Report: Everton ready to move for Celtic star

Report: Everton ready to move for Celtic star Everton Transfer News: Alistair Johnston Bid Makes Sense as Right-Back Search Drags On Everton have left themselves with a familiar problem, too little depth in a key position and too much reliance on makeshift solutions. Right-back has needed sorting for a while. It still has not been sorted, and now the calendar is moving into the stage of the transfer window where clubs either act decisively or pay over the odds. According to The Herald , Everton are preparing to step up their interest in Celtic right-back Alistair Johnston, with a bid worth more than £10m potentially required. That feels about right. Reliable, experienced full-backs in their prime do not come cheaply, particularly when the selling club does not want to sell. Everton Right-Back Need Has Been Obvious The issue here is not complicated. Seamus Coleman has reached the end of his Everton chapter, Nathan Patterson is expected to move on, and Jake O’Brien has been doing a job rather than playing his best role. O’Brien is a centre-back. He can fill in, he can compete, and he can help defensively, but asking him to provide natural width and consistent attacking quality from the right is asking for something he does not really offer. That matters in the Premier League, where full-backs are expected to do more than just hold their line. They have to advance, combine, recover, defend transitions and contribute in the final third. Everton have lacked that balance on the right side, and it has affected the overall shape of the team. Photo: IMAGO Alistair Johnston Brings Celtic Quality Johnston ticks plenty of boxes. He is 27, so this is not a speculative development signing. He has played regularly, produced goals and assists at Celtic, and handled European football. He also started all five of Canada’s matches at the World Cup, which tells you plenty about his fitness, trustworthiness and level. His return of seven goals and 24 assists in 122 appearances for Celtic is solid for a full-back. More importantly, he appears to offer what Everton currently lack, energy, directness, durability and natural width from the position. This is not a glamorous pursuit, but Everton do not need glamour here. They need competence, physicality and someone who understands the job. Brendan Rodgers summed him up well when he said: “He possesses so many qualities – his hunger to win, he has a robustness, his power, his strength and he is hard to beat in one-v-one,” and added, “And he now totally understands how I want him to work, so he is now able to release himself, and can march, he can go forward and test the mentality of his marker. Rodgers continued: “And you see him now, he’s scoring goals and creating goals. But, ultimately, he can defend well. He has that hunger to defend, and he’s a really good guy, so I really enjoy working with him, and he will still only get better. “When you think of his journey back home, and then in the MLS, and then to here and being an international player, so he’s only going to improve and I can see that in him in my time here.” Transfer Window Pressure Growing Everton supporters will not care much about the elegance of the process. They will care whether a proper right-back is through the door before Crystal Palace. If Johnston is on the shortlist, then the club should move. £10m for an established international with Celtic and Champions League experience is not outrageous in this market. Frankly, delaying further would be harder to justify than paying the fee. The broader point is simple. Good recruitment is about identifying a need early and solving it cleanly. Everton identified this need long ago. Now they need to finish the job. Our View As an Everton fan, I would say this one makes a lot of sense, which probably means I am already nervous about it dragging on until the last week of the window. We have all watched this position be patched up for too long. You can admire O’Brien for filling in, but everyone can see it is not the same as having a proper right-back who knows when to go, when to hold, and how to affect the game higher up the pitch. Johnston sounds like the sort of signing Everton should be making. Not flashy, not a headline-chaser, just a player with a decent age profile, international experience and proper minutes behind him. If Celtic fans would rather keep him, that usually tells you something useful too. The concern, naturally, is whether Everton will hesitate over the fee or keep shopping around for a cheaper option who is not as good. That is how clubs lose time and end up scrambling. If the number is a little over £10m and the player genuinely improves the side, then just do it. There is also the usual supporter fear that one signing gets treated as a complete fix. It would help, definitely. It would not solve every issue. But it would solve an obvious one, and at this stage that sounds pretty good. Everton need fewer experiments and more players who can walk in and do the job from day one.