Everton table official bid for permanent Mohammed Kudus move amid Ajax u-turn
Everton are still pushing to sign Mohammed Kudus before the close of the transfer window and have lodged an official bid for a permanent move, Ghanasoccernet.com reports.
The same outlet confirms that personal terms have been agreed between the 22-year-old and the Toffees, which was thought to be the position over a week ago before a change of heart at his club Ajax.
The Ghanian international wants to leave Amsterdam to secure more game time as he looks to secure his place at the World Cup in the winter, although according to former BBC journalist Fraser Fletcher the Dutch giants have pulled a u-turn amid squad concerns over player sales.
Fraser wrote on his personal Twitter account on Monday (29 August): “Everton still want Kudus. Position has not changed on that, club trying to find agreement with Ajax who have u-turned on letting player leave during [sic] to concerns over squad depth with player sales.
“Kudus wants to play in the Premier League and has verbal agreement with Everton.”
Brazilian winger Antony is now on the verge of a €100million move to Manchester United [Sky Sports], which was reported as key to the Kudus move stalling in The Mirror on 23 August.
Tricky
The club want the deal, the player wants to come, and everything was ready to go before Manchester United’s terrible start to the season sparked them into spending a fortune on another Ajax player.
It seems to be a perfect storm of inconvenient factors that are combining to derail the Toffees’ business, as well as Kudus’ own plans.
His manager Alfred Schreuder has previously moved to deny any knowledge of a potential exit for the former Nordsjaelland attacker, which it would appear he was bluffing about unless he is kept in the dark entirely about comings and goings at the Johan Cruyff Arena, and may well not want to lose multiple players at once.
But despite Brazilian winger Antony being left out of the last two Eredivisie squads as his long-mooted switch to follow Erik ten Hag to Manchester approached a conclusion, plus last season’s main striker Sebastien Haller having moved to Dortmund, the new boss isn’t playing Kudus.
Either he values him or he doesn’t, and the other player departures are either relevant to the Ghanian or they aren’t, so it doesn’t quite make sense if amid all the moving parts Kudus’ four league appearances so far this season total only 29 minutes of action.
It is therefore little wonder that the player is so anxious to get out, especially if the English top flight is where he wants to go and he has got a club ready to give him that opportunity.
If a solution can’t be reached to get this deal done in the next few days then it will leave Everton frustrated as they attempt to complete one of a few late window moves, and by the looks of things Kudus even more so.