By Daniel Feliciano

12th Jul, 2022 | 7:10pm

Lille set £50m asking price for Everton transfer target Amadou Onana

Amadou Onana will cost Everton or any other club £50m to take him away from Lille this summer, according to a report by 90min.

The Belgian international is said to be open to a move away from the 2020/21 Ligue 1 champions, just one year after he joined them from Hamburg.

But Lille don’t want to lose him and have slapped a £50m asking price on his head to ward off interest from Everton, West Ham and Newcastle United according to a report on July 12th.

West Ham have already had two bids rejected for the 20-year-old Belgian international according to Sky Sports, while Everton have an interest as Frank Lampard looks to bolster his midfield options ahead of the new season.

Onana’s current contract still has four years left to run in France, hence the huge price tag put on his head by his current club.

Move on

Everton need young, hungry talented players in their squad this season to make up for the ageing squad and poor season last year, but this is simply a step too far.

Onana would be a terrific addition to a squad that lacks quality in key areas, and at such a young age it would represent a real coup to be able to bring in a player of that ilk.

But at £50m, with the club’s financial situation, it’s simply too difficult a deal to do and Everton just shouldn’t waste anymore time on a transfer and should look at alternative targets.

The club are short on cash and while they’ve received £60m for Richarlison this summer, they need to replace him and bolster several other positions to ensure that there isn’t a repeat of last season in 2022/23.

Hopefully the board don’t hang around too much on this deal and while it’s encouraging that he was identified as a potential target and shows there is a good plan, it now needs to be executed on deals that won’t cost an arm and a leg and plunge them into further trouble.