Everton were linked with West Bromwich Albion’s Jonny Evans in January.
Everton ended the January transfer window with three new signings, as Eliaquim Mangala, Theo Walcott and Cenk Tosun all joined the club to boost Sam Allardyce’s options.
Whilst Mangala arrived on loan from Manchester City to solidify Everton’s defence, though that hasn’t quite gone to plan given that he is now out for the rest of the season with a knee ligament injury.
Before Everton signed the Frenchman, they were linked with a host of other centre backs, and one such player was West Bromwich Albion defender Jonny Evans.
The Sun claimed that Everton were keen to land Evans in a big-money deal in January, but the Northern Ireland international ended up staying with the Baggies despite their struggles at the bottom of the Premier League table.
Intriguingly though, Sky Sports claim that Evans has a £3million release clause in his contract if West Brom are relegated; a far cry from the £35million valuation the Baggies placed on him last month, as reported by The Sun.
With West Brom now seven points adrift of safety, relegation looks increasingly likely, and Everton should be primed and ready to activate Evans’ release clause if Alan Pardew’s men do go down.
Evans, 30, has starred for West Brom since his 2015 move from Manchester United, and has proven himself as one of the Premier League’s top centre backs during his time at The Hawthorns.
Evans can be the veteran head to help nurture Mason Holgate and Michael Keane, whilst being an immediate improvement on Ashley Williams and Phil Jagielka, and £3m is an absolute bargain in this market – especially when he was being valued at more than ten times that amount.
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