get snapped up and move on, bad players get thrown out the door and move on.

Unless you’re at an exceptional club like Manchester City, Liverpool, Manchester United, where you stay for a long period of time, it’s those players in the middle, those reliable players, who tend to stay the longest.

Read Everton Verdict

Personally I don’t think a move for Zouma is dead yet, and if Everton really wanted the defender in January, they could make a good case for him to come back to Merseyside.

The defender is clearly more appreciated by the Everton fan base than the Chelsea one, and it would only take the right amount of money to tempt Chelsea into letting him go.

There may be cheaper alternatives that Everton look to explore instead, but if they wanted Zouma bad enough, I think it could be a big possibility.