Everton look to be edging closer to signing Lille midfielder Amadou Onana with talks reportedly progressing quickly between both clubs.
The Toffees have agreed a fee for the 20-year-old and the player is on Merseyside to undergo a medical but it’s not yet clear whether he’ll be available to play this weekend’s Premier League opener against Chelsea with the same depending on whether relevant paperwork was submitted by noon on Friday.
West Ham were also interested in the midfielder and had a fee of £33.5m agreed with Lille, but personal terms proved an issue with the 20-year-old seeming to favour a move to Goodison Park.
Onana was signed by Lille from Hamburg for just £5.9m last summer, so they stand to make a significant profit on the Belgium international. However from an Everton point of view, Frank Lampard will see it as a worthwhile investment as he looks to bolster his midfield for the new campaign.
Everton are also working on a deal to bring Paris Saint-Germain’s Idrissa Gana Gueye back to Goodison Park. The former Blues midfielder made 108 appearances across three seasons at the club, after joining the club from Aston Villa, before moving to PSG in the summer of 2019.
Gueye turns 33 in September and is very much a short-term solution to what has been a long-term problem at the club. Onana though is an investment for the future and despite his age, is already exhibiting a lot of the traits missing within Everton’s current crop of midfielders.
He’s quick, strong, mobile, press resistant but also good in possession. For Lille, he usually played in a midfield two in a variety of different formations, although also has experience as a No.8 in a three-man midfield.
One thing that stands out immediately when watching the midfielder is his size - he stands at 6ft4. This gives me a significant physical advantage in the middle of the pitch and it shouldn’t come as a huge shock to note he ranked inside Ligue 1’s top 15% of midfielders for the highest success rate in defensive duels last season (63.56 per cent).
The same also makes him a huge presence in the air, which can aid Everton in set-piece situations, something they’ve struggled with from a defensive standpoint since Lampard arrived at the club.
Onana and Gueye combining does have the potential to form a much more robust and protective midfield for the Toffees, which not only helps the defence but can also give the team’s more attack-minded players license to better influence things further up the pitch.
One of those who could be set to benefit is Dele Alli. Lampard made some harsh comments on the midfielder earlier in the week, admitting the player he signed back in January wasn’t the same one who tore up the Premier League in his first three seasons with Spurs.
However, it’s not been easy for the 26-year-old to thrive at Goodison Park. He’s a player who is at his best playing in between the lines inside the opposition's half. Yet the holes in Lampard’s squad mean he’s found himself having to plug gaps in the starting XI, featuring at times as a defensive midfielder and even on the left-wing
Now though with Onana and Gueye coming in, Lampard could have a solid midfield base in order to give the ex-Spurs man a proper platform to thrive and hopefully rediscover the best version of himself.
