Carlo Ancelotti must urge Marcel Brands to run away from Manchester United and pursue Tottenham Hotspur’s Paulo Gazzaniga over a Deadline Day deal for Sergio Romero.

What’s the word?

According to The Times’ Paul Joyce, Everton chiefs have reached out to both Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur as the Toffees look to sign a goalkeeper on Deadline Day who can present competition for Jordan Pickford.

The Goodison Park outfit would prefer to sign one of Romero or Gazzaniga on loan following the latest in a string of blunders from Pickford against Brighton & Hove Albion at the weekend, which also sparked rumours of interest in AS Roma’s Pau Lopez.

But both United and Spurs would like to see a deal for their back-up goalkeeper to leave Old Trafford or north London be on permanent terms, having been open to offers all summer without any luck of cashing in.

Manchester United are understood to value Romero between £8m and £10million, which The Athletic suggested had cooled Everton’s interest in September as the Merseyside club sought a free agent signing for the role of Pickford’s back-up.

Spurs also placed Gazzaniga on their transfer list earlier in the window having identified the 28-year-old as a potential avenue to boost their funds, per the Evening Standard, after struggling to make inroads into any arrivals amid difficulties offloading Serge Aurier.

Daniel Levy’s asking price for Gazzaniga was not noted, though the Tottenham Chairman can use the Argentine’s £20,000-per-week contract running to 2022 in any efforts to drive up his valuation on Deadline Day.

Gazzaniga the safe choice

Both Romero and Gazzaniga would serve to be superb deputies to Pickford this season if Everton are able to acquire either on loan, but Ancelotti must choose wisely if the Toffees are forced into purchasing one or the other.

While Romero has 96 caps to his name for Argentina and has won titles with Manchester United and AZ Alkmaar, the 33-year-old has not played in a Premier League fixture since his sole outing of the 2017/18 season on the final day against Watford.

Those 90 minutes came as one of just seven English top-flight games Romero has featured in since joining United in 2015, with his rare appearances for the Red Devils only coming in the cup competitions.

His nine outings in last year’s Europa League also show Romero would not be the better acquisition than Gazzaniga, having struggled to contain long-range efforts after conceding twice from five shots faced. He also opted to punch away 50% of all crosses contended, per SofaScore.

As for Gazzaniga, the Spurs back-up stepped up admirably in the absence of Hugo Lloris through injury last season as he made 18 of his 43 career Premier League outings, keeping two clean sheets.

The one-time Argentina international was also only beaten from range with 16% of shots taken from outside the box, having made 21 saves to the four goals conceded and recording 36 saves from shots taken inside the Spurs penalty area.

Gazzaniga further made successful runs out with each of his nine attempts and only punched three of the ten crosses he contended for possession.

If Spurs are open to acceptable offers, Gazzaniga must be the one Ancelotti favours to put the pressure on Pickford, not a rarely-seen 33-year-old Romero.

AND in other news, Everton’s Deadline Day plans could leave Carlo Ancelotti weaker in one key area than before the season started.