Martinez: No Everton bid for United’s Evans

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The Toffees have been strongly linked with the 27-year-old but Martinez has revealed that there is no truth in the rumours.

The Toffees chief is looking to strengthen his options at centre-back, having released experienced duo Sylvain Distin and Antolin Alcarez this summer, but it would seem that the £7m-rated Evans is not on his radar.

“No, there’s no truth, nothing,”  said Martinez when asked if he was chasing the player. “I know I’ve always said that I wouldn’t be commenting on any of the names that are shared around but I can tell you there is nothing true in that situation.”

Martinez also reiterated his desire for Everton to be challenging for Champions League football and is keen on building a squad capable of doing just that.

“The amount of money that is being used by the clubs in the league and the different budgets make it very competitive if you’re going to reach those top four positions,” Martinez added.

“We expect to be challenging for those places but we’ll have to do that in a different way, by taking time to build a solid group and by perhaps giving younger players bigger roles earlier than other clubs do.

“It’s about how quickly we reach our potential. There were times last season when we had three under-21s playing in Europe and that’s going to be very beneficial.”