According to Football Insider, Everton have made an approach to sign Sampdoria midfielder Ronaldo Vieira, who has made less tackles and interceptions on average per game this season than Toffees man Morgan Schneiderlin.
What’s the word, then?
Well, Football Insider report that the 21-year-old is available for £14m in the final couple of days of the January transfer window, and that the Merseyside outfit have made enquiries for a player that boss Carlo Ancelotti is a fan of from his time managing in Serie A.
The report says that Everton are in the market for new central midfield talent despite adding Andre Gomes, Jean-Philippe Gbamin and Fabian Delph to their ranks during the summer transfer window.
Football Insider says that former Toffees boss David Moyes has already rejected the chance to bring the former Leeds United man back to England with West Ham United this month.
Would he be a good signing?
The England U21 international clearly has his good points as shown by the fact that Sampdoria manager Claudio Ranieri said last month he “recovers so many balls” in the centre of the park.
That said, he is actually averaging fewer tackles and interceptions on average per game this season than a player who often gets it in the neck from the Goodison Park faithful on Twitter – Schneiderlin.
The Frenchman has made 12 Premier League appearances this term with 10 of those coming in the starting XI, as per WhoScored, which is probably more than he might have got had Gbamin and Gomes not both been out injured in recent months.
The former Southampton man is probably the best suited to the defensive midfield role out of the likes of Delph, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Tom Davies, and it shows with his stats.
Did he really play for us?! No Everton fan has managed to name all of these obscure Toffees players….
The 30-year-old has averaged more tackles (2) than any central midfield teammate who has featured 10 times or more, while he has also made 1.3 interceptions per game in the English top flight.
Meanwhile, according to WhoScored Vieira is averaging 1.5 and 0.8 for the same stats respectively in Serie A for Sampdoria , who are lying just five points above the relegation zone.
Those numbers aren’t great then, but the fact he is 21 years of age shows there is certainly plenty of room for improvement in the future.
Perhaps he would make a marked improvement under Ancelotti’s tutelage.
In other Everton news, Italian journalist Gianluca Di Marzio has provided an interesting update on Toffees target Matias Vecino…