Rumours Everton bid for Doucoure
With just a few days and hours left of this summer transfer window, Everton are rumoured to have made a bid for Watford midfielder Abdolaye Doucoure.
According to these reports in the Daily Telegraph and other papers, Everton have made an initial bid of around £30 million for the French player.
Watford though are apparently adamant that Doucoure is not for sale at any price and so the Blues are wasting their time, or so it seems.
Doucoure is a solidly athletic and powerful midfield enforcer who has supposedly been on Marco Silva’s radar for a while since he was manager at Vicarage Road.
A move for this player is though a little strange as the Blues have just signed two defensive midfielders in Fabian Delph and Jean-Philipe Gbamin.
The 26-year-old Frenchman is a good player, but I think Everton need to concentrate their efforts in the little time remaining before the transfer window shuts, on other areas of the team.
The Toffees must focus their work on strengthening the defence and attacking options in the few days that are left.
The priorities are finding another centre-half, (although Gbamin’s signing might have been with that in mind as he can play centre-back), right-back where the Blues need more options and another forward who can score goals.
Seamus Coleman’s waning powers mean that long-term Everton do need a new full-back to replace him. And Silva has been determined to find a right-winger to allow him more choices up front.
Related to that, there are further stories that the Toffees might still be trying to secure the signing of Wilfried Zaha. The Independent claim that the Crystal Palace forward ‘expects’ to be an Everton player before Thursday’s deadline.
This is somewhat unexpected as previously the Blues had made it clear they were not going back in for Zaha after an initial £50 million bid was refused.
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But now it seems that with other options like Malcom having slipped through their fingers, (although the reaction of some Russian fans might have unforeseen consequences), a new move for Zaha is back on the cards.
And the paper claims that a bid of £65 million will do it as Palace are now resigned to losing the player who wants out of Selhurst Park.
So more intriguing swirls of rumour and counter-rumour as that transfer clock keeps ticking…