Everton eye last-minute move for £10m El Bilal Toure to give Frank Lampard attack options
Everton are turning their attentions back to El Bilal Toure as they consider a last-ditch move for the Reims attacker to boost Frank Lampard’s options in attack, 90min report.
The Toffees have already held talks with the French side earlier in the summer but the 20-year-old is reportedly emerging as a popular late target for Premier League sides before the transfer window shuts on Thursday (1 September).
The Mali international can play across the front line and is thought to be available for as little as £10million, prompting Everton to reconsider a deal, while Southampton are also weighing up the player.
Acccording to 90min West Ham, Crystal Palace and Brighton all want to be kept in the loop on the situation for a player dubbed a “breakout star” of the Ligue 1 club’s previous campaign.
Everton have brought in winger Dwight McNeil from Burnley and at long last secured striker help in the form of Neal Maupay from Brighton but are looking to hand the manager more firepower in attack before the deadline.
Toure scored twice in the French top flight and assisted four more last season, but already has four goals in 15 international caps.
Movement
Toure is not going to be the goal machine striker, or the top level winger that fans would perhaps be hoping to arrive before the end of the window, but as a low cost, versatile option with time on his side he could be useful.
The frustrating league bureaucracy that kept Maupay out of the the draw with Leeds on Tuesday meant that Lampard again went with three wide attackers up front.
Anthony Gordon has answered the call in the previous two 1-1 results, and the manager’s latest remarks suggest the star man is set to stay, but he needs more help in the goalscoring department.
Maupay will help, as will Dominic Calvert-Lewin when he is fit again, although that is becoming more of a hypothetical concept than an expectation after his rotten luck over the past year.
If the Toffees have seen fit to enter into talks once and still come back to the subject again before the window shuts they must see potential in Toure, and he would give Lampard an option to plug into any of his front three spots.
The price sounds attractive if they think he has upside, but there also must have been a reason that they didn’t pull the trigger on a deal the first time around so this has to be a back up option of their late push for Ben Brereton Diaz fails.