Idrissa Gana Gueye - The beating heart of Everton’s midfield and his future

Idrissa Gana Gueye is yet to sign a new deal with Everton and despite his age, he continues to be the beating heart of the Blues’ midfield.

The Senegalese has had another standout season where he has appeared in all but one of Everton’s 34 Premier League matches so far this season. He has jumped in for tackles, made ball recoveries, protected the backline, dictated tempo and has fed chances to attackers. At 35, the Senegalese is showing no signs of slowing down.

Ahead of the weekend’s 1-0 loss to Chelsea, Opta data reveals that the 35-year-old has made 119 tackles so far this season, the most for any player across Europe’s ‘big five’ leagues. Manager David Moyes didn’t really see the positive side to it.

"It's fantastic, but it's telling me that he's had to make 119 tackles, which I don't know if it's a good thing. It depends which way you look at the stats I suppose," he said.

Moyes’ arrival has been the major turning point of the season with Everton climbing from just a point above the relegation zone to ensuring safety by a comfortable margin ahead of the much-anticipated move to Bramley-Moore Dock next summer.

However, while the likes of Branthwaite, Beto, Alcaraz, Doucoure, Tarkowski and Moyes himself have been in the headlines, Gueye has been the glue that has held the entire team together.

He was instrumental during Everton’s nine-game unbeaten run where the defence looked impenetrable. In the 2-2 draw with Manchester United at Goodison Park, a match that Moyes’ side should’ve won comfortably before conceding sloppy second-half goals, Gueye was in his element.

He attempted 11 tackles, winning nine, and performed 17 defensive actions, the most on the pitch. Had it not been for him, the Blues would’ve probably had to walk away with the blushes of letting the visitors win the game from 2-0 down at half-time.

"Look, I think Idrissa Gueye has done fantastically well, he really has, he's surprised me a lot. He's not a spring chicken, and we're mindful of that. We've tried to rest him on odd occasions, here and there, but he's done so well, he's kept playing,” Moyes continued.

"I think he's very good at breaking the play up and I think his experience is good. There's a certain group of players here who he's very helpful to and they see him as a top player and a gentleman as well, they rely on him a lot, but for me, he's done so well."

Much like his manager, this is the midfielder’s second stint at the club after he left for Paris Saint-Germain in a £30m move in 2019. Having won multiple league titles with the French outfit and with the experience of playing alongside the likes of Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Kylian Mbappe, Gueye returned to Merseyside just three years later.

Certainly no “spring chicken” anymore, but the Senegalese midfielder has managed to feature in over 85% of Everton’s Premier League games since his return and has helped the club avoid relegation in back-to-back seasons.

Idrissa Gueye has played over 200 matches wearing the Everton badge, and has a special relationship with the club and its fans. He is often the last off a pitch following a positive result and his family regularly appears at matches while his children have attended sessions at the club academy.

“This club means so much to me because it has given me everything. It gave me the opportunity to play at a high level, it gave me friends, the relationship I have with these great supporters. I just love this club,” he told the club’s official website a few months ago.

“When I left for PSG, I still thought about Everton a lot. Now I’m back here and I’m just trying to do everything in my power to help the team in the best way and make us better.”

Which brings us to his current situation. Gueye’s contract with the club is just weeks away from coming to an end. As of now, he is free to negotiate a pre-contract with a foreign club. He is one of 15 members of the squad whose futures at the club are still up in the air because of the financial takeover and because the club needed to ensure that they were staying up mathematically.

Now that the objective has been achieved, there might be light at the end of the tunnel. Football Insider’s transfer correspondent Peter O’Rourke reports that Everton are in talks with Idrissa Gana Gueye over a new deal.

The Toffees are expected to extend the midfielder’s stay at the club but will probably not make a final decision before the end of the current league campaign.

In all fairness, it will be a shame not to see Idrissa Gueye's love affair with Everton and the fans continuing at Bramley-Moore Dock.

 

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