Come on. It's because he played for United. I'm sure there's a small number of you out there that really don't rate him, but I don't believe so many of you could objectively look at him and conclude he's shit. Maybe not brilliant, sure that's reasonable enough. But shit? No.
I don't rate him as the best passer. But he's got excellent composure on the ball for a centre back which is the starting point. It's the trait that has allowed Otamendi to develop under Pep as a footballer and it's the lack of it that has held and will continue to hold Mangala back. So you'd think Evans could develop in some way or form.
Then add that he's a reliable and surprisingly experienced centre back at least and he makes for in theory an excellent backup. Maybe we're looking at him to help fill a quota, but then again he stands out as a better option than most.
There's a very deliberate reason we're going after him. It's that combination of reliability, experience, composure, home-grown factor and presumably not being too fussy about starts. Plus compared to someone like Van Dijk he's a lot more easily attainable.
You guys can argue that there are better options out there. You can argue that the £25-30m fee is excessive. You can argue that Jonny Evans has a few weaknesses that won't make him viable.
But calling him shit is way over the top and unnecessarily untrue.