Chelsea centre-back Kurt Zouma has emerged as a transfer target for Premier League rivals Everton, the club where the Frenchman spent the 2018/19 season on loan.
Zouma started the first two Premier League fixtures of the new season, only to be dropped completely for the 3-3 draw with West Brom amid ongoing concerns about the Blues’ defensive fragility – Chelsea have leaked six league goals in only three games.
Aside from Zouma, manager Frank Lampard also has Fikayo Tomori, Andreas Christensen, Antonio Rudiger and Thiago Silva at his disposal. The latter’s debut against the Baggies proved to be a disaster, despite expectations he would help improve things.
Summer signing Malang Sarr is expected to leave on loan, but is yet to do so.
French outlet Le10Sport claims that Chelsea would listen to offers for Zouma in light of Silva arriving to occupy a starting place and that Everton are ‘pushing hard’ to get him to return to Goodison Park following a successful loan two years ago.
The Toffees must convince Chelsea to sell and it would take a bid of around £36m.
Everton have made a flying start to the Premier League season, with only Leicester and city rivals Liverpool able to match their 100% record after three games so far.
Only Aston Villa have conceded fewer goals than Carlo Ancelotti’s Everton, but defensive depth could be an issue moving forward. Yerry Mina and Michael Keane have started all three Premier League games so far, but there has been no spare centre-back on the bench.
Mason Holgate is a long-term absentee and could be missing for another two or three months, while teenager Jarrad Branthwaite is also currently sidelined and likely won’t return until mid-October.
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Source : 90min