Barcelona: Two Italian sides target Andre Gomes

Andre Gomes is starting to attract interest from top clubs in Europe due to his impressive form on loan at Everton.

Barcelona struggled to offload Andre Gomes in the summer due to his lacklustre form for them since joining in 2016 so they ended up having to accept Everton’s loan offer with no obligation to buy as he was clearly surplus to requirements at the club. However, this has ended up benefitting the club as he has regained his confidence and started to show the form that convinced Barca to sign him in the first place so his value is going up.

According to CalcioMercato.com, Roma and Lazio are looking to sign him in the summer, although he’s likely to cost them around €20-30m. I Biancocelesti are considering him as a replacement for Sergej Milinkovic-Savic if the Serbian leaves the club because he was attracting a lot of interest in the summer. A battle for his signature could potentially increase the transfer fee with the Catalans set to profit from that, although they are highly unlikely to recoup all of his original fee.

The issue with Gomes at Barcelona was his mentality because it appeared to be too big of a move for him at that stage in his career, so he was afraid to make mistakes on the pitch and ended up letting the other players take responsibility. This started a negative cycle in which the crowd didn’t believe in him and were quick to get annoyed when he made mistakes so his confidence deteriorated further.

Everton are a much smaller club so the expectations are lower while it also provided him with a fresh start which has allowed him to thrive under the watchful eye of compatriot Marco Silva. His composure on the ball and ability to dictate play from deep has seen him stand out as a key player in Everton’s midfield.

The Toffees will probably be interested in signing him permanently if he carries on with his recent form, but Roma and Lazio are likely to be much more attractive destinations for the 25-year-old.