Here are the Everton morning headlines for Wednesday, April 8.
Everton pay reduction talks include Ancelotti
Everton's board have been holding talks over taking pay reductions in what they believe will help the club negotiate a similar move with the players and coaching team.
Discussions between the Premier League and Professional Footballers' Association did not produce a satisfactory conclusion earlier this week, leaving it up to the clubs to decide individually what approach works best for them.
Blues captain Seamus Coleman was involved in a video conference call alongside the skippers of all other 19 Premier League clubs at the weekend and he is said to have impressed senior Goodison figures with the way he is dealing with his position as intermediary between Everton and the squad.
Coleman is said to be supportive of calls for players to take a pay cut and it is believed that boss Ancelotti also committing to a wage reduction will help these negotiations.
Bolasie looks set for Everton return
Yannick Bolasie may return to Goodison Park at the end of the season with Sporting CP appearing unlikely to make his season-long loan deal permanent. The 30-year-old is on loan at the Portuguese giants for the season while there is said to be a €4.5million option to make the move permanent. However, that now appears unlikely to be taken.
“It looks like he’s leaving Sporting,” the player’s agent Jwtiar Khalid Rahman told Portuguese outlet Record , as cited by Sport Witness . “For now it’s difficult to say, because it’s all frozen. But we should get back to Everton.”
Bolasie joined the Toffees from Crystal Palace in a £25million deal in 2016 but has not thrived at the club - since being loaned out to Aston Villa, Anderlecht and, this season, Sporting. Everton are said to be keen to shift the DR Congo international’s £70k-per-week wages off their accounts. Bolasie’s contract expires next summer.
Everton 'unbelievably lucky' to have Lucas Digne
ECHO writers Adam Jones, Sam Carroll and Connor Dunn have praised full-back Lucas Digne’s season at Goodison Park to date. Everton's Player of the Season in 2018/19 has once again continued to impress at the club this time round and has established himself as first choice left-back.
Adam Jones said the Toffees were ‘unbelievably lucky’ to have the former Barcelona player on their books while Sam Carroll has said ‘he is that important’ to Carlo Ancelotti’s side. Digne is widely recognised not to have quite hit the heights he reached last season but has been somewhat curtailed with injury setbacks.
As Connor Dunn outlines, the Frenchman provides a ‘constant attacking outlet’ for the Blues and notes that despite his injury setbacks this campaign, he has still been able to provide six assists for the team.
