Are Everton low-balling potential Barcelona transfer?

Given that Richarlison has one foot inside the door at Finch Farm (he underwent a medical this morning), Marco Silva and Marcel Brands can turn their attention to improving Everton’s rickety defense.

The two most common names linked to the Blues have both been from Barcelona - French left back Lucas Digne, and Colombian center back Yerry Mina. There was a brief spell where it looked like Mina would be the first deal done, but he remains on a post-World Cup holiday.

Digne, then, has quickly come into focus, but reports out of Spain (via SportWitness) indicate that some of Everton’s old transfer habits are creeping into the situation.

Sport now claims the Spanish champions remain hopeful the left-back will not travel to the United States on Tuesday. For this to happen, Barcelona need to reach an agreement with the Merseyside club for the 25-year-old. Barcelona’s valuation of the player is €16m. Despite the Mirror claiming the Toffees have made a €25m bid, the Catalan newspaper claims the two clubs are ‘far away’ from reaching an agreement for Digne. Sport suggests Everton have made an offer of €10m for the Frenchman, which is €6 million short of Barcelona’s asking price. It’s also less than half of the claims from England.

On the one hand, it’s respectable that Everton are not interested in overpaying for a player who is unlikely to be as good as his current club suggests he is. On the other, the time for delaying deals is over.

If Lucas Digne is the target to succeed Leighton Baines on the Blues’ left side, then Papa Marcel needs to put pen to paper and get it done. Talk is cheap.