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Plenty of clubs are looking to improve their situation at left back, and there could be a fair few defenders moving when the January transfer window opens in about a fortnight.
Everton went into the season with no established left backs behind Leighton Baines, and now a calf injury means backup right back Cuco Martina is seeing an extended run at Baines’ position.
Numerous players have been linked with the Blues, including Chelsea’s Baba Rehman, Augsburg’s Philipp Max and former Sam Allardyce player Patrick van Aanholt.
Espanyol have hit some financial difficulties and could be forced to sell off prized asset and rising star Aarón Martín in the January transfer window. The fullback has a €30m (£26.5m) release clause, with Spanish newspaper AS reporting his club could be willing to entertain offers around the €20m (£17.6m) mark.
The 20-year-old has 26 youth international caps for Spain, scoring twice for the Under-19s where he played with former Blue Gerard Deulofeu. Martin signed a new deal in January of this year until 2022, and with his €30m release clause rising to €40m in June, the club could hold out for a bigger payday.
Espanyols Sports Director Jordi Lardin said to AS -
"We do not need to sell anyone at the moment. If we receive an offer that could satisfy our request, and will allow us to earn enough to invest in new players, then we won't have any problem in sending him [Martin] away.”
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Over at Manchester United, Luke Shaw has been out of favour for some time with Jose Mourinho, with the Portuguese manager rumoured to be interested in Juventus’ Alex Sandro, as are Chelsea.
Manchester City and Napoli are in similar circumstances, with the regular starter at the left back position out for an extended period of time. For City, Benjamin Mendy picked up a long term injury and Fabian Delph has stepped in to make it four starting calibre fullbacks as Pep Guardiola wanted. Over in Italy, Faouzi Ghoulam also has a cruciate ligament injury and will miss an extended period of time, with Sime Vrsaljko tipped to make the switch from Atletico Madrid.
Sounds like there’ll be a fair few fullbacks playing musical teams over the January transfer window.