At the beginning of December, as Everton links were rising, the local Seville media reported that Steven N’Zonzi could leave the club and wouldn’t be missed.
An attitude problem and feeling he was rather more important than reality dictated was causing annoyance at Sevilla, and that was even before the midfielder’s trip to England saw transfer claims rise further.
N’Zonzi hadn’t been having a good season but had been, at least according to the claims, acting like was ‘untouchable’, and people had endured enough. Around the same time he was ostracised from the squad, then brought back in, and has now managed to upset everyone again.
On Saturday, Sevilla lost 5-0 to Barcelona in the Copa del Rey final. As good as the Catalan side were, Sevilla were absolutely awful. It was a terrible performance and fans who had travelled to Madrid were left fuming.
Later that night N’Zonzi was pictured out in a Madrid nightclub and that hasn’t gone down well at all. All the old feelings about an attitude problem have risen again, and an apology from the player hasn’t done much to stop them.
El Confidencial say the Frenchman is ‘a good footballer and specialist at diving headfirst into puddles’. N’Zonzi apparently knows he’s leaving this summer, and it seems many in Seville will be happy to see the back of him.
That presents a chance for Everton. If the interest was true last time around, when the midfielder wasn’t in great form the attitude claims weren’t exactly new, then there’s little reason why they’ll have dropped that.
It’s a good opportunity for Sam Allardyce, or his successor at Goodison Park, to get the player, with perhaps the previous claimed interest from some of Europe’s biggest clubs now slipping away.
