Derby County playmaker Will Hughes was reportedly on Everton’s radar – and the Championship club may be forced to sell before they buy in the summer.
With the cynics proclaiming the death of loyalty in the modern game, it seems little short of a miracle that Derby County have managed to hang on to Will Hughes for so long.
The peroxide playmaker has now played almost 150 league games for The Rams since bursting onto the scene as a precocious, so-called ‘mini Messi’ in all the way back in 2012. And, despite being courted by almost every major English club from Manchester to Merseyside, according to The Sun, the 21-year-old remains a constant presence in The Rams midfield.
The Sun reported in December that one of the brightest talents in English football was finally edging towards the exit after rejecting a new deal with Everton the early frontrunners.
Just a month later, however, Hughes once again appeared to commit his long-term future to the club by signing a new deal until the summer of 2020. Clearly, he believes in the project at Pride Park and feels remaining where he is comfortable represents his best chance of fulfilling that prodigious potential.
However, with the Derby Telegraph reporting that the club reported a loss of £14.6 million last season while the wage bill has soared by 50 per cent, you wonder whether The Rams may be forced to sacrifice their prized asset in the summer.
“When you have signed quite a lot of players without as many going out of the door then at some point you have to balance that off in terms of numbers,” Derby boss Gary Rowett told the newspaper.
It appears that The Rams find themselves in a ‘sell before you buy’ scenario. Clearly, huge upgrades are required in the squad if Derby are to cut the gap to the top six next season but, without selling one of their prized assets, you wonder where that money will come from.
And who else in the Derby squad would raise as much funds as Hughes? The Sun reported that Everton may be willing to pay £15 million. The Rams may be hard pressed to turn that down.
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