According to The Athletic, DC United are interested in Gylfi Sigurdsson. Carlo Ancelotti wants to sell the 30-year-old this summer and has lined up two midfield replacements, so we’re unlikely to stand in Sigurdsson’s way of a departure.
The Icelandic international has two years remaining on his deal at Everton, but he’s coming off the back of a disappointing campaign and could fall down the pecking order next season. We’re not going to make back the £45m spent three years ago, but anything would be a bonus.
What’s gone wrong for Gylfi?
Sigurdsson has made 112 appearances in all competitions for Everton since joining from Swansea City, scoring 23 goals with 15 assists. The 30-year-old struggled last season, however, with only three goals and three assists from 38 games while delivering many poor performances to boot.
Gylfi played in midfield for the majority of the season but gave away 34 fouls, was dribbled past 51 times, failed with 46% of his dribble attempts and only averaged 29.1 passes per game. He was criticised a lot by supporters on social media and needed replacing this summer.
Who will replace him?
With Fabian Delph, Jean-Philippe Gbamin, Tom Davies, Andre Gomes and Beni Baningime at our disposal, we aren’t short on cover. We’re closing in on Allan from Napoli and Abdoulaye Doucoure from Watford, however.
I didn’t think we had the money to land both players in the same window, but our transfer activity shows how determined Farhad Moshiri is for the Ancelotti project to work.
Allan is an outstanding box-to-box player who can create chances, stifle opposition attacks, drive with the ball from deep and retain possession. Doucoure is of a similar mould to the Brazilian. He too can turn defence into attack, create numerous opportunities in a game and consistently turnover possession.
The combined transfer fees for Allan and Doucoure could match what we spent on Sigurdsson too. I know who I’d prefer…
Summary
Selling Sigurdsson and signing Allan/Doucoure would be great business by Everton, but it remains to be seen how much DC United are willing to pay for the Icelandic midfielder and whether they can match his £5.2m-a-year/£100k-a-week wages.
In other news, we may finally have a buyer for Sandro Ramirez