Within a few days Mauricio Lemos to Everton has become a thing. Catalan newspaper Mundo Deportivo covered it at the weekend, and since then, as if by magic, the same information has been sourced by English newspapers independently.
On explaining Mundo Deportivo’s article, we were very clear to say the story had been published because Barcelona were playing Las Palmas. Wanting to cover transfer links between the two clubs, Mundo Deportivo linked Everton, and we said: ‘There’s every chance that Everton are linked for no other reason than they’ve been linked before.’
Wednesday’s edition of Sport, the other Catalan football focused newspaper, says Everton have ‘launched the first offer’, adding: ‘The Uruguayan has already received an initial proposal from Everton to leave at the end of the season, but for now there is no agreement with the team of the Canary Islands.
‘Everton are willing to pay nearly €20m, but Las Palmas requires the full payment of the termination clause of €30m. Lemos was on the agenda of Barca last summer. The footballer decided to stay to get minutes and to continue his growth at Las Palmas.’
Canarias7 say Las Palmas have on record previous Everton interest, but the original links were before Ronald Koeman took over.
It’s very easy to believe, and probably with good reason, that if Mundo Deportivo hadn’t printed their story over the weekend, then none of the following reports would have been born.
Lemos is a a good central defender, and at 21 years of age has a lot of improving ahead of him, so Koeman interest wouldn’t be a shock.
However, things have likely got way ahead of themselves in the past few days.
