Much of the Everton transfer rumours early in this summer window have focused on the possibility of James Tarkowski joining the club.
The Burnley defender has come to the end of his current contract with the club following the close of the 2021/22 season. And, with their relegation to the Championship now confirmed, it seems only a matter of time before his free transfer to another side follows suit.
The Blues are said to be at the front of the queue for the 29-year-old with a number of Premier League rivals also interested in potentially taking the centre-back on. It's an area of the squad Frank Lampard and Kevin Thelwell will clearly want to improve, and not only in the defensive sense you might imagine.
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Of course, the main qualities that Tarkowski might bring to Goodison Park all focus on his ability on the pitch. He's a strong leader at the back, a very solid defender, and someone whose ability with the ball at his feet is maybe slightly underrated.
But Lampard has already explained that there's one key attribute he wants to improve across the board at Everton - their fitness. He said following the end of the season: "[The next aim is] To get the players fit and robust.
"Our injury record when I came in and what we've had is one that affects you. Two big centre halves out for a big period of time, Dominic - so each individual case when you look at it is not easy to analyse.
"I came in in January, and there's not things you can always do when you're playing every few days. But it has to be more planned. We have to be strong and robust. It's Everton, we're not a tika-taka team, we have to be strong."
All over the pitch, as Lampard rightly mentions, the Blues really struggled with injuries across the course of the season. Without searching for excuses, there's no doubt that played a major impact in how the side performed on a number of occasions.
When you consider centre-backs especially, Yerry Mina is the man who sticks out in terms of his issues in 2021/22. His playing time was severely restricted by a number of spells on the sidelines - and, considering he's the club's best central defender when he's fit, that was far from ideal.
Ben Godfrey also missed significant chunks of the season with his own injuries, and the first half of the season saw him battling back to full fitness after contracting Covid. Perhaps more than in any other position, this is where Everton do need to become much more solid and "robust", as the manager calls it.
Looking at Tarkowski's injury record, then, you can clearly see why the Blues would be impressed. If this is a quality high on their agenda, the Burnley man certainly ticks the box.
He only missed three Premier League games in 2021/22 through injury, playing well over 3,000 minutes for his side across that time. The previous term, he only missed the first two league games of the season - and he played the full 90 minutes in every single one of the other 36.
Going further back is even more impressive, as in 2019/20 he was ever-present for Burnley. Since becoming a regular for the side at the beginning of the 2017/18 campaign, Tarkowski has never played less than 30 Premier League matches in a season for the Clarets.
That's the kind of consistency that Everton have so often been missing in their players. Take almost anyone from the current squad and you could list an injury they picked up last season alone that kept them out for a fairly significant spell.
if consistent fitness can be married with similarly level performances from Tarkowski following a potential move to Merseyside, then you can clearly see the benefits that Lampard and Thelwell are seeing from this free transfer. It's clearly an important quality for the manager, and the centre-back definitely has it.
