More reports claim Everton are still keeping tabs on Gleison Bremer

As Toffees fans still bask in Saturday’s derby success there are yet more reports in the press claiming Everton are still interested in Brazilian defender Gleison Bremer.

This player was mentioned regularly in dispatches during the summer transfer window and these stories were particularly prevelent when it became clear Everton would be bringing in another central defender after Mason Holgate was injured in pre-season.

Bremer was one young-ish defender who the media linked repeatedly with a move to Goodison Park. Now reports have surfaced again claiming he’s still on the club’s radar. It’s another of these groundhog-day transfer stories that just keep on coming around.

The Brazilian who is currently playing in Italy with Torino is a centre-back whose name might well have popped up in conversations between Carlo Ancelotti and Marcel Brands during the summer. But regardless the Blues eventually went for Norwich City defender Ben Godfrey.

The ex-Canaries player has been a revelation this season and has cemented a place in Everton’s backline. So far he’s a great shout for the player of the season award alongside fellow defenders Michael Keane and Yerry Mina, midfielder Abdoulaye Doucoure and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

With the form of Godfrey, Keane, Mina and less consistently Mason Holgate, Everton seem well stocked for central defenders. If they carry on defending as well as they did last weekend there wouldn’t be much pressing need for another one. There’s also the two players on loan Jarrad Branthwaite and Lewis Gibson to come back too.

So given all this as we’ve said several times before, I don’t see the Toffees making signing a centre-back, even a talented young one, a major transfer priority this summer. Their real focus should be on right-back, centre-midfield and finding more options up front.

In another transfer-related story there are claims Everton could have secured Borussia Dortmund and Norway sensation Erling Braut Haaland for nothing.

According to the Echo the Blues chief scout in Norway at the time Brian King, recommeded the Toffees sign the youngster who was actually born in Leeds.

He came to the Everton academy but apparently in-house scouts didn’t agree with King’s assesment and the youngster went back to Norway where the rest as they always say, is history.

He’s now gone on to become perhaps the hottest property in European football and is valued even in this revised transfer market, at £100 million or more.

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It seems typically Everton to have somehow passed up on such an opportunity. However, it’s true there are many young boys who look world beaters in their early teens and then don’t make it.

But it also reminds me of all those talented local lads that slipped through the net and ended up playing for our neighbours instead of the club they supported as boys. Think Ian Rush, Robbie Fowler, Jamie Carragher and Steven MacManaman – Evertonians every one.

Although there have been some notable exceptions like Wayne Rooney and Calvert-Lewin, in general the club’s scouting and youth system doesn’t seem to produce enough players who can make it to the top. Think of how Jack Rodwell and Ross Barkely have both lost their way for example.

Of the current most promising ones, Ellis Simms and Anthony Gordon are both on loan and their long-term futures are in the balance. And there are still questions about whether Holgate and Tom Davies will consistently become top-class performers, although to be fair, Davies is certainly playing very well at the moment and fingers-crossed, has finally found his feet in the team.

After recent transfer comments from Ancelotti, maximising the number of youth team players who can come through the ranks is more important than ever given the price tag of premium young talent like Haaland.

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Everton still keeping tabs on Brazil defender

By Matt Townsend | Feb 22, 2021

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