Have Everton Found Their Baines Successor in £22m-Rated Barcelona Man?
By Tom Power
Everton want to lure France international to Premier League as eventual Baines replacement
Everton have ramped up their transfer market business with an apparent £22m offer for Barcelona’s Lucas Digne.
Not content with splashing out a reported £50m on Watford star Richarlison, the Toffees have also lodged a £20+ bid for the Catalan giants’ full-back.
The Mirror has alleged that Marco Silva and Marcel Brands have already tabled the offer and Barcelona are mulling it over.
Silva sees Digne as the long-term successor to veteran left-back Leighton Baines at Goodison Park.
Baines doesn’t have an able understudy at present, with Luke Garbutt sent out on loan, Antonee Robinson needing more first-team experience and Brendan Galloway seemingly out-of-favour.
A lack of alternatives in that position caused Everton a headache when Baines was injured for three months with a calf problem last term.
Cuco Martina had to feature as a makeshift left-back under former boss Sam Allardyce as a result.
Silva and Brands identified left-back as a key squad position to strengthen and they will hope that Digne can be the man to eventually replace Baines in the side.
The 25-year-old has become frustrated at the lack of minutes he’s received at Camp Nou.
Digne’s lousy total of 20 appearances last term – 14 of which came from the start – ensured that he missed out on featuring for France at this summer’s World Cup.
It proved to be a missed opportunity for him as Les Bleus lifted the trophy after they beat Croatia 4-2 in the final earlier in July.
Juventus and Bayern Munich have also run the rule over Digne as they look to bolster their defensive ranks in Italy and Germany respectively.
Barcelona, who are not actively looking to sell Digne, would only have Jordi Alba available as an option in that position on the field if they sold the ex-Paris Saint-Germain player.
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Everton will hope that their bid is good enough to convince them to let Digne leave, however.