Lewis Dunk will not be swapping Brighton for West Brom – but where will Jonny Evans be playing next season?
Manchester United fans would have been painfully aware of the irony. The best player on the pitch during their recent goalless draw with West Brom at Old Trafford was none other than Jonny Evans.
Two years after being deemed surplus to requirements by former United boss Louis Van Gaal, the Northern Ireland international continues to make his £6 million transfer fee look like one of the most inspired bargains in recent Premier League history, as reported by The Guardian.
Though West Brom manager Tony Pulis is more than aware that Evans could be hot property this summer with the majority of the league’s biggest clubs crying out for a centre-half.
“Being very pragmatic, if someone comes in and offers an absolute fortune [for Evans] we’d have to look at it,” he told the Birmingham Mail a year after they rejected Arsenal’s £15 million bid. “But we hope they never do that and we hope that Jonny stays.”
However, if the unthinkable happens and Evans does return a second chance at the very top of the English game, a potentially perfect replacement appears to be out of their grasp.
With Brighton sealing a return to the top flight after 34 years away on Monday, manager Chris Hughton’s top priority will be to keep together the nucleus of a side one win away from the Championship title.
This means The Seagulls will surely reject any offers for Lewis Dunk, as reported by the Birmingham Mail, with the centre-back a primary target for West Brom last summer.
Brighton have kept clean sheets in almost half of their Championship fixtures this season and the consistency of their 25-year-old defender has been the major factor. Excellent in the air and a threat at the other end, Dunk would appear the prototype Pulis defender.
However, whatever happens with regards to Evans’ future, Dunk will be playing Premier League football on the South Coast next season.
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