Everton linked to Tottenham star

UPDATE: The S*n are getting in on the act too as of today, Sunday May 27th.

The always reliable (as in, you can always rely on them to make something up) Mirror has reported Everton interest in Tottenham Hotspur left-back Danny Rose. Rose has had a year filled with injuries, is underpaid, and frankly isn’t happy at Spurs anymore.

On the outset, this sounds like something Everton should jump at. After all, when fit, Rose is England’s first choice left back. Such a move, if it happened, might actually be very revealing about where Everton go from here.

Manchester United were apparently very interested in him but are now cooling off, a move that should give Luke Shaw hope that there is a future for him at Old Trafford.

First off, Rose makes £60k a week at Spurs but the implication of the Mirror article is that he expects to double that. This part, at least, seems credible to me as Rose has openly spoken out against the tight-fisted London outfit’s wage structure. (As he should, for a top four Premier League club what Spurs pay their players is pathetic). That would put Rose in the range of what we pay Gylfi Sigurdsson, Morgan Schneiderlin, and Theo Walcott, which is entirely reasonable given his ability and stature.

However, the move itself is reported to cost £37m, and that’s where my trepidation sets in. Now, if Farhad Moshiri is just gonna go crazy this summer and spend £200m again, sure, let’s get that shiny, in-his-prime left back, I’m here for it. More likely, however, is that we see a net spend of about £70m the way we did this past season. In that case, we’re talking about a lot of money for a position we already have a starting caliber player for.

Yes, Baines is 34 and yes we desperately need to find his successor, but we could spend about half of what Rose would cost and find a young up and coming left back somewhere else. Links like Aaron Martin of Espanyol would fit this model. Martin probably isn’t as good as Rose right now, but he has more upside, is six years younger, and will be cheaper both in transfer fee and wages.

I like Rose and I would absolutely love to get a left back of his stature, but only if it won’t affect our spending on places where we have even greater need than starting leftback. Positions such as center half or a ball-carrying central midfielder really leap off the page. If the overall money works, let’s do this! If not, he’s not worth blowing half the net budget on.

Speaking of the other CB position, the same Mirror report linked us to Alfie Mawson of Swansea as well. Now, I know what you’re thinking, ‘oh no, not another Swansea player’ or ‘oh no, not Ashley Williams 2.0’. But Mawson is just 24 years old, one of Swansea’s very best players, and may be able to be had for a steal with the Swans going down. It may be worth thinking about. We’ll see how it goes.

Finally, I’ll sign off with what I’ll now always put in this space until it actually happens:

#AllardyceOut