Jordan Pickford wants to quit Everton as fresh Tottenham transfer speculation emerges – talkSPORT host
Jordan Pickford is looking to quit Everton in order to play Champions League football, according to talkSPORT host Perry Groves.
Pickford, 28, has been the subject of fresh transfer speculation this week with the Daily Mail reporting on 27 December that a new five-year contract hasn’t yet been signed off on.
Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham are understood to have been “alerted” to the delay with Pickford’s existing terms just 18 months away from expiring.
Ex-Arsenal player Groves believes Pickford will have a hunger to play higher up in the Premier League and even in the Champions League instead of being in relegation battles at Goodison Park.
Speaking on talkSPORT on Thursday (29 December, 11:11am), when asked if he sees Pickford moving on, Groves said: “Yes, because he’ll be looking at it as England’s established number one, thinking, ‘I don’t want to spend my career constantly fighting at the wrong end of the table’.
“He knows full well the financial situation at Everton, there’s not a chance for them to go and spend a lot of money in the January transfer window.
“You can understand Jordan Pickford wanting to go. He wants to be playing Champions League football. He’s playing for his national team, getting to quarter-finals and semi-finals. And when you’re with the national team, you hear about the other players at their clubs about playing in the Champions League.
“Pickford will want that and I think Everton will survive this season because they have better players than teams at the bottom. But then Everton might look at it and think, ‘if we sell Pickford and get good money for him, then we can go and reinvest in other areas in the team’.”
Time to move on?
If you look at it from Pickford’s point of view, it would make sense for him to quit Goodison Park as long as he has a number one shirt lined up for him elsewhere.
With Hugo Lloris getting on at Tottenham and David De Gea continually struggling at Manchester United, a move to one of them would make more sense than a move to Chelsea as they already have two goalkeepers who are capable of being number ones.
Pickford will go down as one of Everton’s best goalkeepers in the Premier League era.
His performances last season helped us avoid relegation while he’s also been quite good this term despite, yet again, the poor form of the side.
Everton might not get top-dollar for the England starter in the summer as they’ll be forced into a sale due to his contract situation.
However, it’s better than letting his deal run down when money from selling the ex-Sunderland man could be used to reinvest in a new goalkeeper and add to outfield positions too.