Everton need to take advantage of Lucas Digne’s popularity
By Rob Fisher
Lucas Digne is definitely going to leave Everton in this January transfer window. With Vitaliy Mykolenko already signed to seemingly take over Digne’s left back slot, the clubs interested in the French international are now starting to come forward with offers.
Newcastle United have offered £22.5m plus Sean Longstaff late last night, an offer which Sky Sports have announced is very unlikely to happen due to Digne wanting a move to a club in Europe and not in danger of relegation, neither of which Newcastle can count on.
The two other clubs in the picture to sign Digne are believed to be Chelsea and West Ham United. As previously reported on this page, Chelsea need more left back cover as Ben Chilwell will miss the rest of the season.
With Everton knowing Digne wants to leave after falling out with Rafa Benitez the other clubs know they can freely put enquiries in. However, they also know the dangle of a loan player for the rest of the season may gain favour with the Everton hierarchy.
Everton left back Lucas Digne is attracting a lot of suitors
West Ham may not be in a favourable position to do this with a smaller squad and still in the Europa League. However Chelsea, with their bulging squad, could definitely offer a loan deal until the end of the season in return to seal the Digne transfer.
Evertonians may well feel Ross Barkley would be the one pushed to return to Goodison Park, with most fans against this move. The reception Barkley received in front of the Everton away fans at Chelsea before Christmas told you everything you need to know.
Other options Everton could enquire in response to Digne’s bid that would be far better positive additions to the squad for the rest of the season would be Ruben Loftus-Cheek or Callum Hudson-Odoi.
Both of these England internationals have seen far more first team action than Barkley this season anyway, and in particular Loftus-Cheek has seen his fortunes turn since returning from a loan spell at Fulham last season.
Everton would like another midfielder who likes to get forward with Tom Davies and Jean-Philippe Gbamin not either good enough or the type of player Benitez wants in his engine room. Hudson-Odoi also offers a great option on the wing to compete with Demarai Gray.
This January transfer window has seen Everton move swiftly to add to the squad, now the real hard work starts to shift unwanted players off the wage bill. This seems it won’t be a problem with Digne and may well happen well before the window closes.
Evertonians will be sorry to see Digne leave, especially in these circumstances, but I believe he may well have left to secure his World Cup squad berth with France in the summer with a club offering European football as he competes with Lucas Hernandez of Bayern Munich.
At 28 years of age later this year, Digne will still pull in a good fee as his contract is expiring in 2025, maybe Everton can add to that value by acquiring a useful loan addition to improve results between now and May?
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Will Everton manage to command a handsome transfer fee for Lucas Digne?