The right-back position at Everton has been a talking point for quite some time now.
In 2025/26, we again saw Jake O’Brien play there the most, with James Garner occasionally filling in and Nathan Patterson also getting the odd game.
While O’Brien has had some decent outings there, the general consensus is that this is not sustainable.
If you were Angus Kinnear who would you be going all out for this summer? 💰
The Irish defender made a bright start in the position when David Moyes put him there last season.
But this term he’s had some uncomfortable games, with most of those coming towards the end of the campaign.
It’s time to sign a natural, and Georgios Vagiannidis might just make a decent addition.
Georgios Vagiannidis may give Everton more attacking threat at right-back
It was recently suggested that Everton hold an interest in Vagiannidis, who is actually a player who’s been linked with the Toffees before.
But it seems Everton could now be back in for him and it’s thought he has an asking price of around £8.5 million
Some will feel that Everton need to be allocating a sizeable portion of their transfer budget to this position this summer.
But Vagiannidis could well be a shrewd signing.
The Greece international made 33 appearances across all competitions last term, and made seven assists, which is a decent return and far more than O’Brien managed (one).
But looking into some metrics, it seems clear that the 24-year-old would be more of an outlet than O’Brien for the Toffees if he signed.
As per Squawka, Vagiannidis had 43 touches in the opposition box last season, which beats the 37 O’Brien. But this is made more impressive by the fact that O’Brien played 3124 minutes in the Premier League, compared to Vagiannidis’ 1277. Had he matched O’Brien’s game time, Vagiannidis would have been out of sight in this metric.
Vagiannidis also had higher crossing and passing accuracy than the Everton man (89% and 29.5% vs 73% and 26.5%).
Perhaps most tellingly of all, Vagiannidis was better at beating his opponent. He had a take-on success of 63%, versus just 28.5% for O’Brien.
For a long time now, Everton have called for more output from the full-backs.
While Vagiannidis has not really ripped up trees throughout his career, there is potential enough here to warrant Everton making a move this summer, given the price that’s been mentioned.
He offers more than O’Brien, who would be able to move inside at long last, and play next to Jarrad Branthwaite.
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