Reports in the media again claim Everton are still very interested in signing Turkish full-back Mehmet Celik who is currently at French club Lille.
Once more as with so many others this story has been doing the rounds for a while now with Everton regularly being linked with the Turk and there are rumours he is very much on the wanted list of both Carlo Ancelotti and Marcel Brands.
Right-back is a position where the Toffees do probably need to invest to improve the choice available to Ancelotti over the next few seasons.
Veteran Seamus Coleman was considered to be in decline after indifferent performances and serious injuries in recent season.
And despite his brief return to something like his best in the first month of the season, those injuries have returned and he is again struggling after his latest absence.
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His young deputy Jonjo Kenny is not considered good enough for a top Premier League side and ever since he’s come back from his year-long loan in Germany, it’s looked like he’s on his way out.
Recently Ancelotti has been experimenting with Mason Holgate at right-back and it’s worked well enough although Holgate doesn’t offer the kind of attacking flair and creativity generally demanded of the modern full-back.
So there have been constant stories and rumours about new signings in this position for nearly a year or so now.
Celik is the latest to be linked with Goodison Park. The Turkish international is a fine well-regarded full-back who is strong defensively and offers a good attacking outlet too.
As we’ve noted before Celik is wanted by several European clubs and one of them, Roma, appear to still be the front-runners for his signature.
Everton could pursue the 23-year-old, however if he wants to go elsewhere the Blues might have to look elsewhere.
There is another alternative. That is stick with Holgate who has been solid enough there unless a really top quality replacement is available as the Toffees have a superbly creative and outstanding all-round full-back on the other flank in Lucas Digne.
If he moves back to his favoured position having played in a more advanced role against Wolves, then Ben Godfrey could slot in alongside Michaeal Keane and when Digne goes forward the backline rotates to a back three in effect; a flexible formation that Ancelotti has used before.
Doing that though would break up the partnership of Keane and Yerry Mina, which has been very solid recently although the pace and cover of Holgate and Godfrey has been crucial to that.
There isn’t going to be any movement in the next few weeks on this from Everton if the recent statement from Brands about no new signings this month are held to.
It doesn’t look like stories about a new right-back are going to go away and it could well be that the Blues will wait for summer before moving to solve this position long-term.