Everton’s central defensive unit is evolving. On Tuesday, the club confirmed the arrival of Republic of Ireland international Jake O’Brien from Lyon for a fee in the region of £17million (€20m; $21.6m).
O’Brien’s arrival compensates for the departure of Ben Godfrey to Atalanta and adds to the sense of change in a crucial part of the pitch.
Twelve months from now, Everton’s options at centre-back should look vastly different. Michael Keane and Mason Holgate are into the final year of their contracts and although Keane could be kept as cover this season, Holgate will leave if the right offer comes in.
It would be a surprise if either was still at Goodison heading into the 2025-26 season. Had Everton not made a signing at centre-back, they would almost certainly have needed three new additions next summer.
For now, O’Brien is, in essence, a Godfrey replacement, with Everton quick to rail against suggestions that his arrival means Jarrad Branthwaite will leave.
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O’Brien may not be as versatile as the player he is succeeding, but he should provide solid competition for first-choice pairing Branthwaite and James Tarkowski this season. At 23, his signing means a long-term replacement is also through the door and will have 12 months to settle if Branthwaite departs next summer. Stocks would then need to be replenished below the starting line-up.
Some will wonder how Everton, looking for new owners after the collapse of the Friedkin Group’s takeover, can afford a £17m defender right now. Their answer is that they are continuing as though it is business as usual, with Jesper Lindstrom joining on loan from Napoli with an option to buy last week.
With the revenues from player sales, which total around £70m (albeit spread out in instalments), TV and season ticket monies and Friedkin’s £200m loan, they at least have some minor wiggle room in the market. This deal has also been structured along the lines of previous ones over the last 24 months, with the bulk of the fee deferred until later into O’Brien’s contract.
It is the kind of rigid financial landscape that means certain targets will always be out of reach, but O’Brien is a pleasing example of a player they have tracked for some time becoming available on terms they can manage.
O’Brien is 6ft 5in and a threat in the opposing box (Valentine Chapuis/AFP via Getty Images)
He could have joined Sean Dyche’s side in January when Lyon pushed to take Everton’s loan player Arnaut Danjuma. The Dutchman was keen on the move, but the terms of the loan with Villarreal meant Everton would have needed to accept early termination of his loan stint. Talks were held about O’Brien moving the other way as a potential sweetener, but that would have left Everton needing to find a replacement for Danjuma at short notice.
O’Brien’s rise has been dramatic. Hailing from Cork, he left Crystal Palace last August having failed to break into their first team. One of the important figures in his development has been American businessman John Textor, whose Eagle Football Group has a stake in Palace and owns Lyon and Belgian club RWD Molenbeek.
Textor helped convince O’Brien to join Molenbeek on loan in 2022 over lower league clubs in England and took him to Lyon a year later for £1m. He has often spoken of O’Brien like a proud father. Introducing the Irishman to French president Emmanuel Macron before Lyon’s Coupe de France final loss to Paris Saint-Germain, Textor said: “He did a two-week trial to see if he was good enough. Now he’s a starter.”
Jake O’Brien being praised in front of French President, Emmanuel Macron, ahead of the French Cup final is not what I expected to see tonight
🇮🇪🇫🇷pic.twitter.com/joacINZdPN
— IrishPropaganda🇮🇪⚽️ (@IrishPropaganda) May 25, 2024
Not just any starter either. An important one.
Lyon, who will have a 10 per cent sell-on clause as part of the deal with Everton, were in the relegation zone when O’Brien came into the side in October. Others deserve a share of the credit for their resurgence but he added solidity at the back and helped them secure sixth place and Europa League qualification.
In that 2-1 Coupe de France final defeat to PSG, he scored the kind of towering header for which he is now renowned. He has since described last season as “crazy and very emotional”, but seems better for those experiences. O’Brien boxed for Ireland at 14 and regularly fought above his age group. He played hurling and Gaelic football — few things will daunt him.
Jake O’Brien has just become the first Youghal man to score in a Coupe de France final!🥐
Bucket list day for the Corkman
-shake hands with Macron🤝
-score a header🤯pic.twitter.com/RwEYx6bjm6— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) May 25, 2024
Put bluntly, O’Brien is massive and makes use of his physical advantage in the air. Standing at 6ft 6in he scored five times in 32 games for Lyon. Unsurprisingly, he fares well in duels. According to FBref, he ranked in the top six per cent for challenge success rate and in the top 15 per cent for the percentage of dribblers tackled among centre-backs in Ligue 1 last season. Out of possession, he rarely jumps into challenges unnecessarily (he was in the bottom seven per cent among Ligue 1 centre-backs for the number of dribblers challenged, although that may be partly down to team style).
Like his new team-mate Branthwaite, he combines height with pace. Data from SkillCorner shows that O’Brien registered the fastest speed of any Lyon player to have played at least 10 games in Ligue 1 last season, and had the fourth-best top speed among Ligue 1 centre-backs. These are the kinds of attributes that attracted Everton’s recruitment team, who place big stock on physical data and scout heavily in France. Given his size, however, agility and speed on the turn remain a work in progress.
On the ball, O’Brien is likely to fit well into Dyche’s direct style of play. At Lyon, he completed 6.3 long passes per 90 minutes and did so at an accuracy of 76 per cent, placing him in the top 10 per cent among Ligue 1 centre-backs.
He made his international debut in June against Hungary and there were plaudits for his performance later that month against Portugal, despite a 3-0 defeat.
According to the Irish press, Atalanta made an offer in January. Wolverhampton Wanderers showed an interest this summer while Nottingham Forest presented him with an offer, on superior terms to the deal signed at Goodison, which was rejected. Everton’s long-standing interest helped get their bid over the line.
O’Brien may need to be patient at first. Dislodging Tarkowski and Branthwaite, part of the league’s fourth-best defence last season, will not be easy. But at 23, time is on his side.
After leaving Palace 12 months ago to further his career, he is back where he wants to be in the Premier League.
(Top photo: Everton FC)
