Everton have been pretty active today and have made a few good additions and considerably strengthened their squad. Barcelona have announced that Yerry Mina and Andre Gomes will be moving to Merseyside. While Mina has moved for a fee of €30.25m plus add-ons, Gomes has moved on loan.
Mundo Deportivo had earlier claimed that the two players had undergone medicals at Barcelona. The Toffees were expected to be active as many fans and pundits alike pointed out the lack of depth their squad had prior to today.
Two additions who will take time to settle
While it’s easy to get excited if you’re an Everton fan, there shouldn’t be too many expectations placed on the duo. Yes, Mina had a good World Cup with Colombia, but he is changing clubs for the second time in eight months and will take time to settle down.
The Colombian did make a few appearances for Barcelona during the second half of last season – 5 to be precise – and fared well in those games. Unfortunately, the duo of Samuel Umtiti and Gerard Pique will be the preferred centre-half pairing for the Blaugrana, so Mina had to move to get regular first-team action.
Gomes, on the other hand, often struggled to make his chances count. It seemed that he just didn’t know what he was supposed to do; play as a central midfielder or make those late runs into the box. Quite often, he was caught in two minds and just couldn’t make the impact he would have wanted to.
Playing in a new league is only going to make things harder, so the expectations should be kept in check. Mina will have to adjust to the more physical strikers and the pace with which the game will be played at, while Gomes will have to make the best of his opportunities as he isn’t expected to as much game time as Mina.
What will Andre Gomes and Yerry Mina add to the team?
The good thing about signing Mina is he could slot in at centre-half straight away when match fit. Everton don’t have too many options at the back as they have let Ashley Williams leave on loan. Phil Jagielka and Michael Keane were the only experienced options they had. The former, though, is well past his peak.
Mina has the tag of being pretty good with the ball at his feet and is extremely strong when it comes to aerial duels. He’s built like an absolute tank, so that’ll come in handy.
Gomes was a good box to box midfielder whilst at Valencia and if given more freedom, he could replicate the good output that he managed with Los Che.