Palace keen to take Niasse from Everton
Today’s paper rumours centre on a possible move by Crystal Palace to sign Oumar Niasse and take him from Everton to South London.
Such a move would seem to suit all parties well. For Niasse it would give him a chance of regular football while Everton would offload a player who has no future at the club.
Palace, like so many Premier League clubs, (including Everton), are keen to try to bolster their strikeforce and so according to the Sun they have switched their attention to Niasse after failing to get Liverpool’s Dominic Solanke.
The quoted fee of £6.5 million is just less than half what the Blues originally paid for Niasse when former boss Roberto Martinez bought him back in 2016.
It would then represent a failing to recover much of the outlay on a player who was signed by the club with some fanfare and now could be sold on.
However it does get him off the wage bill and meets with the stated desire of Director of Football Marcel Brands that the Toffees must sell players before they buy to maintain current squad numbers.
All these fringe player comings and goings though does potentially open a door for the Blues.
Solanke is signing for Bournemouth instead of Palace and if Niasse goes to Selhurst Park then might Everton be able to make a bid for one of the Cherries existing strikers, Callum Wilson or Josh King?
It seems likely that Solanke will expect a starting place at the Vitality Stadium, he’d surely not leave league leaders Liverpool without some sort of guarantee that would happen.
And given that Bournemouth have often been playing with a front three including one of the unsung players of the season, Ryan Fraser, there could be a problem fitting all three of the other forwards into the side.
Although Wilson has had statistically the superior season so far, I think Bournemouth are very unlikely to let him go and so in theory King would be the one who might be available.
While it’s true he hasn’t scored a lot of goals this campaign, he did bag a fairly impressive total of 16 goals in 2016-17 when he played as the main striker and he has a strength Everton desperately need, ability in the air.
The Toffees lead the way in the Premier League in crosses but as the Leicester game underlined the inability of the club’s existing forwards to take advantage of that was very evident.
Another alternative is to approach Chelsea and try to persuade Olivier Giroud to come to Goodison Park. He’s not getting game time at Stamford Bridge and at 32 he may well recognise that he needs to move on to play regularly.
While he lacks pace he does have great ability in the air, can hold the ball up and is a good finisher with plenty of experience, something that might well help with what is otherwise quite a youthful attack.
More from Prince Rupert's Tower
- Everton 0 Arsenal 1: Blues fall to third home defeat
- Further chaos in Everton takeover as other lenders not keen on 777 Partners
- Everton need repeat of Arsenal win to kick-start their season on Sunday
- More madness at Everton as Moshiri now agrees to sell club to 777 Partners
- Everton takeover talk cools after UK govt doubts and further questions
If Everton are going to play this way they have to bring in a centre-forward who can win more than his fair share of aerial duels and battles.
It’s true King or Giroud don’t represent a top-drawer, or for me a first-choice forward option.
But in truth are the Toffees realistically going to get such a player in this or any other transfer window?
And while he’s not the ideal option one of these might just be a player who could contribute to the Blues goal threat in the short term and provide a focal point around which to construct the still developing Everton attack.