Everton linked with Premier League double buy: Defender and Midfielder

With a striker on board, the attention of Everton Football Club has turned to bolstering other areas of the pitch. They have been linked both with Swansea defender Alfie Mawson and also with Watford midfielder Adoulaye Doucoure.

Mawson, frankly, has been one of the few Swansea players who has looked like he is actually of English Premier League caliber this season. Things have been a disaster in South Wales and you won’t hear anything from me predicting them staying up this season. In fact, it looks like they’ll swap places with rivals Cardiff City in the top flight, a notion that I’m sure disturbs their fans greatly.

Bought from Barnsley last year, the only real problem with buying Mawson is that he has no experience playing left back. This buy would not address our biggest problem defensively- cover for Leighton Baines. Please, oh please, don’t tell me that a returning Brendan Galloway is the answer for that.

I’d far rather let the return of Ramiro Funes Mori from injury be our CB cover and get someone better situated for the left as our new buy.

As for the Watford man, Doucoure, he’s a bit of a utility man. I think he’s got decent enough quality to play here, I think he could be a good squad member to rely on. Bringing him in would probably signal the ‘out’ door for Mo Besic and/or James McCarthy. We could slot Doucoure into any slot of our midfield three and he would be serviceable there.

Photo by Nigel French/PA Images via Getty Images

Unfortunately, it appears as though the better fit here is at the position of less need. A midfielder like Doucoure would be nice, but we need a defender much worse. Big Sam has steered us to relative safety, and, though the results have stalled recently, he does need some reinforcements to have this squad trying to climb to seventh by year’s end. We’ll see how it goes, but I wouldn’t be running to the newsstands everyday to see if we’ve sealed the great Mawson/Doucoure caper of 2018.