Arsenal defender Ben White has been named as a potential Everton target while a report in Italy claimed they were eying Emil Holm in a potential swap deal
Ben White claps the fans after the Emirates FA Cup third round match between Portsmouth and Arsenal. The defender is one of a host of names linked to Everton over recent days. (Photo by David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
Ben White claps the fans after the Emirates FA Cup third round match between Portsmouth and Arsenal. The defender is one of a host of names linked to Everton over recent days. (Photo by David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)(Image: )
View Image
Everton are understood to be keeping their options open when it comes to the search for a new right back. The position has been a troublesome one for the Blues for several years amid the injuries suffered by Seamus Coleman and Nathan Patterson.
That has not changed this season with the club captain Coleman currently out with a hamstring issue and his team-mate having gone under the knife for a hernia problem.
That area is, therefore, one of Everton’s transfer priorities, and the club is open to doing business if a suitable opportunity comes along. That, so far, has not been the case and recent reports linking Ben White and Emil Holm with a move to Hill Dickinson Stadium are understood to simply be speculation.
Author avatar
Author avatar
Patterson has returned to action in recent weeks, starting at Nottingham Forest in the Premier League and then on Saturday, when he lasted deep into extra-time in the FA Cup defeat to Sunderland.
That was some achievement for the 24-year-old, who only recently returned from hernia surgery and was withdrawn just after the hour mark in the win at the City Ground as his first taste of senior football since that operation caught up with him.
While his performance at the weekend was heralded by the club’s social media profile, which noted on Monday that he won seven duels and provided six crosses across his 116 minutes, his return has not stopped the club from assessing potential targets.
There is an understanding at Everton that a new solution is needed on the right of the defence after years of struggling to find a long-term replacement for Coleman. It had been hoped Patterson would be that player but injury misfortune has cost him dearly and the spectre of those problems hangs over his viability as first choice in that position.
The club’s selection crisis has created opportunities for the Scotland international but with the former Rangers man eager to push for a place in his country's World Cup squad, his short-term future will be defined by whether the Blues secure another option on the right of the defence this month or choose to wait.
Patterson was in talks over a loan move to Sevilla in the summer and while they fell through, there is understood to be interest in him both in the UK and on the continent, should he be made available for loan. Claims he has been offered to Bologna as part of a swap deal for Sweden international Holm are wide of the mark, however.
That speculation is part of a rumour mill rabid with reports of Everton interest in a host of right backs.
They include suggestions the Blues are considering a move for Guela Doue, from Strasbourg, who was battling for the Africa Cup of Nations with Ivory Coast before their quarter-final exit to Egypt. He is another player linked to the club but who is not currently on their agenda.
One of the latest names added to the growing list of rumoured targets is White from Arsenal. Given Everton are currently being hampered by playing a centre back out of position, any move for a centre back who has been converted to a right back would raise eyebrows.
While White does have Premier League pedigree and is behind Jurien Timber at the Gunners, the ECHO understands he is not a player being pursued by the Blues at this moment. A move for White would also represent a diversion from what Everton were looking for from a right back when they tried to address the issue in the summer.
Club chiefs believed they had their solution as talks advanced with Kenny Tete only for him to agree fresh terms with Fulham. Given Moyes would retain the ability to move O’Brien across when needed, a move for a player like Tete, whose game is built around different attributes, would make more sense.
Statistics website FBref places Tete among the Premier League’s more aggressive right backs, with his average of 3.20 tackles per game one of the highest in the league. He also ranks far higher for interceptions and progressive passes than O’Brien.
Tete had the promise of a compromise between styles, the Netherlands international being defensively solid while offering more going forward than O'Brien.
Finding a defender who could offer a genuine attacking thrust down the right would be valuable to Everton, though. While O’Brien has adapted well to the role that has given him significant Premier League experience - minutes that will make his reversion to centre back more straightforward when he gets that chance there on a sustained basis - his instinct is not to go forward and the lack of a progressive right back willing to carry the ball and provide a threat from out wide is hampering the Blues' creativity and balance.
O’Brien does possess one characteristic Moyes believes to be crucial to the role, however, and that is genuine pace.
The Republic of Ireland international’s speed has been central to his manager's repeated use of him out of position but a specialist right back would likely please both O’Brien as he battles to play in his favoured slot and his boss as Everton search for signings that will genuinely improve the team.