Everton appears to have stepped ahead of Ajax in the race for Tottenham winger, Steven Bergwijn. It is believed that the Toffees have offered the Netherlands international a better deal than that of the Dutch side and are willing to match Tottenham’s asking price.
Tottenham Hotspurs signed Bergwijn from PSV Eindhoven for a fee of £27 million in January 2020. Since then, Bergwijn has been in and out of the Spurs’ first team without ever cementing a spot and the signing of Dejan Kulusevski has seen his starts diminish.
Ajax held a strong interest in the 24-year-old Dutch winger but the issue over fee saw the deal stall. As Spurs’ interest in Richarlison has ramped up, Everton have identified Bergwijn as a potential signing to replace the Brazilian and bolster their attack.
Spurs also want a deal away from the club to be a permanent one while Everton are keener on a loan move. Discussions are ongoing.
🗣 "They're getting frustrated, Tottenham, with Ajax. They're not offering enough."@MichaelBridge_ Reports on Steven Bergwijn potentially being involved in a swap deal for Richarlison, due to Ajax not putting up the money Tottenham want pic.twitter.com/3Yux8u6bm6
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) June 28, 2022
Steven Bergwijn’s playstyle
The Dutch winger is predominantly right-footed but is versatile, equally comfortable playing on the right or left flank in the attack. He had his best season at PSV Eindhoven in 2018-2019 where he notched 14 goals and 12 assists in the Eredivisie.
He followed that with 5 goals and 10 assists in just 16 starts before he got a winter transfer window move to Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham. Young, positionally versatile and extremely quick and agile; Bergwijn is the typical modern winger, combining pace and dynamism with industry and defensive work.
Bergwijn didn’t quite hit the heights of his final 2 seasons at PSV in his time at Tottenham but still just 24 years old, there’s plenty of potential and time for him to develop into the pacey goalscoring winger he was touted to be.
Everton have offered Steven Bergwijn better personal terms than Ajax and are willing to meet Tottenham's asking price for the winger 🇳🇱
— The Spurs Web (@thespursweb) June 28, 2022
- @MikeVerweij
Fit at Everton and chance of a deal
Bergwijn is arguably stronger on the right-wing despite being predominantly right-footed. He possesses an explosive acceleration of pace to beat defenders on the outside and can use the full width of the flank to beat his man and progress the ball forward.
While his consistency and end-product have left a bit to be desired, he has strong instincts towards goals shown by a consistently high expected goals and progressive passes received number in his year-on-year stats.
He may not be a like-for-like replacement for Richarlison, given the former played mainly as an inside left-winger or striker but he allows Everton to reinvest a fraction of the expected Richarlison sale money into a high-ceiling winger with the kind of pace and byline ability that would complement Dominic Calvert-Lewin strongly.
Anthony Gordon was a standout breakthrough star for Everton at the backend of last season and had an impactful contribution in keeping them up. Gordon is still young and favours cutting in from the left side and thus, could be the natural replacement for Richarlison while Bergwijn’s skillset on the other wing would work well in tandem with this.
Frank Lampard and Everton definitely have a lot of work to do and it’s believed that the days of big spending for Everton are limited. In a situation like this, reinvesting less than half of the Richarlison money into a winger of Bergwijns profile and potential might prove to be a sensible step.