Memphis Depay has refused to rule out a possible move to Everton as a Manchester United exit in January looks increasingly inevitable.
‘Everton tease fans with strange Depay tweet’
The 22-year-old has been heavily linked with the Merseysiders in recent days and Ronald Koeman fuelled the speculation after admitting he would “love” to have Memphis among his ranks .
An opportunity to work under a Dutch footballing legend – Koeman has a Euro 1988 winners’ medal and twice lifted the European Cup – is believed to be hugely appealing to Memphis.
Memphis has briefed his advisers to find him a new club, with a Premier League move his first choice, and joining Everton would mean he wouldn’t need to uproot his life in nearby Cheshire.
However, he remains coy in public about his transfer intentions. After scoring twice in Netherlands’ 3-1 victory over Luxembourg, the winger said he was concentrating on his playing more regular football for Man Utd.
“I do not know, we’ll have to see,” he told reporters when asked about the Everton rumours. “I want to focus on United, I do my very best to be able to get more gametime.
“I’m going back to United with a good feeling, because I have played for Netherlands and we won. That is the most important thing.”
The Dutchman’s future has been plunged into uncertainty after failing to establish himself in Jose Mourinho’s plans thus far this season.
The forward was touted as the new Cristiano Ronaldo when Louis van Gaal signed him in 2015 but he’s completely failed to adjust to life at Old Trafford.
Any hope of a fresh start under Mourinho quickly vanished as he has found Juan Mata, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard, Anthony Martial, Wayne Rooney and Henrikh Mkhitaryan ahead of him in the attackers’ pecking order.
Koeman during his reign as Southampton manager and Memphis would get a much greater degree of faith at Goodison Park.
His £5 million salary is not expected to be a stumbling block due to Everton’s new majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri, who would be willing to match his Man Utd wage.
The Red Devils want to recoup as much of the £26m that they paid as possible, although his string of poor performances are likely to ensure Everton can negotiate down his pricetag.
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