'Excited and proud' Tarkowski agrees Everton contract extension
Everton, stalwart James Tarkowski, has signed a two-year contract extension which ties him to Hill Dickinson Stadium until 2027.
With a busy summer of squad rebuilding out of the way, the club have moved to secure on fresh terms the players they want to retain from those whose current deals expire at the end of the season.
Aside from Michael Keane and Idrissa Gueye who penned short-term contracts over the close season, Tarkowski is one of three players who would have been out of contract next summer.
The 32-year-old, a free agent signing from Burnley three years ago, has been one of the most successful acquisitions that the Blues have made in recent years.
Virtually ever a present in the side until he tore a hamstring towards the end of last season, Tarkowski has made 128 appearances so far and remains a first-choice starter in David Moyes’s defensive line.
"I'm super excited and proud to be an Everton player and to continue this journey," Tarkowski told evertontv.
"It's been a crazy few years with some big lows and some massive highs. We've managed to get through those tough times and hopefully now we're on to more positive and exciting times ahead.
"I think the intention has been set out from the start of this season.
“I’ve loved every minute so far of working under the manager. He has made it clear where we're going with this club. The results and performances have really improved in his time here and it does seem to be going in one direction.
"The reason I've signed is because I want to be a part of that. Now it's up to us as players to get on board and take us in that direction."
Reader Responses
Selected thoughts from readers09/10/2025 08:14:09
Shouldnt really be surprised. Moyes has plenty of previous for playing center halves well into their eighties.
If the Team selection at Wolves didnt make the point clear enough. This news should make it clear to every fan that respectability is the name of the game. Ambition still has no place among the decision makers at this club.
Tarkowski has coughed up at least one goal scoring opportunity in each of our games this season. That's about the only thing "Mr Dependable" can be depended upon to do these days. There wouldnt have been a single premiership forward who didnt note the ease with which Diouf went past him in the West Ham game. He's not alone. Whilst I was delighted with Gana's goal at Anfield he has been well off the pace...And don't get me started on the ridiculous decision to extend Coleman's contract. He's been finished for years. This has got to stop.
You need footballers to win trophies. We need to rid ourselves of the culture of signing (and re-signing) players who are better without the ball than they are with it. Tackling machines. Lighthouses. Last ditch heroes, fist shakers and full backs who do team talks when the manager cant be arsed may laughably be afforded "legendary" status, but they will never win you anything
09/10/2025 11:08:27
Yeah! We should have binned off all our ‘old’ players who contributed very highly last season! We should have spent £1 Billion on teenagers that the usual suspects would immediately write off! No transition! Get a champions league team assembled in one transfer window! How hard can it be? TFG are failing us! Sack the recruitment team! Sack the board! Why isn’t there more blue bits on Hill Dickinson!
09/10/2025 16:01:30
Peter Fancy
I'm surrounded by Evertonians every day. Yet I have never met one of these "usual suspects" who immediately to write off teenagers. I have never met anybody who thinks there isn't enough blue at the new stadium and I havent heard anybody call for the current board to be sacked....Or the recruitment team - Theres a very good reason for that. They don't exist. They merely form parts of your straw man arguments.
Another group of people who seem to have gone under my radar, are the mysterious group you claim expect the club to assemble a Champions league side in one window. Where are you getting this from ? Having said that. I have yet to come across anyone who is prepared to happy clap the slow boat to china as it sails serenely past Everton ambition.
For decades this club has signed and re-signed players who are well passed their prime. Most of them were'nt that good in the first place. Its a short termism which has severely handicapped the club over the long term and If you think we will get different results by continuing to do the same thing you will surely be disappointed.
Part of supporting a football club is to be critical and voice disapproval when you don't like what you see. Websites such as this provide a platform to do that.
You are perfectly at liberty to manage your own expectations, but if you cant put forward a credible counter argument without inventing these mythical groups. I suggest you back off and let others manage theirs.
09/10/2025 16:16:07
I do really try and avoid reacting to some of the drivel spouted but sometimes I just cannot help myself!
Anyway, here are some cold hard Tarky facts for y’all! Not bad for a man in his eighties (rolls eyes)
Since start of 22-23 season
Clearances 640 PL ranking 1st
Headed clearances 395 PL ranking 1st
Blocks 188 PL ranking 1st
Aerial duals won 398 PL ranking 1st
09/10/2025 18:22:05
Never attracted any of the top clubs. Not even in his prime.
