Why didn’t big clubs sign West Brom’s Evans when he was £8m?

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Manchester City are closing in on a £30m deal for West Brom’s Jonny Evans, a man who was signed from Manchester United for £8m just two years ago.

Johnny Evans of West Bromwich Albion competes with Leonardo Ulloa of Leicester City during the Premier League Asia Trophy.

Jonny Evans is close to completing a £30m transfer from West Bromwich Albion to Manchester City before the window closes, according to the Mirror.

The Citizens have already had an £18m bid for Evans rejected by the Baggies this summer, but are still confident of getting the deal over the line as Pep Guardiola seeks support at centre-back.

Pep Guardiola, manager of Manchester City, issues instructions from the touchline.

It seems as though West Brom manager Tony Pulis is already preparing for life without the 29-year-old as well, lining up Tottenham Hotspur’s Kevin Wimmer as a replacement and still holding an interest in Middlesbrough captain Ben Gibson.

If confirmed, the Evans deal will see the West Midlands side make a huge profit on the £8m they paid Manchester United for the defender just two years ago, after being deemed surplus to requirements by then Red Devils boss Louis van Gaal.

It was a decision that was said to have “stunned” Old Trafford legend Sir Alex Ferguson, who had brought the Northern Ireland international into the first team after progressing from the academy.

Sir Alex Ferguson during the Premier League match between Manchester City and Everton.

Yet with Ferguson such an admirer of Evans and the player available for such a relatively low fee in 2015, it begs the question why bigger clubs didn’t capitalise at the time?

Arsenal, Liverpool and City have all had struggles at the back since and could probably all have benefitted by having the Northern Irishman in their team.

Admittedly a direct transfer from United to any of their three rivals would be difficult to broker, but not impossible – particularly in the case of the Gunners, who had signed Danny Welbeck the previous summer.

Not the most fashionable of players, Evans has appeared over 200 times in the Premier League – a competition he has won three times, along with the Champions League and the League Cup twice – and has 58 caps for his country. He could walk into most teams in England and yet only now are they seeing the potential that Ferguson and Pulis knew all along.