Everton to swap two players for Blackburn defender Wharton

More questionable transfer rumours have emerged this morning with claims Everton have made a ‘firm bid’ for Blackburn Rovers defender Scott Wharton.

Football Insider say the Toffees are ready to offer two existing players, Ellis Simms and Neal Maupay, in exchange for the 25-year-old.

Hardly an enticing swap if you ask me given the fact between them those two forwards managed just two Premier League goals last season!

Anyway, in my opinion Everton do need defensive reinforcements, even if the obvious and main priority this summer has to be improving the team’s anemic attack.

There are issues at centre-back and left-back which do need to be sorted out.

Wharton is a centre-half who has proved a solid Championship level defender over the last few seasons with Rovers.

His strengths in particular appear to be his concentration and ability in the air. Both would be useful, especially the ability to stay focused and therefore make as few basic errors as possible.

With the departure of Yerry Mina and Conor Coady the Blues need solid and consistently reliable centre-backs and ideally some increased leadership at the back as well.

Micheal Keane, the senior centre-back left in the squad, alongside James Tarkowski, certainly doesn’t offer that and both Mason Holgate and Ben Godfrey (assuming they both stay) were indifferent at best last season.

Mina and Coady going therefore leaves Everton with a major hole in their defensive strength in depth and potentially dangerously short of options at the back next season.

Jarrad Branthwaite’s future is also still very uncertain and so it makes sense for the Toffees to be looking at centre-half alternatives.

After having a surfeit of central defenders at the start of last season, the Blues cannot now have a lack of depth in defence as they had all last season in attack, when the new campaign kicks off.

Whether Wharton is the player to help solve these problems and someone who can make the step up from Championship to Premier League football, I don’t know.

If Sean Dyche wants him and Blackburn are willing to accept Maupay and Simms in return for him, then that would perhaps make sense as neither of those strikers are going to get much playing time, if at all, next season.

Frankly, all these rumours and tentative links are as usual becoming increasingly tiresome.

And the worry for Everton supporters is that the days and weeks will tick by with nothing happening before a mad, late rush to desperately try and sign players with just a few days or even hours left, as we saw in January.