Some Everton supporters have been discussing whether or not the club should be looking to sign West Ham United’s Declan Rice if the Toffees lose Idrissa Gana Gueye.
Gueye has been heavily linked with a move to French champions Paris Saint-Germain since the turn of the year, but no longer appears to be on the Ligue 1 giants’ immediate radar.
The Mirror have reported that the Parisian outfit have instead turned their attention to Chelsea, as they are now determined to sign N’Golo Kante and will offer the World Cup-winning Frenchman a contract ‘too big to ignore’.
The Pensioners do not want to lose the two-time Premier League winning anchor, though, and will be a tough customer to deal with thanks to their transfer ban, which has likely prevented us from turning Kurt Zouma’s loan into a permanent deal.
As we refused to sell Gueye to PSG in January, and are not thought to be open to letting him leave in the summer, The Mirror add that Thomas Tuchel’s side will instead turn to Watford’s Abdoulaye Doucoure if Chelsea stand in their way.
But with the window only just opening, they could yet come back in for Gueye and play on his desires to return to France one day, at which point we may have to look for an alternative ball winning midfield.
Should Marco Silva and Marcel Brands agree on Gueye’s replacement being Rice, however, he would set us back at least £50million, which the Daily Mail believe Manchester United may offer the Irons as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer intends to sign young, home-grown players as opposed to big-name stars.
West Ham boss Manuel Pellegrini also refused to rule out selling the England international recently, when he noted, as per quotes by the Manchester Evening News: “It’s impossible. I cannot know the future. He is, of course, a player who has had a brilliant season, who is 20-years-old and an English player who has a lot of qualities.
“Maybe some of the big teams, or all of them, will want him. But that is one thing – the other is whether he will stay here or he goes, and I cannot say at this moment [which one it will be].”
West Ham value Rice at £50million after he made 38 appearances for the East London club across all competitions in the recently concluded season, in which he scored twice.
The London-born 2-cap England international also averaged 4.4 attempted tackles, 1.6 interceptions, and 45.5 passes per ninety minutes in the Premier League, which fell below Gueye in every account despite playing 179 more minutes.
So when the question of whether anyone would be interested in signing Rice as Gueye’s replacement was shared on Reddit, here’s how some of the fanbase reacted…
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