Everton have been linked with Middlesbrough star Dael Fry but could he replace Michael Keane and Yerry Mina at the Premier League strugglers?
Marco Silva saw this coming.
Six games into the new Premier League season, Everton’s hopes of putting a crack in the glass ceiling and smashing their way into Champions League contention appear to be dying a death already – with 32 matches still to play.
As it stands, the Toffees are 14th after successive defeats against Bournemouth and Sheffield United which left Everton’s defensive deficiencies brutally exposed. And Silva always knew that a lack of quality at centre-back could see the big-spending Merseysiders fall well short of their lofty ambitions.
“I have to be honest with you, it is not the best scenario,” Silva told the Liverpool Echo in August after a failed deadline-day swoop for Marcos Rojo. “It was always our target to sign another (defender) and an important player for that position.”
So, for Michael Keane and Yerry Mina, the pressure was on.
But just weeks into the new campaign, two centre-backs who set Everton back a combined £60 million have failed to prove to anyone, let alone Silva, that another defender should not be the top priority in the January transfer window.
Keane and Mina have looked shaky all season long, the former failing in particular failing to show any signs of recovery after that horror mistake just seconds into England’s topsy-turvy win against Kosovo earlier in the month. They were bullied by Callum Wilson at Bournemouth and allowed a Sheffield United who had just one shot on target at Goodison Park to score twice on Saturday.
To make matters worse, former Barcelona youngster Mina scored an own goal in that 2-0 defeat.
And claims from TEAMtalk that Everton have joined the race to sign Dael Fry, the 22-year-old academy graduate who has captained his boyhood club Middlesbrough already, suggests that Silva has already lost faith in his new-look defensive pairing.
Fry may be young but he’s got everything required to make the step up to the Premier League; combining height, class, leadership skills and excellent reading of the game. He can even play at full-back too with Boro manager Jonathan Woodgate, who knows what it takes to succeed at centre-back, describing him as a ‘special player’.
TEAMtalk claims that Middlesbrough could be forced to sell their prized asset for £20 million. But solving a defensive problem that appears to be getting worse by the week? That is priceless for Everton.
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