The Norwich City star is a fine attacking midfielder with a very bright future but that might not be a good thing for Everton this summer.
It was reported in the Guardian on Monday that Everton have pushed to the front of the queue in the race to sign Norwich City’s James Maddison.
The 21-year-old has been linked with several Premier League clubs after a stellar season that saw him bag 15 goals from midfield with another eight assists.
It’s no wonder then that Everton would target such a player, especially given their lack of goal threats last season – but is he the right player?
Maddison is an attacking midfielder, much like three of the players Everton signed last summer. Gylfi Sigurdsson, Wayne Rooney, and Davy Klaassen all arrived and quickly found out that they couldn’t play together, leaving the team completely unbalanced.
Now it looks like the latter two will move on this summer but that still leaves Sigurdsson to occupy that space behind the striker – although it remains unclear if that position will even exist under Marco Silva after the coach admitted that he intends to play 4-3-3 next season.
Maddison played as the attacking midfielder in a 4-2-3-1 at Norwich while Sigurdsson’s Swansea success was in the same role. It would be confusing enough to spend big on a player for a position you already have occupied but to have two players who excel in a role you don’t use seems very strange – and we haven’t even mentioned the fact that Ademola Lookman plays there, too.
We don’t know how much money Everton have to spend this summer – although recent reports suggested they need to sell as many as 12 players to make funds available – but it really does feel like the club are focusing on a position they really don’t need to strengthen.
Centre back, fullback, holding midfield; there are better places for the money to be spent while Everton look like repeating to mistakes of last summer.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
