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Opinion: 3 reasons why Everton were never signing Franck Ribery

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Everton were reportedly offered the chance to sign Frank Ribery on a free transfer, but he’s now expected to sign for Fiorentina. It was always hard to see the Toffees bringing him to Goodison Park for three obvious reasons too.

Marcel Brands is desperate to lower the average age in the squad and would never recommend that Everton sign a 36-year-old. The Director of Football is trying to offload ageing deadwood – Kevin Mirallas, Yannick Bolasie, Cenk Tosun – rather than bring more in.

Everton may also feel they have enough quality on the wing with Richarlison, Alex Iwobi, Theo Walcott and Bernard, so signing more competition isn’t really required. Bolasie and Mirallas can’t even get in the team due to strength in depth, so an ageing Ribery with a history of injury woes wouldn’t be a good acquisition.

The Toffees may not feel comfortable adding his salary to the wagebill either. For a player who’s unlikely to command a starting place, Ribery isn’t worth paying £146k-per-week. The French international made only nine Bundesliga starts in 2014/15, six in 2015/16, 14 in 2016/17, 15 in 2017/18 and 10 in 2018/19 – 54 starts from a possible 170. He wouldn’t be value for money.

Read Crippy Cooke’s previous article

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Sports journalist who is an avid football fan, enjoys debunking transfer rumours, loves to write pieces about players out in the cold and takes a large amount of pride getting a predicted XI 100% correct.