Everton Transfer News Round-Up: Kalidou Koulibaly, Alex Meret and more
Everton target Alex Meret is touted to leave Napoli
Alex Meret
Source: ArenaNapoli
Now to a more confusing transfer for Everton fans, with the Toffees already having two competent goalkeepers in Jordan Pickford and Robin Olsen, but the rumour mill has also been suggesting that Ancelotti isn’t happy with Pickford and possibly wants to replace the England international.
Alex Meret could also be a replacement for Olsen if the Swedish international decides to return to his parent club this Summer, with the 24-year old Italian rumoured to cost around £17 million. Meret also had his best season under Carlo Ancelotti, with the Italian’s 18/19 season being one for the memory books.
The goalkeeper made 13 starts in the 18/19 season, only conceding nine goals with a ridiculously high save percentage of 85%, to put that in context it is 6% higher than the two standout goalkeepers in the Premier League this season, Ederson and Emiliano Martinez.
The only problem with this is that 13 starts is an extremely small sample size, and if you take his current season into account, he actually only has a save percentage of around 66%, the worst out of him, Pickford and Olsen. If you also compare him to the rest of the Premier League, he’d rank 20th out of 21 for save percentage, and his goals against per 90 of 1.54 would be 8th worst.
One bit of upside when it comes to Meret is his age at only 24, and it’s already clear that Carlo Ancelotti knows how to get the best out of the Italian from their Napoli days, but going off current form it would be a much better idea for Everton to sign Olsen permanently instead of spending almost £20m on a relatively unproven goalkeeper.