Marcel Brands wanted to bring Steven Defour to PSV in 2014; now Everton are competing with West Ham to raid Premier League rivals Burnley.
Marcel Brands may not have been appointed by Everton yet, but it seems the PSV technical director might already be having an impact on the Toffees’ transfer plans.
Turkish publication Aksam claims that Everton are closing in on a pre-contract agreement to sign Besiktas midfielder Oguzhan Ozyakup when he becomes a free agent this summer. This comes eight years after Brands tried to sign the Turkish international from PSV.
And, just a day later, it appears that Everton are also interested in a player Brands was willing to invest £5 million in back in the summer of 2014, according to Voetbal International.
Defour, who cost Burnley a club-record £8 million in 2016, has not featured for the Clarets since January thanks to a serious knee injury. But he was one of their best players before then and Burnley partly owe their current Premier League position of seventh to his combination of technique and tenacity in the centre of the park.
And, interestingly, VI claims that Brands was so keen to bring Defour to PSV three years ago that he personally sent a fax to Anderlecht announcing his intention to make the midfielder the biggest export in the history of Belgian football.
Defour moved to Porto instead, but is it merely a coincidence that he is on Everton’s radar as the Brands speculation intensifies?
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