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Gabriel joining Arsenal as Everton lose out

By Matt Townsend

LILLE, FRANCE - MARCH 8: Gabriel dos Santos Magalhaes of Lille, Moussa Dembele of Lyon during the Ligue 1 match between Lille OSC (LOSC) and Olympique Lyonnais (Lyon, OL) at Stade Pierre Mauroy on March 8, 2020 in Villeneuve d'Ascq near Lille, France. (Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)
LILLE, FRANCE - MARCH 8: Gabriel dos Santos Magalhaes of Lille, Moussa Dembele of Lyon during the Ligue 1 match between Lille OSC (LOSC) and Olympique Lyonnais (Lyon, OL) at Stade Pierre Mauroy on March 8, 2020 in Villeneuve d'Ascq near Lille, France. (Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty Images) /
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So it looks as if the ridiculous protracted saga of Gabriel Magalhaes transfer from Lille, is finally over, as according to media reports today he is having a medical at Arsenal having decided to join the Gunners instead of Everton.

I would warn Arsenal fans not to get too excited about these reports, as this player also supposedly had a medical at Everton earlier this year with a deal in place for him to come and join the Blues this summer!

But now after the pandemic, it’s all basically about money, (isn’t it really always though), and as Arsenal appear to have sacked half their employees, they would seem to have a bit more cash to splash – as the Willian deal indicates!

Anyway leaving that all aside it does look increasingly certain that he will be wearing Arsenal red and not Everton blue when the Premier League kicks off again on 12 September.

So what should we think about all this? On the one hand I’m glad this whole endless charade seems to be coming to an end at last.

The constant will he. won’t he, uncertainty was draining and was diverting the Toffees from focusing on other targets and areas of the team.

It was becoming pretty obvious for a while that he had decided he wasn’t going to join the Blues, once the pandemic hit and any possible deal between the club and the player was scuppered.

On the other hand its frustrating as it does feel as though once again Everton have lost out on a player that they wanted and that would undoubtedly have improved their team.

I sometimes wonder if this football club really is cursed! There was plenty of talk that a deal was done and dusted, more or less, back in Feb/March and then this virus struck and that deal falls through ultimately leading to the player joining one of the Toffees rivals. It could only happen to Everton Football Club!

Since then there has been the unexpected emergence of Jarrad Branthwaite, a left-footed centre-back who looked very composed and comfortable in his admittedly few first-team appearances.

Of course it very much early days with him, but of he can maintain the level of performance he showed at the end of last season, then maybe the Blues won’t regret losing out on Gabriel.

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And as I’ve said on many past occasions, I think the Blues priorities in this window are not at centre-back. The four existing players, although they have their weaknesses, are not a bad group to have going into the season.

Critically though Everton must improve the defensive strength of the midfield and so the priority for the Toffees is to get Allan and at least one more energetic midfielder in alongside him.

That would probably be Abolaye Doucoure, although we will have to wait and see if Watford price the Blues out of that one.

Then together with Andre Gomes and a fingers crossed, fit again Jean-Philippe Gbamin, the club will have enough strength, pace and quality in the middle to effectively protect and screen that defence. That would take some of the pressure off those central defenders and an erratic goalkeeper.

Well we move on and lets hope that Everton can at least secure the other signings they want and ensure this transfer window is not defined by the failure to get one player.

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