Everton are reportedly on the verge of increasing their offer for Algerian international Yacine Brahimi after an initial bid of £25.5m was rejected by Porto. Several clubs like Arsenal and Liverpool are said to be interested in the attacker but the Toffees seem to have stolen a march on their rivals.
Everton have had a fairly positive start to the season and are on 7 points from 3 games. While many people haven’t realised till now with all the hype around the bigger teams is that Farhad Moshiri is aiming high with Everton. They don’t want to be a team who will be happy just being in the top 8 or thereabouts. They have the resources and are planning for something much bigger. And the heartening thing seems to the approach they have undertaken. They have gone for an astute and practical manager. Someone who has been known to give a tangible balance to both attack and defence and at the same time play attractive football. They realise the process will take time and are willing to give that to Koeman.
The pursuit of Brahimi signifies a certain change in the formation of a squad. While Everton have been consistently blessed with a competitive first eleven, their progress has got restricted for the quality (or lack of it) they had on the bench to an extent. With no disrespect to the likes of Kone and Pienaar, they are not the sort of players whom you would entrust the responsibility of challenging the top teams regularly. They are competent players in their own rights but have never shown the consistency expected from players of the top teams.
Koeman realises the difficulty in competing with the likes of Chelsea and the Manchester clubs which has seen him target players such as Bolasie, Idrissa Gueye and the latest being Brahimi. These players possess loads of potential and flair and have the scope of reaching the next level and with a new found freedom to go firmly after their targets, Everton are backing these sort of players.
Yacine Brahimi will add to Everton’s attacking options and he will be bringing his dribbling abilities along with his ability to come up with the end product which is evident from the 14 goals he has scored for Porto in 61 matches. Lukaku has been sharing the majority of the workload as far as scoring the goals is concerned. Everton will need quality depth in their quest to slowly edge back into the thick of things at the top part of the table. Everton should go for the player and securing their target amidst interest from Liverpool and Arsenal will certainly signal their intent outlining the ambitious and sustaining project Ronald Koeman is setting up at the Goodison.
