Newcastle United may have hopes of signing Everton defender Yerry Mina, but he was actually handed the captaincy against Saturday.
Newcastle are desperate for a centre back signing to bolster Eddie Howe’s back line in the fight against relegation.
It may actually be easier to name the centre backs who haven’t been linked with Newcastle in recent weeks.
The likes of Diego Carlos, Sven Botman, James Tarkowski, Benoit Badiashile, Nico Schlotterbeck, Joe Rodon and Gleison Bremer have all been linked.
So far though, Newcastle haven’t yet managed to score that new centre back signing.
One intriguing name emerged last week as TeamTALK reported that Everton ace Mina was a possible target.
Mina, 27, is into the final 18 months of his Everton deal and has suffered injury problems ever since joining from Barcelona in 2018.
The Colombian may be moved on in the near future if a new contract can’t be sorted out, and Newcastle seemingly fancy a deal.
Their hopes were dented a little on Saturday though as Mina surprisingly played as Everton captain against Aston Villa.
Seamus Coleman was only on the bench, with Duncan Ferguson then turning to Mina to wear the armband.
Admittedly, there weren’t many options in the Everton side that you would traditionally brand as captain material, but Mina was still given the nod over Jordan Pickford, Dominic Calvert-Lewin or Abdoulaye Doucoure.
Ferguson may have seen something in Mina that suggested he could take on that responsibility, or maybe Everton are trying to convince the defender to stay.
Either way, Newcastle may now find it difficult to lure Mina away from Everton with Ferguson seemingly a big fan.
It may still be worth throwing money at Everton in the hope of a deal, but this weekend’s development’s don’t bode well for Newcastle.
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