Everton ‘closely following’ 20-goal Man City starlet; Dyche could hijack second deal
Sean Dyche walking through stadium ahead of Everton match
Everton are reportedly ‘closely following’ a Manchester City starlet and could stop him from making a summer move to Portsmouth by landing him for themselves.
Central-midfielder Alex Robertson played his first game for City’s under-18s in the 2019/20 campaign, and showed his promise when he bagged a hat-trick against Sunderland under-18s mid-way through the season.
He notched 13 goals for the under-18s side in 25 games – along with five assists – before progressing to the under-23 side, playing alongside the likes of Oscar Bobb.
There, Robertson bagged seven goals and three assists, and was also afforded a space on City’s bench for three games last season, though he’s yet to make his senior debut.
He did so for Australia last season, though, and then made a 17-minute outing against world champions Argentina recently.
City, clearly happy with the progress Robertson was making in their academy, sent him out on loan to Portsmouth this season.
He’s missed just one game in League One for the table-toppers, and has scored once and assisted three times, while only having been on the losing side on two occasions.
Pompey are clearly very happy with how Robertson is performing.
Everton have eyes on Robertson
But his good performances come with the risk of him being snapped up by another side. Premier League Everton are now said to be ‘closely following’ his progress, as per The News.
In any case, it’s said Portsmouth ‘remain confident of keeping’ Robertson at the club until the end of the campaign.
Beyond that point, it’s said they’re ‘retaining hope’ of bringing the Australia international back next season.
It’s said City are ‘pleased with the exposure’ to senior football their midfielder is getting, and as such, Pompey are confident he’ll be able to stay until the summer.
However, the Citizens do have a recall clause for Robertson in January.
City must clear Everton hijack
And given they’re happy with his exposure to first-team football, they’d surely also be happy with shipping him out to a Premier League side, where he’d obviously get a taste of a level City will hope he can reach with them.
That comes with a couple of caveats, the first one being whether Everton want him on loan or not, as that much is not made clear in the report.
City are unlikely to want to sell Robertson without giving him a chance back at the club.
If the Toffees do want him on loan, Pep Guardiola’s side would want to know he’d be given enough minutes to progress, which, for somebody who’s not yet played in the Premier League or even the Championship, might not happen.
As such, City would have to be happy with the terms in order to allow Everton to hijack Portsmouth’s proposed summer move, or it seems Robertson will simply stay there this term and there’s a chance he could be allowed back next.
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