It’s not as though Everton weren’t trying to sign a right-back in the summer transfer window, it’s just doing so proved easier said than done.
With Financial Fair Play fears restricting the Toffees to an outlay of just £1.7 million – about the same price Bristol City paid to land Rob Atkinson from Oxford United – any hopes of striking a deal for Euro 2020 sensation Denzel Dumfries went up in smoke quicker than an unattended chip pan.
Everton also hit a brick wall in their pursuit of rampaging Rangers youngster Nathan Patterson, while links with Jorge Sanchez, Aurelio Buta and Jonathan Clauss came to nothing.
So, with a paucity of options in reserve, Rafa Benitez would have been praying 32-year-old Seamus Coleman stayed free of the sort of muscle injuries that restricted him to 18 Premier League starts during Carlo Ancelotti’s one and only full season at the helm.
That always felt like a dangerous game, however, and so it proved.
Should Everton snap up former Tottenham man Serge Aurier on a free?
With Coleman on the sidelines, neither Ben Godfrey nor Jonjoe Kenny have done much to suggest they can be relied on to step up to the plate on a regular basis.
Unfortunately, Benitez has little choice but to put his faith in Godfrey – the squarest of pegs in the roundest of holes – or the out-of-sorts Kenny as Coleman faces another couple of weeks out of action.
There’s one possible solution staring Benitez in the face, however.
According to the Liverpool Echo, Everton have been considering offering Serge Aurier a route back into the Premier League almost a month after his £70,000-a-week contract was ripped up by top-flight rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
And while Aurier is hardly the most reliable defender – he was released for a reason – he’d still represent an upgrade on Godfrey and Kenny as Everton search for a silver-bullet solution to a problem position.
Here’s what some Everton supporters on Twitter had to say about the Serge Aurier rumours:
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