Zakaria latest young player linked with Everton

The overwhelming majority of players that Everton are being linked with over the last few weeks are in the 20-25 year old range, which should give you some perspective on what Director of Football Marcel Brands and manager Marco Silva have in mind for their plans. Both have indicated that they are not going to complete their Everton rebuild in just this summer transfer window, but will instead use this time to pare down the squad to only essential players before building it up in a multi-year plan.

The latest young player being linked with the Blues is 21-year-old Denis Zakaria (the Mirror). The Switzerland international plays as a holding midfielder in the Bundesliga for Borussia Moenchengladbach, having just made the switch last season for around £8m from Young Boys of Lausanne.

Another interesting tidbit out of that report is that Silva is likely to play with two holding midfielders behind a playmaker in his 4-3-3 system, which could mean there could be spots open for Morgan Schneiderlin, Idrissa Gueye, Muhamed Besic, Beni Baningime and likely one or more prospects too like Callum Connolly and Joe Williams. Now unless one of those leaves, it’s hard to see where Zakaria would fit in.

The Swiss player has 12 international caps including two in this summer’s World Cup, and played 33 games for Gladbach last season, scoring twice and picking up three assists. He is currently signed through 2022 with the German side who finished in ninth place last season and are not in Europe this year.