According to The Sun, Everton are interested in signing Crystal Palace right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka and are ready to offer Ademola Lookman to the Eagles.
A product of Crystal Palace’s youth academy, Wan-Bissaka burst on to the scene in the 2017/18 campaign amidst an injury crisis, filling in the boots of Martin Kelly. He retained his place in the side with some stellar performances and made 7 appearances in the Premier League last season.
However, the 20-year-old has established himself as a first-team regular in the current campaign, starting each of Palace’s first nine games. Wan-Bissaka was also named as the club’s Player of the Month for August.
Blessed with a sound technique, Wan-Bissaka is a fast, agile and offensive-minded full-back who is capable of contributing equally to both attack and defence.
Comfortable in possession, he combines his silky dribbling skills with instant acceleration to bamboozle the defenders with powerful overlapping runs. While he likes to go forward and contribute to the build-up play in the other half, he is never ignorant of his defensive duties. He has tremendous recovery pace which allows him to track back and close down the opposition.
Wan-Bissaka is not a particularly good crosser of the ball and relies on his direct football to charge at the opposition’s full-backs.
He has been equally impressive with his tackling and interceptions. In fact, the 20-year-old has averaged a staggering 4.6 tackles per game in the Premier League this season. Furthermore, he has also averaged 2.6 interceptions and 3.4 clearances per game this term.
Ademola Lookman, on the other hand, has found regular minutes hard to come by. He came on as a substitute against Crystal Palace and bagged an assist late in the game but that didn’t guarantee him a start in the next game.
Despite impressing on his loan spell at RB Leipzig last season, the 21-year-old has made only five substitute appearances in the Premier League this season. Quite clearly, Marco Silva has found it difficult to accommodate the U21 international due to the presence of Theo Walcott in the starting XI.
However, Lookman is a player with potential and would add a lot of value to a team like Crystal Palace, who are struggling to score goals. He could be the ideal man to provide cover and competition for the likes of Wilfried Zaha and Andros Townsend.
On the contrary, Everton would benefit a great deal by the presence of Wan-Bissaka in their side. Seamus Coleman scored for the Toffees in their 3-1 win over Brighton last weekend but that doesn’t change things for the Irishman. He is already 30 and the signs of ageing are quite visible in his game.
Not only has he suffered from injuries but has also been caught out at the back numerous times due to his lack of positional awareness, allowing the opposition’s attackers plenty of room to play crosses into the box. Jonjoe Kenny is another promising youngster who has good attacking prowess but is a bit shaky at the back.
Furthermore, Wan-Bissaka could be a perfect fit for Marco Silva’s free-flowing and dynamic style of play which necessitates the wingers and the full-backs to make attacking runs down the wide areas.
To be honest, both Lookman and Wan-Bissaka are players with potential but they have a long way to go in their careers. Neither of them is quite the finished product yet but this swap deal would be a win-win situation for all parties involved.