Everton are expected to engage in a lot of transfer activity this summer, particularly in attack. We’ve finally parted company with Oumar Niasse but still have Cenk Tosun wasting away, so the club needs to trim its expensive deadwood to reinvest on new talent.
Tosun has so far been a hard player to sell, however, so it remains to be seen where he’ll go this summer and how much we can make from his sale. Fotospor said in mid-July that there’s interest from Fenerbahce, so here’s hoping all parties can agree on a deal.
Tosun has made 51 appearances in all competitions since joining us from Besiktas in January 2018, going on to score only 10 goals with six assists. Half of Tosun’s goals came in his debut season and he’s only found the back of the net once since May 2019.
The 29-year-old made only eight appearances last season, amassing 328 minutes of football across the board, so it’s clear that he’s surplus to requirements. Tosun did say that Carlo Ancelotti wanted to keep him in January rather than loan him out to Crystal Palace, but it does seem that Richarlison, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Moise Kean will be preferred in attack next season.
Josh King, Odsonne Edouard, Patrik Schick, Hirving Lozano, Martin Braithwaite, Andrea Belotti and Sardar Azmoun have been linked with Everton, so Tosun may not get a lot of opportunities in 2020/21. It’s unknown whether the Turkish international will freely leave, however.
He turned down a move to Al-Gharafa SC and turned down a move to Galatasaray last summer, rejecting a payrise overseas to stay at Goodison Park. Tosun still has two years remaining on his deal, so there’s still time in his mind to get back in favour.
The collective failures of Niasse and Tosun certainly paint our recruitment in a bad light. The two strikers cost £36.36m, have earned approximately £20m+ in wages and only have 19 goals between them from 93 games.
Niasse left on a free transfer, but we can’t make the same mistake with Tosun. Our finances aren’t too healthy right now either, so his sale will be beneficial to fund a potential replacement.
In other news, Everton are on the hunt for Manchester United’s former striker