Ronald Koeman has finally publicly confirmed his intention to sign Memphis Depay
Things have not quite gone to plan for Memphis Depay.
Depay was signed in May 2015 for a £25 million fee, and was widely tipped to be a success at Manchester United.
The winger soon fell out of favour with Louis van Gaal and it seems like the situation remains the same with Jose Mourinho, with the Dutchman having featured only 6 times this season across all competitions.
Mephis has been linked with a host of clubs over the past few months, with no shortage of suitors for the 22-year old.
Juventus, Marseille, Galatasaray and Wolfsburg have all been linked at various points.
The strongest links, however, came from Everton and Roma.
Ronald Koeman no doubt knows Memphis well from his time managing AZ and Feyenoord, and the Dutchman once described his compatriot as a “great talent.”
The Everton manager has now publicly stated his interest in Depay according to The Metro, saying:
“I would love to have him in my team at Everton,”
“He is a very interesting player in my opinion. He has a lot of individual quality, is always dangerous going forward and is pretty efficient as well.
“He just needs to get regular playing time again.
“I already wanted him at Southampton in 2015, but he picked Manchester United at the time, which was a logical choice.”
Everton have recently undergone a change of ownership, with new investor Farhad Moshiri backing Koeman and stating his willingness to spend cash and turn it into a top-4 club.
This means that they will likely be able to pay United’s asking price, which is unlikely to be more than the initial £25m they paid for Depay.
One thing that might stand in the way of a transfer is United’s willingness to sell to an English club.
Everton could very easily emerge as a threat to the current hierarchy of the Premier League, given the new investment, and United may be unwilling to sell any players to a rival club.
However, the right fee could tempt them to part ways and it appears that Ronald Koeman has every intention of convincing them to do just that.
