Ramiro Funes Mori Subject of Reported £5m Boro Bid
By Tom Power
Everton‘s Ramiro Funes Mori could be heading to the north-east to join Championship club Middlesbrough.
That is according to the Daily Telegraph (via the Gazzette Live), who have reported that the defender was the subject of a £5m bid.
Funes Mori’s future at Goodison Park is in doubt as new boss Marco Silva looks to trim his bloated squad ahead of the new season.
The centre-back had spent a year on the treatment table with a cruciate knee ligament injury and only returned to the field in the final few weeks of last term.
Funes Mori missed out on a place in Argentina’s World Cup squad as a result, and has made noises in the past about potentially wanting to leave the Toffees.
And that has led to more speculation about his time on Merseyside coming to an end, with Boro supposedly interested in his services.
Boro boss Tony Pulis wants to bring the 26-year-old to Teeside to bolster his defensive ranks ahead of a promotion push in 2018/19.
Everton, though, will likely want to recoup as much of the £11m – £9.5m up front – they forked over for Funes Mori upon signing him in the summer of 2015.
Accepting a fee that’s less than half what they paid would be a strange decision for Silva, but may be in his best interests from a wage point of view.
Funes Mori is thought to command a decent salary at Everton and getting that wage off the books would help to trim down costs in L4.
Silva is eyeing centre-back reinforcements in the close season too, and any new additions would push the ex-River Plate man further down the pecking order.
Funes Mori is one of only two natural left-footed players in Everton’s squad and would need replacing to add some balance to Silva’s senior ranks.
He would likely find his level in the second tier of English football too, with Funes Mori looking out of his depth at Goodison in some of his first-team appearances.
Next: Everton Linked With Talented Hull Youngster
Funes Mori may be joined by Wayne Rooney, Ashley Williams and Kevin Mirallas in heading for the Everton exit this summer.