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Pepe deal clears way for Everton on Zaha

By Matt Townsend

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 12: Wilfried Zaha of Crystal Palace during the Premier League match between Crystal Palace and AFC Bournemouth at Selhurst Park on May 12, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Christopher Lee/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 12: Wilfried Zaha of Crystal Palace during the Premier League match between Crystal Palace and AFC Bournemouth at Selhurst Park on May 12, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Christopher Lee/Getty Images) /
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Well I’ve been proved wrong about the Arsenal as they pay £72 million for Lille forward Pepe, a player Everton were linked with. So does this then clear the way for the Blues to secure Wifried Zaha’s signing?

The London club’s announcement of Pepe’s arrival today for such a massive fee, albeit spread over several years, might now ease the path for Everton to sign Zaha.

It’s all still very much open to question as to whether this deal can or will be done, but at least now for the moment, the Blues appear to be the only club interested in signing the Ivory Coast forward.

But there is another aspect to this as well. Pepe is a player Everton were linked with trying to sign and the fact he has joined Arsenal instead is the latest blow for the Blues attempts to find a right-sided attacker.

In addition reports in the French media claim that another presumed Everton target, Rafael Leao is joining AC Milan in a £31 million deal.

Now the move for Zaha is becoming even more important. If the Toffees don’t succeed in persuading him and Crystal Palace to agree to the transfer, where do the Blues go from then? Is there a plan B??

Well I hope so because the odds still seem long that the Blues will get Zaha.

However in an interesting related article, BBC Sport argues that there is strong evidence that new players from abroad take a considerable time to settle into a new club in England, especially players from France or Holland.

So perhaps that’s why the Blues are so keen on getting Zaha instead of looking abroad anymore for reinforcements.

I am though still concerned that Everton are running out of time to strengthen before the Premier League kick-off and transfer deadline day on August 8th.

I wouldn’t really want to see the Blues repeat what happened last summer when the majority of signings came in on deadline day with just hours, and in Kurt Zouma’s case, minutes or even seconds to go.

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This was certainly not ideal but given the fact that Marcel Brands and Marco Silva were both new in post, it was understandable.

This time however both men have had plenty of time to identify the players they wanted and put in place plans to try to secure them.

But so far at least Everton have not managed to bring in any of these new players except Fabian Delph.

It’s possible that several other deals we don’t know about are close to completion, we shall see what happens in the next few days and weeks.

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