Report: 13-time league champions will make bid for Everton's 'top' player in 2022

CSKA Moscow want to sign Everton’s Jean-Philippe Gbamin in the coming days, according to Russian outlet Metaratings. 

Gbamin, a £22.5million summer signing from Mainz in 2019, has only played 64 minutes of Premier League football this season and 186 minutes across all competitions.

Frank Lampard named him on the bench for his first game in charge against Brentford, but has since left him out of the matchday squad altogether for his first two Premier League assignments.

He’s now valued at £9million by Transfermarkt and still has nearly two and a half years left to run on the £65,000-per-week contract he signed.

The transfer window closed on 31 January in England, but Russian clubs can continue signing players until 22 February.

The report, published at 19.00 on Friday, states that Gbamin has emerged as a target for Aleksei Berezutski’s side.

CSKA, 13 times champions of Russia/the Soviet Union, will ‘try to sign’ the out-of-favour 26-year-old before Tuesday’s transfer deadline.

Paul Joyce has since backed the news, taking to Twitter to confirm the Russian outfit are chasing a loan deal.

Gbamin ranks as one of the 12 most expensive signings in Everton’s history, but his career at Goodison Park has never really gotten going.

Cruel luck has played a large part – only weeks after recovering from a hamstring injury that ruled him out for virtually the whole 19/20 season, he suffered an Achilles tendon rupture that sidelined him for a further 45 games (via Transfermarkt).

In two and a half seasons on Merseyside, he’s made a mere eight appearances.

Carlo Ancelotti said the Ivorian ‘has all the qualities – technically and physically – of a top midfielder‘, but it’s possible that he simply isn’t the same player Everton signed after