Reported Everton target Doria was brutally snubbed by Marcelo Bielsa five years ago

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Everton are reportedly keen on a £10.5m deal to bring Matheus Doria to the Premier League – but his time at Marseille was a disaster.

Five years ago, Marseille opened the door to Europe for the next great Brazilian defender.

A Brazil international at the age of just 18 and coveted by pretty much every top club from Manchester to Milan, it was the 1993 European champions who won one of the most hotly contested transfer battles on the continent when they agreed to pay £7.8 million for the Botafogo wonderkid, according to Bleacher Report.

But there was one man who wasn’t on board with the hype. And, unfortunately for a still teenage Doria, that man happened to be Marseille’s new manager.

Back in 2014, Marcelo Bielsa was far from the unassuming, grandfather-like figure who watches Leeds United with a steely gaze in an oversized jumper. ‘El Loco’ was very much alive and well at the Stade Velodrome and he made it clear right from the first minute that Doria wasn’t welcome at Marseille.

‘I didn’t want him’

“My assessment of this transfer window is a negative one. I think the president made me promises he knew he could not deliver on,” Bielsa raged, in quotes reported by Marca.

“I found out about the signing of Doria when he was undergoing his medical. I didn’t want him.”

Tell us what you really think Marcelo.

True to his word, Doria didn’t make a single Ligue 1 appearance during Bielsa’s thrilling, controversy-ridden reign in Southern France and he eventually returned to Brazil with his confidence shot and his reputation in tatters.

But, at the age of 24, the man once labelled ‘the new Thiago Silva’ is making up for lost time back in Brazil. According to Todo Fichajes, Everton are eyeing a potential £10.5 million January deal for Doria with Marco Silva’s side crying out for some depth at the back.

And should The Toffees get their man, Doria will return to Europe will a point to prove, particularly to a man perched on an upturned bucket in West Yorkshire.