Everton have a striker on their transfer wishlist this summer as Oumar Niasse has been released and may be joined through the exit door by Cenk Tosun. The Sun say Joshua King is on our radar and may be available for £15m.
While a low-profile name compared to the likes of Odsonne Edouard, Patrik Schick, Hee-chan Hwang, Hirving Lozano, Martin Braithwaite, Andrea Belotti, Sardar Azmoun and Victor Osimhen, King would be a good addition to the ranks due to his impressive goal output and creativity.
The 28-year-old, who began his professional career at Manchester United, joined Bournemouth on a free transfer from Blackburn Rovers in 2015 and has gone on to make 170 appearances in all competitions, scoring 50 goals with 17 assists. His deal at Dean Court is up in 2021 and it’s unlikely that he’ll sign a contract extension with Bournemouth being relegated, so the Cherries may have to cash in this summer.
We have Richarlison, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Moise Kean in attack, but we’re short on cover if injury struck – Kean scored only two goals in 33 games last season, so he can’t be relied upon. King, however, has scored and assisted 54 goals in his last 128 Premier League games.
The Norwegian international doesn’t require a lot of chances to hit the back of the net either. As per WhoScored, King has hit the target with 50% of his 26 efforts and scored with 50% of those chances too. On average, he’s scoring with one of every four shots which trumps Richarlison (1 in 7), Calvert-Lewin (1 in 6.5) and Kean (1 in 15).
For £15m, we could do a lot worse than King. He created 30 chances in 26 Premier League games and made 52/107 successful dribbles too. The 28-year-old may not command a starting place at Everton, but he’s an improvement on Niasse and Tosun.
King has also scored more top-flight goals (48) since joining Bournemouth in 2015 than any Everton player – Romelu Lukaku (43), Richarlison (26), Calvert-Lewin (24). He’s currently earning £45k-per-week/£2.3m-a-year, so we wouldn’t need to break the bank to sign him.
King is earning less money than Sandro Ramirez (£3.38m-a-year/£65k-a-week), Cenk Tosun (£3.12m-a-year/£60k-a-week), Oumar Niasse (£2.86m-a-year/£55k-a-week) and Moise Kean (£2.76m-a-year/£53k-a-week) too, so why not make a move this summer?
In other news, report explains why Everton should avoid Wilfried Zaha