Everton should have made signing West Ham United playmaker Manuel Lanzini a priority in the summer transfer window.
The longer West Ham toil towards the bottom of the Premier League table, the more difficult it will be for the club to hang onto Manuel Lanzini.
Interest in the Argentine playmaker appeared to rise in the summer with The Mail claiming that Liverpool had been mulling over a move – possibly seeing West Ham’s influential number ten as the prime replacement for Philippe Coutinho.
And with just a month to go until the transfer window opens, ESPN claims that bitter London rivals Tottenham Hotspur are also planning a cheeky approach in January, with manager Mauricio Pochettino understood to be a big fan of the technically gifted Lanzini.
The man Everton should’ve signed
But while Everton are famously not short of clever, creative central playmakers, should new manager Sam Allardyce attempt to nab West Ham’s star man?
According to The Mirror, Everton were interested in signing Lanzini in the summer – but that was before they paid big money to bring in Gylfi Sigurdsson and Davy Klassen.
But Allardyce has not taken over at Goodison Park to keep things the way they are. The 62-year-old will want to shake things up and shape the squad in his own image.
So with Klaassen already looking like a lost cause, and barely featuring at all since Ronald Koeman was sacked a month ago – and Turkish giants Fenerbahce reportedly keen to hand him an escape route in January according to Sporx – Allardyce may consider letting the former Ajax skipper leave already.
And there would be few better replacements than Lanzini. Unlike Klaassen, the 24-year-old is proven in the Premier League, and has a history when it comes to scoring against ‘big’ teams – games Everton have struggled in this season.
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