Potential Idrissa Gueye replacements share key skill ahead of big Everton transfer decision

For most of last season it was ‘Gana’ and ‘Garner’ in central midfield for Everton but now the Blues could be replacing Gueye with Gueye, unless it’s Keita (not Naby by the way). Confused? Well, while James Garner signed a new four-and-a-half year contract in January, committing himself to Hill Dickinson Stadium until 2030 - and subsequently won his first two England caps and was named Everton’s Player of the Season and Players’ Player of the Season - as of June 10, the Blues announced the club was continuing to liaise with Idrissa Gana Gueye over his future with his existing deal expiring at the end of the month. The most capped player in Senegal’s history has now lapsed into free agency following his World Cup exploits alongside Iliman Ndiaye with the Lions of Teranga bowing out in the first knockout round after they surrendered a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 to Belgium. During the team’s time in North America, Gueye’s wife Pauline sent tongues wagging while bringing a new meaning to the term ‘box-to-box midfielder’ when she posted images of her “busy packing” on social media, telling her Instagram followers she’d had “long days sorting.” Subsequently, BBC Sport’s gossip column has cited an article by Teamtalk that claims Everton will look to add Villarreal and Senegal international Pape Gueye, 27, or Parma’s Belgian midfielder Mandela Keita, 24, if Gueye doesn’t sign a contract extension. But what might either of them potentially bring to David Moyes ’ side? Gueye, like Gueye who has already played 236 times for the Blues across two spells, was part of Senegal’s World Cup squad and has been capped 46 times, netting seven international goals. But unlike Idrissa who hails from the west African nation’s capital city of Dakar, he was – like their international team-mate Ndiaye – born in France. In his case, in Montreuil, in the eastern suburbs of Paris, on January 24, 1999. A day earlier, Everton had defeated a second tier Ipswich Town side, featuring future Blues player Richard Wright in goal, 1-0 in an FA Cup fourth round tie at Goodison Park. Nick Barmby netted the winner on 38 minutes and having already been shown a yellow card, Marco Materazzi was sent off in first half stoppage time for picking up a second booking. The dismissal ensured the defender, who would go on to win the World Cup with Italy in 2006, would be dismissed in both domestic cup competitions in what proved to be his only season in England having been given his marching orders against Huddersfield Town in the League Cup while also getting a third early bath of the campaign in a Premier League fixture against Coventry City in what proved to be his final outing for the club. After staring his career at Le Harve, Pape Gueye, who at 6ft 2in is seven inches taller than his older namesake who has been patrolling the engine room at Hill Dickinson Stadium, had a previous ‘stint’ in English football back in 2020 that lasted a mere 24 hours. He joined Watford and posed wearing the Hertfordshire club’s shirt only to claim he’d been given bad advice by his agent and his salary would be £45,000 a month not £45,000 a week as he thought and was promptly sold to Olympique Marseille the next day. Following a loan spell at Sevilla in 2023, Gueye then joined Villarreal on a free transfer in 2024 when his contract at the Stade Velodrome expired. So far, he has played 75 times for the Spanish outfit and netted 10 goals – five in each of his two seasons. Comparisonator’s player profile gives Gueye a 6.6 out of 10 score as a box-to-box midfielder, active in all thirds of the pitch. Such players balance defensive recovery with attacking support, contributing through dribbling, ball carrying and progressive passing. Gueye scores 4.9 as a ball winning midfielder and 4.4 as a holding midfielder. We can also use Comparisonator’s virtual transfer tool to correlate Gueye’s statistics from La Liga last season against those playing in his position in the Premier League. His xG (expected goals) of 0.16 per 90 minutes would place him seventh in the Premier League in a category topped by Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes on 0.41. Gueye would sit eighth for shots (1.36) and ninth for shots on target (0.43) sections again led by Fernandes with scores of 2 and 0.72 respectively. Meanwhile, Mandela Keita was born in Leuven, Belgium, on May 10, 2002. By this time, Moyes had already started his first stint as Everton manager and his first season finished the next day with a 4-3 defeat to champions Arsenal at Highbury. He started his career with home city side OH Leuven, who were only formed in the year of his birth before turning out for Antwerp, initially on loan. Winning his only cap to date with a three-minute cameo off the bench, replacing Jeremy Doku, in a 3-2 win for Belgium against Austria in Vienna on October 13, 2023, Keita joined Parma on August 30, 2024. To date he has played 68 matches for the Italian side and scored once. Comparisonator’s player profile gives Keita a 6.9 out of 10 score as a ‘disruptor midfielder.’ These are combative performers whose primary focus is to disrupt the opposition’s build-up play through tackles, interception and pressure. He scores 5.2 as a box-to-box midfielder and 2.7 as a maestro. In terms of current Premier League stars, he plays like, Comparisonator’s similarity search deems Keita to be a 97% match to compatriot Romeo Lavia of Chelsea followed by 86% for Boubacar Kamara of Aston Villa. Like with Gueye, we can use Comparisonator’s virtual transfer tool to correlate Keita’s statistics from Serie A last season against those already playing in his position in the English top flight. His standout figures include 35.24km/h as his maximum speed, a figure that only three Premier League peers can top, Adam Wharton of Crystal Palace (35.97); Pape Matar Sarr of Tottenham Hotspur (35.77) and Declan Rice of Arsenal (35.39). Keita also looks after possession well as his 5.93 ball losses per 90 minutes would place him seventh in the Premier League, a category topped by Ilia Gruev of Leeds United on 4.47. Perhaps what is most telling is that both Keita (78%) and Gueye (76%) have got higher percentage scores for successful defensive actions than Premier League leader Moises Caicedo of Chelsea (72%). * Comparisonator is a football data comparison tool from 271 professional leagues around the world which compares players and clubs by utilising an industry leading 378 different parameters. Click here for more details. FOLLOW OUR EVERTON FC FACEBOOK PAGE! Latest EFC news and analysis from via the Liverpool Echo’s dedicated FB page