Kenny Tete transfer could be first Everton masterstroke after Kyle Walker links

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Everyone knows right-back is a priority position for Everton this summer. But with the Blues having to make numerous moves in so many other areas to reshape their squad, the potential acquisition of Kenny Tete would represent a prudent piece of recruitment.

Fabrizio Romano reports that Everton have reached verbal agreement to sign Tete, who contract at Fulham officially ends on June 30, as a free agent, with a three-year deal in place and formal steps to follow next week.

Evertonians have just spent the past week trying to get their heads around their club being linked with an audacious swoop for Kyle Walker. Like rumours surrounding his Manchester City team-mate Jack Grealish, the high profile of the pair ensures that such speculation is bound to attract lots of attention, particularly among the wider football world at large, but that also offers the prospect of players who are big in several ways.

While that includes big talent, it can also mean big wages, big egos and in the case of Walker, a big media circus that follows his every move in what has often been a colourful personal life off the pitch.

With six Premier League titles, two FA Cups, four League Cups, a Champions League , UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup with Manchester City, plus 96 England caps, Walker has been a serial winner over many years.

However, after asking to leave the Etihad Stadium in January in search of a fresh challenge, leading to a subsequent loan spell at AC Milan, Tuttosport lambasted the defender’s time in Italy as a disaster, with the harshest line – by far – reading: “Failure has the face of Walker.”

On the one hand, the Sheffield-born player, who is also regarded by many at Tottenham Hotspur as their greatest right-back, offers a wealth of experience while being Ashley Young’s junior by five years.

But as this month’s disappointment on Three Lions duty against Senegal showed, there are now serious questions about how long the 35-year-old, who relies heavily on his terrific pace, has got left at the highest level.

Although Tete would not be the same kind of high-profile signing, at four months shy of his 30th birthday, he should have the ability to see out those next three seasons without slowing down while also bringing a proven Premier League track record to the table.

Capped 14 times for the Netherlands, he has made 119 appearances for Fulham, 89 of which have been in the Premier League, after starting out at Ajax, where he came through the fabled academy to establish himself in the senior side in Amsterdam.

With funds required to acquire sufficient talent further up the pitch as attacking players typically cost more money, snapping up Tete, who can also be deployed on the left or even centre of defence, on a free transfer could prove a masterstroke from Everton’s new-look recruitment team – which is rapidly taking shape with the confirmation of the appointments of Nick Cox, James Smith Chris Howarth and Nick Hammond on Friday – in what promises to be a hectic window for manager David Moyes.

In France, where the player had a three-year spell with Lyon before coming to England, to use your ‘Tete’ is to use your head and the Blues’ fresh brains trust could be doing this here.

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