A backs-to-the-wall stopper who Specialises in clearances for teams who defend in numbers and play a very... Very low Block.
Perenial relegation fighter.
Never got close to winning major honours while other center halves with less impressive err...stats (sigh) have filled their draws with medals.
The team got better results without him at the end of last season.
Repeatedly exposed this season as being slower than a week in Jail - BMD audibly gasped when Diouf went past him.
I could go on..and on, but the guy has been a terrific servant to this club. His body-on-the-line performances have been hugely instrumental in keeping this club afloat when we were drowning. If our sole ambition was to avoid relegation again, I would be happy to keep him until the end of THIS season. However! We are not that club anymore...Some of us want more. Those who show zero ambition and allow carefully selected stats to blind them to irrefutable facts will be delighted that he will still be here when he is 35.
If he plays for those two extra seasons. We will not challenge for anything. No team in the modern era can win anything with a center half who wants to anchor half his team to the edge of their own penalty area. If he doesnt play; Then surely the ten million we pay him in wages would be better off spent on players who will.
Ambitions.... Expectations.
10/10/2025 20:31:03
Darren 6,
Definitely no sentiment in that assessment of Tarkowski.
I’d have to agree with you, he’s great in a very defensive set up as he has no pace at all and has been getting worse. So what do we do? Reward it with a new extension. Typical Everton really, no guts or ambition!
Do we need to look at getting better players? We have Tarky so no we don’t, very worrying,
Only thing I’d say is it should have been a 5 year contract!
10/10/2025 20:50:17
Darren, 2
I’m dying hahaha !
10/10/2025 23:42:44
The extension makes sense but I also agree that if were to progress then he should soon become a squad player. Obviously JB is class and 1st choice. We could do with O’Brien fulfilling his potential at Centre Back. At the moment he’s 4th choice and Dyche was correct to play Keane ahead of him
12/10/2025 13:12:36
I suppose Mykolenko will be awarded a bumper contract extension, for his mediocrity !
The decision to extend Coleman’s contract, ( great servant and all the rest of it!) was a absurd.
He is putting his legendary status on the line.
Giving Tarkovsky an extended contract doesn’t show much ambition for a team with such aspirations.
The whole affair seems extremely Moyesesque and stinks of Buddyism.
A very Moyes like trait.
Oh well! I suppose we’ll need both for their Rallying Cries!
13/10/2025 14:13:07
I'm seeing this as a holding pattern exercise in a squad short on numbers.
We won't have any realistic ambitions till we get a proper centre mid who can dictate play, a striker who scores goals and at least one full back who can get up and down the pitch, cross and prevent crosses.
If we had that full back, O'Brien could move to centre half alongside Keane, then Tarks becomes the back-up he should be.
While we're looking for ll that, and worrying about Branthwaite's fitness, it makes sense to give him an extension. But not have him as first choice.
15/10/2025 07:08:49
At least this way we can possibly get a fee for him from a newly promoted club who need some Prem experience, maybe that's the reason for the extension? There's always someone who wants/needs a defender like this.
Tarks has been good for us but it's true that he's only really effective when playing deep. Far too slow and lacks awareness when playing consistently higher up the pitch.
But for what we've needed over these last few years, he's been a great signing.
17/10/2025 14:52:22
Just seen that Sky Sports have done an ‘Unsung Heroes’ XI for the season so far… Who did they choose as one of their CB picks… make of it what you will… (and I expect you will…)
CB - James Tarkowski
Tarkowski has been very much Mr Reliable at the back in recent seasons for Everton. The 32-year-old has been ever-present for the Toffees in the Premier League this term and has helped them up into eighth position in the table - this time last season they were lying 16th.
Tarkowski's strength is winning the ball for his team - of all Premier League defenders this season, only Patrick Dorgu has won more duels than the Englishman and only Virgil van Dijk has won more aerial duels
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08/10/2025 21:49:04
Lyndon, the club’s official site says the extension is until June 2028.
This deal makes a lot of sense for a player who is effectively now the captain on the pitch. It perhaps also signals that Moyes intends to keep him as first choice for the foreseeable future.