South Korea international Ki Sung-yueng has been targeted by new Everton manager Roberto Martinez as a potential loan signing. The midfielder — Swansea City’s record buy when he moved from Celtic almost exactly a year ago — has been granted permission to seek another club and is keen to remain within the Premier League according to Sunday Times journalist Duncan Castle.
Everton, whose finances are once again limited as they wait for Manchester United to increase their offer for Marouane Fellaini and Leighton Baines, are currently Ki’s preferred option. Sunderland, having already recruited 11 new players as part of Paolo Di Canio’s radical restructure of the club’s senior squad, have also made an approach for the 24-year-old.
Martinez has pursued Ki for over a year, having failed in an attempt to bring the Korean from Celtic Park to Wigan Athletic last summer. The Spaniard’s previous club, however, were unable to match a deal in which Swansea promised to pay Celtic a transfer fee of up to £5.5million, including performance-related variables.
Though Ki started 20 of Swansea’s Premier League fixtures last season and helped the Welsh club win the League Cup Final while operating out of position as a central defender, his working relationship with Michael Laudrup has been strained. So far this campaign he has been used only as a substitute by the Dane.
A regular for his national side and a fluent English speaker because of an Australian secondary education, Ki has two years remaining on a Swansea contract worth £35,000 a week.
Everton could easily borrow against next year’s £80m SKY annual windfall! And with having a new manager this year in much need of backing from the board I really don’t see what the hold up is! Already we’re seeing lower teams already investing in their team to stay up as the English Premier League is more lucrative than ever now!
Why are the finances limited when we came sixth and are getting an extra £24M TV money? All the other clubs are spending it. Southampton have spent £36M. Everyone has spent at least £20M apart from us, and Spurs would have spent £90M before the Bale money comes through if the Willian deal hadn’t been gazumped. We are not even at the races anymore. We are not competing. As for where the money is going, Kenwright and co. must be lining their pockets.