Will Everton soon add Zaha to prospective Richarlison signing?
So it seems that Everton are finally moving close to making their first signing of the summer as the club closes in on Watford’s Richarlison. Could the Blues soon add Wilfried Zaha too?
The Sun is claiming that Palace star Zaha has rejected a new contract offer from the club and wants to leave and Everton along with Borussia Dortmund are chasing him.
But as the paper says Palace are asking for an astronomical fee of around £70 million for the winger. This is a huge amount for the Ivory Coast player.
Zaha is a dynamic, top quality attacking talent who would be a great addition to Everton’s forward options. But such a fee seems to be excessive and is likely beyond Everton’s resources.
With the club having to allegedly spend around £50 million to secure Richarlison, I imagine it would be challenging to find another £30 million on top of that to get Zaha.
This is especially true if manager Marco Silva wants the money to strengthen other areas of the team too. There are other reports in the media that the Blues have made a firm bid for the Barcelona left-back Lucas Digne as a replacement for Leighton Baines.
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In addition Silva seems keen to add another centre-back to succeed another aging defender, Phil Jagielka.
Having said all that on the flip side, perhaps sometimes you simply have to make every effort to get the best available talent. So if the Blues can get Zaha, even if it’s for an excessive amount, it would represent a major coup for the club.
It’s good to see some stories about new signings that do seem much firmer than many we have seen this summer.
The other one of the trio of players that Silva is supposedly after is Danny Welbeck. We will have to wait and see if anything comes of that rumour too.
Next: Blues bid for Barca full-back
If Everton start next season with both these forwards in addition to existing talent such as Gyfi Sigurdsson, Theo Walcott and Cenk Tosun who have not yet produced their best, then the Blues should have a much more potent attack.