Why would Everton want to sign William Carvalho?

The problems at Everton Football Club are well known. Too many #10s. Too many central midfielders. No backup left back, and precious little cover at center back. No striker.

Apparently, per sources in Portugal, the solution could be to back up the Brinks truck for a...Morgan Schneiderlin clone?

Are there problems with the rumor linking Sporting Lisbon’s William Carvalho to the Blues? Let us count the ways.

• Firstly, Sporting already spent the summer haggling over Carvalho with West Ham United. Let’s be clear - when I say “haggling”, that doesn’t do the situation justice. This was a war, and it did not end well.
  Ultimately, if any offer was submitted by the London club, it was between £23-25 million spread over several years. Lisbon was quite justified in rejecting it. The alleged Everton offer is around £31 million, and with Sporting having dug their heels in over selling the player at all, it seems highly unlikely that the amount would get the job done.
• Secondly, if there’s any area of strength for Everton right now, it’s in central midfield. The Toffees have, in no particular order, these players who are best in the middle of the park: Davy Klaassen, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Tom Davies, Idrissa Gueye, James McCarthy, Muhamed Besic, and Morgan Schneiderlin. That’s 7 players for at most 3 starting spots. Someone would have to leave the club - possibly two someones - in order for this move to make sense, and even then...
• As you can see below, Carvalho profiles almost identically to Morgan Schneiderlin.

Everton could certainly use a backup for the Frenchman. However, Schneiderlin is more accomplished than the Portuguese player, and at this stage in his career, Carvalho will be expecting to start regularly, particularly given the transfer fee.

If Everton do acquire cover for Schneiderlin, it would need to be in the form of someone like Gareth Barry or a youngster like Leander Dendoncker. Also, with the kind of names being mentioned in the chase for the player (Juventus, Chelsea), the amounts could quickly spiral into astronomical range.

In short, it doesn’t make sense for Everton to buy another central midfielder, and it really doesn’t make sense for that central midfielder to be William Carvalho.

Radars courtesy of Ted Knutson