There has been plenty of discussion focused on Manchester City midfielder James McAtee and his potential move away from his current club.
Everton have been rumored to be interested in the player, with Nottingham Forest seemingly working the hardest to secure his signature after the player reportedly denied any interest in leaving England.
And it's Forest's interest that has broken a bit of a story on City's plans for the England U21 international, as reported by Ben Jacobs at Talk Sport. Jacobs noted that Forest turned in a bid of £25 million for McAtee and that City rejected it. But that's not really the big story here.
Inside that post, Jacobs also indicated two key elements regarding City's prefences for McAtee, writing that "Pep Guardiola prefers to keep McAtee, but an exit will be sanctioned" but that the move would have to meet the club's transfer demand for "a figure closer to the £42.5m package received when Cole Palmer left for Chelsea."
While other journalists are saying that Forest intend to increase their bid, the takeaway here is that while McAtee is a good player, he has not been the productive goal scorer that Palmer has proved to be at various levels throughout his career, which makes the figure rather ridiculous and suggests that City would really rather keep him.
Furthermore, any interest on Everton's part should fade away with this reveal. They have far too many holes to fill, and McAtee doesn't directly fit into any of the needed slots, so spending that kind of money or even wasting time bidding against Forest, or anyone else, for the player doesn't make any sense.
James McAtee may go on to be a super player who becomes a boss in the center of the park and maybe even becomes the next Kevin De Bruyne for City. Or maybe he doesn't. Maybe he's just a solid player who never becomes world-renowned.
Either way, Everton cannot continue with their interest in bringing him to Merseyside. There is more work to be done at bigger positions of need.