Tottenham Consider £50m Move for Jordan Pickford as Toffees Keeper Faces Everton Axe
Everton are open to selling goalkeeper Jordan Pickford this summer and Tottenham Hotspur are reportedly keen on a £50m deal for the England international.
Pickford has started every Premier League game for the club since joining from Sunderland in 2017 but has made some high-profile errors during that time with only Bournemouth keeper Asmir Begovic making more mistakes which have led to goals this season.
Despite this, according to the Sun, Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino is looking to sign him as a replacement for their captain Hugo Lloris, who has had a poor season and made another high-profile mistake against Liverpool last weekend.
With Tottenham having a core of England international teammates such as Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Eric Dier and Danny Rose in their squad, Pochettino will hope Pickford can find the form that made him such a revelation at last summer's World Cup, if he is to join them in London.
The 25-year-old has had problems off the pitch recently, getting into a brawl with a member of the public while on a night out in Sunderland last Sunday.
The Sun are now reporting that all of this is causing the Everton board to consider selling Pickford and replacing him with Burnley's Nick Pope, who would cost £40m less than the fee they hope to receive for their current No1.
Everton manager Marco Silva stated in his press conference on Friday that he was 'not happy' with his goalkeeper for the nightclub fracas but the reason for his potential departure is more closely associated with his performances on the pitch, not what he has done off it.
His performance away at Newcastle United on 9 March raised major concerns for Silva and director of football Marcel Brands as Pickford gave away a penalty for which he should have been sent off, allowed a weak Salomon Rondon strike to go past him to get the home side back into the game, before parrying a long range effort straight to the feet of Ayoze Perez who finished with ease as Everton lost 3-2 having been 2-0 to the good.
His error in the last-minute away at Anfield in December which gifted Divock Origi Liverpool's winner in the Merseyside derby will have raised alarm bells at Goodison Park and the level of his displays since has done nothing to calm those who make the decisions at the club.
Burnley keeper Pope, who was understudy to Pickford at the World Cup last summer, would be a much cheaper and perhaps more reliable alternative in goal, with the 26-year-old unfortunate to miss most of this season through injury and the excellent form of Tom Heaton.