Yerry Mina hasn’t been offered new Everton contract, appears set to leave
Yerry Mina has not been offered a new contract at Everton because it is feared he’s too injury-prone, reports The Athletic’s Patrick Boyland.
Following the 5-0 thrashing at Tottenham last night (7 March), the Toffees’ defensive issues were thrown into the spotlight in the absence of the big Colombian.
But it appears that despite being held in high regard by the club, his future seems less than certain as he approaches the final year of his current deal.
Boyland writes in The Athletic: “It is the absence of Mina, set to be on the sidelines for another month at least, that is weighing most heavily.
“This sort of overreliance on one individual defensively would be fine if the Colombian was regularly fit, but he is not.
“He has started less than a third of Everton’s 25 league games in this campaign and there have long been question marks internally over his ability to play twice in quick succession.
“It is why a player deemed by many to be comfortably the best centre-back at the club, or in [Frank] Lampard’s words ‘a big leader in the group, top player, and big miss’, has yet to be offered a new deal despite having just over 12 months left on his current contract.
“Rather than any tactical or technical quirk, Mina’s weakness is his fitness.”
Gaping hole
Lampard was handed a raw deal when two of his centre-backs succumbed to injury so quickly after his arrival, with Ben Godfrey also absent.
The Englishman should be back soon, but it has been a nightmare to be without the leadership of Mina for an extended period.
But it seems like the defensive state as a whole has to be put down as another expensive mishap under Farhad Moshiri, with money spent and not enough to show for it.
Michael Keane had another nightmare in North London, after his error against Manchester City, was playing through illness, and is past his best.
Mina has been at Goodison for nearly four years now after arriving from Barcelona for big money, so the club have had plenty of time to realise his fitness issues, hence their reluctance to offer a new contract.
But they should have done something in that time to source adequate back-up.
Perhaps Godfrey, not cheap from Norwich but not of the same standard, can become that, but it appears the back line has been left in quite a mess, with full-back and issue as well.
More money was thrown at Vitalii Mykolenko and Nathan Patterson in January, but with Lucas Digne leaving the overall standard arguably dropped.
With Alisher Usmanov’s money gone and relegation a real possibility, it could be set to get worse before it gets better.
In other Everton news, the manager is regretting joining the club according to Chris Sutton.
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