According to the Guardian, Everton are still interested in Tosin Adarabioyo and may have to battle West Ham United and Fulham to procure his signature. The 22-year-old has been loaned out for the last two seasons and is ready to challenge himself in the Premier League, so Manchester City may have to let him go if they’re unwilling to hand him more first-team opportunities.
How has he fared out on loan?
Adarabioyo racked up 36 appearances for West Bromwich Albion (August 3, 2018 – May 31, 2019), making two assists. He made 35 appearances for Blackburn Rovers (July 31, 2019 – July 24, 2020), scoring three goals with one assist.
As per WhoScored, Adarabioyo won 91/128 aerial duels, completed 75.6% of his 1046 passes, blocked 44 shots/passes/crosses, made 88 clearances, gave away only one foul (17 total) every 120 minutes, averaged a tackle (48) or interception (36) every 24 minutes and was dribbled past (12) only once every 170 minutes in the Championship for Albion. He conceded 38 goals in 29 games and helped to keep five clean sheets.
At Blackburn, he won 108/155 aerial duels, completed 80.3% of his 1687 passes, blocked 35 shots/passes/crosses, made 161 clearances, gave away only one foul (11 total) every 270 minutes, averaged a tackle (30) or interception (64) every 31 minutes and was dribbled past (12) only once every 247 minutes. He conceded 47 goals and helped to keep eight clean sheets.
Will he get games at Man City?
Unlikely. Adarabioyo has made only eight appearances in all competitions for City, the last of which came in March 2018, so it’s hard to see him becoming a regular in their first-team.
The 22-year-old is currently behind Nathan Ake, John Stones, Aymeric Laporte, Eric Garcia, Philippe Sandler and Nicolas Otamendi in the pecking order, so he may need to leave to get opportunities.
What are our chances of getting him?
It’s hard to gauge. The Guardian don’t say whether we’ve made a genuine approach for Adarabioyo and we’re still trying to sign Fiyako Tomori from Chelsea, so it remains to be seen who we end up bringing in at centre-back.
I think it’s more likely that Tomori will join rather than Adarabioyo, as the former is more proven in the Premier League.
In other news, it appears we’ve made a transfer decision on Jonjoe Kenny