Everton linked to La Liga defender

Okay, before we go any further... let’s take a second to just bask in the aura of Marcel Brands, the man who got a cool £17million for Ramiro Funes Mori.

Glorious.

Now, what if we got a better player than Ramiro for about half that? Are you in? Cool.

Madrid paper AS has linked Everton to a £8million release clause move for Spanish center back Juanpe Ramirez of Catalonian side Girona. Girona FC is owned by the City Ownership Group that also controls Manchester City and New York City FC. They challenged for European places in a highly competitive La Liga this year, despite being newly promoted.

Juanpe had a very good year last year, completing 82% of his tackles and being a mainstay at center back for Girona. I like him and I think he’s a very competent player.

What he is decidedly not, however, is someone I want to rely on to start for Everton next season. Based on his form last season, he could theoretically do the job, but I am going to write at least part of his quality year off as reflecting the brilliance of Girona’s coach, Pablo Machin, who recently took the job at Sevilla.

The reason why I am willing to do that is that even though Juanpe is 27 years old, this past season was his first ever in top flight competition. Despite my deep respect for the Spanish league, one season there for a 27 year old is not enough to convince me he’s going to maintain this new peak for the rest of his career. Filling Funes Mori’s role as a reserve centrehalf? I wouldn’t worry about that in the slightest, I think he could do that job no problem. I don’t want him starting 30 games.

For the low price, it would be a decent flyer, just expect to get what you pay for.