Lucas Digne - leaves Everton for Aston Villa

[Michael]

I think Lucas Digne is still in his prime and an excellent attacking full-back. I believe a transfer fee of £25 million for a top fullback who is nearly 29, is very reasonable. So I suspect that both parties will be relatively pleased with the transfer of Digne. Everton have made a tidy profit on Digne, having bought him for £18 million in 2018 and now sold him to Villa for £25 million. While Aston Villa will be getting an experienced and a consummate left-back in his prime. With 43 international caps for France, as well as the experience of going to a World Cup and two Euros while still a regular in the French national team, Digne is accomplished as they get.

I am sure Digne will find a lot of success at Aston Villa, just as he had some excellent performances for Everton, which culminated in him being Everton's player of the year in 2019. Villa have definitely strengthened their side with the signing of Digne.

As for Everton, they have replaced Digne with the much younger Vitaliy Mykolenko from Ukraine. Ironically, Mykolenko's best traits are very similar to Digne's best assets and both players share a similar style of play. Mykolenko, like Digne, is excellent at getting forward and delivering crosses. Mykolenko's work rate is second to none and he is also very capable of taking on opponents and dribbling past them. He is a very decent tackler, however, like Digne, he is often caught out of position in high intensity matches. So his positioning is definitely an area for improvement for the young Ukrainian. He also needs to be more disciplined, instead of diving into ambitious tackles, which sometimes critically don't pay off. 

However, I am pleased that Mykolenko has joined Everton, where he will experience the high intensity of the Premier League. He can definitely improve his game in England and fulfil the high potential that he has. Going forward he is excellent, but I believe he needs to improve the defensive side to his game, especially his positioning. 

Mykolenko didn't have the best of Premier League debuts away to Norwich City, however he can't be blamed too much, as the entire Everton team were terrible against the Canaries. With Duncan Ferguson now in charge of Everton, hopefully he brings more harmony and structure to Everton's play. With more strong organisation to the team, Mykolenko should be able to showcase his attacking talents down Everton's left flank. Ironically, Everton will play Aston Villa in the Premier League this Saturday, so both Mykolenko and Digne will come head to head, both new signings for their respective clubs. It will be interesting to see how both left-backs perform in this match.