Roberto Martinez has rejected speculation that Everton are looking to complete a deal with Tom Cleverley, who is currently on loan at the club from Manchester United. However, it looks very much that Cleverley will be a free agent in the summer after United have not showed any interest in negotiating his contract, which ends in the summer. Everton are understood to be impressed by the performances of the England international and they are ready to make him a permanent fixture in their starting line-up. Martinez has already converted a number of loan stars into permanent Everton players with the most prominent of them being Romelu Lukaku.
The attractive part about Cleverley will be that he will be available on a free transfer since his contract comes to an end. Amidst such speculation, Martinez has denied suggestions that the club are looking to arrive at a deal. It has been a very disappointing campaign for the Merseyside outfit. After putting a lot of their focus on the Europa league midway through the campaign, Everton were stunned by Ukrainian outfit Dynamo Kyiv in the last 32. Hence, focus has shifted back to the league and Everton have gone on a winning run of three matches.
“Tom is a player I know really well. We know the positions that we need to strengthen in the summer. We’ve worked really hard since January to identify those targets but a lot of decisions will depend on how we perform in the last seven games. It’s going to be a very important end of season for us in order to allow us to make the right decisions for the summer. We have a group of players here who are focused on becoming successful with Everton so there are no problems keeping them,” said Roberto Martinez.