Everton have entered the race to sign former Manchester United captain Harry Maguire this summer, with Sean Dyche viewing the England international as the perfect option to complete the Goodison Park defence.
How much would Harry Maguire cost?
According to TEAMtalk, the Toffees are planning to join the line of suitors for Maguire with Manchester United seeking to recuperate funds following the summer's expenditure.
The 30-year-old has plummeted down the pecking order at Old Trafford but despite this wishes to remain at the club and fight for his place, with West Ham United already seeing a £20m offer rejected.
The aforementioned report claims that Dyche is ready to offload some players himself – namely defensive duo Mason Holgate and Michael Keane – to free up room and money to bolster the ranks, and if the club is successful in this regard, discussions for Maguire could enter the next stage.
How good is Harry Maguire?
It's fair to say that Maguire has not enjoyed the most fruitful of times over the past several years; despite lifting the Carabao Cup last season and ending Manchester United's five-year wait for silverware, he has regularly been skewered for his performances and has even been branded a "walking disaster" by journalist Samuel Luckhurst.
Despite joining the Theatre of Dreams fold for an exorbitant £80m from Leicester City in 2019, Maguire was restricted to just eight starts in the Premier League and is seemingly not currently boasting a starting berth in Erik ten Hag's team.
However, the one-time Hull City star remains an imposing and physical defender and could use a move away as a breath of fresh life onto his career, with Everton's backline pretty admirable last term despite the club's woes.
James Tarkowski and Conor Coady formed the nucleus of the side's defence for much of the 2022/23 campaign and were hailed for their "hugely important" partnership by former boss Frank Lampard, though the latter has now concluded his loan spell and signed for Leicester.
Tarkowski, in particular, was imperious throughout the term, described as "outstanding" by Dyche and finishing the campaign with an average Sofascore rating of 7.20, having started all 38 fixtures, in which he kept nine clean sheets, and averaged a whopping 5.2 clearances per game. He also won 65% of his duels.
The former Burnley titan ranks among the top 1% of centre-halves across Europe's top five leagues over the past year for blocks, the top 6% for clearances and the top 8% for aerials won per 90, as per FBref, which underscores his robustness.
Would Maguire gel well with his £100k-per-week compatriot though? That will be the question on Dyche and co's lips.
Well, given his physicality and strength, partnered with his own prowess in the air, he might just; Maguire ranks among the top 11% of positional peers for blocks, the top 12% for aerials won and the top 19% for progressive carries per 90, which would leave the Toffees backline well protected from both ground attacks and aerial balls.
The £190k-per-week titan has previously been labelled as a "world-class centre-back" by former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson and while he has fallen by the wayside of late, a move to Goodison Park could allow him to become the centrepiece of a side targetting a renaissance, one that could coincide with his own resurgence as he looks to impress before the European Championship next summer.