Muhamed Besic has told the Liverpool Echo that he is not panicking about finding a new club two-months after leaving Everton as a free agent.
The Toffees chose against extending the Bosnian’s deal and let him leave Goodison Park with Theo Walcott and Yannick Bolasie. Besic cost Everton £4m when signed in 2014 from Ferencvaros, but only went on to make 56 appearances.
Besic was a favourite of Roberto Martinez after joining under the Spaniard, but lost his way after an anterior cruciate ligament injury in his right knee. Ronald Koeman, Sam Allardyce, Marco Silva and Carlo Ancelotti then overlooked him during their stints at the helm.
Besic has not played competitively in more than a year after returning from a loan spell at Sheffield United. Reading remain interested in a potential late-widow transfer, but the 45-cap international is not worried about his on-going status as a free-agent.
“I am not panicking about finding a new club because I believe in God,” Besic said. “I played really well in my first two years at Everton. But mentally, I was not in my religion too much in that time.
“You are up here but when I did my ACL, everyone forgot about me. The new coaches came, this is how life goes, and you sit alone and go from here, with a five-year deal, and all of a sudden people are forgetting about you and you go to the Championship.
“With my quality, forget about the top-five, but for Everton and all of these other clubs, I can play for them, easily. This time has made me realise a lot about life, it was a blessing. I didn’t play in the Premier League, but it was a really good time.”
Should Everton have kept Besic this summer?
Besic showed a lot of promise under Martinez, but his Everton career failed to recapture that form following his injury. Loans with Middlesbrough and Sheffield United also could not turn the tide at Goodison Park. And the Toffees were never going to offer him a new deal after a year on the sidelines under Ancelotti.
Reading have been a long-term option for Besic this summer, with The Telegraph reporting they began targeting him as his £30,000-per-week Everton contract began to near its end.
Yet the once-hard tackling enforcer who could dominate engine rooms remains looking for a club as a 28-year-old free-agent. One with bucket loads of experience in the top-two tiers of English football and on the international stage. But one also with unfulfilled potential.
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