Everton unwilling to meet Juventus valuation of Merih Demiral - report
Everton are not ready to 'satisfy' Juventus' valuation of defender Merih Demiral, according to Calciomercato.
The report details that the Toffees are in the race to sign the Turkish centre-back along with Tottenham Hotspur and Atalanta, both of whom are unwilling to match the Old Lady's asking rate of £34million.
Juventus are still keen on selling the defender as they're looking to raise funds to sign Manuel Locatelli this summer.
Everton are strongly interested in signing the 23-year-old, but not at the current price.
However, Juventus are holding firm on their valuation because they want to realise at least £26million in capital gains.
Complications galore
We knew that signing a player from Juventus was not going to be easy, especially one of Demiral's stature as he is still to hit his prime.
The Old Lady have been known to be canny operators in the transfer market in the past few years and it's unlikely that they budge from their current valuation of the player, given the number of clubs interested in his services.
However, should they not get any concrete offers closer to the end of the window, they could agree to a discounted price.
That said, if we are to sign him, it would be best to get in touch with his agent and once the interest is mutual, test the waters with a lower bid.
Juventus know that they desperately need the funds to strengthen in other departments and failure to get Demiral off the books could prove to have dire consequences.
As of now, we expect Marcel Brands to play the waiting game. There are other targets on his list with Kalidou Koulibaly understood to be one of them.
While he may not be as young as Demiral, he undoubtedly is a better defender and could be a good fit for us.
In other Everton news, Toffees make offer to sign £17m-rated Italy int’l, player wants to move this summer