Crystal Palace won the race to sign Timothy Fosu-Mensah on loan from Manchester United this summer despite interest from Everton.
Timothy Fosu-Mensah will no doubt have hoped for a better start to his loan spell at Crystal Palace. The Manchester United youngster has been on the receiving end of defeats in each of his four appearances for The Eagles and now Frank de Boer, the manager who brought him to Selhust Park this summer, has been shown the door.
Therefore, you could forgive the Dutchman for perhaps wondering if things would have worked out better had he made the short journey from Manchester to Merseyside this summer instead.
Though Everton haven’t lived up to expectations in the opening weeks of the season, winning just one of their four Premier League games, they are expected to fight for Europe this season while Palace, on current form, will surely be embroiled in another relegation battle.
Right place?
Yet, it is not easy to see where Fosu-Mensah would fit into Everton’s starting XI. Michael Keane, Phil Jagielka and Ashley Williams are three experienced top flight defenders and already appear to be Koeman’s first-choice selection.
Fosu-Mensah, who made an impression at United under Louis Van Gaal in 2015/16, can also play at right-back but The Toffees have another hugely talented youngster, Mason Holgate, who is already standing out in that position.
Therefore, although Palace are winless and sit bottom of the Premier League, Fosu-Mensah can at least take solace in the fact that he is playing regularly – and that was the whole reason why United sent the talented defender out on loan in the first-place.
Regardless of how the rest of the season pans out under Roy Hodgson, if Fosu-Mensah remains first-choice he will return to Old Trafford a more experienced, mature and battle-scared defender.
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