Ronald Koeman is busy thinking about his next signing for Everton after bagging Maarten Stekelenburg, while the goalkeeper can be seen as a replacement for Tim Howard; the Dutch manager has set his eyes on another player who can add a bit of bite to the Everton midfield.
While there have been rumours of many players being linked with the Toffees, one surprising player that could be in the radar for Koeman is Yann M’Vila. The 26-year-old had a stellar season for Sunderland last season as he helped the Black Cats avoid relegation and for all that had been said about his lack of discipline, he was crucial for Sunderland and seems to have adapted well to the Premier League.
Everton might have a lot of money to spend at the moment but the smart thing would be to hijack the deal that Sunderland are trying to pull off by signing M’Vila on a permanent basis. The 26-year-old did spend last season on loan from Rubin Kazan after failing to impress at a loan spell in Italy with Inter Milan.
Many had suggested that M’Vila would have struggled in the Premier League, but he proved most of them wrong, thanks to his incredible performances for Sunderland, well at least a few great performances for the Black Cats. Ronald Koeman would know that the defensive aspect of Everton was the weak point for the team last season and shoring up the midfield could be one way to ensure the centre-backs at least are not affected.
The 26-year-old M’Vila played in 37 Premier League games last season which was greater than Gareth Barry and James McCarthy. Although Barry managed 2.9 tackles per game for Everton, M’Vila was tied with McCarthy with 2.7 per game.
The Sunderland midfielder also managed to intercept the ball 2.3 times per game compared to Barry’s 1.6 and McCarthy’s 1.8. The strangest fact out of all this was that M’Vila only conceded 0.5 fouls per game while Barry and McCarthy committed 1.3 and 1.8 fouls per game for Everton last season.
M’Vila also has a better rating on whoscored.com than the two Everton midfielders and while ratings aren’t always enough to decide if a player is better than another, M’Vila certainly had more positive games for the Black Cats than Barry and McCarthy did for Everton last season.
Sam Allardyce might be on his way to manage the England job and that could work in the favour of Koeman as a new project, with the chance of actually finishing in the top half of the table and who knows, European football even, Everton could provide M’Vila with a lot of positive points and lure him from the Stadium of Light.