Should Everton cut losses on Allan

We reported yesterday that Everton appeared to be edging closer to signing Brazil midfielder Allan, now his club Napoli have claimed no deal is close. Should the Blues consider cutting their losses and moving on?

This is a very difficult question to answer. Everton boss Carlo Ancelotti is obviously a huge fan of the midfield enforcer and would very much like to have him at Goodison Park. However, this transfer is becoming an increasingly frustrating and drawn out affair.

The player himself seems keen on a move to England as well and to be re-united with the coach who got the best out of him.

But with a deal now seemingly still no closer and time ticking on, should the Toffees consider the possibility that they may have to look elsewhere?

In truth, Everton could hardly have chosen two more difficult clubs to enter into negotiations with for their alleged main midfield targets; Allan and Abdolaye Doucoure at Watford.

Both these clubs have a chequered history with the Blues and their manager. Ancelotti left Napoli in very acrimonious circumstances after being suddenly sacked by the club last December and of course Everton have a history going back to 2017 with Watford, beginning with the Marco Silva ‘tapping-up’ controversy.

Napoli’s president, Aurelio De Laurentiis, is renowned for being a very awkward and erratic customer at the best of times, so given his recent history with the Toffees coach, it’s likely he will make life as difficult as possible in the Allan negotiations.

That seems to be the case, with reports that the Blues had tabled a new bid, which was edging them closer to securing the Brazilian, now being poo-pooed by the Italian club.

So where does all this leave us?

The stories we reported on yesterday, were saying Everton had put down about £35 million, including add-ons, which seems more than reasonable for a 29-year-old.

If Napoli are still going to hold out for at least £40 million, then I don’t see how this deadlock can be broken, because it does seem unlikely the Toffees brass will consider paying that much for a player with no sell-on value.

There are obviously several ways to look at this. If it’s really only a question of paying another £5 million and Ancelotti is adamant he wants the player, then just pay it! After all if the Blues have put 35 million down another five million doesn’t seem much of a stretch to get their man.

Alternatively, Everton might decide to play hard-ball and sit tight knowing that Allan wants to go and the Italian club want to get his wages off the books. This means that they would at some point they would have to come back to the table and re-negotiate the deal.

Then Napoli might have to drop their price and the deal could be done later in the window, although how late that would be no one can know.

That’s a risky strategy though. The unknown factor in all this might be Napoli centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly. The 29-year-old Senegal central defender has been linked with a host of European clubs, including Everton, and would seem to be the biggest asset they can sell.

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If Napoli do offload him for around £50 million or more, then they might decide not to sell Allan in this window and that would potentially leave the Blues high and dry. We don’t want a repeat of what happened with Kurt Zouma last summer.

So maybe the Toffees need to have other targets in mind and be prepared at least to indicate they could walk away if Napoli won’t budge.

Another factor though to be considered is how would Ancelotti react and what would might he possibly do if Everton don’t get Allan in the end?

If the papers are to be believed, (yes I know a big if!), the Italian is already very frustrated at the club’s failure to get his two earlier targets, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Gabriel Magalhaes.

If the Allan deal falls though as well, he might well decide after all, his future isn’t at Goodison Park. As we are reporting, there is at least one of his former clubs who might well be interested in bringing the Italian coach back too.

This is all speculation on my part. But such a scenario would possibly mean Everton were scrambling around desperately to find a replacement for Allan with hours of the window left and without the ‘hollywood’ manager so critical to the club’s supposed football strategy. That’s not a pleasant scenario to consider.