- Everton are targeting a new right-back this summer as a matter of priority
- Ben White’s Arsenal career appears over after a season wrecked by injury
- Guela Doue of Strasbourg has also emerged as a name on Moyes’s shortlist
A tweet doing the rounds this week named Ben White and Guela Doue as Everton’s two main right-back targets. One would be a smart, experienced signing. The other could be something a bit more interesting than that.
Let us be straight about the right-back situation first, because it has been quietly embarrassing for long enough. Jake O’Brien – a decent enough centre-back – has spent much of the past season shunted out of position because Everton simply have not had a proper right-back to call upon.
Seamus Coleman, who has given this club everything and then some over 15 years, is leaving when his contract is up. Nathan Patterson never really got going. The need is not exactly hidden. It has been staring at everyone for two seasons.
So the idea that Moyes has two names on a list is at least a sign that someone has noticed.
The case for White
Ben White’s Arsenal career has, to put it kindly, not gone to plan this season. He picked up a serious knee ligament injury against West Ham that ruled him out for the rest of the campaign – including the Champions League final – and with Jurrien Timber now firmly first choice at right-back, his future at the Emirates looks like it has run its course.
He is 28, he has played in title-winning teams and deep Champions League runs, and he is a player who has spent years in a system that demands intelligence and technical quality from its full-backs.
The injury record gives you pause, and it should. But the profile, when fit, is exactly what Everton need. A Premier League winner who knows how to play in a well-organised defensive unit. Moyes will like that.
And Doue?
Guela Doue is the less familiar name and the one that will have some people reaching for Google. He is 23, Ivorian, plays for Strasbourg, and has had a genuinely impressive 18 months in Ligue 1 – versatile enough to play centre-back or wing-back, valued at around £15m, and described by his former manager Liam Rosenior as a natural leader in a very young squad.
One for the curious rather than the cautious, perhaps. But Everton have form for finding players in that bracket and getting good value.
The right-back position needs sorting. It needed sorting last summer and the one before.
Whether the answer turns out to be a proven English international nursing himself back from injury or a 23-year-old Ivorian who not many people have heard of yet, the only thing that actually matters now is that someone gets it done before pre-season begins and O’Brien ends up at right-back again.
