Newcastle United and Chelsea have discovered that they will need to stump up £25 million to sign Everton star Lucas Digne in the January transfer window.
According to ESPN, Premier League duo Chelsea and Newcastle United have been told to fork out £25 million to sign Everton star Lucas Digne in the ongoing transfer window.
The French left-back enjoyed a good start to life at Goodison Park since moving to Merseyside from Barcelona in 2018. He has since made 127 appearances for the Toffees, scoring six goals and assisting 20 more. He has, however, fallen out of favour under the new manager Rafael Benitez.
Digne has been left out of Everton’s last five Premier League games. His relationship with Benitez appears to have reached a point of no return, and a change of scenery could be on the cards. With Chelsea and Newcastle showing interest, he does not appear to be short of options.
Thomas Tuchel’s side were the Premier League leaders not long ago. Injuries and Covid-19 have since beset them, leading to them dropping valuable points. One of the positions that is causing the German manager trouble is left-back. With Ben Chilwell out for the season and Marcos Alonso struggling to impress, Chelsea could be in the market for a reinforcement. The recent injury to Reece James has further thinned Tuchel’s options at full-back.
In Digne, Tuchel will get an experienced player who is already familiar with the demands of English football. With the World Cup coming up, it can be argued that the 28-year-old has an incentive to perform in the second half of the season. Digne has won 43 caps for France but has not featured regularly for the world champions of late.
With Chilwell set to return in the summer, Chelsea are ideally looking at short term options and are keen to take Digne on loan. Everton, for their part, appear willing to only sell the player permanently. Benitez has already signed a left-back in Vitaliy Mykolenko and has even less reason to keep Digne at Goodison Park.
While a move to Chelsea is a step up, moving to Newcastle will see Digne battle against relegation. The Magpies may have been subjected to a takeover and now possess vast riches. However, their financial might is yet to translate to impactful performances on the field. Eddie Howe’s side are seeking to sign at least two defenders in the January transfer window as they look to plug a leaky backline.
Everton have now slapped a price tag of £25 million on the former Barcelona defender with a parting of ways very much on the cards. At 28, Digne is in the prime of his career and might not benefit from committing to a long term project like the one at Newcastle at this point. He would be better off moving to Chelsea. The Blues can hand him a good opportunity to challenge for titles and make the best of his peak years.
With the winter transfer window open, who moves first to land Digne remains to be seen. Talks are expected in the upcoming days, and it could eventually come down to who meets Everton’s asking price first.
