Stop me if you've heard this one before.
Everton need a right back. They've needed a right back for years now. We wrote about it all summer, only for nothing to materialize on that front.
Since the January transfer window opened up almost two weeks ago, nothing has changed. Jake O'Brien has started most matches shoehorned into the role, with James Garner sliding in a few times, and Nathan Patterson getting more of a run of late.
But none of those players are the long-term option, either because they're playing out of position to do so (O'Brien and Garner) or they've shown they lack the requisite skills or consistency to be a week-over-week starter at the position (Patterson).
There are options out there, both of the reasonable variety or the more pie-in-the-sky, but the Blues and their transfer committee cannot (or should not) claim that there's nobody to target.
More recent rumors suggest that David Moyes and his transfer team are eyeing Arsenal right back Ben White, a player who was a nailed-on starter for the first few seasons under Mikel Arteta, but has fallen out of favor this year.
White is a good player who would walk straight into Everton's starting XI. He has the profile to impact the game both as a defender and going forward in attack. But he just turned 28 in October, making him about a year older than Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, a player that many Evertonians were already concerned about being too old to bring in for a long-term deal.
After coming to Arsenal from Brighton for £50 million in 2021, the Gunners aren't likely to get their money back, but they also don't have to sell, putting Everton in an uncomfortable situation if they want to make a run for his signature.
All this options might create a sense of analysis paralysis for the Everton brass, but with January nearing its halfway point, the choice they cannot take is to do nothing.
There are other areas of need, particularly in the defensive midfielder role, where Idrissa Gana Gueye cannot be counted on forever, but those are likely to wait until the summer because they aren't as pressing once Gana returns from AFCON, and given the improved play of Tim Iroegbunam. They could also use improvements at left back as well.
But Everton can no longer afford to ignore right back if the club has any ambitions to push for European football or to make a cup run over the next few seasons. Doing so would send yet another signal that the best isn't what the club wants at the moment.