Newcastle United boss Rafa Benitez was ‘desperate’ to sign Gylfi Sigurdsson in 2017

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Everton take on Newcastle United in the Premier League this evening, hoping to bounce back from their weekend loss to Liverpool in the Merseyside derby.

Newcastle, however, are also looking to bounce back. They were comfortably beaten by West Ham United at the weekend and will want to get back to winning ways.

If they are going to do so, they will need to keep Gylfi Sigurdsson at bay. The Icelandic playmaker has been in fine form this season and Rafa Benitez will hope his side can keep him shackled.

Benitez is, of course, a big fan of the player. In fact, he reportedly wanted to sign him in 2017. With Newcastle closing in on promotion from the Championship, The Sun reported that Benitez wanted Sigurdsson to spearhead Newcastle’s efforts. The Daily Star claimed he was ‘desperate’ for Newcastle to splash out on the player.

The report claimed that Sigurdsson was ready to leave Swansea City and that he might be available for a fee of £15 million.

Of course, that did not happen. Everton eventually signed Sigurdsson last summer for a reported by the BBC to be in the region of £45 million. That was £30 million more than Newcastle would have been willing to pay and was never a figure the fans at St James’ Park would expect the club to spend.

Hopefully, Sigurdsson will not show Newcastle’s boss what he is missing tonight.