With Arsenal closing in on Nicolas Pepe, Everton could be in pole position to sign Wilfried Zaha and have offered £60m + Cenk Tosun for the Crystal Palace forward. The Eagles are still holding out for £80m, however, which may force Everton to do something drastic to land the £130k-per-week man.
Palace have been linked with Tosun, James McCarthy and Yannick Bolasie in the last six months, so if the Toffees included all three players in their offer for Zaha, they’d stand a better chance of landing his signature. Everton would be trimming £9.6m-a-year off the wage bill too – Tosun (£3.12m), McCarthy (£2.6m), Bolasie (£3.9m).
The Eagles would lose a talented player this summer but they’d gain a central midfielder, winger replacement and a striker, all the while making £54m profit. The only contentious issue is whether Zaha is happy to join Everton. The 26-year-old wanted a top-four club to move to, but he’s running out of options with less than two weeks remaining of the summer transfer window.
As per Transfermarkt, Zaha contributed 20 goals in 34 Premier League games for Palace last season. As per WhoScored, he created 54 chances and made 114 successful dribbles. If Everton are unwilling to pay £80m upfront, their only hope is to offer players that Palace have shown interest in of late.