Everton up against Merseyside neighbours for Bremer
Lots of transfer rumours today with the latest including claims that Everton will be rivalling their neighbours Liverpool for the signature of Torino defender Gleisen Bremer.
This is a name Everton fans will be quite familiar with after a serious of transfer rumours about the Brazilian centre-back moving to Goodison Park.
Once again he has been connected with a summer move for around £25 million as the stories about the Toffees bringing in another central defender continue.
While again we could just dismiss all this as just endless paper talk, the number of stories about centre-backs coming in might just have a basis to it.
So do the Blues need to spend big money on yet another defender?
It’s a slightly complicated question because on paper Everton seem to have plenty of options with Yerry Mina, Michael Keane, Ben Godfrey, Mason Holgate and the two on loan Jarrad Branthwaite and Lewis Gibson.
However, just recently there have been renewed questions about whether these defenders can do the job as the Toffees try to make the move to becoming a top four contender.
In particular Holgate and Keane have struggled at times this season and Mina while he has played well generally, has been plagued again by injury problems, which have undermined his effectiveness and meant a constant chopping and changing of players at the back.
Holgate seems unable to combine the necessary maturity and football intelligence to match his physical ability and Keane struggles badly when facing any forwards with real pace and good movement who can turn him.
The one unquestionable bright spot has been the excellent form of new signing Godfrey who has done superbly playing right across the defence with his electric pace, man-marking skills and strong, determined tackling to the fore.
More from Prince Rupert's Tower
- Everton 0 Arsenal 1: Blues fall to third home defeat
- Further chaos in Everton takeover as other lenders not keen on 777 Partners
- Everton need repeat of Arsenal win to kick-start their season on Sunday
- More madness at Everton as Moshiri now agrees to sell club to 777 Partners
- Everton takeover talk cools after UK govt doubts and further questions
There is also the issue of leadership. One of the problems this Everton team has had for a long time is a lack of strong leaders who can boss things on the pitch and drive the side on to securing results especially when they are not playing well. All really successful sides have this quality.
This failing has been particularly pronounced at home this season when without the vocal support of 35,000 Evertonians, the team has been unable to find the urgency and energy needed and produced some very lacklustre and listless performances, which have proved very costly.
So it’s possible Carlo Ancelotti is looking at all this and thinks I need one really top draw and experienced centre-back to provide the consistent quality and leadership that he hasn’t got at the moment.
That brings us back to Bremer, so is he that man? Well the Brazilian is a very strong defender and he has a useful knack of scoring goals too. And he would be available at a more affordable price than Khalidou Koulibaly for example. Will he offer the right combination of qualities and leadership as well?
Well we won’t have long we will to wait to see whether any of this speculation is true and Everton do indeed move for one of these centre-backs in this summer’s window.