Top 3 alternatives to Gylfi Sigurdsson for Everton feat. Arsenal star
Everton’s brave new dawn under Farhad Moshiri has got off to a tentative start this summer, with the modest acquisitions of Chris Renshaw, Bassala Sambou and Martin Stekelenburg their only purchases. The Toffees reportedly targeted Swansea City playmaker Gylfi Sigurdsson in a £25 million swoop, but the Icelandic international is set to stay in South Wales.
He would have added craft, goals, and excellent dead-ball delivery to Everton’s attacking arsenal though quite how he and Ross Barkley were to be accommodated in one team is debatable.
It is difficult to write about Sigurdsson without using that tired cliché ‘a big fish in a small pond’, but it is an accusation that has stuck with him following two successful spells at Swansea and a rather luke-warm stay at Tottenham Hotspur.
Nevertheless, goal-scoring midfielders are hot property and Sigurdsson bagged 11 last term for a struggling Swansea outfit. Over the next few pages, we have suggested three players Ronald Koeman could turn to, now that this particular trail has gone cold.
Dusan Tadic
Koeman has already taken Stekelenburg with him from former club Southampton, and history suggests that new managers often raid their former employers for valuable assets. If he wants to add creativity to Everton’s midfield he could do far worse the former player Dusan Tadic.
The Serbian attacking midfielder scored 11 Premier League goals and provided an impressive 19 assists in two seasons under Koeman at Southampton – the highlight being the winning goal he scored at Old Trafford two seasons ago.
Tadic can play anywhere behind the striker, be it on either flank or in a roaming number 10 position. Like Sigurdsson, Tadic has the quality of dead-ball delivery and crossing to supply Romelu Lukaku; Koeman’s Southampton crossed the ball more than any other Premier League team.
However, it appears that relations between Tadic and Koeman were fractious towards the end of his time on the south coast. Moreover, Tadic’s critics have also considered too him too flighty to contribute consistently over a long season.
