Napoli keeper ‘admired’ by Everton boss

As Everton prepare to face Manchester City in tonight’s FA Cup quarter-final without either Jordan Pickford or Robin Olsen, there are claims the Toffees boss is an admirer of the Napoli shot-stopper Alex Meret and might be tempted to move for him this summer.

Goalkeeper has been one of a number of problem positions for a while now at Everton and there has been intense speculation about how to solve the issue for a while.

Pickford has been the Blues number one between the posts ever since his expensive move from Sunderland back in 2017 when he was signed by Ronald Koeman.

At first following his arrival he was performing consistently well for the Toffees, leading to England manager Gareth Southgate making him the first-choice pick for the national team too.

Pickford was outstanding for the Three Lions at the 2018 World Cup as England went unexpectedly all the way to the semi-finals.

The young keeper’s star had never been higher and he seemed set fair for a long career both at Everton and with England.

But things began to go wrong for Pickford the following season. More mistakes were creeping into his game and then came a notorious Merseyside derby at Anfield in December.

The Blues were actually having a decent campaign and had hopes of possibly qualifying for Europe that season when they went to play their neighbours, who were also desperate for the points to keep pace with leaders Manchester City.

In fact Everton were probably on balance the better side on the night and missed several great chances to win it.

The game seemed to be heading for a goalless draw when in an extended injury time Liverpool got a late chance and Pickford made a terrible mess of dealing with a high ball gifting Divork Origi an underserved winner with seconds left.

It was an incredibly frustrating way to lose a derby, or indeed any match and the horrendous error he made seemed to begin affecting Pickford’s confidence and concentration.

More mistakes followed that season and in the next campaigns as Marco Silva was sacked to be replaced by Carlo Ancelotti and serious questions were still being asked of Pickford’s ability to be that top-class keeper the Toffees needed.

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Throughout this time Pickfrod was still making some great saves but mixing that in with some awful lapses in concentration and strange mental wandering in games.

So Ancelotti brought in Olsen in the last transfer window to provide solid back-up and possibly also push Pickford.

Well he has done that and while the England keeper has still had occasional lapses Olsen’s arrival has forced him to raise his game while the Swede has been generally reliable when he’s come in. So much so that Everton are trying to make his loan move permanent.

But there are still long-term questions about whether Pickford can be that world-class keeper any team needs to win the big prizes.

Now this story claims that Ancelotti is considering a move for Meret a player he knows well from his time as Napoli manager.

Meret is supposedly available and surplus to requirements at the Italian club and Napoli are looking to move him on. He doens’t have a lot of obvious qualities and according to Whoscored.com for example, he isn’t a keeper with the sort of long-range passing ability that Pickford possesses.

I would be surprised if Everton make any moves for a new keeper in the summer. Ancelotti has reiterated his support for Pickford and if Olsen stays then he will probably feel he is strong enough in that position and that other areas of the team should be the priority instead.