According to Fabrizio Romano, Everton are now in the race to sign Tottenham transfer target Max Aarons in the summer.
What's the story?
Reports earlier this month suggested that Norwich's Aarons is on the radar of Jose Mourinho's side, with Matt Doherty potentially being made available for a transfer as the Spurs boss has been left unconvinced of the right-back's ability of being a success.
Now, Romano has claimed that Spurs' fellow Premier League side and top four contenders Everton are "working" on signing the England U21 international, while Manchester United will also decide in the coming months about whether or not to pursue a move.
Bye-bye Doherty
Given that Doherty only joined last summer from Wolves, it's a rather telling sign that Mourinho is already open to the idea of offloading him in the summer.
But if Daniel Levy can win the race to land Aarons, then Spurs would be making the perfect call by getting rid of Doherty and bringing the Norwich City sensation in.
Canaries boss Daniel Farke has spoken glowingly about the 21-year-old this season, saying: "Max is outstanding in many topics. I can’t praise him enough for what he has done since his first appearance. You watch some of our games now and the opponents go man-for-man on him. That is crazy for a player who is a full-back but it says a lot about his reputation. He is just a special player and he has an unbelievable future."
The £18m-rated full-back appears to be the right-back version of Sergio Reguilon: young, quick and incredibly dangerous going forward. As per Whoscored this season, Aarons averages 1.3 key passes per game in the Championship, which ranks him fourth among his teammates, while his tally of 1.2 dribbles per match is good enough to rank him third.
That kind of offensive contribution would surely be perfect for Mourinho, who could have two of the Premier League's most exciting full-backs in Reguilon and Aarons.
And it's not just going forward that Aarons seems like he's tailor made for the Spurs boss. He's also someone who isn't rash when making challenges a la a Serge Aurier, with the Norwich ace making just 0.5 fouls per game this season (19th in Norwich's squad) - comfortably less than both Aurier and Doherty who rank joint-second among Spurs' players with 1.5 per match.
Aarons is a flying full-back, but without the kind of defensive mistakes that has haunted Spurs' right-backs. He seems absolutely perfect for Mourinho.