By Sam McGuire
The former Liverpool wasn’t just a key part of Andoni Iraola’s forward line. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that he was the forward line. Solanke netted 19 goals in the league last term. No other player scored more than eight for the Cherries. He was responsible for 35% of the goals and had a hand in 41% of the goals scored by Iraola’s men.
Losing him in August was a monumental blow to the team. How would they replace the England international? Could they even replace the one-time Chelsea academy star? If they couldn’t, the likelihood was they’d find themselves in a relegation battle.
To the surprise of, well, everyone, the Cherries managed to pry Evanilson away from Porto just six days after parting ways with Solanke. It was some coup. During his stint in Portugal, the Brazil international was linked with Champions League clubs on a regular basis. In fact, Liverpool were rumoured to be interested in the centre-forward before he’d made the move to Europe. The Reds looked at him in 2019 while he was turning out for Fluminense.
Like they do so often, though, Porto swooped to sign the South American talent.
He wasn’t prolific in Portugal by any stretch of the imagination, but he was a regular goalscorer and, more importantly, a genuine goal threat. In two of his three full seasons with the Dragões, Evanilson hit double figures (13 and 14) in the league. He finished with 20+ in all competitions on two occasions too. He played second fiddle to Mehdi Taremi with the Iran international scoring 48 league goals (and 68 in all competitions) for Porto during this period.
Still, Evanilson was regularly linked with a big money move. Manchester United were looking at him during the Erik Ten Hag era.
Seeing him sign for the Cherries caught a lot of people out.
This was a high calibre player. Bournemouth had an exciting project but many had them tipped for a bottom half finish, at best.
They believed in him, making the forward their club record signing, with the fee believed to be in the region of £40million.
At the time, the club knew it was a coup.
Upon his unveiling, Bournemouth chief executive Neill Blake said: “Evanilson is a hugely sought-after striker and for us to bring him to the club in a record-breaking deal shows our ambition and intent. Having scored 25 goals last season, including goals in the Champions League, we feel that his experience and ability despite only being 24 will help us to match our ambitions moving forward.
“It’s well known that we were keen on bringing a striker to the football club and for us to complete this deal so quickly is a testament to our recruitment team.”
And here we are now in May, the Cherries are eighth in the Premier League table following their recent 2-1 win over Arsenal at the Emirates. The match-winner in the game against Mikel Arteta’s men was Evanilson.
Sent off in his last outing against Manchester United, his red card was overturned and he made the most of this good fortune versus the Gunners as he scrambled in the winning goal in the 75th minute.
It was his tenth Premier League goal of the season. It’s an impressive return for a player with a little over 2,000 minutes to his name. Only Justin Kluivert (12) has more goals for the Cherries and six of his have come via the penalty spot.
Evanilson has 11 goals involvements in the English top-flight and his form since returning from a broken foot has been encouraging. He has seven goals in his last 10 outings across all competitions. He’s stepped up in the big games too, scoring twice against Manchester City while also scoring against Arsenal and assisting against Manchester United.
The 25-year-old, who couldn’t speak English upon his arrival in August, has settled in well. This was revealed by manager Iroaola in November: “It’s true that he’s been very, very important for us. He’s growing, he’s giving us every game more things on the ball, without the ball.
“Even if he doesn’t speak the language, he understands football very well and he smells the danger and he reads very well the opposition, where to place for the next ball. And I think this is very valuable, especially in the number nine.”
He’s improved as the season has progressed. Evanilson is finding his form at an interesting time for Iraola. The signs are encouraging too, with an xG of 11.7 this term and having landed 45% of his efforts on goal. Expect to see his numbers improve next season when he’s fully acclimatised to the rigours of the Premier League. If this is the case, you can expect clubs to be queuing up to sign him sooner rather than later.
The Cherries get a lot of praise for their recruitment over the years. Evanilson could turn out to be one of the best signings they’ve made.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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