The coronavirus crisis has had a huge impact on clubs in leagues and in different countries.
After three months of inactivity, the Premier League team’s summer spending may be limited due to limited financial resources. One of these sites could be Burnley, an association that is not blessed with the immense wealth of a Russian oligarch or a commodity tycoon from the Middle East.
Everton’s majority owner and billionaire Farhad Moshiri’s pockets are generously filled, but even he faces a summer that may be dominated by swap deals and credit.
Could a player on Marcel Brands’ radar still be Burnley’s Dwight McNeil?
The young English winger is without a doubt the most influential attacker and chief of the Clarets Sean Dyche has admitted open that the 20-year-old will most likely leave the club.
McNeil could certainly be a player at the top of the brands agenda. He is native, lives in the northwest and would give Everton’s midfield a certain amount of dynamism.
The 20-year-old is extremely hardworking and future-oriented. He has dribbled almost three times as many as any other Burnley player this season and, according to WhoScored.com, has beaten his man 41 times more than the next best Claret.
McNeil, formerly a Manchester United youth player, has started all 31 Burnley Premier League games this season and has proven indispensable.
While McNeil has stood out on the left, on the opposite side of Goodison Park, Richarlison has proven to be an equally tiring presence for opposing full-backs, and more recently as a central defender, as he has taken on a more central role.
The Brazilian is very similar to McNeil in the sense that both are among the hardest working attackers in the league.
Under Carlo Ancelotti, Everton tended to operate in a 4-4-2 formation, often using a double six in the middle of the midfield to anchor the side. This allowed Bernard (left) and Alex Iwobi (right) to use their natural attacking talent to combine midfield and attack.
One concern for Everton will be that this season, Bernard is struggling with injury and persistence, and the Toffees’ attack from the left is largely based on the looting of left-back Lucas Digne.
With McNeil, a player used to playing in a 4-4-2, he was able to take on much of the creative strain while using his excellent work ethic to cover Digne when the French overlap.
McNeil is also much more physical than Bernard. Defending from the front would help McNeil Everton harass and press opponents in the middle and final thirds.
According to FBRef.com, McNeil is one of Burnley’s most active pressers, another dimension he could add to Everton.
Overall, there are only a few clubs that McNeil won’t admire. Those in the market for him know that he is a player who could potentially be worth twice as much in a year if he continues to be a creative, ubiquitous player at Burnley and bow to his older Englishman.
McNeil is known for being the creative center of his side, but with Everton, Digne’s overlapping runs on the left would help him a lot. He is also very adept at going both forward and backward, as you would expect in a Dyche outfit.
Under the guidance of respected coach Carlo Ancelotti, McNeil could prove to be an incredibly smart new signing and help the club meet its own quota.
The question remains, at what price?
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