Everton News

Brands faces price hike for £25m Everton target after opening bid rejected – report

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Director of Football Marcel Brands faces having to raise his initial offer for reported target Bertrand Traore, as Calciomercato understand our initial offer falls below Olympique Lyonnais’ valuation.

It emerged during May that Brands was accelerating his efforts to sign the Burkina Faso international, although it was never suggested to what extent his plans had reached.

However, L’Equipe, via GFFN, revealed later on in the month that formal negations had commenced between Everton and Lyon.

Meanwhile, Football Insider went on to suggest we were prepared to offer £25million to add the former Chelsea youth star to our ranks, as he had now become our priority target.

The feeling was that Traore had been identified by Brands and Marco Silva as a player who could thrive on our right wing, in the same manner as Mohamed Salah at Liverpool and Gareth Bale for Tottenham and Real Madrid – before injuries took hold of his career – given the 23-year-old is left-footed and can cut inside with devastating effect.

However, Calciomercato are now reporting that Lyon will demand at least €40million (£35.4m) to add the 49-cap international to our squad, whose TransferMarkt valuation actually went down by £2.7millon on June 3 despite scoring eleven goals and assisting a further five across all competitions in the recent campaign.

It remains to be seen how Brands will react to news that his opening offer of £25million for a player who earns £59,139-a-week, according to Capology, has been rejected.

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