Manchester United have supposedly targetted Everton striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin as the solution to their centre-forward problems and are ready to table a bid for him.
The Daily Express is carrying this story and are claiming United are ready to offer Everton £80 million for the England centre-forward.
I imagine the first response of many Blues fans to a possible transfer of Calvert-Lewin would probably be a no to such an idea.
Calvert-Lewin has had a breakthrough eighteen months or so since Carlo Ancelotti took over as Toffees manager in December 2019.
Before this time and ever since he first broke into the team under Ronald Koeman, the 23-year-old has divided opinion, with many Evertonians uncertain if he was good enough to be a top draw Premier League striker.
As a raw youngster he certainly had the physical attributes with his height, pace and power making him potentially a formidable centre-forward but did he have the ability to score goals at the highest level? Many were unconvinced and they had a point.
Calvert-Lewin had been very inconsistent in his performances and goalscoring, was in and out of the team and there were still persistent doubts about him when Ancelotti succeeded the hapless Marco Silva in the Goodison hotseat.
The Blues new manager recognised immediately that to get his goal tally up his striker needed to do less running in the channels and target-man work and instead focus and concentrate on getting into the right positions, find space in the box and improve the consistency of his finishing.
It worked as Calvert-Lewin started scoring much more frequently as soon as Ancelotti took over midway through the campaign.
This season started even better as Ancelotti’s new-look side with the three big summer signings all making an immediate impact, enjoyed a great unbeaten run during the first month of the season. Calvert-Lewin also immediately went on a superb scoring streak himself.
But then international breaks and subsequent injuries interrupted Everton’s momentum and the team has actually never got it back.
In addition, Calvert-Lewin’s own rich vein of form has also declined and in fact he hasn’t scored a Premier League goal since netting against Manchester United at Old Trafford back in February.
And after being so clinical earlier in the campaign, the Everton striker’s inconsistency in front of goal has returned. As an example, he missed a hatful of chances against Crystal Palace, which had he taken them would have put the Blues in a better position for European qualification.
Indeed, his conversion rate is one of the poorest in the Premier League and this is an issue as the Blues don’t create that many chances. According to some statistics he has missed fifteen so-called big chances this season.
The England man has also only just come back from his second injury this season and looked rusty against Arsenal last Friday night.
Regardless of all this, United are apparently ready to test the Toffees resolve to keep him as they look to strengthen their often mis-firing attack.
The Old Trafford club might not be able to compete financially for Borussia Dortmund’s hugely talented Norwiegan striker Erling Braut Haaland so perhaps Calvert-Lewin is a fall-back option.
Calvert-Lewin’s value has also soared since last year however and so a figure close to £100 million is now not so absurd to imagine. So should Everton sell if United do put that sort of cash down?
The obvious answer would be no as he’s done well this season and has become an integral member of the team. Having said that, in some ways I think Calvert-Lewin’s strengths can distort how the Blues play.
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He is a classic target-man with great ability to hold the ball up and win it in the air but this can lead Everton to playing some rather crude, direct, long-ball football, which isn’t always very effective.
I feel ideally the Blues need a more fluid and flexible attack, something they have used to good effect this season when they’ve been forced to do so and I’m not sure if Calvert-Lewin is the right sort of centre-forward for that type of football.
Also £80 million or something like that would be a massive amount and would give the club a big pot of extra money to spend improving the squad overall.
One of the players they might then consider to replace him is Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham.
Like Calvert-Lewin he’s a still relatively young English striker who despite having had a decent past couple of seasons doesn’t seem to have a future at Stamford Bridge under new boss Thomas Tuchel.
Abraham is a striker with pace and strength and a good eye for goal who seems to be a more flexible type of striker, but is he really an upgrade on Calvert-Lewin?
It seems he would cost around a third of what United are supposedly offering and so the club could still invest in another forward or a player or two in other areas of the team.
Well this is highly speculative on my part and I’d give it something like a 2/10 chance of being real, but if a club like United did offer that sort of money this summer it could create a dilemma for the Blues top brass as to whether they should cash in on their England centre-forward.