Alan Myers: Everton close to signing Andros Townsend, not Demarai Gray
Everton are “very close” to signing free agent Andros Townsend after he was released by Crystal Palace at the end of last season, according to Alan Myers.
Writing via his personal Twitter account on Sunday evening, the Sky Sports journalist reported that the Blues are on the verge of signing Townsend, 30, but are not as close to signing Bayer Leverkusen attacker Demarai Gray.
Earlier on Sunday, Times journalist Paul Joyce reported that Rafa Benitez was close to signing both attackers.
However, it seems that is not entirely the case with only Townsend closing in on a move to Goodison Park.
Underwhelming, or financially clever?
Everton need to trim down the size of their squad this summer.
Marcel Brands has already made some progress in this by releasing players like Muhamed Besic, Theo Walcott, Yannick Bolasie and Joshua King. However, there are still some players on the fringes of Benitez’s newly-inherited squad that we could do without.
If we move on players like Gylfi Sigurdsson, Berard and Alex Iwobi, that should free up quite a lot of funds.
Signing Townsend – and maybe Gray – could replace one or two of those players and could see the Toffees improve their financial situation.
It’s been widely reported that the club needs to avoid breaking profit and sustainability rules this summer so it’s a clever approach.
While we understand why some fans wouldn’t be too gassed about signing Townsend and Gray, it probably does make sense from a purely financial point of view.
Benitez is going to be criticised for almost everything that happens if people don’t like it. But we need to have some faith in the process.
This isn’t happening for no reason.
In other Everton news, Darren Gough has taken a huge swipe at Evertonians on talkSPORT.
Be sure to follow Goodison News on Facebook and Twitter for 24/7 updates on Everton and more exclusive interviews with Kevin Campbell.