Burnley Cornet signing might trigger McNeil move to Everton

Burnley appear to be closing in on the signing of Maxwel Cornet from Lyon and if they do get this deal done might that make it more likely Everton will bring in Dwight McNeil?

Everton have expressed their interest in the young forward who impressed so much last season including when he scored a belter of a goal in Burnley’s 2-1 win at Goodison Park.

While there have been plenty of rumours this summer that Rafa Benitez is keen to sign him, it seemed as though the Toffees might have been facing competition from Aston Villa and the Clarets didn’t seem very willing to let him go either.

Now it looks as though Burnley have made a move to bring in another left-footed wide attacker in Cornet (although he’s been playing left-back recently!) and so that raises the possibility that they may let McNeil move on this summer.

This is just speculation on my part but it could be that Cornet’s arrival will mean Sean Dyche is prepared to let his young English forward depart Turf Moor.

McNeil would be a good addition to the Blues attacking resources and at 21 he’s the perfect age to continue to develop and represent a sound potential long-term sell-on investment as well.

However, the issue of Everton’s precarious finances represents a major stumbling block to the club being able to conclude a deal for a player such as McNeil without getting several existing players off the books first.

The most valuable of these at least on paper should be Moise Kean, James Rodriguez, Andre Gomes and possibly Alex Iwobi, although he came on as substitute and did well against Southampton on Saturday.

There are others too who might leave such as Kenny, Fabian Delph and possibly Tom Davies although he might still be needed in midfield.

As for Kean, he has never settled in England and after a really difficult and disappointing first season on Merseyside, he went to PSG on loan last summer and thrived.

Now he’s returned there have been rumours of potential moves back to Paris (although they wanted another loan which Everton rightly refused) or even to his former club Juventus.

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While the Blues do ideally need another striker, it doesn’t seem as though Kean is that player and with a value of around £40 million, if he left it would represent good business.

I know many Toffees fans don’t want to see Rodriguez leave (and ideally I wouldn’t either) but he’s not really committed to Everton and seems very open to leaving now that his mentor Carlo Ancelotti has gone. After all, Ancelotti was the only reason he came to Goodison Park in the first place.

And in addition, given their history it looks unlikely he would play much under Benitez even if he can stay fit, and that’s always a big if with the Colombian.

So if the club can get £10-15 million for him as he will anyway go for free next summer, then I think that’s the best outcome for all parties.

As for Gomes he’s struggled badly with his form and confidence in the past few campaigns particularly since that horrible injury against Spurs back in November 2019. Like James, I’m not sure how much he’s likely to play given Benitez’s tactics and so again if Everton can get a fee of around £10 million or so then I think that’s another deal that makes sense.

If all that happened in the next few weeks (a big if I know), then the manager would hopefully have a serious pot of cash to splash on his preferred targets before the window closes. Will McNeil be one of them?

What do you think is the Burnley forward a good option for Everton?

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