Marco Silva and the Toffees dressing room are all keen to keep Kurt Zouma at Goodison Park beyond his loan spell, but Marcel Brands has to wait until the summer to find out whether or not Chelsea will sell the defender, and if the Frenchman even wants to stay on Merseyside.
Unfortunately, the wait to secure his services has allowed Arsenal to enter the picture, with The Sun claiming Gunners boss Unai Emery has demanded the North London outfit sign a world-class centre-back this year.
It is thought that Zouma, along with Harry Maguire, Toby Alderweireld and Getafe’s Djene Dakonam are among those in consideration at the Emirates, as Emery feels his side needs a lift at the back if they are to progress.
None of the players mentioned would be cheap for Arsenal to sign, however, and all would be hard to acquire with their speculated £40million budget. The Gunners are also struggling to offload the calamitous Shkodran Mustafi, having tried to flog the German for the last two years.
What may also help our chances of retaining Zouma, though, is that there is no one voice directing Arsenal’s summer transfer plans, having failed to replace former Head of Recruitment Sven Mislintat.
Instead, Head of Football Raul Sanllehi and international scout Francis Cagigao are working alongside Emery and Managing Director Vinai Venkatesham to decide who the Gunners should sign. But who the responsibility eventually falls on to take charge of negotiations remains to be seen.
We, on the other hand, have Brands taking charge of our work in the transfer market, once targets have been agreed with Silva, and the £40,000-a-week Zouma is very much one they have settled on.
Since joining on loan from Chelsea, Zouma has featured 34 times for the Toffees in all competitions, scoring and assisting twice in the Premier League, and helping to ten clean sheets.