Selling John Stones for £47.5m and buying Ashley Williams from Swansea City is certainly a good short term solution to a problem that was never going to go away, but there’s a feeling Everton certainly need a new centre-back.
Ronald Koeman, who seems to prefer the 3-4-3 formation for his new Premier League side, tried to bring Lamine Koné from Sunderland, so far to no avail.
The second target, at least for the Spanish media, is Valencia’s Aymen Abdennour, bought from Monaco last summer.
The 27-year-old defender didn’t have the best of seasons for the La Liga club following his move, but the ability was definitely on show in the French league for both Toulouse and his former side
That, and the price of €18m, at least according to Deporte Valenciano on Saturday, is what is making the move attractive for the Premier League side.
Valencia are in desperate need of money to comply with FFP regulations, and the sale of one or two defenders is probably their best way of doing this.
The Tunisian international seems to be most likely to depart, while Arsenal’s pursuit of Shkodran Mustafi is asking a lot of questions of the La Liga club’s willpower.
Deporte Valenciano thinks it’ll get done ‘barring any change of plans’, and it’s ‘only a matter of days’.
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