Everton linked with two Spanish left backs

As summer nears and Everton games have less and less of an impact on, well, anything, speculation for next summer begins to ramp up. And just like the end of last summer, the burning question is “Who on earth is going to be our second left back?”

Well, two Spaniards have been linked with us, one who is an old link that is resurfacing again and the other is going to be a high priced player that I think we should pass on. But first, the latest on Aaron Martin.

The last time I talked about Martin he was also being linked with several clubs who are currently further along than Everton in their long term projects. We suggested that these things could mitigate themselves out as follows:

In addition to Everton, the Tifo article noted Atletico Madrid, both Manchester clubs, Napoli, and RB Leipzig. We probably have more money than Napoli and the Atletico project is listing. After all, Antoine Griezmann is linked with Barcelona and coach Diego Simeone is linked with moves every summer, a huge outlay for a left back doesn’t seem to be their priority right now.

As reported by Royal Blue Mersey, we tried to sign Aaron Martin during the winter window. We even had terms agreed to with the player, but Espanyol wanted more cash. The hope is that the situation changes by the summer, and I think there’s an okay chance that it might.

If City isn’t set on fullbacks at this point I don’t know what is going to help them, I don’t see them as bidders. Jose Mourinho is scared to attack anybody so I’m not quite sure what he’d do with an attacking fullback, and Leipzig needs to replace Naby Keita and keep Bayern fended off their other assets, I don’t see them as major players.

If these mitigations play themselves out, it’s possible that there isn’t enough of a market for Espanyol to demand the full release clause, and if that’s the case, maybe we can find out if the next Jordi Alba wants to change shades of blue after all.

To sum all that up, I didn’t think there was as much a market on Aaron as was being speculated once we considered the situations of the various linked clubs, and if that was true, we should be able to get him for less than his full release clause.

Now Sport, the top sports paper in the Catalan region where Espanyol plays, is reporting that the club are in fact willing to considered parting with the left back for less than his clause. It seems things are playing out as we anticipated.

We won’t be the only club in for Martin, but at just 21 he’s the ideal replacement for Leighton Baines, attack minded and competent at the top flight in a big league.

The other link is to PSG’s Yuri Izeta. According to The Guardian Everton hope to land the 27 year old left back, with Atletico Madrid and Bilbao being the other players. Normally, I wouldn’t consider the Basque club much of a threat on a player being sold for 30m but they do have some leftover cash from the obscene money Manchester City tossed about for Laporte (for all the good it did their season). PSG is going to be frantically trying to recover cash to comply with Financial Fair Play rules and will want good money for the left back.

Yuri is a very solid player but at 27 he just isn’t worth this much money. If we’re going to spend big on a already peaked left back we might as well snipe Ryan Bertrand from Southampton when they are relegated.

The target should be Martin. I think we can get him, and honestly I’d pay up to 25m for him in today’s market. Some consider him the next Jordi Alba and while I consider that to be a bit overblown, if he can get anywhere near those heights he could be a solution at left back for Everton for the next decade.