According to Fotospor (h/t Sport Witness), Everton offered Cenk Tosun to Besikas, Galatasaray and Fenerbahce over the summer but didn’t get any nibbles due to lofty wage demands.
Tosun’s future was uncertain when Moise Kean was still at Goodison Park and we tried to loan him back to Turkey as a result. Kean ended up joining Paris Saint-Germain on a season-long loan, however, and Tosun has since been included in our Premier League squad.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves…
Turkish clubs rejected our terms for Tosun
Tosun has spent seven years in Turkey as a professional footballer – Gaziantepspor (2011 – 2014), Besiktas (2014 – 2018) – and had a lot of interest from Super Lig sides this summer. Money appeared to be an obstacle, however.
Fotospor say we wanted clubs to pay the entirety of Tosun’s £60k-per-week/£3.12m-a-year wages for the season, but nobody would match our demands. Besiktas wanted the 29-year-old back at Vodafone Park but didn’t like us offering the same deal to Gala and Fener.
Tosun scored only two goals in 13 games (eight for Everton and five for Crystal Palace) last season and bagged only four goals from 29 outings in 2018/19. He joined us off the back of scoring 64 goals with 13 assists in 142 games for Besiktas but hasn’t been as prolific on Merseyside.
Could Tosun leave in January?
I don’t think so, but it will depend on how much he plays under Carlo Ancelotti this season. The Turkish international is now our direct backup for Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison, so he should get some opportunities over the course of the campaign.
Tosun has also said publicly that Ancelotti wanted him to stay when he joined Crystal Palace on loan in January, so I don’t think he’ll be offloaded unless we have a replacement lined up.
Kean is now at PSG until the end of the season, so we can’t afford to leave ourselves short in attack by letting another striker leave. Here’s hoping Tosun can finally prove his worth and silence his critics to be a valuable asset for us..