Numbers suggest Yakubu is right about Everton’s Idrissa Gueye

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Everton certainly secured quite the bargain when they swooped for Idrissa Gueye from Aston Villa.

Watching Idrissa Gana Gueye tear around the pitch like a greyhound with a sugar rush, it is difficult to imagine how such an influential, imposing midfielder could have found himself in the wreckage of Aston Villa last season.

Yet, while Everton were knocked back with big bids for big names, Gueye is a true scout’s signing. A true Steve Walsh signing, the club’s official website reports.

In fact, despite the frankly pathetic Villa plummeting through the trap door, only N’Golo Kante, a player Walsh signed for Leicester just 12 months previously, completed more tackles in the Premier League in 2015/16.

Therefore, it should be no surprise that the Senegalese international has thrived in a team with more quality and infinitely more character. And former Everton striker Yakubu has not held back in his praise of the 27-year-old.

“It is pleasing to see and, for me, he is the signing of the season.” The 34-year-old, who recently returned to English football with a baffling move to League One basement dwellers Coventry, told evertonfc.com.

“He has everything – energy, pace and he supports the team at both ends of the pitch. The supporters have taken to him and I’m sure they will enjoy him even more and more as time goes on. I think next season he will be even better.”

The numbers do not lie. At £7.1 million, as reported by The Guardian, Gueye arrived at Everton for a third of Moussa Sissoko’s Tottenham price tag.

His fee is also dwarfed by that of Kante, Victor Wanyama and Granit Xhaka, big money signings for Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal respectively.

And as a measure of Gueye’s influence, he has averaged more successful tackles per game than either of the much-vaunted trio while only the effervescent Kante has averaged more tackles.

Taking the numbers into account, Yakubu may be onto something.