Everton face City competition for Pickford

Ronald Koeman has said more than once that he would like to have three starting calibre goalkeepers at Everton. While Joel Robles looked to have the starting spot all sealed up in recent weeks, his errors over this last weekend had fans baying for new blood.

As a young English goalkeeper on a struggling Sunderland side, Jordan Pickford has been mentioned a few times as a likely target in the summer for Everton. But now it appears that Manchester City could also be in the market for the player.

ESPN are reporting that the Citizens are expected to make a bid for the goalie, who celebrated his 23rd birthday yesterday, in the upcoming transfer window. Pep Guardiola’s star signing Oscar Bravo has been demoted to the bench after a series of horrific performances, belying the fact that the manager chose to loan out England’s current number 1 Joe Hart to Torino in the Serie A. Willy Caballero, who is 35 years of age, will be out of contract at the end of the current season and there is no sign that Hart will be returning to the Etihad either.

Pep, in a pre-match press conference yesterday, said that he would like to bring in more English players after having brought in John Stones and Raheem Sterling in big money deals.

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Everton for their part have the veteran Maarten Stekelenburg backing up Robles, and will be keen to add a young player like Pickford with plenty of potential to go on to become the Three Lions goalkeeper. Pickford has 44 England youth international appearances and is likely to make the step up sooner than later.

Whether the Black Cats under David Moyes survive the drop or not, it is likely that they will be inundated with offers from various English sides, including Everton, City, Liverpool, Arsenal and more in this coming offseason. The goalie is unlikely to come cheap either, with Sunderland insisting that they will try to keep hold of him.